Yiddish’s ‘revival’ points to its resilience as a portable homeland – and a global reach, from Russia to Mexico to the US

Yiddish, long associated with Eastern Europe, actually took root across Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Egypt and South Africa, complete with schools, newspapers, and even a 1950s Yiddish science-fiction novel set on Mars. The Holocaust nearly ended the language, since most of the six million Jews murdered spoke it, but pandemic-era online courses saw enrollment spike across the US, Canada, Latin America and Europe. Today an estimated 500,000 to 1 million people speak it worldwide, mostly ultra-Orthodox communities in New York and Jerusalem.

Organizations like YIVO and the Yiddish Book Center are pushing exhibits arguing the language was always global, not parochial, pointing to klezmer festivals from Amherst to Poland and translations ranging from Darwin to Harry Potter. The writer, a Mexican-Jewish filmmaker, notes Yiddish's peculiar distinction as a stateless language that historically lacked words for weapons or war tactics.

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