See, I've never felt guilty about not speaking Hebrew or Yiddish. Ignorant, yes, and it's not a good feeling. Guilty, no.
For the latter, all my great-grand-parents and grandparents were very clear that they left The Old Country gladly, joyously, with dancing feet and hearts, and that Yiddish was something they wanted to discard with the bad old days. Now, of course, many of my contemporaries are trying to recapture it. But for them it was a shameful thing to speak that old, not-American language. So, they didn't teach it to my grandparents, or my parents, and all I know is a collection of nouns and verbs and a certain way of turning phrases. Very, very different from the Chinese approach, but very reflective of what it must have been to be poor and Jewish in Eastern Europe in the 1890s.
Hebrew (modern Hebrew) is another matter. Sending your kids to to Hebrew school in 1963 was yet another litmus test for being a Good Jew, and my parents had zero interest in being Good Jews. The reasons are long and complicated, but suffice it to say that while they would gladly work second and third jobs so we could have all kinds of lessons, Hebrew lessons were not among them.
And of course, I completed the process my grandparents began... while I know a lot more about being Jewish and have a lot more respect for my Jewish roots than any of my brothers and sisters, that interest and respect began when I became a Christian.
Don't feel guilty. It's a strange world, and getting stranger.
(And that guy in the robes? a first-class jerk. I always distrust cosplayers who aren't at a convention. :)
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Hoooo...
Date: 2005-10-05 01:14 am (UTC)For the latter, all my great-grand-parents and grandparents were very clear that they left The Old Country gladly, joyously, with dancing feet and hearts, and that Yiddish was something they wanted to discard with the bad old days. Now, of course, many of my contemporaries are trying to recapture it. But for them it was a shameful thing to speak that old, not-American language. So, they didn't teach it to my grandparents, or my parents, and all I know is a collection of nouns and verbs and a certain way of turning phrases. Very, very different from the Chinese approach, but very reflective of what it must have been to be poor and Jewish in Eastern Europe in the 1890s.
Hebrew (modern Hebrew) is another matter. Sending your kids to to Hebrew school in 1963 was yet another litmus test for being a Good Jew, and my parents had zero interest in being Good Jews. The reasons are long and complicated, but suffice it to say that while they would gladly work second and third jobs so we could have all kinds of lessons, Hebrew lessons were not among them.
And of course, I completed the process my grandparents began... while I know a lot more about being Jewish and have a lot more respect for my Jewish roots than any of my brothers and sisters, that interest and respect began when I became a Christian.
Don't feel guilty. It's a strange world, and getting stranger.
(And that guy in the robes? a first-class jerk. I always distrust cosplayers who aren't at a convention. :)