What languages do Jews speak?
Judaism in Five Minutes - Sarah Imhoff
Sarah Bunin Benor [+]
Hebrew Union College and University of Southern California
Sarah Bunin Benor is Vice Provost and Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and Adjunct Professor in the University of Southern California Linguistics Department.
Description
From Jerusalem to Johannesburg, from Baghdad to Bialystok, Jews have spoken dozens of languages. When Jews migrated for economic reasons or due to persecution or expulsion, they encountered and adopted new languages and made them their own. The two most widely known diaspora Jewish languages, Yiddish and Ladino, have been exceptionally maintained for centuries away from their original regions. While most longstanding Jewish languages have become endangered in recent decades, the ancient trend of Jewish language shifting continues.