Last modified: 2023-09-30 by martin karner
Keywords: yiddish | menorah | ashkenazi | israel |
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image by António Martins, 10 December 2017
See also:
The Frisian version of Wikipedia, specifically the articles regarding
Elie Wiesel and
The Hobbit,
has employed a flag with a white field bearing two black bars and a
menorah to represent Yiddish when listing the languages into which
written works have been translated. The corresponding
Wikimedia
Commons page for the image does warn that the flag employed is made up
for convenience, but it seems to me that whoever made it up was
ingenious.
Dave Pawson, 20 April 2013
I like that design! Like the Israeli flag, but
black instead of blue (the Israeli flag is based on the tallit, the prayer
shawl, and the version of the tallit worn by Ashkenazi Jews [Yidish
speakers] tends to have black, not blue stripes) and with a menorah
instead of a star (Of course, the symbol of Israel is a menorah as well,
but I see the intent here).
Nachum Lamm, 21 April 2013
I guess strictly speaking this would only be a proposal, but as
it’s the only proposal (as far as I know), it is indeed used sometimes.
I’m also not sure who would be the proper authority to make it
formal.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 22 August 2013
Someone has a Facebook
page displaying this as the flag of Yiddish language and culture.
Ned Smith, 21 April 2013
I have seen photos of this flag flying from a building in Jerusalem. I
think it’s a Yiddish-language institute.
Albert Kirsch, 20 April 2013
There seem to be different versions: Do the black stripes touch the top
and bottom edges of the flag or not (as in the Israeli
flag)?
Nachum Lamm, 22 April 2013
[Photo of the flag in front of a synagogue in Budapest, Hungary (2012) (source, with location link)]
While many languages naturally can be indicated by one or another
national flag or in some cases a regional flag, Yiddish is one of those
languages, where no such flag is readily at hand. What would be the best
flag to use, if you wanted a flag to represent the Yiddish language?
Elias Granqvist, 20 April 2013
I recommend this flag. It is a legally
neutral Magen David flag, which does not identify the State of Israel, but
the Jewish people.
Jens Pattke, 20 April 2013
It strikes me that the national flag of Israel
bearing the immediately (and universally) recognized Magen David
would be a worthwhile choice?
Chris Southworth, 20 April 2013
Yiddish is not official in Israel.
Albert Kirsch, 20 April 2013
I’ve got an idea, far from perfect, though: use the flag of the
Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Russia. Yiddish used
to be an official language there, in the Soviet
period, and the territory was supposed to be “alternative
Israel”.
Mariusz Borkowski, 20 April 2013