[Ipg-smz] Yiddish

[Esther Schindler]

My grandparents were native English speakers, but their parents spoke Yiddish. My father told me that his parents would speak in Yiddish “so the children couldn’t understand,” which meant that, of course, the children were motivated to learn it.

But only as listeners. My father could understand what someone said in Yiddish (and in his youth apparently liked Yiddish theater), but couldn’t speak it very well.

And I, of course, know only the idioms.