Only 21 per cent of native-born Jewish children here speak Yiddish, a survey conducted by the education department of the United Zionist Organization revealed today. The survey was taken among 1,736 Jewish boys and girls in the local public schools on the elementary and high school levels.
The data showed that 79 per cent of the Jewish children said their knowledge of Yiddish was “small,” or “weak” or non-existent. Of the total, 81 per cent of the children stem from Ashkenazic families, the remainder from Sephardic or Oriental Jewish homes.
The figures also showed that only 52 per cent of the children’s grandparents speak Yiddish to their grandchildren. Among the remainder, two per cent speak Hebrew to the grandchildren, while 46 per cent use Portuguese in home conversations.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
