Editing Yiddish (section)

=== Israel and Zionism ===
{{Rquote|1=right|2=We shall get rid of the stunted and squashed jargons which we use now, these ghetto languages. They were the furtive tongues of prisoners{{efn|
Die verkümmerten und verdrückten Jargons, deren wir uns jetzt bedienen, diese Ghettosprachen werden wir uns abgewöhnen. Es waren die verstohlenen Sprachen von Gefangenen.}}|3= [[Theodor Herzl]], {{Lang|de|[[Der Judenstaat]]}}, 1896.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Herzl |first1=Theodor |title=Der Judenstaat: Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage |date=1896 |publisher=[[Project Gutenberg]] |location=Leipzig and Vienna |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28865}}</ref>}}{{See also|War of the Languages}}[[File:Yidish graffiti.JPG|thumb|An example of graffiti in Yiddish, Tel Aviv, Washington Avenue ({{lang|yi|און איר זאלט ליב האבן דעם פרעמדען, ווארום פרעמדע זייט איר געווען אין לאנד מצרים|rtl=yes}}—{{lang|yi-Latn|Un ir zolt lib hobn dem fremden, varum fremde zayt ir geven in land mitsraym}}). "You shall have love for the stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt." (Deuteronomy 10:19)]]

The national language of Israel is [[Modern Hebrew]]. The debate in Zionist circles over the use of Yiddish in Israel and in the diaspora in preference to Hebrew also reflected the tensions between religious and secular Jewish lifestyles. Many secular Zionists wanted Hebrew as the sole language of Jews, to contribute to a national cohesive identity. Traditionally religious Jews, on the other hand, preferred use of Yiddish, viewing Hebrew as a respected holy language reserved for prayer and religious study. In the early 20th century, Zionist activists in the [[Mandatory Palestine|Mandate of Palestine]] tried to eradicate the use of Yiddish among Jews in preference to Hebrew, and make its use socially unacceptable.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rozovsky |first=Lorne |url=http://www.chabad.org/1051135 |title=Jewish Language Path to Extinction |publisher=Chabad.org |access-date=December 8, 2013}}</ref>

This conflict also reflected the opposing views among secular Jews worldwide, one side seeing Hebrew (and Zionism) and the other Yiddish (and [[internationalism (politics)|Internationalism]]) as the means of defining Jewish nationalism. In the 1920s and 1930s, {{lang|he|גדוד מגיני השפה}} {{lang|he-Latn|gdud maginéi hasafá}}, "[[Battalion for the Defence of the Language]]", whose motto was "{{lang|he|עברי, דבר עברית}} {{lang|he-Latn|ivri, dabér ivrít}}", that is, "Hebrew [i.e. Jew], speak Hebrew!", used to tear down signs written in "foreign" languages and disturb Yiddish theatre gatherings with stink bombs.<ref>Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2009), [http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/Hybridity_versus_Revivability.pdf Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns]. In ''Journal of Language Contact'', Varia 2: 40–67, p. 48.</ref> In 1927, a proposal to institute a chair in Yiddish at [[Hebrew University]] was met with protests.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Halperin |first1=Liora R. |title=Babel in Zion: Jews, Nationalism, and Language Diversity in Palestine, 1920-1948 |date=2015 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=London |isbn=978-0-300-19748-8 |page=9}}</ref> However, according to linguist [[Ghil'ad Zuckermann]], the members of this group in particular, and the Hebrew revival in general, did not succeed in uprooting Yiddish patterns (as well as the patterns of other European languages Jewish immigrants spoke) within what he calls "Israeli", i.e. [[Modern Hebrew]]. Zuckermann believes that "Israeli does include numerous Hebrew elements resulting from a conscious revival but also numerous pervasive linguistic features deriving from a subconscious survival of the revivalists’ mother tongues, e.g. Yiddish."<ref>Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2009), [http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/Hybridity_versus_Revivability.pdf Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns]. In ''Journal of Language Contact'', Varia 2: 40–67, p. 46.</ref>

After the founding of the State of Israel, a massive wave of [[Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries|Jewish immigrants from Arab countries]] arrived. In short order, these [[Mizrahi Jews]] and their descendants would account for nearly half the Jewish population. While all were at least familiar with Hebrew as a liturgical language, essentially none had any contact with or affinity for Yiddish (some, of [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardic]] origin, spoke Judeo-Spanish, others various [[Judeo-Arabic dialects|Judeo-Arabic varieties]]). Thus, Hebrew emerged as the dominant linguistic common denominator between the different population groups.

Despite a past of marginalization and [[anti-Yiddish]] government policy, in 1996 the [[Knesset]] passed a law founding the "National Authority for Yiddish Culture", with the aim of supporting and promoting contemporary Yiddish art and [[Yiddish literature|literature]], as well as preservation of [[Yiddish culture]] and publication of Yiddish classics, both in Yiddish and in Hebrew translation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://yiddish-rashutleumit.co.il/he/%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%90%D7%95%D7%93%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%97%D7%95%D7%A7-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA|title=חוק הרשות|date=1996|publisher=The National Authority for Yiddish Culture|access-date=July 11, 2020}}</ref>

In religious circles, it is the Ashkenazi [[Haredi Judaism|Haredi Jews]], particularly the Hasidic Jews and the Lithuanian yeshiva world (see [[Lithuanian Jews]]), who continue to teach, speak and use Yiddish, making it a language used regularly by hundreds of thousands of Haredi Jews today. The largest of these centers are in [[Bnei Brak]] and [[Jerusalem]].

There is a growing revival of interest in Yiddish culture among secular Israelis, with the flourishing of new proactive cultural organizations like YUNG YiDiSH, as well as [[Yiddish theatre]] (usually with simultaneous translation to Hebrew and Russian) and young people are taking university courses in Yiddish, some achieving considerable fluency.<ref name="NYT_Johnson"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/03/09/yiddish_studies.html |title=Yiddish Studies Thrives at Columbia After More than Fifty Years |last=Hollander |first=Jason |date=September 15, 2003 |website=Columbia News |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |access-date=April 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011125248/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/03/09/yiddish_studies.html |archive-date=October 11, 2017 |quote=...there has been a regular, significant increase in enrollment in Columbia's Yiddish language and literature classes over the past few years.}}</ref>