Tag #129094 - Interview #78031 (Arnold Leinweber)

When I entered first grade, I read Hebrew with the old vowels [Before and during the Jewish primary school, Mr. Leinweber studied with an old Jewish teacher whom he called Rebe.], and I pronounced ‘Burih ata Adoinoi Eloheinu Meilah Uloilom’. The school taught me to say ‘Baruh ata Adonai Elohenu Melah haOlam’, so the language acquired a new fluency, a more uplifting sound, as there was a change in the way vowels sounded, and ‘Burich ata Adoinoi’ became ‘Baruch ata Adonai’. Because I could read both ways, I find it very hard to identify the alef and the lamed of the Israeli alphabet today. I can’t read anymore, and one of the reasons for this is that we all learnt [in Jewish elementary school] what to read and when to read it, but had no idea what we read. It was only after my first visit to Israel [in 1974] that I felt the need to express myself in Yiddish, even if that meant only a few words. Now I can say a number of commonly used phrases, but I’m totally lost in a normal conversation.