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Multi Language Country

If you ever happened to scroll down the streets of my hometown Haifa, or any other city in Israel for that manner of fact, you will easily notice people speaking in different languages besides Hebrew. You will most likely hear people speaking in different languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, English, Amharic and many more. We Israelis consider this part of the “Kibbutz Galoyot” phenomenon. The biblical meaning to “Kibbutz Galoyot” is bringing jews back from exile from all over the world back to their “home” land- Israel. In the Israeli society today, it basically means that besides being “Israeli” jews, they have different backgrounds, cultures and traditions, and often languages. Growing up in this environment was very enlightening. From a very young age I was exposed to different traditions, different food and languages. Even in my own family there are several different languages spoken, and different types of food. My mom and her sisters were born and raised in Iran and they still cook traditional food and talk Farsi among themselves. My uncle was born and raised in Morocco, and let me tell you this, they have the best cuisine in the world. 
When the state of Israel was formed, the newly formed country opened its gates for jews from all over the world to come and live in Israel. The term used to describe this is “Aliyah” (jews “coming up to Israel”- moving from their origin countries to live in Israel).
Throughout the years, jews came from a variety of countries such as Yemen, Ethiopia, the former Soviet Union, Morocco, almost every country in Europe, and many more.
Every “Aliyah” brought new traditions from different places, and eventually it shaped the Israeli culture as it is today.
I think this is what so special and great about Israel. People that when they just got to Israel couldn't even understand each other's language and weird habits, but now, it’s a society that's formed from many different cultures.

Comments

  1. AM. DadakJanuary 31, 2020 at 11:43 AM

    Do immigrant families lose the various languages through the generations, as we see typically with US immigrant families?

    ReplyDelete

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