Editing Yiddish (section)

=== Former Soviet Union ===

[[File:Drive to the Collective Farm.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|[[New Economic Policy|NEP]]-era Soviet Yiddish poster "Come to us at the [[Kolkhoz]]!" (''{{lang|yi|קום צו אונדז אין קאָלווירט!|rtl=yes}}'')]]

In the Soviet Union during the era of the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP) in the 1920s, Yiddish was promoted as the language of the Jewish [[proletariat]]. At the same time, [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] was considered a [[bourgeois]] and [[reactionary]] language and its use was generally discouraged.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ben-Eliezer |first=Moshe |date=1980 |title=Hebrew and the Survival of Jewish Culture in the Soviet Union |journal=ETC: A Review of General Semantics |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=248–253 |issn=0014-164X |jstor=42575482}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Yiddish |url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CY%5CI%5CYiddish.htm |access-date=July 29, 2020 |website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com}}</ref> Yiddish was one of the recognized languages of the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic]]. Until 1938, the [[Emblem of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic]] included the motto ''[[Workers of the world, unite!]]'' in Yiddish. Yiddish was also an official language in several agricultural districts of the [[Galician Soviet Socialist Republic]].

The use of Yiddish as the primary spoken language by Jews was heavily encouraged by multiple Jewish political groups at the time. The [[Evsektsiia|Evsketsii]], the Jewish Communist Group, and The [[General Jewish Labour Bund|Bund]], the Jewish Socialist Group, both heavily encouraged the use of Yiddish. During the Bolshevik Era these political groups worked alongside the government to encourage the widespread Jewish use of Yiddish. Both the Evsketsii and the Bund supported the Jewish movement towards assimilation and saw Yiddish as a way to encourage it. They saw the use of Yiddish as a step away from the religious aspects of Judaism, instead favoring the cultural aspects of Judaism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gitelman |first=Zvi Y. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/606432500 |title=A century of ambivalence : the Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the present |date=2001 |publisher=Indiana University Press |via=Yivo Institute for Jewish Research |isbn=978-0-253-01373-6 |edition=2nd expanded |location=Bloomington |oclc=606432500}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2023}}

[[File:Emblem of the Byelorussian SSR (1927–1937).svg|thumb|upright=0.85|State emblem of the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussian SSR]] (1927–1937) with the motto ''Workers of the world, unite!'' in Yiddish (lower left part of the ribbon): {{Lang|yi|״פראָלעטאריער פון אלע לענדער, פאראייניקט זיך!״|rtl=yes}}—{{Lang|yi-Latn|Proletarier fun ale lender, fareynikt zikh}}''!'' The same slogan is written in Belarusian, Russian and Polish.]]

A public educational system entirely based on the Yiddish language was established and comprised kindergartens, schools, and higher educational institutions (technical schools, [[rabfak]]s and other university departments).<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=YIVO {{!}} Soviet Yiddish-Language Schools|url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Soviet_Yiddish-Language_Schools|access-date=July 29, 2020|website=yivoencyclopedia.org}}</ref>  These were initially created in the [[Russian Empire]] to stop Jewish children from taking too many spots in regular Russian schools. Imperial government feared that the Jewish children were both taking spots from non-Jews as well as spreading revolutionary ideas to their non-Jewish peers. As a result, in 1914 laws were passed that guaranteed Jews the right to a Jewish education and as a result the Yiddish education system was established.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Polonsky |first=Antony |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/149092612 |title=The Jews in Poland and Russia |date=2010 |publisher=Littman Library of Jewish Civilization |isbn=978-1-874774-64-8 |location=Oxford |oclc=149092612}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2023}} After the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 even more Yiddish schools were established. These schools thrived with government, specifically Bolshevik, and Jewish support. They were established as part of the effort to revitalize the Soviet Jewish Community. Specifically, the Bolsheviks wanted to encourage Jewish assimilation. While these schools were taught in Yiddish, the content was Soviet. They were created to attract Jews in to getting a Soviet education under the guise of a Jewish institution.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/869736200 |title=Antisemitism : a history |date=2010 |first1=Albert S. |last1=Lindemann |first2=Richard S. |last2=Levy |isbn=978-0-19-102931-8 |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, UK|oclc=869736200}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2023}}

While schools with curriculums taught in Yiddish existed in some areas until the 1950s, there was a general decline in enrollment due to preference for Russian-speaking institutions and the declining reputation of Yiddish schools among Yiddish speaking Soviets. As the Yiddish schools declined, so did overall Yiddish culture. The two were inherently linked and with the downfall of one, so did the other.<ref>{{Cite web |title=YIVO {{!}} Documents |url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/documents.aspx?query=russian+yiddish+schools |access-date=2022-12-12 |website=yivoencyclopedia.org}}</ref><ref name=":3" />{{page needed|date=July 2023}} General Soviet denationalization programs and secularization policies also led to a further lack of enrollment and funding; the last schools to be closed existed until 1951.<ref name=":2" /> It continued to be spoken widely for decades, nonetheless, in areas with compact Jewish populations (primarily in Moldova, Ukraine, and to a lesser extent Belarus).

In the former Soviet states, recently active Yiddish authors include [[Josef Burg (writer)|Yoysef Burg]] ([[Chernivtsi]] 1912–2009) and [[Olexander Beyderman]] (b. 1949, [[Odessa]]). Publication of an earlier Yiddish periodical ({{lang|yi|דער פֿרײַנד|rtl=yes}} – {{lang|yi-Latn|der fraynd}}; lit. ''The Friend''), was resumed in 2004 with {{lang|yi|דער נײַער פֿרײַנד|rtl=yes}} ({{lang|yi-Latn|der nayer fraynd}}; lit. ''The New Friend'', [[Saint Petersburg]]).

==== Russia ====

According to the [[Russian Census (2010)|2010 census]], 1,683 people spoke Yiddish in Russia, approximately 1% of all the Jews of the Russian Federation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/per-itog/tab6.xls |title=Информационные материалы всероссийской переписи населения 2010 г. Население Российской Федерации по владению языками |access-date=December 8, 2013 |archive-date=October 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006173252/http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/per-itog/tab6.xls |url-status=dead }}</ref> According to [[Mikhail Shvydkoy]], former Minister of Culture of Russia and himself of Jewish origin, Yiddish culture in Russia is gone, and its revival is unlikely.<ref name="Lechaim.ru">{{cite web|url=http://www.lechaim.ru/ARHIV/112/geyzer.htm |title=журнал "Лехаим" М. Е. Швыдкой. Расставание с прошлым неизбежно |publisher=Lechaim.ru |access-date=December 8, 2013}}</ref>

{{blockquote|From my point of view, Yiddish culture today isn't just fading away, but disappearing. It is stored as memories, as fragments of phrases, as books that have long gone unread. ... Yiddish culture is dying and this should be treated with utmost calm. There is no need to pity that which cannot be resurrected – it has receded into the world of the enchanting past, where it should remain. Any artificial culture, a culture without replenishment, is meaningless. ... Everything that happens with Yiddish culture is transformed into a kind of cabaret—epistolary genre, nice, cute to the ear and the eye, but having nothing to do with high art, because there is no natural, national soil. In Russia, it is the memory of the departed, sometimes sweet memories. But it's the memories of what will never be again. Perhaps that's why these memories are always so sharp.<ref name="Lechaim.ru"/>}}

===== Jewish Autonomous Oblast =====
{{Main|Jewish Autonomous Oblast|Birobidzhan|History of the Jews in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast}}

[[File:RussiaJewish2007-07.png|thumb|The [[History of the Jews in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast|Jewish Autonomous Oblast]] in Russia]]

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast was formed in 1934 in the [[Russian Far East]], with its capital city in Birobidzhan and Yiddish as its official language.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grenoble |first=Lenore A. |year=2003 |title=Language Policy in the Soviet Union |location=New York |publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers |page=75}}</ref> The intention was for the Soviet Jewish population to settle there. Jewish cultural life was revived in Birobidzhan much earlier than elsewhere in the Soviet Union. Yiddish theaters began opening in the 1970s. The newspaper {{lang|yi| ביראָבידזשאַנער שטערן|rtl=yes}} ({{lang|yi-Latn|[[Birobidzhaner Shtern]]}}; lit: ''Birobidzhan Star'') includes a Yiddish section.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gazetaeao.ru/idish |title=Birobidzhaner Shtern in Yiddish |publisher=Gazetaeao.ru |access-date=August 7, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414072458/http://www.gazetaeao.ru/idish/ |archive-date=April 14, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In modern Russia, the cultural significance of the language is still recognized and bolstered. The First Birobidzhan International Summer Program for Yiddish Language and Culture was launched in 2007.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rettig |first=Haviv |url=http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1176152810577 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708090302/http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1176152810577 |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 8, 2012 |title=Yiddish returns to Birobidzhan |work=The Jerusalem Post |date=April 17, 2007 |access-date=October 18, 2009 }}</ref>

{{As of|2010}}, according to data provided by the Russian Census Bureau, there were 97 speakers of Yiddish in the JAO.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://evrstat.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_ts/evrstat/resources/0b58c68041a3e4a79a38de2d59c15b71/6.+%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9+%D0%B1%D1%8E%D0%BB%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C+%C2%AB%D0%9D%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9+%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B2+%D0%B8+%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5+%D1%8F%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B8%2C+%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE+%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F+%D0%95%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9+%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B9+%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%C2%BB.rar |at=In document "5. ВЛАДЕНИЕ ЯЗЫКАМИ НАСЕЛЕНИЕМ ОБЛАСТИ.pdf" |script-title=ru:Статистический бюллетень "Национальный состав и владение языками, гражданство населения Еврейской автономной области" |trans-title=Statistical Bulletin "National structure and language skills, citizenship population Jewish Autonomous Region" |language=ru |format=RAR, PDF |date=October 30, 2013 |publisher=[[Russian Federal State Statistics Service]] |access-date=May 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502005744/http://evrstat.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_ts/evrstat/resources/0b58c68041a3e4a79a38de2d59c15b71/6.+%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9+%D0%B1%D1%8E%D0%BB%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C+%C2%AB%D0%9D%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9+%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B2+%D0%B8+%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5+%D1%8F%D0%B7%D1%8B%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B8%2C+%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE+%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F+%D0%95%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9+%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B9+%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%C2%BB.rar |archive-date=May 2, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A November 2017 article in ''[[The Guardian]]'', titled, "Revival of a Soviet Zion: Birobidzhan celebrates its Jewish heritage", examined the current status of the city and suggested that, even though the Jewish Autonomous Region in Russia's far east is now barely 1% Jewish, officials hope to woo back people who left after Soviet collapse and to revive the Yiddish language in this region.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/27/revival-of-a-soviet-zion-birobidzhan-celebrates-its-jewish-heritage|title=Revival of a Soviet Zion: Birobidzhan celebrates its Jewish heritage|first=Shaun|last=Walker|newspaper=The Guardian |date=September 27, 2017|access-date=April 3, 2019|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref> Despite the small number of local speakers, the weekly state-run newspaper ''[[Birobidzhaner Shtern]]'' contains 2-4 pages in Yiddish, largely written by authors who live in other cities and countries, and its online version attracts international readership. Yiddish often appears in the local TV program Yiddishkeit, also available online.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://biratv.ru/category/nashi-programmy/idishkajt/ | title=Идишкайт }}</ref>

==== Ukraine ====

Yiddish was an official language of the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] (1917–1921).<ref name="Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation">{{cite book |last=Yekelchyk |first=Serhy |author-link=Serhy Yekelchyk |title=Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yZLtAAAAMAAJ |year=2007 |publisher=OUP USA |isbn=978-0-19-530546-3}}</ref><ref name=HoUJsntui>{{cite book |last=Magocsi |first=Paul Robert |author-link=Paul Robert Magocsi |title=A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BNUtdVrw6lIC&pg=PA537 |year=2010 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-4085-6 |page=537}}</ref> But due to the holocaust, assimilation, and migration of [[History of the Jews in Ukraine|Ukrainian Jews]] abroad today only 3,100 of the remaining Jews speak Yiddish as their first language.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Congress |first=World Jewish |title=World Jewish Congress |url=https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/UA |access-date=2024-09-07 |website=World Jewish Congress |language=en}}</ref> The Southeast dialect of Yiddish has many Ukrainian loanwords due to the long contact between Yiddish speakers and Ukrainian speakers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Yiddish |url=https://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CY%5CI%5CYiddish.htm |access-date=2024-09-07 |website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com}}</ref>