Questions About The Jewish Faith (Americans)

[Locutus of Board]

Looks like a quiet forum here, but perhaps some folks can help answer some of my questions about the Jewish religion and people.

1) What's the breakdown here in the States of people who are members of the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox branches?

2) Where does the Yiddish language come from? A Jewish friend told me most American Jews trace their ancestry to Eastern Europe. But Yiddish is very similar to German right? How did it come to be?

3) Also, what % of Jewish people keep Kosher?

Thank you.

[JB from NC]

1. According to the 2000 NJPS: 10% orthodox, 35% reform, 26% conservative, 2% reconstructionist. The rest are unaffiliated, or "just Jewish". Judaism 101: Movements of Judaism

2. Yiddish is a mixture of Hebrew and Old German. The History and Development of Yiddish

3. According to the 2000 NJPS: 21% of American Jews keep kosher. Judaism 101: Kashrut: Jewish Dietary Laws

[charolastra00]

To elaborate on Yiddish, Yiddish is one of many pidgin languages all over the world used by the Jewish people. Over the centuries, Yiddish (over 1 million native speakers and 10 million YSL speakers), Ladino (150,000 speakers), Kivruli (Judaeo-Georgian - 85,000 speakers), Krymchak (Judaeo-Crimean - less than 100 speakers), and others became more formalized into serious ethnic languages. Yiddish does have a German base since it began as a way to bridge Hebrew and German. When you look at Ladino, it's even more ensconced in Spanish/Portuguese linguistics - I can understand it as a Spanish and Portuguese speaker with context clues for the Hebrew loan-words.

Because of the pathways of migration, Yiddish speakers made their way to the US more often than the other languages prior to the Holocaust. Thus, many Americans think of it as "the European Jewish language", which couldn't be any further from the truth! Even Jewish Yiddish speakers (including some on this forum) are ignorant to the rich cultural history of the other languages. It sends me into fits of rage every time another Jew does not know about Ladino. We betray the memory of the communities in Southern Europe that were COMPLETELY destroyed.