Monday 24 June 2013

Yiddish proveb


Yaddish is Yiddish was at one time the international language of Ashkenazic Jews (the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe and their descendants). A hybrid of Hebrew and medieval German, Yiddish takes about three-quarters of its vocabulary from German, but borrows words liberally from Hebrew and many other languages from the many lands where Ashkenazic Jews have lived. It has a grammatical structure all its own, and is written in an alphabet based on Hebrew characters. Scholars and universities classify Yiddish as a Germanic language, though some have questioned that classification. Yiddish was never a part of Sephardic Jewish culture (the culture of the Jews of Spain, Portugal, the Balkans, North Africa and the Middle East). They had their own international language known as Ladino or Judesmo, which is a hybrid of medieval Spanish and Hebrew in much the same way that Yiddish combines German and Hebrew. More in this excellent website: Judaism 101

Reading the Torah

A Rabbi (a Jewish leader) reads the Torah (Jewish holy texts). It is in Hebrew (the Ancient language of Jews). Thanks to Institute of Education RE PGCE and and West London Synagogue.

Monday 17 June 2013