VIEWS AND REVIEWS
ACHAD HAAM ON HEBREW AND YIDDISH.
The noted Hebrew thinker and publicist, Achad Haam, contributes to the last number of the monthly magazine Hashiloach a striking article on the question of the Jewish languages, and while giving first place in importance to Hebrew he recognizes both sides of the controversy between Hebrew and Yiddish, and even discontenances those zealous partisans of the Holy Tongue, who at the last Zionist Congress in Hamburg endeavored to boycott Yiddish.
The writer starts out with the proposition that after the destruction of the second Temple the maintenance of Judaism depended upon three ‘things, namely; the religion, the literature of the Jewish people, and the Hebrew language. These ele- nients of strength were now apparently on the decline. The religion has lost its power. The literature has been forsaken, and the Hebrew language is being forgotten. The leaders of the Jewish people are now asking the question as to what is going to happen. What will the future bring ior us? Many answers are given to the question and Achad Haam objects especially to the one which says that Yid- dieh must be cultivated to the end that it shall take the place of a living national language. In national life there is no such thing as a second choice. If it is true, as it is believed, that Hebrew which has un- tl now been our national language, is dead, then the spirit which, animated it is also dead, and nothing will help towards hringing about its revival. It is significant, he declares, that admiration far Yiddish has developed at this time when’ the language has already entered upon its de-
cline. What is now happening in regard to the language has previously taken place in our religious life. The reform movement of western Europe was born at the tme when TInmdaism was on the derline.
Achad Haam scoffs at those “dreamers” who believe that Yiddish will become a national language, and he also laughs at those who love Hebrew so strongly that they fear a peril of competition from Yiddish. “I must say frankly,” he'remarks, “that I have no fear of Yiddish. Let good Yiddish books be written and let the people acquire their education in this language. No national literature will be created in Yiddish, and what is destined to remain for future generations will be cast into the Hebrew and the rest will be forgotten together with the Yiddisı language. When Yiddish will cease to be the medium of communication of the immediate life there will be no Jews who will be willing to teach that language to their children, as is now the ‚case with Hebrew. As to the position of Hebrew itself it is not Yiddish that is to be blamed for its decline. It has withdrawn from the scene of life on account of many other reasons, reasons which have been stronger than the existence of Yiddish and which existed long before the Yiddish language had become a force in Jewish life.”
In another place in the article the noted writer says: "In order to become the national language it is not enough that a language should be the mother tongue; it is necessary for it to contain within itself all the spiritual treasures of the people from its very beginning as a people ..... Even if the whole Jewish people would on some fine morning arise and with shouts that would reach the heavens