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6 Elul 5759 - August 18, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Israel Version of the Jewish Forward

by S. Fried

During recent months a special edition of the Yiddish newspaper, The Jewish Forward, has begun to appear in Israel. The American Yiddish-English newspaper, founded 103 years ago, is currently trying to attract circulation among Yiddish readers in Israel.

During its heyday, the paper was considered the official mouthpiece of the Bund, a Jewish socialist movement. Since then, the newspaper has moderated its extreme socialistic views, although its front page still bears its original motto, "for the Labor party." Today, the paper is a platform for various perspectives, and presents a variety of topics, including those of a religious nature, such as the parsha and candlelighting time. It also presents general issues akin to those appearing in secular newspapers throughout the world.

Who needs a Yiddish paper today? It still isn't clear who uses Yiddish as a living languages, except for chareidim and those who study it in university. Dr. Boris Kotlerman, the paper's Israel representative who sent us a number of editions as examples, is a native of Birobijan, the former Russian Jewish-secular reserve where no Jews currently live. Dr. Kotlerman isn't optimistic about Yiddish's chances of serving as a spoken language on a broad basis. He admits that Yiddish is a living language only in certain chareidi circles, especially in the United States and Israel. Nonetheless, he insists on believing that the Forward just might succeed in Israel.

It seems that the paper doesn't depend on subscriptions or ads. Apparently someone is offering the Forward and similar papers financial backing out of nostalgia for secular Yiddish, which in the past was the language of thousands of Jews who tottered on the fence.


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