Jewish Languages

The Jewish ethnic identity most readily recognized by North Americans -- the culture of matzah balls, black-hatted Hasidim, and Yiddish -- originated in medieval Germany.

Widely believed to derive from Aramaic, the phrase appears nowhere in classical Jewish sources.

This slogan of Jewish resilience was popularized by the legendary songwriter Shlomo Carlebach.

Even as fewer American Jews spoke Yiddish at home, various Yiddish words and phrases were adopted into the American lexicon.

A cultural phenomenon of Jewish America in the early 20th century.

Sometimes not understanding the words can actually enhance the experience of prayer.

Yiddish writers emigrated from Europe, and though Yiddish writing all but ceased after the Holocaust, it is seeing a small rebirth today.

Literature in Judeo-Spanish, the language of Sephardic Jews

Because many Jewish writers wrote in German, Russian, French, and other European languages, what we call "European Jewish literature" overlaps with European literature as a whole.

Think Hebrew is the only Jewish language? Think again!