Home › Forums › Yeshiva / School / College / Education Issues › The Casualties of Yiddish in Litvishe Chadorim › Reply To: The Casualties of Yiddish in Litvishe Chadorim
Nearly 40 years ago, I heard the Lakewood Mashgiach Reb Nosson zt”l say more than once that the Rishonim “sanctified” Yiddish to a certain degree, somewhat like the status of Aramaic in the times of Chazal. It’s likely many others heard him say this as well.
Be that as it may, if the language is not spoken in the home, it’s an extra burden on a child in school to have to learn it. Yiddish has it’s value, but we need to approach the question using a broad outlook. School/cheder is hard enough as it is. There’s no point in torturing a child unnecessarily.
To all those who harbor a visceral disdain for Yiddish. Ask yourselves, if Ladino and other Middle Eastern languages and dialects that were developed by those Jewish communities (e.g., Kurdish Jews have their own languege) If are kosher — so is Yiddish.