Oy Vey! This Just Has To Be Stopped Cold

Jesus H Christ on a rollercoaster. We speak English in America. Not Spanish, not Russian, not Italian, not Latin and certainly not Yiddish. Just let the language die. Bush says English damn it!

Itche Goldberg and Jason Rubin are separated in age by 82 years, but they're linked by a common passion for an ancient Jewish language that threatens to slip into obscurity.

The life of 102-year-old Goldberg spans the recent decline of Yiddish to its heyday early last century when about 13 million Jews - or some 70 percent of Jews worldwide - spoke the lilting language that gave English words such as "chutzpah" and "schmo."

Rubin, a 20-year-old student of Yiddish, embodies the hope that somehow, some way, the language can survive now that there are fewer than 2 million speakers.

(read more)