The Yiddish Orthographic Conference which is now in session in Vilna under the auspices of the Yiddish Scientific Institute, has after a heated debate decided by 26 votes against 21 for changing the Hebrew spelling of Hebrew words in the Yiddish language according to the Yiddish form.
There are 50 delegates attending the Conference, from Poland, America, Latvia and Lithuania. The Professors of German at Vilna University are also present. The Roumanian and Argentine organisations have sent to the Conference their decisions on the various questions on the agenda, as adopted at their local conferences.
Dr. Weinreich, Mr. S. Niger, the American Yiddish literary critic, and Mr. Kalmanowitz urged the retention of the present Hebrew rendering of the words, while ex-Deputy Noah Prilutzki, and Mr. Zalman Reisen were among those who advocated the change to Yiddish trans-literation.
The Conference has made a recommendation to the Philological Section of the Yiddish Scientific Institute that it should draw up a scheme for regulating the rendering of Hebrew words in the Yiddish language.
Mr. Noah Prilutzky read a paper in which he urged the Conference to fix the Polish-Ukrainian dialect of Yiddish as the standard Yiddish pronunciation.
Mr. Joseph Opatoshu, the American Yiddish novelist, Mr. S. Niger, Ex-Deputy Noah Prilutzky, Dr. Silberfarb, former Minister of Jewish Affairs in the Ukraine, Dr. Weinreich, Mr. Zalman Reisen, editor of the Vilna Yiddish daily “Tog”, and Mr. Pludermacher constitute the Presidium of the Conference.
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