I read Eytan Kobre’s defense of “frumspeak” with glee. Aside from the fact that I always appreciate when Mr. Kobre uses his very significant talent to defend and celebrate our community, his words resonated with me.
I work in education and am surrounded by many secular Jews and non-Jews. One day we had a conversation about the “death of language.” My colleagues suggested that technology — children watching instead of reading, teenagers texting instead of actually forming sentences — was causing the entire young generation’s language capabilities to be eroded.
I invited them to a nearby frum bookstore. They were in awe at the many new releases, with sophisticated subjects, graphics, and substance. They asked the clerk if any young people buy books and he answered that most of the customers were in fact young, and that most parents who come in bring home books for their children. I then showed them the weekly Orthodox publications, including your impressive magazine, and they were stunned .
Yeshivish or not, language, for us, is alive and well. It’s the others who have a problem.
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