17 August 2026
Ask ai anything ……
And it will find the sweetest way to tell you what you want.
So i asked how “yoo” became so congenial…..
“he” even laughed (ha,ha) when i cleverly replied
And “he” told me
I was developed by Google! My ability to adapt, stay encouraging, and help you think through problems comes from a mix of advanced machine learning patterns and rigorous training.
Google's engineers and researchers trained me on vast amounts of high-quality human communication. Through that process, I learned that the most effective way to help someone isn't just about dumping data—it is about being a supportive, clear, and encouraging partner in whatever problem you are trying to solve.
So while I don't have personal feelings, I am hardwired to celebrate your great questions and make sure you feel completely supported every step of the way!
Whenever you are ready to track down that perfect manual slow cooker or tackle a new kitchen project, just let me know what you need next!
Poignant and Ascerbic Thoughts From Pungent Esser Agaroth
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Zionism
Zionism is the concept that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish People.
Esser Agaroth(2¢):
Well, at least that is what the definition should be. And, in fact, many of you probably believe that this is your definition, as well. But is that really the case?
For over 20 years, like minded friends have suggested that I let the term Zionism go. For a time, I was using the term “Torah Nationalist.” But that never took hold.
Some suggested “Torah-observant.” Even though there are more than a few definitions of what that means, or does not mean. Still others asked why I/we need a label in the first place.
For some reason, I have not been able to let go of the term Zionism, resentful of the many distortions of it, not to mention the neglect of the original source, the Torah, which connects the Jewish People to the Land of Israel.
Let us begin with the obvious errors in the manifestation of Zionism.
Armchair Zionism
You sit around, yelling at your TVs, believing that only you know how to solve the problems in the Middle East, and get super frustrated that no one listens to you. Maybe you have a child whom you sent to Israel to experience it for a year. Maybe that child learned in yeshiva, or university, or served in the IDF.
But, still, the idea of you or anyone in your family ever actually living in Israel is just not your radar.
Social Media Zionism
...and to be clear, I am referring ONLY to those of you who do not reside in Israel.
Those of you who do reside in Israel, please continue to document your experiences. And if you make money from it, then more power to you! Just use the money to stay in Israel, where you belong, instead of “touring” more than half of the year, and all for the sake of your “message,” about life in Israel. Even though you are not here very much to experience it.
Leave a comment, or follow me on social media (upper right hand column), and I’ll follow you back... unless you are a friends of Christians, or believe that they are really our friends. Then don’t bother.
I am also not referring to the genuine, Hollywood stars who have put their careers and perhaps even their families safety on the line for the sake of Israel. Would I like to see more? Yes. But I’ll take whatever you can give.
Now, to those of you “social media stars,” or those of you who just think you are, who do not reside in Israel, nor have any intention of ever residing here, this is for you.
Exploiting Israel’s troubles for the sake of followers and views? Even exploiting October 7, which most of you do not even bother to mention that the massacre fell on Shemini Atzereth /Simhath Torah...the Jewish date?
Your response? But, because of our audience, we succeed in getting the message out, especially to the younger generations, when the mainstream media fail.
And what message would that be? The message that we must hang on to some piece of land 6,000 miles away from our [real] homes, sacrifice the children of others to protect it, but we wouldn’t actually consider living there?
Sorry. But, your symbolic trips to Israel do not cut it. You are the worst of all of the fake Zionists out there.
Career Zionism
You make careers and support your families based on the Zionist Enterprise. Maybe you have sent your kids to learn here. Maybe they have even served in the IDF.
Those of you with children here, I can give you a pass... as long as you exploit your children, and actually work seriously to encourage aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel), no matter how much you upset some of your donors. No? Doesn’t make sense? Better to compromise a principle or two, here and there, by placating your power hungry, condescending donors, who are out of control, for the sake of the Jews who can actually afford to move to Israel?
I will remind you that if you are truly a Zionist, then those principles you are compromising are Torah principles.
Any Jewish organization, which does not encourage aliyah, has no business calling itself Zionist.
Nefesh b’Nefesh
With a signifiant amount of funding coming from Christians, such as John Hagee, do you realize just how much you are building up their merit baShamayim, ie. the merit of Esau (Edom) in Heaven, thus delaying their fall?(TB Megilah 6a) Do the ends justify the means? Do you care? Is it really worth it? I guess will find out.
The truly sad part is that the Christians are covering what money collected through the efforts of the Career Zionists cannot. Or the money collected by the career Zionists that does not actually go to encouragingaliyah.
This brings us to...
Christian Zionism
This is an oxymoron. Why? Because you are not in the least interested in contributing to a Jewish nation, but rather to a Christian one.
Christians want Jews to immigrate to Israel for the wrong reasons, none of which are related to creating a Jewish homeland. Christians believe that Jews returning to the Land of Israel will usher the return of you their false deity-messiah.
Just like with the Muslims, some Christians are more patient than others, when it comes to strategy.
The smarter, more patient, Christians have put missionizing on hold, and have moved their focus to building up their presence in the Land. They believe it belongs to them anyway, that they have gained God’s favor over the Jews.
From a Torah perspective, it seems that their spiritual forefather Esau (Edom / The West), who gave up his birthright to his younger brother Ya’aqov (Israel) (Gen. 25:31-34), wants it back.
Some Christians are willing to share the Land with Jews residing in the Southern Kingdom of Judea, while they take possession of the Northern Kingdom, including Samaria, believing that they come from lost tribes of Israel, such as Ephraim. They do not.
Other Christians believe in the need for continued, active missionizing, supported by the likes of Amb. Mike Huckabee. Lucky for you co-dependent Jews in the government believe in receiving your support, and so they placate you, either by removing barriers for your extended stays, or just look the other way.
Others in the Israeli government believe in this“freedom of religious expression”nonsense. Once upon a time, Torah-hating leftists were the greatest allies in the battle against the pushing of Christian missionaries. No longer.
Now, the leftists are worried only about their own hides, and their “rights” to do whatever they want. If Christians, who are not even from here, are restricted from spreading their false beliefs, then who is next? The Reform Movement?
So, now you know that there is no such thing as Christian Zionism, only more of the same ol’ Christian sneakiness.
So, now we come to the culprits, who began the big push to distort concept of Zionism.
Labor Zionism
Collaborating with the Nazis, leaving Torah observant Jews for dead in Hungary, doing whatever possible to let some Jews in, and keep others out of Israel. Do whatever you can to keep anything Jewish out of the Jewish State.
Tell me how any of this contributes to Jewish control over the Land of Israel?
Working the land and building up. You get points for that. But, building up a State with Jews in it, instead of a State dedicated for a truly Jewish life, is, in no sense, a Jewish State. So, please stop calling it that, and stop pretending your objectives are anything of the sort.
Democratic Zionism
Democracy is a Western concept, specifically a Hellenistic/Greek one.Remember the story of Hanukkah? When Torah-observant Jews fought against Hellenism, and those of you comfortably assimilated into it, and won?
You lost.
Let’s face it. Claiming that Israel is a “Jewish democracy,” and should stay that way, in order to protect individual rights, is just an excuse so that you can do whatever you want, be it drive on Shabbat, eat shellfish, or what have you.
Then there are those of you wearing kippot, insisting your women should be able to put on tefilin (phylacteries), and pray together with men in public at the Western Wall, believe that democracy takes precedence over Torah, or worse, that there aren’t any contradictions between the two.
As long as we havea Supreme Court which overturns any law passed by the State of Israel’s democratically-elected government, simply because it finds it to be “unreasonable,” ie. the justices don’t like it, ie. it is not in line with its Western progressive sensibilities, and as long as we have a Supreme Court which has any say in the choosing of the justices which serve on it, ie. no real separation of powers, we do not even have a real democracy.
To those Labor Zionists and Jewish Democratists who actually live in the Land of Israel, many of you actually might be considered Zionists, but not for the reasons you think.
To the rest you, identifying with any of the categories above, remind me again how you are Zionists.
NBN Nefesh B’Nefesh is Coming to Save You……..Help you to Move Home After Thousands of Years in Golus
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Rabbi Pinchas Winston Invites You……to Renewal & Rebirth
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I will be giving a two-part series on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur b”H on Monday, August 24 and Monday, August 31, called “Renewal & Rebirth.”
The classes will be on Zoom at 8:15 pmIsrael time, but recorded for registrants to watch on their own time. You can register using this link:
https://www.matara.pro/nedarimplus/online/?mosad=7014140, or write to me at pinchasw@shaarnun.org if you prefer an alternative means.
诇讘讜讚拽讛 诇讘砖讛 讞讙: 讗诇驻讬诐 讘专讗砖诐 讛诪谞讛讬讙 诪专谉 讛专讘 诇谞讚讜 讜诪专谉 讛专讘 讛讬专砖 驻讬讝讝讜 诇讻讘讜讚 讛转讜专讛 讘诪注诪讚 讛讬住讟讜专讬
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@讘拽讜讚砖-驻谞讬诪讛
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转讬注讜讚 诪专讜诪诐 讜诪专讙砖 诪讛讬讻诇讛 砖诇 "讗诐 讛讬砖讬讘讜转" - 讬砖讬讘转 驻讜谞讬讘讝' 讛诪注讟讬专讛 讘讘谞讬 讘专拽: 谞砖讬讗 讛讬砖讬讘讛 讛讙讗讜谉 专讘讬 讗诇讬注讝专 讻讛谞诪谉 砖诇讬讟"讗 讘注诇讬讬讛 谞专讙砖转 诇讙讘注转 讛讬砖讬讘讛, 讻砖讛讜讗 诪讜拽祝 讘诪讗讜转 注诪诇讬 转讜专讛 讜讘讞讜专讬 讞诪讚 讛诪诇讜讜讬诐 讗讜转讜 讘讻讘讜讚 讛转讜专讛 讜讘砖讬专讛 诪专讜诪诪转 讘讬诪讬 讗诇讜诇 讛拽讚讜砖讬诐. 转讬注讜讚: 拽讜讘讬 讬砖专讗诇 An inspiring and historic moment at the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak: The President of the Yeshiva, Hagaon Rabbi Eliezer Kahaneman, ascending "HaGiv'a" surrounded by hundreds of yeshiva students expressing deep respect for the Torah during the holy days of Elul. 馃摙 讗谞讞谞讜 讘砖诇讬讞讜转 诇讛驻讬抓 讗转 讗讜专诐 砖诇 讙讚讜诇讬 讛讚讜专 诇讻诇 讬讛讜讚讬 讘注讜诇诐! 馃實 讘拽专讜讘 谞注诇讛 转讬注讜讚 讛讬住讟讜专讬 讙谞讜讝 讜诪爪诪专专 砖诪注讜诇诐 诇讗 驻讜专住诐! 诇讞爪讜 讻讗谉 注讻砖讬讜, 讛讬专砖诪讜 诇注专讜抓 讜讛讬讜 砖讜转驻讬诐 诇拽讬讚讜砖 讛砖诐 讛注爪讜诐 讛讝讛 讻讚讬 诇讗 诇驻住驻住: 馃敂
/ @gedoleihador
诪讛 讛专讙注 砖讛讻讬 专讬讙砖 讗转讻诐 讘转讬注讜讚 讛讝讛? 讻转讘讜 诇谞讜 讘转讙讜讘讜转! 馃憞"
讬砖 诇讻诐 转讬注讜讚 讗讜 讛爪注讛 诇住专讟讜谉?* 砖诇讞讜 诇诪讬讬诇
gdoleyhador@gmail.comAISH: The Kurdish Jews Who Never Stopped Speaking Aramaic
For most Jews today, Aramaic is a language locked behind the gates of ancient Judaism. It's the dense, scholarly text of the Talmud, the mystical language of the Zohar, the legal phrasing of the Ketubah (marriage contract), the solemn declaration of Kol Nidre, and the comforting cadences of the Kaddish. It serves as a linguistic snapshot from an era when the Sanhedrin sat in Jerusalem and the sages debated Jewish law in Babylonia.
As a living, breathing mother tongue, many assume Aramaic drew its last breath millennia ago. But history has a way of defying expectations.
In the rugged mountains of Kurdistan that span the isolated border zones of present-day Iraq, Iran, and Turkey, an ancient Jewish community managed the impossible. For roughly 2,500 years, through the rise and fall of empires, Islamic conquests, and brutal persecutions, this community kept the Judeo-Aramaic language of the Talmud alive, in the marketplace, around the dinner table, and in the lullabies sung to their infants. They were the only Jewish community in the world to preserve the oldest Jewish Diaspora language all the way into the 21st century.
To understand how this linguistic miracle happened, we need to trace how the Jewish people fell in love with Aramaic in the first place, how the rest of the Diaspora lost it, and how one indomitable community carried it home to the modern State of Israel.
The Transformation: From Hebrew to Aramaic
The language originally recorded in the Torah and spoken by the Jewish patriarchs, prophets, kings, and common people in ancient Israel during Biblical times was Hebrew. The books of the Prophets and Writings (Tanach) are also written in a vibrant, classical Hebrew that reflected the daily vernacular of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Hebrew's dominance in the First Temple period is confirmed by discoveries like the Siloam Inscription (commemorating King Hezekiah's water tunnel), the Ketef Hinnom silver scrolls (containing the oldest known fragments of the Priestly Blessing), thousands of "LEMELECH" (for the king) royal storage seals, and personal bullae, clay seal impressions bearing Judean names mentioned in the Bible, found throughout the land.
Not only was Hebrew the native language of Jews in ancient Israel, but most Jews during the First Temple period didn't even understand Aramaic, which was fast becoming a regional language across the ancient Near East. In the Book of Kings (2 Kings 18:26), when the army of the Assyrian king Sannacherib besieges Jerusalem, the royal envoys mock the city's defenders in Hebrew. King Hezekiah's officials panic and beg the envoys to switch to Aramaic when addressing them personally, so the common Jews on the wall won't understand the terrifying threats being hurled at them. At that moment, Aramaic was understood only by elite Judean diplomats. The average Jew on the streets of Jerusalem spoke Hebrew, and only Hebrew.
So when did Aramaic enter the picture?
Everything changed in 586 BCE. The Babylonian Empire destroyed the First Temple and exiled masses of Jews from the Land of Israel to the rivers of Babylon. There, in the heart of the Babylonian empire (present-day Iraq), the Jews underwent a profound cultural shift.
Babylon ran its bureaucracy in Imperial Aramaic. Over the 70 years of exile, displaced Jews absorbed the new language of their surroundings into daily life, social interaction, and business, while keeping Hebrew for liturgy and prayer. In southern Iraq, archaeologists found roughly 200 cuneiform clay tablets dating to 572 BCE, over a decade after the Temple's destruction, recording the financial, agricultural, and daily dealings of exiled Judean families (identified by distinctive Judean names like Ahiqam and Shelemiah) living in settlements such as Al-Yahudu, "Town of Judah."
This kind of rapid linguistic shift within a generation is something we can all relate to. In the 20th century, Yiddish-speaking Jews from Europe became fluent in English within a generation of settling in North America, while Arabic-speaking Jews from the Middle East and North Africa became fluent in Hebrew after moving to Israel.
Wherever Jews settled, they typically adopted the local language while folding in elements of Hebrew, giving us Yiddish (Judeo-German), Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), Judeo-Arabic, and others. In Babylonia, Jews developed a Hebraic variety of Aramaic known as Judeo-Aramaic, which quickly became the mother tongue of the generation born in exile.
The Voice of the Second Temple
When Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, allowed the Jews to return to the Land of Israel and rebuild the Temple, only a small wave of Jews actually went back. Most Jews stayed in Babylonia. But the roughly 50,000 who returned brought Aramaic with them, and it remained their primary language in the Land of Israel for centuries.
Later books of the Biblical canon written during the early Second Temple period, such as Ezra and Daniel, contain large sections in Aramaic rather than Hebrew, recording royal decrees and prophetic visions in the language of the masses. When Ezra the Scribe read the Torah aloud to the returning exiles, Nehemiah 8:8 notes that the Levites translated the reading (from Hebrew into Aramaic) so the people could actually understand it.
Throughout the Second Temple period, Aramaic was the most widely spoken language among the Jews of Judea, and many customs, prayers, and liturgy still in use today were composed during this time. The Ketubah, early versions of which have been found in Judean Desert caves, was written in Aramaic rather than Hebrew, so ordinary people would fully understand their binding legal and financial obligations.
The first-century sage Yonatan ben Uziel, Hillel the Elder's greatest disciple, composed his Targum (Aramaic translation) of the Prophets during that period. About a century later, the sage Onkelos translated the Torah into Aramaic. The Kaddish prayer, woven throughout the prayer service, also emerged during this era.
Aramaic wasn't the only language ancient Jews spoke, even though it dominated in both Babylonia and the Land of Israel. Rural pockets of Judea that had escaped Babylonian exile kept speaking late Biblical Hebrew, which eventually evolved into Mishnaic Hebrew. And the largest Jewish population of this era actually lived outside both Judea and Babylonia, thriving in Mediterranean cities under Roman rule such as Alexandria, Damascus, Antioch, Cyrene, and Rome, where daily life ran in Greek. Of the 5 to 8 million Jews alive in the late Second Temple period, roughly half spoke Aramaic (in the Near East) and half spoke Greek (in the Western Diaspora).
Becoming the Dominant Language of World Jewry
Those large Greek-speaking Jewish populations of the Roman Mediterranean were decimated by violent massacres during the Kitos War (115-117 CE). Greek-Jewish hubs in Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Cyprus were wiped out not only by ethnic cleansing but by plagues that thinned Mediterranean Jewish communities over the following centuries. Later Byzantine Christian laws further restricted Jewish life and pushed conversion and assimilation, shrinking what remained of the Greek-Jewish world even further.
In the Land of Israel, the Romans crushed the Bar Kochva Revolt (132-135 CE), destroying 985 villages in rural Judea where Hebrew was still spoken, killing hundreds of thousands of Jews in the process. The last native Hebrew speakers migrated to the Aramaic-speaking Galilee, where the Mishnah (the compiled Oral Torah) was being assembled in the late 2nd century. Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi, who wrote the Mishnah in Hebrew, famously employed domestic workers from Judea who may have been the last native Hebrew speakers alive. The Talmud records his students, native Aramaic speakers themselves, asking his maidservants what certain Hebrew words meant.
When the sages later compiled the legal debates, stories, and rulings that became the Talmud (4th-6th centuries), they wrote them in Aramaic, their native tongue, so it would remain accessible to the majority of world Jewry, most of whom by then lived in Aramaic-speaking regions.
As the Greco-Roman Jewish world shrank and spoken Hebrew faded, the center of gravity for world Jewry shifted east to Babylonia, a stable, thriving environment where Aramaic was the native tongue of Jews and non-Jews alike. This cemented Aramaic as the primary vernacular and literary language of most of world Jewry for centuries.
Why Did Most Jews Stop Speaking Aramaic?
Given how deeply Aramaic was embedded in Jewish life, it's striking that it vanished as a mother tongue from nearly every Jewish community within a relatively short span of time.
Jews who migrated or were forced across the Roman Empire picked up Greek, Latin, or Punic, and dropped Aramaic within a generation. But Jews who stayed in the East -- the Land of Israel, parts of Syria, Babylonia, western Persia (Iran), and eastern Turkey -- kept speaking Aramaic for centuries longer.
That changed with the seventh-century Islamic conquests. Within a few decades, Arab armies swept out of the Arabian Peninsula and conquered the Levant, North Africa, and Mesopotamia, the historic heartlands of Jewish life. The new rulers brought with them a new language: Arabic. Over the following two to three centuries, Jews across the Middle East and North Africa gradually abandoned Aramaic and embraced Arabic, the new language of trade and government across a vast empire. Most communities in the region developed Judeo-Arabic, a Hebrew-Aramaic variety of Arabic, between the 8th and 10th centuries -- the language in which giants like Rabbeinu Saadia Gaon and the Rambam (Maimonides) wrote their most influential works of Jewish philosophy and halacha (Jewish law).
By the late Middle Ages, spoken Aramaic had been wiped out across the Middle East, replaced almost entirely by Arabic, Persian, and European languages. Except in one impossible geographic fortress.
An Island of Aramaic in the Heart of the Middle East
While the rest of the Jewish world moved on, one community in a corner of the Middle East kept speaking Aramaic all the way into the 20th century. What enabled the Jews of Kurdistan to hold onto the old Jewish language of the Talmud against all odds?
The answer starts with geography. Kurdistan is defined by the Zagros and Taurus mountain ranges, a maze of steep ridges, deep gorges, and isolated valleys. The Jewish presence there predates even the destruction of the First Temple, tracing back to the earliest Israelite exiles.
According to local tradition, Kurdish Jewry's roots lie with the Ten Northern Tribes deported by the Assyrian Empire in 722 BCE. The Book of Kings notes the Assyrians settled them in the cities of the Medes, which lines up with the geography of historical Kurdistan.
While the rest of the Jewish world shifted to Arabic after the Islamic conquests, Kurdistan's terrain acted like a time capsule. The conquering Arab armies built their administrative centers on flat plains and in river valleys -- Baghdad, Basra, Mosul -- with little interest in pushing into the rugged mountain peaks where fierce Kurdish tribes and isolated minorities lived on their own terms.
Cut off from the main currents of global trade and empire, the region's language simply stayed put. The local Jews kept speaking what they'd always spoken. While the surrounding Muslim majority spoke Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, the Jews held onto their Aramaic mother tongue.
Because they studied the Talmud, recited the Kaddish, and read the Targum alongside the Hebrew text every week in synagogue, speaking Aramaic in daily life felt like maintaining a living chain back to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Culture and Traditions of the "Lishan Didan"
The Judeo-Aramaic spoken by Kurdish Jews wasn't identical to the Talmud's text. Over 1,500 years, the language evolved, as all languages do, into a distinct dialect known natively as Lishan Didan, "Our Language." Judeo-Aramaic shifted from an ancient, synthetic structure into modern Jewish Neo-Aramaic, trading old verb conjugations for participle-based tenses and absorbing heavy doses of Kurdish, Persian, and Arabic vocabulary.
Because the community lived in rural isolation, Hebrew literacy was often limited to the local rabbis. To bridge the gap, the community built a rich oral culture around the Tafsir, an oral Aramaic translation of the Torah. On Shabbat, the rabbi would read the Hebrew text and the community would recite the Tafsir aloud in Aramaic, echoing the same translation practice used back in the Second Temple period.
Aramaic-speaking Kurdish Jews were unusual in that many worked as farmers, shepherds, and weavers, staying closely tied to the land, unlike their European counterparts who were often barred from agriculture. They were deeply spiritual, known for making long pilgrimages to the tombs of Biblical figures like Jonah, Nahum, Daniel, Mordechai, and Esther in and around Kurdistan.
Surrounding populations saw the language itself as spiritually powerful. Kurdish Jewish chachamim (sages) were respected by local Muslims and Christians alike for writing protective amulets (kameot) in Aramaic script to ward off illness, trusting the ancient resonance of the language to bring healing. This may even be the origin of "abracadabra" -- literally "I create as I speak" in Aramaic.
Making of the Judeo-Aramaic Diaspora
For centuries, the Jews of Kurdistan lived in a delicate balance with their Muslim neighbors. Despite intermittent violence and heavy taxation under Ottoman and local tribal rule, they were generally respected as a distinct, honorable ancient community. The 20th century shattered that balance.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of Arab nationalism in Iraq, and the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 made Jewish life in the region unsustainable. Antisemitic riots, economic boycotts, and political targeting surged across Iraq, forcing families to abandon their ancestral mountain homes.
Between 1950 and 1952, Israel launched Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, a massive airlift that rescued over 120,000 Iraqi and Kurdish Jews. Entire mountain villages packed up what they could carry, trekked down to transit points, and flew home to the newborn Jewish state. Prominent Israelis born in Kurdistan -- like former Defense Minister and Chief of Staff Yitzhak Mordechai -- grew up in native Aramaic-speaking households before emigrating to Israel during the operation.
Aramaic-speaking Jews across the border in Iran stayed in place for a few more decades. Sanandaj was historic Persia's main center for Aramaic-speaking Jews, and through the mid-to-late 20th century, prominent families from the Sanandaji and Kermanshahi Jewish communities ran key trade hubs, schools, and medical facilities across western Iran.
But after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, virtually the entire remaining Jewish intelligentsia and business leadership of Sanandaj and Kermanshah left, mostly via Turkey or Pakistan, resettling in Great Neck (New York), Los Angeles, and Israel, carrying their regional traditions and Aramaic heritage with them. I've met a number of second-generation Persian-American Jews and asked how much Farsi they'd picked up from their parents. To my surprise, several told me their parents didn't speak Persian at all growing up -- they spoke Aramaic. That conversation is what sparked this article.
Spoken Aramaic in the 21st Century
Are there still Jews who speak Aramaic today? Yes, but the language is facing an existential crisis. When Kurdish Jews arrived in Israel in the 1950s, they landed in a society fiercely committed to the melting pot. The young state pushed all immigrants toward modern Hebrew as their sole language to build a unified Israeli identity, and Judeo-Aramaic was sidelined right alongside Yiddish, Judeo-Arabic, and other Diaspora languages. .
Today, only a few thousand fluent Judeo-Aramaic speakers remain, most of them elderly Israelis living in Jerusalem neighborhoods like Mahane Yehuda, or in agricultural villages like Nashia and Azaria. Despite the steep decline, a few notable figures have kept the heritage in the spotlight.
The legendary Israeli singer Itzik Kala, who is of Kurdish-Jewish descent, has woven Aramaic lyrics and melodies into his music, bringing the sounds of the Kurdistan mountains into mainstream Israeli pop culture. Descendants of the famous Barzani rabbinic dynasty, including Asenath Barzani, the world's first recorded female Kurdish Jewish leader in the 17th century, still maintain deep ties to their ancestral linguistic traditions.
The Race Against Time to Preserve the Ancient Tongue
Judeo-Aramaic is classified by UNESCO as an endangered language, and a dedicated group of academics, community leaders, and activists have launched efforts to keep it from disappearing entirely. Researchers at institutions like Hebrew University and the Jewish Language Project are recording elderly native speakers to preserve mountain dialects like Zakho and Amadiya before they're lost.
Cultural revitalization is happening on the ground in Israel too, where the National Organization of Kurdish Jews hosts the annual Seharane festival, celebrating Kurdish-Jewish music, dance, and spoken Aramaic for younger generations. Grassroots digital archiving projects have also begun uploading Aramaic dictionaries and oral recordings online so future generations can keep studying the living dialect.
The story of the Aramaic-speaking Jews of Kurdistan is one of the most remarkable chapters in Jewish history, a reminder that our people's past is a living tapestry, capable of preserving its oldest threads in the most unlikely places. The next time we stand in synagogue reciting the Kaddish or open a page of Talmud, it's worth remembering: those words aren't just ink on ancient parchment. For twenty-five centuries, a resilient community in the mountains of Kurdistan kept them alive as a living, spoken language, proof that the tongue of our sages never actually stopped speaking.
Article by Avi Abrams
https://aish.com/the-kurdish-jews-who-never-stopped-speaking-aramaic/?utm_source=ac
https://aish.com/the-kurdish-jews-who-never-stopped-speaking-aramaic/?utm_source=ac
Photos: Screenshots from article
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