| Abstrakt: |
This article explores the use of Yiddish mother tongue in analyzing the historic demographic trend within the American Jewish community from 1910 through 1960. The mother tongue of the foreign-born population, with the exception of the census in 1940, has been defined as the language spoken in the home before immigration. There has been a slight increase in the number of Yiddish-speaking foreign-born in 1920, in spite of the substantial Jewish immigration that had occurred in the preceding decade. According to results of the analysis, males outnumbered females among the newcomers during the years of peak immigration. In fact, there were 111 males to every 100 females in 1910. By 1920, the median age of the foreign-born population classified as speaking Yiddish was 34.2 years. |
