I was terribly disappointed to read your article about Donald Trump’s use of Yiddish, and was even more disappointed that the point of the article seems to denigrate Yiddish (“Shvitzing Over Trump’s Embrace Of The Mamaloshen,” Jan. 1).
It is astonishing that you would base an article on the misplaced opinions of Michael Wex. The concept that Yiddish was and is nothing more than a language to be “used to insult the people around you without them knowing what you’re saying” is so very wrong. More important, it is offensive to generations of European Jews, including those who created great Yiddish literature, music and theater, and to those of us who want to see Yiddish survive as a living language and culture.
I daresay that Sholom Aleichem, just for example, would be surprised to learn that his works were nothing but inside jokes.
Even if you believe Mr. Wex’s opinion has some validity and that Yiddish is the “forever dying language,” you should have at least made an effort to instill hope that it should not be so.
Manhattan
