These are two entirely different languages, although they are not totally unrelated. For hundreds of years Yiddish was the common language spoken by Jews everywhere. Today it is spoken by only a few million people, none of whom uses it as a general method of communication.
It was actually the official language of only one nation, Birobizhan, which was the Jewish Autonomous Region of the former USSR.
Yiddish belongs to the High German group of languages along with Bavarian and Modern German. It borrows heavily from Slavic and Hebrew and is written in Hebrew letters. It was spoken mostly by Jews in Eastern Europe before WWII.
Before and after that war Jews travelled to Palestine which became Israel in 1948 and took Hebrew as their language. Hebrew belongs to the Semitic branch of Afro-Asiatic languages.
After the siege of Masada by the Romans in 73AD, Hebrew was virtually a dead language except in scripture and liturgy until revived by the State of Israel.
It was actually the official language of only one nation, Birobizhan, which was the Jewish Autonomous Region of the former USSR.
Yiddish belongs to the High German group of languages along with Bavarian and Modern German. It borrows heavily from Slavic and Hebrew and is written in Hebrew letters. It was spoken mostly by Jews in Eastern Europe before WWII.
Before and after that war Jews travelled to Palestine which became Israel in 1948 and took Hebrew as their language. Hebrew belongs to the Semitic branch of Afro-Asiatic languages.
After the siege of Masada by the Romans in 73AD, Hebrew was virtually a dead language except in scripture and liturgy until revived by the State of Israel.
