We are not merely concerned with our children's language. We are interested in the language and culture among which we immigrants were brought up in this country as well as in the old.

True, language serves as a means of communication, yet, this is a very simple and primitive conception....The improvement, enrichment, and beautifying of language is a necessity that comes with the development of mankind.

The sole power to bring immigrants and their children to a more intimate understanding is the Yiddish as spoken by the parents, not the pedantic Yiddish as it is taught in the Jewish schools, which is strange, not only to the American child but to the parents as well.

2

What is "the familiar mother tongue" that was spoken in Wilna or in Minsk thirty or forty years ago? Can a language be kept dormant, without going through modification? Can one recognize, as the correct Russian, the language spoken by primitive farmers dwelling in remote villages? And is the language used by more intelligent classes, or that of Tolstoy, Pushkin, Dostoevski, Turgenev and other great writers not the language of the Russians? Would it be justifiable to say that the best English spoken in America was at the time of George Washington?

The same may be true with the Yiddish language. There was a time when Yiddish was spoken only by the uneducated masses. They read very little because very little was written in that language.

3

Yiddish consisted of a limited number of words, that served only as a medium to carry on a simple conversation.

This dark period has long since passed. A group of Jewish writers such as Mandele Mocher Sfurim, Sholom Aleichem, Sholom Ash, Peretz and others, writers of non-fiction, literature, and daily newspapers, not only improved our vocabulary but enriched and beautified it. Even the average person who had not read the above-mentioned authors, was indirectly influenced by those who read their works and his vocabulary became more extensive.

In other words, Yiddish is not any longer the language in which our grandmothers carried on their conversations 40 or 50 years ago.

4

When I read Comrade Cohan's article in the issue of Mar. 7, I was astonished at how little he knows about the Yiddish studies taught in our schools. He probably received his information about our schools from anecdotes written by our opponents.

I have had occasion to visit these schools frequently, but I have not noticed that the teachers insist on the use of 100 per cent pure Yiddish in place of English words that have crept into the language and become part of it.

We do have some teachers in our school system who are pure Yiddishists, but even they are not overdoing it.

5

Social and school workers like to have some fun and so they exaggerate all this and have built up anecdotes at the expense of the teachers. But if you think these stories have anything to do with our schools or reflect its spirit you are grossly mistaken.

In the Workmen's Circle schools, we teach the language of Reizen, of Ash, Sholom Aleichem, etc. We are conducting a school movement among our children in this country, not because we are convinced that we will be able to force upon them the Jewish language - we don't want our children to give up English as their daily tongue and to talk only Yiddish.

There are many Jewish homes where Yiddish is ridiculed by the youth. That is because we have never tried to teach our children to love and respect their parents' language and culture.

6

I am not sure that the children who attend the universal Jewish schools, the Sholom Aleichem public schools, or the Workmen's Circle schools will be able to learn to talk their parents' tongue fluently.

But I am convinced that they respect the literature, language, and culture of their parents. In this respect our schools are accomplishing a great thing, which plays an important role in the relationship between immigrants and their children.

Mr. Cohan made the accusation that we are forcing our children to attend these schools. If this argument is valid, then the laws of the country could not make us send children to public schools at the age of six.

7

We must realize that perpetual struggle between mothers and children who must be forced to stay home and prepare home work. The majority of students attending our Workmen's Circle schools take a profound interest in their studies. Since a universal school movement started in America, the Hebrew schools have added Yiddish to their program. Many Hebrew schools are even using the same text books that we use. These schools had only one task before, to teach the child to recite the prayers of mourning and the confirmation speech. That was expected of the teacher and the child.

They taught the children in the dormant Hebrew language. Since times have changed they have introduced the once forbidden Yiddish language as a major subject in their curricula.

8

In his articles and talks, Mr. Cohan mentions the fact that "We Must Americanize Ourselves." What does he mean by the word "Americanize?" When our children attend a Workmen's Circle school are they not Americanized? And when they loiter near a candy store and hum popular jazz songs are they then Americanized?

We do not have to worry about the Americanization of our children. We often think that our children are too much Americanized - that the cheapest element of American life is adopted more readily by Jewish immigrant children than by the descendants of the Mayflower.

In our schools we are also Americanizing the children. We teach them to love the America of Debs and Lincoln - the America of idealism.

9

We organized the Workmen's Circle Youth Leagues. The largest number of children in the Young Circle League are graduates of the Workmen's Circle schools, and are considered the cream of the crop.

This league, not long ago, had a conference and Mr. Cohan was the guest speaker. They greeted him with a familiar Jewish tune, and he was surprised to learn that this youth knows and understands Yiddish.

There are homes in which parents try to speak an awkward English. Their children are ashamed of their parents, and in many cases despise them for not being able to express their thoughts properly. However, the same children behave differently when Papa or Mama talks to them in Yiddish. No doubt American children have more respect for their parents when they speak good Jewish than when they speak in broken English.

10

We Yiddishists have another good reason for teaching our children Yiddish. We want the Yiddish language to continue to grow and become enriched and beautified to the greatest extent.

We cannot take it nonchalantly, for if we sit and wait and hope, very soon we will cease to exist altogether.....The Forward and Mr. Cohan, as its editor, have helped considerably in the development of the Jewish language, literature, and Jewish text books in America.

On the other hand the Forward was a big handicap in the life of the immigrants, as it held us back from becoming Americanized.

Then why should we fight the Workmen's Circle schools and not the Jewish press?

11

In our school system at present, we have from 8,000 to 9,000 people who are sacrificing their lives for a worthwhile cause. These are the more intelligent classes of people. They read newspapers and books in Yiddish as well as in English. They lead a higher sort of spiritual life. They adhere to ideals. Our labor lyceums and our school centers are filled with such idealists.

These people feel hurt when one criticises their work without having much knowledge in this matter. Some people are not bothering to become familiar with the topic. Theories are created from jokes and anecdotes. I agree with Comrade Cohan, that the question of Yiddish education should not be treated lightly. We Yiddishists have discussed it in newspapers and magazines from all sides and angles.

12

The socialist movement here in America has built, for the Yiddish children, Sunday schools which have decayed because neither the parents nor the children were enthusiastic about them. With the Workmen's Circle schools it is quite the opposite. The children who are attending these schools are intelligent. They gain a much wider knowledge and are able to comprehend more readily in the English schools. Here we teach them the history of the Jews, the history of their parents' struggles in Europe and also in America.

These parents are the builders and founders of our modern school system in America....