YIDDISH ASHKENAZI TRADITIONS
 
AND JUDAIC DIALECTS AROUND THE WORLD

By Dr. Harrell Rhome

Rembrandt’s Rabbi.

Yiddish (ייִדיש or אידיש) is a curious semi-Germanic patois, the word literally translating as Jewish.  It was also called yoshon-ashkenaz, the Ashkenaz language, but more affectionately termed (מאַמע־לשון) mame-yoshon or mother tongue, distinguishing it from biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, called yoshon koydesh, the holy tongues.  Nevertheless by the 1700s it was generally called Yiddish.  Yid (or Zid) is a word for Jew in Eastern Europe, so some say the name comes from Yid-Deutsch.  It has roots in High German, but is written with the Hebrew alphabet.  It arose in the tenth century, coinciding with the coming of the Khazar convert Jews from the east.  It became the lingua franca of the Judaic world, with several distinct dialects among its speakers.  The Eastern idiom naturally had more Slavic elements.  Spoken around the world in Orthodox communities, Yiddish is most widespread among the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic sect.  It did not appear in print until the nineteenth century.  While the number of speakers and publications has declined, it continues as a Judaic dialect and international trade language.   Some researchers maintain it has links to the old, obscure Turkic language of the Khazars, but other linguists and historians disagree.  Several years ago, I spoke with Dr. Clarence Lang and Dr. Charles Weber, both of whom were Professors of History and German about the possible Khazarian roots of Yiddish.  Both disagreed.  But, could it be so?  

“I believe that Yiddish is a mixed West-East Slavic language (and not a German dialect as is commonly believed. Of the two native Slavic substrata of Yiddish — Sorbian and pre-Ukrainian/pre-Belarusian (or in historical terms, ‘Kiev-Polessian’) — it is the latter imprint that unambiguously points to the existence of Slavic-speaking Jewries in parts of the former Khazar kingdom who eventually became speakers of Yiddish. Hence, one major venue for the birth of the Ashkenazic people would have to be in the contemporary Belarusian and Ukrainian lands, where an indigenous Slavic-speaking Jewry (as best established by the facts of Yiddish) could only be derived from the Turko-Iranian-speaking Khazars. Furthermore, Yiddish lexicon and grammar reveal links with Turkic and Iranian languages that have not been widely appreciated.”  Paul Wexler, Khazars, as seen on http://www.israelshamir.net/.

The Yiddish letters do not entirely conform to the basic Hebrew alphabet.  See below. 

THE GERMANIZATION OF THE KHAZAR ASHKENAZIM AND THE FURTHER EVOLUTION OF YIDDISH.

Yiddish and German have a close connection, both linguistically and culturally. 
Read what Professor Arthur Koestler said about this curious love-hate relationship. 

“It is easy to see why Khazar immigrants pouring into mediaeval Poland had to learn German if they wanted to get on. Those who had close dealings with the native populace no doubt also had to learn some pidgin Polish (or Lithuanian, or Ukrainian or Slovene); German, however, was a prime necessity in any contact with the towns. But there was also the synagogue and the study of the Hebrew torah. One can visualize a shtetl craftsman, a cobbler perhaps, or a timber merchant, speaking broken German to his clients, broken Polish to the serfs on the estate next door; and at home mixing the most expressive bits of both with Hebrew into a kind of intimate private language. How this hotchpotch became communalized and standardized to the extent to which it did, is any linguist's guess; but at least one can discern some further factors which facilitated the process.”  Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe, The Khazar Empire And Its Heritage, 1976.

The German states already had a Judaic presence long before the coming of the Khazars.  Soon they became the “German Jews” as they rapidly began to settle there, eventually becoming the predominant Judaic sect.  Considering the time it takes to walk from the east, the Ashkenaz migration expanded all over Europe in a remarkably short period of time.  Germanic areas were at the top of their list.

“Even if their number was relatively small, these German-speaking Jews were superior in culture and learning to the Khazars, just as the German Gentiles were culturally superior to the Poles. And just as the Catholic clergy was German, so the Jewish rabbis from the West were  a powerful factor in the Germanization of the Khazars, whose Judaism was fervent but primitive.” 

“A rabbinical tract from seventeenth century Poland contains the pious wish…  May God will that the country be filled with wisdom and that all Jews speak German."  Koestler.

The Khazarian Ashkenazim were characterized by their unique language as well as their distinct dress, both varying greatly from any others in Europe.

The old Khazar tongue was crude, lacking an alphabet.  Along with their conversion to Talmudic Judaism, Hebrew became a handy linguistic tool.  While Yiddish picked up other words and features as it moved westward, it remained the language of the Ashkenaz.  From the beginning, it had nothing to do with the preexisting Jews of Western Europe until after the tenth century and had nothing to do with ancient Israel or the old Hebrew language other than using the alphabet.   While the famous Khazar Correspondence with Sephardic Judaics in Islamic Iberia (c.950) was conducted in Hebrew, just a handful of upper class Khazars and their rabbis really understood or wrote the language.  Words were added and meanings change, common factors in the evolution of all languages.  German was a natural contributor to Yiddish.  The Khazars recognized the dynamism and advanced nature of the culture, quickly sending their children to German schools and adapting everyday Germanic terms into their polyglot Yiddish dialect. The rest of the linguistic elements were from Slavonic, Russian, Baltic and related regional dialects, including the old Khazar Turkic tongue. 

“The Khazar language was supposedly a Chuvash dialect of Turkish, which still survives in the Autonomous Chuvash Soviet Republic, between the Volga and the Sura. The Chuvash people are actually believed to be descendants of the Bulgars, who spoke a dialect similar to the Khazars. But all these connections are rather tenuous, based on the more or less speculative deductions of oriental philologists. All we can say with safety is that the Khazars were a Turkic tribe, who erupted from the Asian steppes, probably in the fifth century of our era.”  Koestler.

“…the Jewries of eastern Europe were, if not established, at least recruited in substantial numbers from Jews from farther east.  On the linguistic side, investigations have tended to establish the absence of western influences in Yiddish....”  Douglas M. Dunlop, The History Of The Jewish Khazars, 1954.

Dr. Koestler succinctly sums up how Judaics, both the Sephardim and Ashkenazim, use language.  While the Khazar Turko-Mongol tribes were not the Hebrew tribes of the Bible, they share some obvious characteristics.  Owing to this and by the sheer strength of numbers, the Khazars eventually came to define and control modern Judaism, bringing it into their service.

“Incidentally, the descendants of the biblical Tribes are the classic example of linguistic adaptability. First they spoke Hebrew; in the Babylonian exile, Chaldean; at the time of Jesus, Aramaic; in Alexandria, Greek; in Spain, Arabic, but later Ladino — a Spanish-Hebrew mixture, written in Hebrew characters, the Sephardi equivalent of Yiddish; and so it goes on.  They preserved their religious identity, but changed languages at their convenience.  The Khazars were not descended from the Tribes, but, as we have seen, they shared a certain cosmopolitanism and other social characteristics with their co-religionists.”  Koestler.   

“Spanish Jewry was part of a trading network which spread throughout the Old World.  Against this background, Hasday ibn Shaprut’s links with the Khazars and the Jewish Academies of Mesopotamia seem rather less surprising....”  Richard Fletcher, Moorish Spain, 1992, p. 95.

An Ashkenazi rabbi is pictured below.

WHO ARE THE ASHKENAZIM?

How did the Khazars come to be called Ashkenazis?  This name is dubious and obviously very convenient, supporting spurious claims to the heritage of old Palestine and the Bible.  Like Jew, it is yet another hijacked word.  But, what does it really mean?  Several scholars comment.

“As to the terms Sephardim and Ashkenazim, the following seems pertinent.  In Die Geschichte des Volkes Israel (History of the People of Israel), 1926, Ludwig Albrecht, a professed Christian, wrote on page 654:  ‘The name Sephardim, designating the Spanish and Portuguese Jews comes from the biblical book, Obadiah, verse 20, ‘...the exiles of Jerusalem who are in the Sepharad shall possess the cities of Negeb.’  The name Ashkenazim, designating the German Jews comes from Genesis 10:2, ‘The sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah’....”  Prof. R. Clarence Lang, Th.M., Ph.D.

It was only in medieval times, after the coming of the Khazars, that the term began to be applied as it is today.  While an etymological cognate relationship is not crystal-clear, the Old Turkic term, Aq Khasars, indicating the upper classes or the “White Khazars”, sounds similar to Ashkenaz. 

“Ashkenaz is also a brother of Togarmah (and a nephew of Magog) whom the Khazars, according King Joseph, claimed as their ancestor.  But worse was to come.  For Ashkenaz is also named in Jeremiah 51, 27, where the prophet calls his people and their allies to rise and destroy Babylon....”

“This passage was interpreted by the famous Saadiah Gaon, a spiritual leader of Oriental Jewry in the tenth Century, as a prophecy relating to his own times:  Babylon symbolized the Caliphate of Baghdad, and the Ashkenaz who were to attack it were either the Khazars themselves are some allied tribe.” 

“Accordingly ... some learned Khazar Jews who heard of the Gaon’s ingenious arguments, called themselves Ashkenazim when they migrated into Poland.”     Koestler.

By now, you see a recurring pattern.  Khazars assume, adopt and adapt a Semitic name and Hebrew heritage that was never theirs.  Are they the “German Jews”?  No, not really.  Albeit small in numbers except in the Iberian Peninsula, Sephardic and oriental Jews were already in Europe and living in the Germanic lands long before the coming of the Khazar convert Jews.  But given that the Ashkenazis were such extreme Germanophiles, their designation as “German Jews” is somewhat correct.

OTHER JUDAIC DIALECTS AROUND THE WORLD.

In actuality, there are as many dialects as there are unique Judaic communities such as the Falashas of Ethiopia the Kai Feng of China, the Cochin Judaics of India and others.  The Sephardic equivalent of Yiddish is Ladino (also called Judezmo or Spaniolish), the lingua franca of the Iberian Jews.  Like Yiddish it is written in Hebrew.  Ladino blends Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Arabic and perhaps other tongues as well.  I once had occasion in Gibraltar to hear it spoken among Sephardic taxi drivers.  While sounding something like Spanish, its vocabulary and particular accent distinguish it.    The use of Ladino and Yiddish as an insider code-talk parallels the Gypsy tongue, Romani.  Romani, like Yiddish, took on many words from the many lands where they lived.  This was paralleled by the more localized use of other polyglot dialects such as Judeo-Greek, Judeo-Italian and Judeo-Persian.  Like Ashkenazic Yiddish, Sephardic Ladino took on words from other languages as they moved about the world.  

The Karaite non-Talmudic Jews are of Turko-Khazar origin and speak a particular dialect.  Today, younger Karay Turks are working to preserve their unique linguistic legacy, and the Karay proudly proclaim their Khazarian history and heritage.  A perhaps related group, the Mountain Jews of the Caucasus, speak Farsi-Tat, a Persian dialect with added Hebrew words and expressions.   This usage may shed some light as to their elusive origins.  While they might have some Khazarian origins given their proximity, the use of the Farsi-Tat dialect reflects the influences of the oriental Judaism of Babylon and Baghdad.  The Karaite dialect followed the Karay and continued to evolve as they made their way west.

 “It is also significant that Tshagataish, the language of the Khazar Jews, a Turkish dialect, is still spoken in Poland, Hungary and Lithuania by the Karaites, the Jewish sectarians whose homeland was originally in the Crimea.  Even more significant is that Tshagataish is spoken by the few surviving Jewish Krimtchaki of the Crimea.”  Nathan Ausubel, Pictorial History of the Jewish People, 1984.

Dr. Koestler tells us more about the Khazars and the Karaites.

“That language was and still is a Turkish dialect, in fact the nearest among living languages to the lingua cumanica, which was spoken in the former Khazar territories at the time of the Golden Horde. According to Zajaczkowski, this language is still used in speech and prayer in the surviving Karaite communities in Troki, Vilna, Ponyeviez, Lutzk and Halitch. The Karaites also claim that before the Great Plague of 1710 they had some thirty-two or thirty-seven communities in Poland and Lithuania.  They call their ancient dialect “the language of Kedar” — just as Rabbi Petachia in the twelfth century called their habitat north of the Black Sea “the land of Kedar”; and what he has to say about them — sitting in the dark through the Sabbath, ignorance of rabbinical learning — fits their sectarian attitude.” 

“Accordingly, Zajaczkowski, the eminent contemporary Turcologist, considers the Karaites from the linguistic point of view as the purest present-day representatives of the ancient Khazars.  This sect preserved its language for about half a millennium, while the main body of Khazar Jews shed it in favour of the Yiddish lingua franca….” 

And we mustn’t forget other Judeo-Persian dialects.

“It was the Jewish practice to corrupt for their own use the language generally employed in commerce in the region in which they took up residence, and to write it in their own alphabet to prevent the natives from reading it.  Under the Sassanian dynasty (after c. A.D. 226), the Jews in the territory under Persian control quickly developed for themselves a corruption of the revived Persian language, what we may call a 'Persian Yiddish,' which was certainly known to some of the composers of the Talmud and corrupted in some passages the corrupt Aramaic they continued to use. A very large number of Jewish religious writings in their corruption of Persian are still extant.”  Dr. Revilo Oliver, 1985.

The Judaics of the Meshed area of Iran were forced to convert to Islam, but spent the latter part of the nineteenth century trying to break away.  Some fled to Afghanistan, taking their peculiar Judeo-Persian dialect called Elazar with them.  As we see, wherever there are settlements of Jewish folk, they either use existing intra-Judaic idioms or create their own. 

YIDDISH AND THE ASHKENAZI CULTURE TODAY.

While younger Jews are losing the ability to use Yiddish, it remains a powerful communications tool.  Many of the current generation will never learn it well, but rest assured that others will.  For certain dealings, there is no replacement.  Yiddish speakers can recognize one another and know where the other person is from through their accent and idiomatic expressions.  Even in the electronic twenty-first century, the old Khazar code talk is still indispensable for certain clandestine activities.  Besides, with fewer people understanding Yiddish, it becomes an even more exclusive tongue, just for the Ashkenaz elites and no one else. 

Their insistence on the use of Yiddish rather than adopting the Slavic tongues, led to even more cultural isolation from Polish and Russian societies.  Not only did they live apart from all others when they moved west, but in homes and buildings often with an alien look.  Pagoda-like synagogues typified the Judaic areas of town.  They also dressed differently.  Even in the early twentieth century, many Ashkenazim were characterized by oriental kaftans and speaking a mostly unintelligible language.  This, and Talmudic business practices, set them apart from Russians, Poles, Germans or the people of whatever country where they settled.  Ghettos were closed communities imposed by Christian society.  However, the Ashkenaz lived by choice in shtetls, self-imposed kosher and pure ethnocentric communities, undefiled by contact with the unclean goyim.     

"What virtues and what vices brought upon the Jew this universal enmity? Why was he in turn equally maltreated and hated by the Alexandrians and the Romans, by the Persians and the Arabs, by the Turks and by the Christian nations? Because everywhere and up to the present day, the Jew was an unsociable being. Why was he unsociable? Because he was exclusive and his exclusiveness was at the same time political and religious, or, in other words, he kept to his political religious cult and his law.  B. Lazare, L'Antisemitism.

ASSIMILATION IS THE FOREMOST THREAT TO THE FUTURE OF ASHKENAZI JUDAISM AND THE YIDDISH LANGUAGE.

“The Jew is a religious being.  All Jewish history is the result of religious passion and purpose, and, whatever is said to the contrary, the continuity of the Jew is bound up with the retention of his religion.  Wipe out the religious element from the equation of his life, and the Jew would cease automatically.”  H. G. Enelow, A Jewish View Of Jesus, 1920.

          Yiddish is exactly what its name literally means – the language of the Ashkenazi Khazar Jews -- and no one else.  Beyond that, Judaism is an exclusive religion for their benefit.  The Talmudic scriptures tell them they are different from other human beings, especially chosen by their exclusive and jealous Egypto-Semitic deity.  Not only that; the Talmud and Halakah Rabbinical Law gives permission to gouge, maltreat and manipulate the gentiles as they please.  This supremacist mindset makes it virtually impossible to assimilate, adjust and adapt to other societies.  As we know from eons of past history, this is an ongoing phenomenon.  The observant Jew purposely stands apart religiously and culturally, never really blending in.  Some overcome this, but more often than not have to completely divorce themselves from Judaism.  The rabbis are right.  Assimilation -- especially when it involves conversion to some form of Christianity -- is a total rejection of rabbinic authority and Talmudic supremacism.   

"Humanity changes, empires arise and fall, ideals spring up, become resplendent, and are extinguished, the Jew remains, Judaism remains clothed in its fierce exclusivism…. A people without land, a wandering nation, dispersed race, they preserve a country, their religion... ever pursuing the mirage of a golden age, a new era, a messianic time when the world would live in joy and peace, subject to Yahweh, serving his Law under the rule of the sacerdotal people, who had been prepared by trials for the attainment of this hour...  they are eternally inadaptable...."  Georges Batault, Le Probleme Juif, 1921.

“Paris (EJP) Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, former chief rabbi of Israel and currently chairman of Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, said assimilation ‘is today the biggest threat to the Jewish people.’  Speaking during a gathering in Paris of around 300 rabbis from across Europe and Israel… Lau said assimilation is a ‘bigger threat’ than anti-Semitism and terrorism for the future of Jews.  Lau mentioned statistics from the United States showing that out of 100 Jews from the first generation only three are left as Jews in the fourth generation.  Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lichtenstein, head of the Jewish court in the UK, spoke of around 50% assimilation among Jews in his country.  Young people are not interested in religion, they have no connection with Judaism…. ”  

So, we have a demographic problem here.   There’s a 97% casualty rate in the US and 50% in the UK.  Not only that, immigration to Israel decreases every year, especially with prolonged and increased violence.  Some say one way or another, the ministate may not last another twenty years.  But even if Israel were to become some kind of non-Jewish entity or otherwise cease to exist, and even if only a few Jews pass on the traditions, Yiddish, yoshon-ashkenaz, the language and legacy of the Ashkenazim, lives on.   Regardless of losses to assimilation or conversion, for a number of devout and observant Judaic Talmudists, there are two truly holy languages: Hebrew and Yiddish.  

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Copyright ©2009 Harrell Rhome All Rights Reserved.