Reply To: Is English the new Yiddish?

To ujm: You ought to get out more (wearing a mask, of course). Yiddish is unknown – unknown – to the many Mizrachi Jews I know. It is not an international language of anybody. It predominated in Central and Eastern Europe, which is hardly the whole world.

Prior to 1900, Central and Eastern European Jews lived mostly in small communities, and Yiddish was their language. But times have changed, and languages have changed. I can understand the romantic and nostalgic attachment to Yiddish among many Ashkenazim, but that by itself will not maintain Yiddish as a living language. There are great literary and scholarly works in Yiddish, but if they are not carefully translated into English or other language widely spoken by Jews and scholars, those Yiddish works will wither on the Yiddishe vine.