Hebrew: To Unite All Jews
This post actually began its life as a reply to a comment about how Hebrew unites all Jews, on the FrumSatire blog, until I realized that it was turning into a post. So here it is. Esther, you have a valid question. Yiddish, most recently, is the language which united Eastern European Jews whose parents and grandparents emigrated (those who survived the Sho'ah) from there; it was the vernacular of the Ashkenazim, those Jews who, after the expulsion from Spain settled in Germany and surrounding areas of Eastern Europe . I too, wish that I knew more Yiddish than I do, which is mainly only isolated words and phrases. Your question, 'how does Hebrew unite the Jews,' is a very sad one. There was a time which lasted for centuries, when the Hebrew language--the language of the Torah--was a universal language for Jews all over the world. No matter where they lived or what language they spoke in their adopted countries, the lingua franca of the Jews was alwa...