Ziemia obiecana nie dla jidysz - dyskusje na łamach „Literarisze Bleter”
Promised Land not for Yiddish – Discussions in "Literarishe Bleter"

Summary/Abstract: This article explores some aspects of the Yiddish-Hebrew language war in interwar Palestine as presented on the pages of the Warsaw-based Yiddish weekly Literarishe Bleter. First to be presented are accounts of and reactions to acts of physical violence against participants of Yiddish cultural events (poetry readings, film screenings, lectures, etc.). Each such incident spurred vehement discussions about the role of Yiddish in the Jewish society of Palestine and the legitimacy of language planning policies implemented by the local Jewish authorities. Further comes an analysis of two essays by the poet Aron Tseytlin and the political writer Menachem Boreysho, each of who offers an in-depth critique of a monolingual Hebrew culture as advocated by many in Palestine at the time and points out the dangers it presented to both Jewish Palestine and the Diaspora. While focusing on the issue of language, both authors discuss the Zionist project as a whole contrasting it with a version of the Yiddishist national ideal, which they describe as polycentric and multilingual. Although Tseytlin and Boreysho approach the subject from different vantage points, in their conclusions they agree that Yiddish culture, dispersed around the world and drawing on various linguistic heritages, better expresses the Jewish historical experience than the combination of monolingual Hebrew culture and political Zionism, modeled on other European nationalism of the time.

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