The alphabets of foreign languages can be a necessary torture to learn, as with Japanese, but for a non jewish german it must feel idiotic to write an everyday spoken european language in Hebrew.
We don` t normally learn Dutch using Chinese writing.
(See also Bloomfield, Languages on the question of writing and speaking).

The irony of the young Germans taking Yiddish classes is great – reminds me of the ways in which so many white americans appropriate Native spirituality.

All languages that live are sacred and profane – kudos to you for trying to learn Yiddish.

I tried to get my Grandma to teach me yiddish, but she said “why do you want to learn that.”

Don’t get lost searching for authenticity.

About 10 years ago I was invited to attend a conference in upstate NY where Holocaust survivors meet annually with the children of Germans who had actively taken part in the war, as opposed to those who claimed ‘we knew nothing, saw nothing…” The first days were spent with survivors describing what they had lived thru. Emotionally devastating to listen to, slowly, methodically spoken, with such dispassionate facts. One might mistake this manner of speech as a kind of numbness, when it actually is just the opposite, a rawness so deep it must be contained with very careful speech.

The young Germans spoke about the stories they had heard from their parents, trying to explain why they did what they had to do, in that time, sometimes defending their roles, sometimes apologizing to thier own children for the legacy they marked their family with. The sense of shame some of these young adults felt was clear and in my opinion wasted. The final day of the 3 day conference culminated in both groups coming together, Germans offering apologies and survivors trying to accept their verbal offerings.

While cathartic for many, the process seemed an erasure of a history so inexplicable and debased, that apologies border(ed) on pathology.
This pathology becomes clearer as more recently Holocaust revisionists, deniers and others have begun claiming that Jews are “exploiting” an ‘incident’ similiar to the suffering of many peoples. The Jews are milking a moment of suffering (the Holocaust)and have themselves become nazis to other people in a land they stole and sit in illegally. Antisemitism continues to flourish throughout Europe, grows intensely in the Mid East and percolates more quietly in America.

In Poland there is currently a revival of Jewish culture, foods, dances. In one of the most destructive countries that both slaughtered and built the ghettos and ovens of destruction, this too, is a perverse celebratory cannibalism of the dead. Yiddish is no more alive today than the millions of Jews who were sent to their deaths. Yiddish only exists in tiny communities were chassidim continue to use it. And Singer is one of the rare writers that can be read in English without losing nuance; you either know the culture he describes or you dont.

That Others take on the cloak of dead Jews, already soaked in blood and try it on, attempting to fool ‘blind’ folk into believing the Chosen son remains alive, means nothing more than the deceptive act it is. BEcause Others chose to forget or forgive themselves doesnt mean Jews have forgotten or forgiven. Although forgetting, like selective memory is becoming preferrable and politically correct.

Yiddish is a sacred language, I would liken it to Aramaic–which may sound bizaare–both languages created the sacred laws defining a people and the means with which they communicated in their daily lives.

S’iz take an iberashung tzu zen daytshe yungn lernen zikh mame-loshn. Ven ikh bin geven in mayne yorn fun universitet vos iz in Meriland(Maryland), Ikh hob genumen a kurs fun daytsh un eyne oder tsvey daytshn hobn mir bamerkt, leyenendik a tsaytung af mame-loshn.

Ikh hob gornits kegn daytshn. Ale mentshn zenen brider vi di alte gezang geyt fun Peretz.

[Editor's translation of above: "It's certainly surprising to see young Germans studying Yiddish. When I was a student in a university in Maryland, I took a German class, and one or two Germans noticed me reading a Yiddish newspaper.

I don't have anything against Germans. All people are brothers, as the old Peretz song says."]

In other words, Yiddish is a great language, and I am proud of the Germans and other nations that take up courses in Yiddish and recognize it as a true language and not some plattdeutsch(low german).

It is for this reason alone why I continue to write and speak Yiddish. I am 34 yrs old, very much secular and love Yiddish language. Hebrew i can’t speak a word of, Ukrainian and Russian I understand b/c my folks came from there.

Tsu di gute daytshn ibern’ velt: Lernt zikh gut, un hot hanoye mit di loshn funem yidn.
[Editor's translation: "To the good Germans of the world: Study well, and enjoy the language of the Jews."]

First, I like your revamped website, especially the layout and easy navigation.

I was at a Brave Combo show in Houston about 11 years ago. The opening act was a group called “17 Hippies From Berlin”. They played a mix of straight-ahead polka tunes (“Who Stole the Kishke”) and klezmer music. After their set, I talked to a couple of them about being German and playing Jewish music. Their responses showed a love and understanding of Yiddishkeit that blew my mind. Meeting those kids caused me to question my lifelong fear of all things German, a product of upbringing and years of Hebrew school. Since then, I have been more open and not as pre-judgmental when I meet someone from Germany. I know there are still anti-Semites and Third Reich wanna-bes there, but I believe there’s plenty of it here in the USA, too.

If you’re interested, I still have the CD somewhere in my collection. I can send you a copy.

Best to you and your family, Stanley

P.S. My vote for favorite 70′s-80′s porn – Babylon Pink