The Forgotten Hebrew Dialect Kept Alive Amongst Yiddish Speakers

Chassidic communities have preserved not only Yiddish, once spoken by most Ashkenazi Jews, but also pre-Modern Hebrew—the traditional written medium of learned Jews, distinct from Modern Hebrew. Remarkably, it remains the primary written language for Chassidic men today. This session explores how it is taught, how it interacts with spoken Yiddish, and its role in shaping gender and class divisions.