r/JewsOfConscience • u/ContentChecker Jewish Anti-Zionist • Oct 27 '24

Discussion Cultural exchange with /r/Arabs!

Hi everyone,

Today we will be having a cultural exchange with r/Arabs - beginning at 8AM EST, but extending for about 2 days so feel free to post your questions/comments over the course of that time-frame.

The exchange will work similarly to an AMA, except users from their sub will be asking us questions in this thread for anyone to answer, and users from our sub can go to a thread there to ask questions and get answers from their users!

To participate in the exchange, see the following thread in /r/Arabs:

https://old.reddit.com/r/arabs/comments/1gd9eb3/cultural_exchange_rjewsofconscience/

Big thanks to the mods over at /r/Arabs for reaching out to us with this awesome idea! Thanks to MoC for posting the original post.

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u/comix_corp Oct 27 '24

Hello, one thing I've noticed is that the newer generation of anti Zionist/left wing Jews seems to be more interested in Yiddish than Hebrew. Is this because people feel that Hebrew is tainted by association with Israel, or are there other reasons?

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u/DurianVisual3167 Jewish Oct 30 '24

Before WWII Yiddish was the most widespread and commonly spoken Jewish language. Something like 1/2 Jews worldwide spoke a form of Yiddish. Many other Jewish languages were spoken as well including Ladino (and related languages Baggito and Haketia), Judeo-Italian (many dialects), Judeo-Arabic (many dialects), Judeo-Persian (many different languages), and lots of other Jewish languages and dialects. The Holocaust killed so many first language speakers, especially of European Jewish languages, and the expulsion/deportation of Jews from both Europe and the Arab world caused many of these languages to become endangered. In Israel Zionists tried to further kill off Jewish Diaspora culture. Jews who spoke Yiddish in Israel were often attacked for it.

I don't think Anti-Zionist Jews necessarily think Hebrew has been tainted by Israel. I don't, and it's definitely more complicated than that. But I do think many Anti-Zionist Jews are trying to revive and be proud of Diaspora culture since it has been seen as taboo or shameful because if Zionism, and also just because of antisemitism and the fear of genocide.