
Last modified: 2024-10-19 by martin karner
Keywords: yiddish | menorah | ashkenazi | israel | 
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![[Flag of Yiddish language]](../images/q/qy-yi.gif) image by António Martins, 10 December 2017
image by António Martins, 10 December 2017
See also:
The Frisian version of Wikipedia, specifically the articles regarding 
Elie Wiesel and 
The Hobbit, 
has employed a flag with a white field bearing two black bars and a 
menorah to represent Yiddish when listing the languages into which 
written works have been translated. The corresponding 
Wikimedia 
Commons page for the image does warn that the flag employed is made up 
for convenience, but it seems to me that whoever made it up was 
ingenious.
Dave Pawson, 20 April 2013
I like that design! Like the Israeli flag, but 
black instead of blue (the Israeli flag is based on the tallit, the prayer 
shawl, and the version of the tallit worn by Ashkenazi Jews [Yidish 
speakers] tends to have black, not blue stripes) and with a menorah 
instead of a star (Of course, the symbol of Israel is a menorah as well, 
but I see the intent here).
Nachum Lamm, 21 April 2013
I guess strictly speaking this would only be a proposal, but as 
it’s the only proposal (as far as I know), it is indeed used sometimes. 
I’m also not sure who would be the proper authority to make it 
formal.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 22 August 2013
Someone has a Facebook 
page displaying this as the flag of Yiddish language and culture.
Ned Smith, 21 April 2013
I have seen photos of this flag flying from a building in Jerusalem. I 
think it’s a Yiddish-language institute.
Albert Kirsch, 20 April 2013
There are photos of the flag posted on a Facebook page dedicated to this flag.
There are three photos of the flag posted there:
 The earliest
of those is from Vilnius and is also available at Wikimedia Commons.
 The second one was posted without explanation, but the site [is Hebron].
 The latest one was taken in Auschwitz and is also available at Reddit.
Tomislav Todorovic, 12 October 2024
There seem to be different versions: Do the black stripes touch the top 
and bottom edges of the flag or not (as in the Israeli 
flag)?
Nachum Lamm, 22 April 2013
While many languages naturally can be indicated by one or another 
national flag or in some cases a regional flag, Yiddish is one of those 
languages, where no such flag is readily at hand. What would be the best 
flag to use, if you wanted a flag to represent the Yiddish language?
Elias Granqvist, 20 April 2013
I recommend this flag. It is a legally 
neutral Magen David flag, which does not identify the State of Israel, but 
the Jewish people.
Jens Pattke, 20 April 2013
It strikes me that the national flag of Israel 
bearing the immediately (and universally) recognized Magen David 
would be a worthwhile choice?
Chris Southworth, 20 April 2013
Yiddish is not official in Israel.
Albert Kirsch, 20 April 2013
I’ve got an idea, far from perfect, though: use the flag of the 
Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Russia. Yiddish used 
to be an official language there, in the Soviet 
period, and the territory was supposed to be “alternative 
Israel”.
Mariusz Borkowski, 20 April 2013