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Gallery 6: On the Jewish Street, 1918–1939

Supporters of Jewish national culture in the diasporaDiasporathe collective of Jews living outside the Land of Israel. made education in the YiddishYiddishthe historic Jewish vernacular of Ashkenazi Jews, a fusion of German dialects, Hebrew and Aramaic, and Judeo-Romance and Slavic languages. The beginnings of Yiddish are in the Rhineland in the Middle Ages. About 13 million people spoke Yiddish before the Second World War. language a priority. In 1921 the Central Jewish School Organization CYSHO was created in Warsaw. Its schools, which were run mainly by members of the Bund, the Jewish labor movement, and Poalei Zion Left, a Zionist labor organization, promoted Yiddish secular culture and socialist ideas. By the late 1920s, there were 219 CYSHO branches, including primary schools as well as preschools, night schools, six middle schools, and a teachers’ seminary in Vilna. Open the desk to explore the curriculum and activities of the Yiddish school system – a Yiddish textbook, an anatomy exercise book, and postcards from an exhibition of student work.

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Learning the Yiddish alphabet