Jewish Vilna tour 1/12 "Yiddish was our language"

[olterigo]

At 2:05, Fania says "portove", not "kortove". Thank you very much for these videos. They're very interesting.

[eSLVQU0zxY]

I have mixed feelings

[ikhveysnit]

@eSLVQU0zxY About?

[juliaisafilmbuff123]

Why did they not want the children speaking Yiddish? Isn't the Yiddish language central to Eastern European Jewish identity?

[ikhveysnit]

It was/still is (as much as the culture still hangs on there). Modern Hebrew (as opposed to Biblical) was the language of the burgeoning Zionist culture which later became Israeli culture that was being cultivated in British Palestine. Most Jewish schools were in Yiddish, but there were a few "Tarbut" schools throughout Eastern Europe that taught in Hebrew at a very high level. Some parents wanted their kids to learn Hebrew for political/cultural reasons, others for practical; they planned

[ikhveysnit]

on moving to Palestine. The schools were Hebrew immersion but the students were all Yiddish speakers so they had a hard time getting them to speak just Hebrew. Hence, the fine for speaking Yiddish. There was a very developed Yiddish school system with specialized books and curricula and education methods that rivaled any 1st world country. There weren't enough schools however, so most Jewish students went to regular Polish public schools or traditional religious schools (yeshivas etc).