Yiddish Quotes

If Hebrew was nobler and more dignified—the exterior of the coat—Yiddish was warmer and more comfortable—the lining of the coat.

Yiddish is a household tongue, and God, like other members of the family, is sweetly informal in it.

Yiddish is the Robin Hood of languages.  It steals from the linguistically rich to give to the fledgling poor.  It shows not the slightest hesitation in taking in houseguests—to whom it gives free room and board regardless of genealogy, faith, or exoticism.

Yiddish has a down-to-earth quality that makes it remote from high-flown rhetoric, and it has a catch-as-catch-can charm derived from its stunning variety—of syntax, spelling, pronunciation, and vocabulary—from region to region.

In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us all, the idiom of frightened and hopeful Humanity.