Video version of this segment: https://youtu.be/tq8y3KkAWTk

As many of you know, my first language is Yiddish. It is the language of the Satmar Hasidic community I come from. The story of why I grew up speaking Yiddish, and not Hebrew, is intimately tied to the story of the birth of Israel, Zionism and Jewish language. And so, today I want to delve into the history of how two Jewish languages came to represent contrasting Jewish ideologies. 

I was inspired to do this segment after visiting the wonderful YIVO exhibit in Manhattan titled: 'PALESTINIAN YIDDISH: A LOOK AT YIDDISH IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL BEFORE 1948'
Link: https://cjh.org/visit/exhibit-info/palestinian-yiddish
Address: 15 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011

About my guest Eddy Portnoy, the curator of the exhibition: Eddy Portnoy is an expert on Jewish popular culture. Portnoy earned an MA in Yiddish Studies from Columbia University and a PhD in Jewish History from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He currently holds the position of Senior Researcher and Exhibition Curator at YIVO.

You can follow Eddy on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/eddyportnoy
You can see his book Bad Rabbi on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/cLuRcup