Arab Students Try Yiddish

There’s a new movement in the middle east: Arab students are poring over the Tanakh and other Hebrew texts as part of a growing effort to learn Yiddish. Arabs account for roughly 100 out of 400 students studying Yiddish at Bar Ilan University in Israel, where students like Yusuf Alakili, 50, is studying for a Master’s degree in Hebrew literature. Salam Bashara, 22, hopes to write her master’s thesis on the parallels between Arab and Yiddish literature. The school’s academic director says many Israeli Arabs are learning the language in an effort to connect to the Jewish culture, despite the challenges they face in doing so.