About this program:

Endangered Jewish Languages: Spotlight on Iranian and Bukharian Jews, with Sarah Benor and Ruben Shimonov

Featuring: Sarah Benor

Over the past two centuries, migrations and other historical events have led to major changes in the linguistic profile of Jewish communities around the world. Yiddish is thriving in Hasidic communities, even as its use is diminishing elsewhere. Several long-standing Jewish languages have become endangered, as they are spoken primarily by older people, including Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, and Judeo-Malayalam (Southern India). This talk by professor and scholar of Jewish languages Sarah Benor and founding executive director of the Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network Ruben Shimonov explains these developments and makes the case for the urgent need for documentation and reclamation, focusing on the Jewish languages of Iranian origin (Judeo-Tajik/Bukharian, Judeo-Tat/Juhuri, Judeo-Isfahani, Judeo-Shirazi, etc.).

This program is co-sponsored by 7000 Languages.