The Great Asifa at Citifield was organized by an outfit known as Ichud Hakehillos LeTohar HaMachane= “Congregations United for the Purity of the Camp”. Unity is part and parcel of their Raison d'être . The Glass-Half-Full attitude toward the Asifa accentuates the great sense of Achdus that participants felt. I won't regurgitate the obvious questions re unity when noting the great swaths of Torah-Observant Jewry who were absent. Yet I'd like to dissent from the Glass-Half-Full attitude by pointing out an underlying, yet overt, schism even among those who were present at Citifield and at Arthur Ashe Stadium; I speak of The Great Yiddish / English Divide.
The lions share of the addresses were delivered in Yiddish. In itself this was neither surprising nor insulting. It was a merely a manifestation of the common practice of ethnic proportional representation so common in Balkanized Parliaments and Frum Parties in Israel. When the ESL-ers (the English Second Language) outnumber the EFL-ers (the English First Language) by about 15-1 (as they seemed to at the Asifa) it is rational and fair that the evenings program be directed primarily towards the native Yiddish speakers. This demographic-breakdown analysis goes far towards explaining both the seating at the dais, the roster of speakers and the fact that they spoke in Yiddish.
What I did find mildly surprising and vaguely insulting was that the few speakers who did actually speak in English were finicky about:
A. Issuing multiple disclaimers and an apologies for communicating in the S'fas HaMedinah. and
B. Making sure to speak bilingually and toggling back and forth between English and Yiddish.
Furthermore the organizers of the Event made no attempts at simultaneous Yiddish subtitle translation scrolling at the bottom of the Jumbotron screens when the English speakers spoke. It was as if messages delivered via the medium of English were of no value whatsoever to the ESL-ers. Why bother translating that which is of no importance or significance?
Furthermore the organizers of the Event made no attempts at simultaneous Yiddish subtitle translation scrolling at the bottom of the Jumbotron screens when the English speakers spoke. It was as if messages delivered via the medium of English were of no value whatsoever to the ESL-ers. Why bother translating that which is of no importance or significance?
The inescapable impression left on those Jews whose Momma Loshin is English is that they are somehow deficient, second class Jews. The overt message of the evening was that if you use the internet without filtration software you aren't much of a Jew. The sub-textual message of the evening was that if you use English as your primary language you aren't much of a Jew, ahem Yeed, either. Like the "Great Satan"...the Internet itself, the "little Satan"... English fluency affords a Yeed or Yeedina= Jewess access to all kinds of things that s/he best not be seeing, reading or ruminating over.
No doubt the upcoming Flatbush "Asifa" this coming Sunday evening at the Agudah of Avenue L was organized, in part, to smooth down some ruffled EFLer feathers. To be candid I'm not sure how holding an all-English-Speakers event in a venue that can hold 500 people maximum can be considered a consolation prize for the 6,500 plus Sfardim, Yeshiva-leit and non-Khasidish Baalei-Batim who knew little or no Yiddish but dutifully sat through hours of Yiddish speeches at CitField. Even if the July 10th event is an SRO sellout, 90% of the EFLers who, at bare minimum, felt excluded at CitField will NOT be in attendance.
BL"N in my next post I will delve more deeply into this cultural divide and demonstrate how the Kharedi antipathy for English, as well as all other languages other than Loshon Qodesh, Yiddish and Aramaic is not a Johnny-come-lately prejudice but of ancient provenance ratified by at least one great Khasidic thinker.
No doubt the upcoming Flatbush "Asifa" this coming Sunday evening at the Agudah of Avenue L was organized, in part, to smooth down some ruffled EFLer feathers. To be candid I'm not sure how holding an all-English-Speakers event in a venue that can hold 500 people maximum can be considered a consolation prize for the 6,500 plus Sfardim, Yeshiva-leit and non-Khasidish Baalei-Batim who knew little or no Yiddish but dutifully sat through hours of Yiddish speeches at CitField. Even if the July 10th event is an SRO sellout, 90% of the EFLers who, at bare minimum, felt excluded at CitField will NOT be in attendance.
BL"N in my next post I will delve more deeply into this cultural divide and demonstrate how the Kharedi antipathy for English, as well as all other languages other than Loshon Qodesh, Yiddish and Aramaic is not a Johnny-come-lately prejudice but of ancient provenance ratified by at least one great Khasidic thinker.
16 comments:
Isn't this the innate philosophy of Yesheevish talk - to bastardize the English language to the point that it becomes a respective language (which is what Yiddish did, essentially)? Thus, the "B'nei Tuyreh" aren't speaking the same words as in The Alter Heim, but they are conversing in a strange dialect with the same intent. These types of languages don't evolve (As does English, French, etc.) but devolves. This has always been my understanding.
I don't think a Yiddish translation was needed. Do you think that more than 2%, maybe 5% tops, of Yiddish speakers at the Asifa can't understand English - much less the English-Yeshivish hybrid of those speeches? English may be a second language to most American Chassidim, but it's a fiction that it is a foreign language.
בקמות ובאיכו
wait and read my next post. Much of what you say is correct.
For now suffice it to say that evolution and devolution are all in the eyes of the Beholder and that whereas Western Society as a whole holds Evolution to be much more than a working theory but a self-evident fact שלומי אמונה of Kharedi Society as a whole holds Yerdias and Histaknu Hadoros to be much more than a working theory but a self-evident truth.
O and BTW בקמות ought to be spelled בכמות
Avos tells us there are four kinds of students, one is the sponge. It seems post-war Chareidim is a sponge. Anything from "the alte heim", as non-specific or non-religious as it might have been, is treated as halacha l'Moshe miSinai.
Where did Yiddish come from? German Jews 500 years ago who were expelled into Poland but kept German as "their" language except over time they added Hebrew, Polish, and Russian words to it to get nuances and points right.
Just like Yeshivish today, it's not a language, it's a dialect but it has been imbued with a holiness and importance it never had 60 years ago.
S.
Among thw Tuna baigels you're right but based on anecdotal evidence there were plenty of deeply committed Khasidisha Yingeleit in attendance. many of them have at least as tough a time with Yeenglish as the average Agudah baalhaBus has with the Yiddish of E.G. the Zhibo Dayan.
Garnel I repeat, wait for my next post you will discover your error and find it eue-opening.
eue=eye in YEnglish ;-0
Thanks, noted.
I also noted Wachsman's distaste at using 'Sfas Hamedinah', even though he noted that living in America has been a positive Khareidi experience. What is the problem here? Why go way out on the Kana'us limb when they have a bigger, more immanent Kana'us to preach?
Good things come to those who wait but for a sneak preview please note what appears in the OP;
Like the "Great Satan"...the Internet itself, the "little Satan"... English fluency affords a Yeed or Yeedina= Jewess access to all kinds of things that s/he best not be seeing, reading or ruminating over.
Sorry, but I found it absolutely reprehensible and a lack of derech eretz, that an Asifa which was advertised as a gathering for klal yisroel, was not in a language that everyone understands. I think just about every chassid could understand the english, while a good portion can't make out the Yiddish, and don't forget that in Arthur Ashe there was no transcription.
And if they choose to speak in Yiddish, at least let them have the decency to notify us before so we can decide whether we are interested in still going.
Bray,
I don't think the Yiddish monopolization of the Asifa was because of "out"numbers 15-1...
I think it was the price that was paid by the Litvish to field more participants for the Field.
In order to stave off the embarrassment of an empty field, the Chassidic Courts were courted to bring their throngs...yet they did not want to subject their Subjects to the Treifeneh language.
This would also explain why RMS needed to apologize for speaking the Sfas Hamedina; as for REW, he was technically the MC and not a speaker.
The above is simply speculation, but correct speculation in my opinion.
I don't think the Yiddish monopolization of the Asifa was because of "out"numbers 15-1....
You're contradicting yourself. If the only way to avoid embarrassment is to have Khasidim bring their "throngs" then you concede that the khasidim far outnumbered any group.
It was far more than "not wanting to subject their Subjects to the Treifeneh language." (although my whole next post was devoted to explaining how English got to be treif. )that does not explain the seating at the dais or the %age of khasidic speakers.
I stick to my proportional representation theory which , essentially, is what you're saying as well.
Jr
spot on. I can't disagree. additionally if your running a rally to ban internet use then don't advertise the misleading tag-line "can't live without it" that implies it would be a rally about responsible internet use.
IMO that is not just manipulative and dishonest advertising that is an absolutely reprehensible and a lack of derech eretz to cause thousands of people to waste 4-10 hours of their time.
You're contradicting yourself. If the only way to avoid embarrassment is to have Khasidim bring their "throngs" then you concede that the khasidim far outnumbered any group.
Not necessarily. If we have 20,000 and they have 20,000, we look bad at being 1/2 empty, yet their throngs can complete the Kiddush Hashem.
Have you nothing to say about my wordplay? :-)
field=Field l'gezeras shoveh
well if you're right (I still think the breakdown was about 34,000 khasidim, 8000 everyone else) now you know how Mapam and Likud feel when they have to make leveraged concessions to frum parties to form a coalition government!
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