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My parents never learned Hebrew. They knew some words in Hebrew, but they conversed in Yiddish. There were a lot of people in our neighborhood who spoke Yiddish. That means that the conversational language was Yiddish. The majority of residents were from Poland and Russia. And the ones from Germany picked up Yiddish quickly, since German and Yiddish are so similar. Yiddish literature was brought over from abroad, so that was also no problem.
The general atmosphere back then was determined by the chalutzim. There was a saying: Yehudi daber evrit! [Jew speak Hebrew!] The chalutzim’s goal was to have all Jews in the country speaking Hebrew. I can remember that when people spoke in Yiddish with eachother on the street, the chalutzim would go up to them and say: “Learn Hebrew!” To them, Yiddish wasn’t a rich language, but Yiddish stayed strong since many people couldn’t learn Hebrew. The children all quickly learned and spoke Hebrew. They became real Israelis very fast. But even today there are circles where people still speak Yiddish because it’s their mother tongue.
The general atmosphere back then was determined by the chalutzim. There was a saying: Yehudi daber evrit! [Jew speak Hebrew!] The chalutzim’s goal was to have all Jews in the country speaking Hebrew. I can remember that when people spoke in Yiddish with eachother on the street, the chalutzim would go up to them and say: “Learn Hebrew!” To them, Yiddish wasn’t a rich language, but Yiddish stayed strong since many people couldn’t learn Hebrew. The children all quickly learned and spoke Hebrew. They became real Israelis very fast. But even today there are circles where people still speak Yiddish because it’s their mother tongue.
Period
Location
Israel
Interview
Hillel Kempler
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