United States
In the
United States, the Yiddish language bonded Jews from many countries.
פארווערטס (forverts -
The Forward) was one of seven Yiddish daily newspapers in
New York City, and other Yiddish newspapers served as a forum for Jews of
all European backgrounds. The Yiddish Forward still appears weekly and is
available in an online edition. It remains in wide distribution, together with
דער אלגעמיינער זשורנאל (der algemeyner zhurnal - Algemeiner Journal)
which is also published weekly and appears online. The widest-circulation
Yiddish newspapers are probably the two prominent
Satmar weekly issues דער בלאט (der blat) and דער איד (der yid).
Several additional newspapers and magazines are in regular production.
Interest in
klezmer music provided another bonding mechanism. Thriving Yiddish theater
in
New York City and (to a lesser extent) elsewhere kept the language vital.
Many "Yiddishisms," like "Italianisms" and "Spanishisms," continued to enter
spoken New York English, often used by Jews and non-Jews alike unaware of the
linguistic origin of the phrases (described extensively by
Leo Rosten in
The Joys of Yiddish). However, mother-tongue Yiddish speakers tended not
to pass the language on to their children, who assimilated and spoke English.
In 1978, the
Polish-born Yiddish author
Isaac Bashevis Singer, a resident of the United States, received the
Nobel Prize in literature.
According to the
2000 census, almost 180,000 people in the United States speak Yiddish at
home. Nearly three-quarters of these live in
New York State or
Florida.
Most of the Jewish immigrants to the New York metropolitan area during the
years of the Golden Door and
Ellis Island considered Yiddish to be their native language. For example,
Isaac Asimov states in his autobiography,
In Memory Yet Green, that Yiddish was his first and sole spoken language
and remained so for about two years after he emigrated to the United States as a
small child. By contrast, Asimov's younger siblings, born in the United States,
never developed any degree of fluency in Yiddish. |
