[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."'
SIR,—In a letter appearing in your issue of April Gth " Soldier," who states that he "recently was in many of the Jewish colonies in Palestine," informs us (1) that "all the books in their homes, except a very few in Hebrew, are printed in German "; (2) that he "particularly noticed that all the texts hung on the walls are in the German language"; and (3) that " Yiddish, a dialect of Ger- man, with a smattering of Hebrew words, is the universal language of all these colonies."
Before the war I lived for several years in one of the Jewish colonies amd had constant opportunities of seeing colonists. I must state that "Soldier's " sweeping assertions are certainly incorrect. (1) All the books in the colonies, except a few Hebrew books, are not written in German. As "Soldier " will know, Yiddish is always written in Hebrew characters. Books written in German are only to be met with in the Jewish colonies in the same way as they are to be met with in London. It is only the exceptional colonist who could read them. (2) I cannot tell what " Soldier " means by " the texts hung on the walls," because Jews do not hang texts on the walls. (3) I must recall to "Soldier " what a previous correspondent correctly stated : In 1913 the pupils and teachers in the Jewish schools went on " strike " because in certain schools which were receiving a grant of money from Jews in Germany an attempt was made to substitute German for Hebrew as the language of instruction. The language question became a matter of controversy not only in Palestine but wherever an interest was taken in Palestinian colonization. Greatly to the annoyance of the Germans, Hebrew won. Since that time there has been a special hatred of German in the colonies. It is not true that " Yiddish is the universal language of all these colonies." The younger generation speak Hebrew, and do not even understand Yiddish, which is hated on account of the quarrel over its use and because it is an "exile" (Galuth) language. Some of the older colonists do speak Yiddish; but may I inform "Soldier " that various forms of Yiddish, containing a smattering of Polish, Russian, and Lithuanian words, are spoken in the South-East of Europe by Jews who have never seen a German, and who, say what you like about Yiddish being a dialect of German, could-not understand a sentence of classical German P I wish " Soldier " would frankly tell us which colonies he was in and what his name is, because I feel sure he has made some mistake, and I should like to have the opportunity of clearing up his misunderstanding. Is it possible that he visited one of the colonies of German Christians?—I am, Sir, &c., S. TOLICOWSKY.
57 St. Gabriel's Road, Crick:mood, N.W. 2.
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