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WATCH: The origin and history of the Yiddish language
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Originating around the 9th century as a fusion of German, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Slavic languages, Yiddish remains a living language to this day, despite losing 90% of its speakers during the Holocaust.
Yiddish lost millions of speakers, was pushed aside by modernity and war, and was called a dying language more times than anyone can count.
But it never fully disappeared. From medieval Europe to New York comedy, to Haredi communities in Brooklyn and Jerusalem, Yiddish kept finding ways to survive.
So did Yiddish really fail, or is it one of Jewish history’s most stubborn comeback stories?
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