Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Yiddish in Israel: A History
Date: March 27, 2026
Host: Alex Weiser (YIVO Institute)
Guest Author: Rachel Rozhansky (Brown University)
Panelists: Rachel Brenner, Shachar Pinsker, Sunny Yudkoff

Episode Overview

This episode spotlights Rachel Rozhansky’s new book, "Yiddish in Israel: A History", which interrogates the complex and evolving place of Yiddish language and culture within Israeli society from the state’s founding to the present. Drawing on panel responses from experts in Jewish history and literature, the discussion revisits longstanding myths about the “suppression” of Yiddish, exploring instead the nuanced interplay of ideology, culture, emotion, and politics.

Main Themes & Discussion Points

1. Myth vs. Reality: The “Suppression” of Yiddish in Israel

Timestamp: 01:38 - 12:33

• Rozhansky begins by challenging the “commonly held view that Yiddish was suppressed, even banned and persecuted by the Israeli authorities during the first decades of the state for ideological reasons” (01:39).
• She notes the often-cited phrase from David Ben Gurion describing Yiddish as a “foreign, degrading language,” which is typically used to exemplify a Zionist ideology opposed to Diaspora culture (03:00).
• Rozhansky’s central argument is that this perception is overly simplistic; the Israeli state’s relationship to Yiddish was marked by “a dialectic attitude... that included love and misgiving, acceptance and rejection at the same time” (05:44).

2. Key Questions and Book Structure

Timestamp: 06:36 - 12:33

• Rozhansky’s book centers on two questions:
  1. Was there a clearly defined official policy toward Yiddish in Israel?
  2. What actually influenced Yiddish’s development—state actions, or other factors?
• Three threads guide the book:
  • The nature of Israel’s cultural hegemony
  • Tensions between Yiddish’s transregionality and Hebrew’s localism
  • Attitudes toward the Jewish past, memory, and nostalgia

3. Press, Theater, and State Interests

Timestamp: 07:54 - 11:10

• The Yiddish press became the “central arena” of conflict; restrictions technically existed but were selectively enforced, and political interests often prevailed (09:13).
  • Example: The labor party Mapai purchased the main Yiddish newspaper, using it to court Yiddish-speaking voters for decades.
• The Yiddish theater faced licensing challenges, but by 1951, limitations were lifted, allowing “popular performances (shund)” to flourish, though they were sometimes mocked (10:34).
• Rozhansky highlights that state policy was less about outright bans and more guided by pragmatic and emotional interests, including positioning Israel as a center of Jewish culture, to which Yiddish was essential.

4. Personal and Collective Memory: Yiddish After the Holocaust

Timestamp: 11:10 - 11:48

• Many Holocaust survivors expected Yiddish to be valued but found it marginalized. Most “did not expect Yiddish to become the language of the state of Israel” and didn’t teach it to their children, but were hurt by its lack of veneration.

5. Identity, Nostalgia, and Revival

Timestamp: 11:48 - 12:33; 62:53 - 70:06

• Waves of nostalgia, notably post-Eichmann trial (1961), prompted brief revivals, particularly in theater.
• The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw a cultural shift: as the “melting pot” ideology retreated, Israeli identity politics and renewed interest in heritage sparked a nascent return to Yiddish among younger generations.

Panelists’ Responses and Insights

Rachel Brenner — Life is “Not Black and White”

Timestamp: 12:41 - 25:26

• Brenner, from personal experience, recalls how Yiddish was “not very well considered” and “defined by the motto rejection, negation of the Diaspora” (13:13).
• She commends Rozhansky for “complicating an ideologically entrenched story” by showing the interplay of ideology and emotion (14:20).
• Highlights covered: Mordechai Zeimir and the press, figures like Ida Kaminska in theater, Sutzkever’s “Golden Chain” literary project, Dov Sadan’s academic work, and the Yung Yisroel literary group.
• Notable Quote:

  “What is Raphael's particular contribution...is that you complicate this issue. Life is not like that. Life is not black and white. Life is gray, hopefully with some shadows of yellow sunshine...” (14:11)

• Brenner recalls literary explorations of language identity, reading aloud from Rachel Katzenelson’s essay on the transition from Russian to Yiddish to Hebrew, and reflecting on Aaron Meged's "Foigelmann" as emblematic of the ongoing negotiation of Jewish and Israeli identity.

Shachar Pinsker — “Lowering the Pitch” in the Historiography

Timestamp: 26:13 - 40:11

• Pinsker underlines how Rozhansky demonstrates the “dialectical and nuanced” relationship, avoiding extremes (27:28).
• Argues Yiddish in Israel should not be seen simply as a story of “decline,” but includes creativity and mediation between cultures, with Avraham Sutzkever reframed not as “the last great Yiddish poet, but as the first great Israeli Yiddish poet” (33:45).
• Mediators like Yossel Birstein, Rivka Basman, Benjamin Harshav, and others maintained bridges between Yiddish and Hebrew cultures, often in ways not formally acknowledged.
• Highlights how Yiddish literature provided distinct perspectives on foundational Israeli experiences, e.g., writing about the 1948 war from the viewpoint of refugees and Holocaust survivors—offering “empathy with the others...influenced by traumatic experience” (38:10).
• Notable Quote:

  “You cannot understand Israeli culture without taking into consideration what was created in Yiddish. And that maybe is the surprising aspect...” (34:32)

Sunny Yudkoff — On Reputation and Hegemony

Timestamp: 40:33 - 49:18

• Yudkoff summarizes Rozhansky’s thesis as showing how “the status of Yiddish in Israel...was not shaped by legislation, but rather by public opinion, though that was itself influenced...by the authorities” (42:55).
• Asserts Israeli governmentality succeeded in shaping attitudes so thoroughly that Yiddish’s status needed “no formal suppression” post-statehood (44:30).
• Raises methodological questions:
  “Is this a different way?...is it the success of the government’s insistence on Hebrew, over and against Yiddish—a history in which the will of the sovereign doesn’t need to be imposed from top down?” (46:10)
• Notes how Yiddish’s evolving reputation as “funny and tinged with nostalgia” both constrained and preserved it in Israeli culture.

Panel Discussion Highlights

Above vs. Below: Who Drove Suppression?

Timestamp: 49:42 - 55:25

• The panel explores whether the push against Yiddish was top-down (from government) or bottom-up (from public and professional organizations).
• Rozhansky points out “restrictions came from bureaucrats,” and the “Union of Hebrew Journalists” especially pressured for anti-Yiddish measures. Knesset members, however, often did not cooperate in legislating these (52:31).

The Yiddish “Cute Old Grandma” Stereotype

Timestamp: 53:23 - 54:42

• Recollections of Yiddish activists note the language shifted to being seen as “cute, funny,” like a “grandma who should sit by the fireplace,” which many found bittersweet but which also made Yiddish accessible to outsiders and new generations (53:30).

Q&A: Memorable Segments

1. National Languages of Israel

Timestamp: 55:39 - 56:37

• Rozhansky and Pinsker clarify that Israel didn’t have an official language until the Nation-State Law; previously, Hebrew, English, and Arabic were used from the Mandate era.

2. Western Yiddish in Israel

Timestamp: 57:11 - 59:14

• Most Israeli Yiddish was Eastern Yiddish (Lithuanian, Polish dialects); Western Yiddish (Alsace, Switzerland) “has not been spoken for a few hundred years” (57:11).

3. Yad Vashem’s Role

Timestamp: 60:16 - 61:26

• Yad Vashem did not play a central, active role in the history of Yiddish, although significant testimonies and writings (by figures like Rochel Oyerbach) were collected in Yiddish.

4. Parallels with Arabic and Ladino

Timestamp: 62:53 - 66:17

• The language shift/abandonment by second-generation Mizrahi Jews mirrors that of Ashkenazi Jews and Yiddish (63:08).
• Arabic and Ladino played very different roles; Ladino benefitted from charismatic advocates, notably Itzhak Navon, while Yiddish did not have an equivalent public champion (64:23).
• Modern scholarship increasingly explores Israeli culture as inherently multilingual, encompassing Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, and Arabic.

Looking Forward: Yiddish in Contemporary Israel

Timestamp: 67:47 - 70:06

• Rozhansky, cautious about prediction, notes a “new phase in Yiddish culture” as young Israelis with no Yiddish background show interest in the language, its literature, and legacy.
• Yiddish is depicted in contemporary art, literature, and film, with tropes and characters actively engaging with Yiddish heritage.
• Concludes: “The future is still to be seen” (70:06).

Notable Quotes

• Rozhansky:

  “The status of Yiddish in Israel at that time was not shaped by legislation, but rather by public opinion...” (42:55)

• Brenner:

  “Life is not black and white; life is gray, hopefully with some shadows of yellow sunshine...” (14:11)

• Pinsker:

  “What if we think of Sutzkever not as the last great Yiddish poet, but as the first great Yiddish Israeli poet...” (33:45)

• Yudkoff:

  “The population had already been disciplined to be against Yiddish...” (44:37)

Episode Structure & Timestamps

• [00:05-01:35] — Introduction by Alex Weiser
• [01:38-12:33] — Rachel Rozhansky’s Presentation (book summary)
• [12:33-25:26] — Panel Response: Rachel Brenner
• [26:13-40:11] — Panel Response: Shachar Pinsker
• [40:33-49:18] — Panel Response: Sunny Yudkoff
• [49:23-59:48] — Panel Discussion (Interplay of government and public)
• [60:16-66:17] — Q&A (Yad Vashem, languages, Arabic/Ladino comparisons)
• [67:47-70:06] — Looking Forward: The Future of Yiddish in Israel

Conclusion

This episode offers a compelling revision of the Yiddish story in Israel, emphasizing complexity, ambivalence, and change rather than simplistic narratives of rejection or nostalgia. Rozhansky’s scholarship is praised for combining meticulous historical research with literary and cultural insight. The discussion underlines that Yiddish, far from a disappearing relic, continues to shape—and be shaped by—Israeli culture and identity, in ever-evolving forms.