Ashkenazim and Sephardim: Language Miscellanea

Abstract

Fleeing from religious persecution, political repression and restricted economic opportunity in their home countries, both the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim emigrated to the United States at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries in search of a better life, The Sephardim arrived slightly later than the Ashkenazim and were not only the minority in terms of number but they were also at the rear in terms of education and language assimilation. Thus, their integration into American society was more difficult. They were faced with the necessity to learn two different languages in order to find their way in their new country: Yiddish and English. This article aims at examining the means, both formal and informal, that existed for both groups, but primarily the Sephardim, to learn English.