The demise of a Yiddish daily “does not reflect a diminution in the use of Yiddish as a language any more than the demise of daily newspapers in English means that the English language Is dying.” This assessment was given today by Joseph Mlotek, educational director of the Workmen’s Circle. to some 900 guests attending the 54th annual luncheon-banquet of the Jewish labor fraternal order.
Mlotek was referring to the suspension of the publication of the Day-Jewish Journal on Dec. 28. Its closing left the 75-year-old Daily Forward as the country’s only major Yiddish-language daily. Speaking at luncheon tribute to actor-singer Theodore Bikel, Chaim Bass, executive director of the World Jewish Culture Congress Mrs. Beatrice Bomus, an alumna of the Workmen’s Circle Schools, Mlotek said that when, for solely economic reasons a foreign language daily or periodical fails. there are some who claim that the language itself has failed.
JEWISH HERITAGE LINKED TO YIDDISH
“Yiddish has survived many economic and social upheavals,” he stated. “From the current proliferation of Chairs and courses in Yiddish in our largest universities. colleges. and even high schools throughout the United States. as tragic as It is to those who were employed by It, the death of the Morning Journal-Day, is not the end of the Yiddish language as a cultural force among the Jewish people of the United States and abroad.”
Mlotek said that “Jewish parents were becoming keenly aware” that the one link their children have to a Jewish heritage is a knowledge of Yiddish authors, poets and social leaders.” This is true in the United States as it is abroad, he said. “Even in the Israel where Hebrew is the official language. both Yiddish and English are important secondary languages. No matter what the official tongue where Jews live is, Yiddish will remain an inherent part of the Jewish community’s cultural soul.”
Bikel told his audience that “We live in a world of easy access and it has had a devastating influence on our concept of culture. Easy and fast access makes for capsule culture; and capsule culture is to real culture what TV dinners are to gourmet cooking. Moreover, It tends to give emphasis only to the habits, mores, literature and poetry of the dominant culture of the land. It represents an Invidious threat to anyone or group who seeks to maintain its own character and language.”
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.
