YIDDISH IN ISRAEL: A CASE-STUDY OF EFFORTS TO REVISE A MONOCENTRIC LANGUAGE POLICY.

The article reports on a case study of efforts to revise a monocentric language policy in Israel. In accord with the mainstream of Zionist ideology, which antedates the State by almost half a century, Hebrew is the national and official language of the country. Other languages, especially Yiddish, are widely spoken in the country, particularly by adults, most particularly by adults who have immigrated from Eastern Europe. Indeed, at this time, after a quarter century of statehood, Hebrew is the mother tongue of only roughly 40 % of the Jewish population and the primary spoken language of only three quarters of that same population. The general topic of this paper is the extent to which a purportedly monolingual-monocultural polity such as Israel can be influenced to move toward greater contextualized acceptance of at least some other languages and cultures, at a time when its basic language Policy-making stage has passed. Israel in general and, more specifically, Yiddish in Israel would seem to afford a Particularly advantageous context for exploring the abovementioned general question.