Scholars here are amused at a cultural dictum of the Nazis which, in effect, puts the “cold pogromists” on the side of the Hebraists as against those who urge the use of Yiddish as the tongue for Jews.
The Nazis desire, and will possibly attempt to enforce that desire, that German Jews shall not speak Yiddish, because “they thus spoil the German language.” It, continue the Nazis, the Jews must speak another language, “let them speak Hebrew, but not Yiddish.”
Should the Nazis pursue their logic and prevent Jews from publishing and otherwise expressing their thoughts in German or in Yiddish, they would, in effect, compel all Jews who do not know the language to study Hebrew.
However, it was pointed out, in the past, German scholars, even non-Jewish German scholars, have made a thorough study of such variations of German as Yiddish and even Pennsylvania Dutch, in which tongues they are believed to have found clues to problems connected with words obsolete in the German language.
Dr. Heinz Kloss, for example, a non-Jew, specializing in the study of Germanic dialects, learned to converse fluently in Yiddish, on which language he published a number of works. He founded the Yiddish section of the German Academy for the study of the development of the German language and all its dialects.
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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.
