Youtor
The Language of Resistance and Survival Once nearly extinct now flourishing in Brooklyn
>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=-W7o-xTz058
Yiddish was the language spoken by Ashkenazi Jews, both religious and secular, for over a thousand years, and at one point, there were over 11 million Yiddish speakers in Europe. But today, the place where it's primarily spoken is Brooklyn, New York, while there are barely any Yiddish speakers remaining in Europe. • This documentary focuses on the history of the language, its tragic decline, preservation, and status today. The importance of Yiddish among the Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn is highlighted while also focusing on the secular efforts to retain and promote the language. • Be sure to check out the Yiddish video series that Mikhl made: • • #YiddishAlive Video Series • Yiddish (ייִדיש / יידיש /אידיש) is a language that originated in the 9th century in Central Europe, as a Hebrew-High German language spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It is an Indo-European language with many elements taken from Hebrew and to a lesser extent from Aramaic, with some forms eventually taking part of Slavic languages, and traces of Romance languages. Yiddish writing uses the Hebrew alphabet and is mostly spoken by Hasidic and Haredi Jews. Colloquially, the term מאַמע־לשון (meaning 'mother tongue') is sometimes used in order to distinguish it from holy tongue , referring to Hebrew and Aramaic. Today, the majority of Yiddish speakers are are Hasidim and other Haredim (Orthodox Jews), with the majority of them living in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel. In the U.S, there are several major Hasidic communities where Yiddish remains the majority language, most notably in Brooklyn, New York, in the Crown Heights, Borough Park, and Williamsburg neighborhoods, as well as in Kiryas Joel in Orange County, New York. • Starting in the Middle Ages and for centuries after, an immense amount of Yiddish literature arose in Europe. As the community began to spread out, many more Yiddish writers, in different regions of the world, began to produce works of literature. In addition to I. L. Peretz (יצחק־לייבוש פרץ), who we mentioned in the video, for those who are interested, some of the more recent Yiddish literature produced, in the last two centuries, are by Sholem Aleichem (שלום עליכם), Mendele Mocher Sforim (מענדעלע מוכר ספֿרים), Isaac Bashevis Singer (יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער), awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978, Sholem Asch (שלום אַש), Jacob Glatstein (יעקב גלאטשטיין), Abraham Sutzkever (אַבֿרהם סוצקעווער), David Bergelson (דוד בערגעלסאָן), Israel Joshua Singer (ישראל יהושע זינגער), Moyshe Kulbak (משה קולבאַק), Chaim Grade (חיים גראַדע), Peretz Markish (פּרץ מאַרקיש), Kadia Molodowsky (קאַדיע מאָלאָדאָװסקי), Joseph Opatoshu (יוסף אָפּאַטאָשו), Anna Margolin (אַננאַ מאַרגאָלין), and numerous others. • The German language (Deutsch) is a West Germanic language with official status in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. In Luxembourg, Belgium and parts of Poland, German is a co-official language, and one of several national languages of Namibia. German has many similarities with West Germanic languages such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, and Yiddish. The German-speaking countries are ranked among the top in the world in terms of annual publication of new books, and a great amount of German literature, from medieval works to modern times, has been produced. Among many others, there are the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a literary genius who is considered to be like the German Shakespeare. Goethe is best known for his novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers), which was published when he was only 25. Other classics include Simplicius Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Hyperion by Friedrich Holderlin, The Devil’s Elixirs by ETA Hoffman, Debt and Credit by Gustav Freytag, Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke, and many others. • In more recent times, several German language authors have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. They are Theodor Mommsen, Rudolf Christoph Eucken, Paul Heyse, Gerhart Hauptmann, Carl Spitteler, Thomas Mann who is perhaps best known for Buddenbrooks and Death in Venice, Hermann Hesse, Nelly Sachs, Heinrich Böll, Elias Canetti, Günter Grass, Elfriede Jelinek, Herta Müller, and Peter Handke.
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