Alanna Cooper, the Abba Hillel Silver Chair of Jewish Studies, participated in a discussion on the podcast of the Association of Jewish Studies, “Adventures in Jewish Studies.” Titled “The World of Jewish Languages,” the episode was the third in the series’ second season.
While Hebrew and Yiddish are commonly known Jewish languages, tthere are as many as 20 others spoken by Jews around the world, including Ladino, Judeo-Aramaic, Judeo-Berber and Judeo-Arabic. Studying Jewish languages reveals a lot about how Jewish communities functioned as both distinctly Jewish and as part of the societies amongst whom they lived. This podcast episode focused on Judeo-Tat, Judeo-Tajik and Jewish-English, exploring the history and legacy of these languages, as well as what they mean for the Jews who speak them.