Dear Jew in the City, Do Sephardic Jews have their own language like Yiddish? Sincerely, Sara They sure do. It’s commonly called Ladino. (It’s also known by a few other names, but we’ll come to that.) Ladino started among Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. Originally a dialect of Old […]
Dear Jew in the City, How and why did the Yiddish language come to be? Best, Liza Dear Liza, Thanks for your question. A few months ago, we discussed Ladino (“Judeo-Spanish”), so I guess it’s only fair that we discuss its Ashkenazic counterpart. The Yiddish language is over a thousand years old. Literally meaning “Jewish,” […]
Dear Jew in the City- What language do Orthodox Jews speak? Sincerely, Madison Dear Madison- Thanks for your question but it’s a little like asking what language Catholics speak. (I doubt very much you’d expect all Catholics to speak Latin!) Hebrew is the traditional language of the Jewish people – that’s the language in which […]
When a scion from a famous family of Yiddish scholars came on board to help Duolingo with its first Yiddish course, she realized that the academic version with which she grew up was not the same language used by 500,000 speakers worldwide today. That led to a collaboration with Hasidic Jews, who partnered with her […]
Moshe Grunfeld is not your typical Hasidic Jew, having built his once-creative outlet into a full-time career in the realm of special effects and theatrical makeup design and photography. He grew up in Borough Park, Brooklyn as a Skverer Hasid, then became close to the Munkatcher Rav in yeshiva and now considers himself to be […]
Tu B’Shvat is an all year long celebration when you’re working farmland, as Hasidic Jew Yisroel Bass does at the Yiddish Farm in Upstate New York. The farm was founded in order to “expand the role of the Yiddish language, serve as a bridge between Yiddish speakers of various backgrounds, and to promote environmental stewardship […]
