The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-25
HEBREW A LIVING LANGUAGE,
Used in Social and Business Life by Jews in
Many Localities.

Many Localities.
New York Commercial Advertiser
The appearance of an advertisement in morn
ing newspaper offering reward for the rocov-
ery of an account book in Hebrew, caused a re-
porter to call on the editor of a Hebrew newspa-
per- in this city, and ask him to what extent that
language was still living tongue. ut is popu-
lary believed" he began, that the Hebrew Ian
guage is dead in the same sense that Latin is
dead. This is an error Hebrew is still spoken
by jews as their chosen language; it is used in
synagogues, in social circles in trade, and even,
as you see by the advertisement, in accounts.
Newspapers are published in Hebrew characters,
and there is not an orthodox Jew in this
city who does not use the ancient tongue in all
the sacred Offices of life In fact, orthodox
jew is required to be able to read and write
Hebrew The sacred books that are used are
never in any other text than the original, and
there are even circulating libraries whose books
are exclusively written in that tongue. The
Hebrew is used almost exclusively as the
language of social life and trade among Polish
Jews They have been cruelty prosecuted, and
the danger with which they have been con
fronted during the last six centuries In Poland
and Polish provinces has had the effect Of COM
pelling them to use a language which is essen
TALLY their own and which cannot be acquired
save by vast deal of labor. Many of these Pol
ish Jews neither read nor write, yet talk Hebrew
with the facility of the jewellers in Jerusalem.
German Jews have also acquired the common
use of Hebrew, and use it with almost the same
facility as do the members of their race living i'll
Poland, Hungary and through the Turkish
provinces. From the same reasons which have
made the old language the ordinary speech of
the Polish jew the Russian Jew has been COM
PEELED to adopt it. The present dispensations of
the Russian government oblige the Russians to
live in quarters by themselves, subject to almost
the same severity that was enforced in Spain
and England during the middle ages. They are
surrounded by the people of the country, who
are anxious to surprise them in any covert
speech act, and a mistake of any kind is
apt to lead to the most fearful massacres.
They are accused of practicing witchcraft and
ali manner of evil things, and these
unfounded charges result in their drawing
themselves in their shells, as it We're to asso-
ciate only among themselves, and to q
language that is ineligible only to themselves.
The emigration of Russian and Polish Jews to
this country has brought with it a language
which is properly one of the Oldest in existence,
and yet has by curious termination become
the newest. l believe that in the Jewish colony
in the neighborhood of Grand. Essex and Ludlow
streets a weekly journal is circulated, the text
of which is entirely in the ancient character and
which is printed on hand-press. 1t hasn't a
very large subscription list but one of these
papers is sometimes read by as many as thirty
different persons.
at is as.you know, one of the requirements
of our orthodoxy for the head of the family to
read the Old Testsment in the original to his
family. A chapter more is read each evening
during the week, and more elaborate ceremony
takes place at the beginning of the Sabbath.
This tends to keep the language current, as it
were, and obliges every Jew to understand 1t.
The younger members of the family circle are
taught Hebrew by their elders, and it is not sell
dom that you will find in family of ten or
dozen members combination of Hebrew
scholarship that would be the envy and pride
of many an eminent Orientalist When l
say that Hebrew is used in the Polish
Russian colonies as the language of social life,
and of trade l do not of course, mean that
it is the same language as that of the Scriptures
or the Talmud. 1t is in many instances simply
a corruption of the old tongue. The dialects of
the various provinces creep in, and, while this
curious combination of Russian or German and
ancient Hebrew makes an excellent language
for general USE it would puzzle Hebrew schol-
ar in a most demoralizing way if he were to go
down into Essex street and try to converse with
the natives. He would find that the grand old
tongue of the prophet was sadly marred by its
close contact with the vernacular. This is per-
haps the natural fate of every ancient language.
Still as the Hebrew language is the tongue of a
large number of persons, and as it is read and
understood by persons who lay no claim to
scholarship, it is living language, and will re-
main so until the persecution of the Hebrews
ceases entirely in all lands"