Hiberno-Yiddish – The language of Irish Jews
Hiberno-Yiddish or Irish-Yiddish is the historical dialect spoken by Irish Jews.
Memories of an Irish-Jewish wedding
It has declined for a variety of reasons: mainly a shift towards English and emigration. It is mostly East European/Lithuanian Yiddish, influenced by Irish phonology.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s paternal grandfather, Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog, spoke both Yiddish and Gaelic, and his father, President Chaim Herzog, had an Irish accent. They had an impact on the history of both nations. Even though Ireland is in Western Europe, Hiberno-Yiddish is considered an Eastern Yiddish dialect because Irish Jews mostly originate from Eastern Europe – especially Lithuania. Though Sephardim from Spain (and probably other now-extinct communities) had migrated to Ireland prior, the biggest recent migration was in the late 1800s. It is not known if Ladino influenced Hiberno-Yiddish. A common folktale is that when ships stopped in Ireland en route to the US, they were told by corrupt ship captains that “Cork” was “New York” and by the time they figured out that it wasn’t, the ships had departed – them not knowing English didn’t help. In fact, there was one individual who ended up in Limerick in the 1800s, and it took him two weeks to realise he was not in New York, according to genealogist Stuart Rosenblatt. It was also a time when many Jews and ethnic Irish were moving to New York, so you will wonder why they moved to Ireland in the first place.
The various immigrant Eastern dialects added in Irish phonology, accent and sounds, just like all Yiddish dialects borrowed elements from their non-Jewish neighbours’ lingo. A common stereotypic profession among the new immigrants was as ‘vicklemen’ or ‘weekly men’ – Door to door peddlers. “Vickle” was was how they would say ‘weekly’ and the name stuck: it would take them a week to finish their rounds selling trinkets and other items. They settled mostly in Cork and Portobello, Dublin. Ireland had 5,000 Jews at its peak in the 1940s. There were Jewish communities in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Belfast. Michael Black of Belfast says that many say that their parents and grandparents spoke Yiddish, and many today might know phrases and words in it but cannot hold a conversation.
Communist political candidate James Connoly during a political campaign, notably advertised in 1902 with Yiddish leaflets hoping to get Jewish immigrant votes. Robert Briscoe, former mayor of Dublin, top Jewish IRA arms smuggler for independence hero Michael Collins, and influential in both the Irish war of independence and Israel’s founding, wrote in his autobiography, The Life Of Me, that in one particular encounter with Polish Jews, he opted for a translator for efficiency because he could not understand their Polish Yiddish given his Litvak background. Also, Michael Collins once yelled at the Black and Tan militia in what sounded like Yiddish (or gibberish to the soldiers) while disguised as an Orthodox Jew, as Jewish clergyman Reverend Gudansky of Dublin Hebrew Congregation whispered in his year. Collins hid in the latter’s house in Longwood Avenue while evading capture from the Brits.
The post-World War II and Israeli independence saw mass emigration of Irish Jewry. Still, the legacy of Yiddish has not been forgotten – Ruti Lachs in Cork has written a play called ‘Green Feather Boa’ : it has some Yiddish in it, including a lullaby. Caraid O’Brien is a Galway native (a non-Jew) and is a star in Yiddish theatre in the US. She speaks both Yiddish and Gaelic and claims that Yiddish is “easier to pick up.” She once played the role of an Irish Jew and did ‘Yiddish with an Irish accent’. Also, the Dublin Jewish Museum put out a Yiddish book a few years ago.
Ultimately, the main reason this dialect didn’t last the test of time is because of emigration and a language shift to English. As Hiberno-Yiddish has very few speakers in Ireland and the Irish Jewish diaspora, it only lives on in the folk memory.
There may still be some Jews in Ireland who speak Yiddish. I remember a Haredi rabbi from Ireland who spoke both Gaelic and Yiddish in the late 1990s, not too long ago. He became a Rosh yeshiva in Israel, but there may be more like him lingering in Ireland. A rare commodity, to be sure.
Perhaps the Blarney Stone was originally called the, “Yentah Stone” in Irish-Yiddish. C’mon, it could happen…
the luck of the Irish….