The oldest and most valuable books of the Jews, the Torah and Tanakh, were written almost entirely in ancient Hebrew and were widely used throughout the Jewish history. Jews hold that Hebrew is also the language of God (according to the Torah, God spoke in this language), and therefore they know Hebrew as "lashon akodesh" - the sacred language.
When the Second Temple was destroyed, most Jews had turned to Aramaic (an ancient Middle Eastern language), and those in the diaspora had turned to Greek. As Jews migrated to more distant countries, they learned the local languages and began to speak many languages. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, the main language of the Jews was Aramaic. In the later years of the era, Jewish literature began to be written in Judeo-Arabic (Arabic written using the Hebrew alphabet). Maimonides also used this language. Hebrew continued to be used as a religious and official language.
Over time, these Jewish dialects became very different from the original language and became new languages themselves. They generally contained many Hebrew and Aramaic words. Thus, languages belonging only to the Jewish communities were born. The most common among them were Yiddish, a language mostly derived from German in Europe, and Ladino, a language derived from Spanish that spread from Andalusia to the Mediterranean countries after the Inquisition.
XIX. At the beginning of the century, Yiddish became the common language of the Jews in Eastern Europe (and therefore became the most widely used Jewish language in the world over time), and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) became the common language of those living in the Mediterranean and North Africa (Magreb), Greece and Turkey. There were also small communities in Europe speaking Judeo-Italian, Yevan and Karaite languages. Additionally, Arab Jews spoke Judeo-Arabic, those in Iran spoke Cidi (Judeo-Farsi), smaller groups spoke Judeo-Berber, Judeo-Tat, and even Judeo-Aramaic in Kurdistan region.
This wide picture dates back to the 19th century. It was affected by important historical changes at the end of the century. English-speaking Jews increased as millions of European Jews immigrated to the United States. French and Spanish began to be spoken in the North African colonies, and Hebrew returned as a spoken language with new words and a simplified sound system. The Holocaust tragically wiped most Yiddish- and German-speaking European Jews off the map. The Arab-Israeli conflict caused many Jews to leave Arab countries and immigrate to Israel or France and speak the languages of these countries.
Today, Jews are multilingual, usually learning the language of the country in which they live. The language most commonly spoken by Jews is English, followed by modern Hebrew.
Literary works and theatrical plays created in Jewish culture have been in cultural languages such as Hebrew, Yiddish or Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), or in English or German. Yiddish secular literature and theater began in the 19th century and went into decline in the middle of the 20th century. The language spoken by Jews is often an indicator of how integrated they are in their society. For example, while those living in Jewish villages in Poland and those who came to New York at the beginning of the 20th century mostly spoke Yiddish, most Jews in Germany in the 19th century spoke German among themselves, and the language of Jews living in the United States today is English.
