5 March 2010

Yiddish, Zionism, Esperanto

Zionism, involving the re-birth of Hebrew, has always has been a chauvinistic and nationalist creed, and only gained ephemeral credibility among progressive people on account of the horrors of the holocaust.

Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazi proletariat of central and eastern Europe, became the language of internationalism. Ludvik Zamenhof, the founder of Esperanto, in fact constructed his first planned language on a modified Yiddish before using Latin languages as the main basis for Esperanto.

The revival of Yiddish and its culture is to be welcomed both inside and outside Jewish communities.

1 comment:

neil.nachum said...

Read about the world-wide Esperanto movement at www.EsperantoFriends.blogspot.com with summaries in English.