I just spent three full days in family court (through video conference) interpreting between Yiddish/Hebrew and English. Below is a short THREAD with some insights and things I've noticed: 👇👇
2/ First a note on language: chassidic language is strongly gendered. Men speak mainly Yiddish and read/write a lot in Hebrew*. English is often used in business. Women use mainly English for talking, reading and writing. They understand Yiddish but not Hebrew (generalisation).
3/ * By Hebrew I mean "Ashkenazi Hebrew", the predominant Hebrew variety used by Jews before the creation of Modern Israeli Hebrew. In the summer I did original research on the use of this variety amongst chassidim, to be published shortly with colleagues at @HasidicU.
4/ Many chassidic men struggle to hold a conversation in English, certainly in a high, legal register. Good interpretation is therefore vital. But intimate familiarity with the culture is equally important, as a lot of terms have culturally-specific connotations.
5/ See attached Tweet for example.
Whilst the judge did a superb job trying to understand the cultural specifics, I worried at times that culturally idiosyncratic modes of communication were lost or misunderstand.
6/ For example, the witness seemed rude at times because he kept interrupting the judge. But that isn't rude in male chassidic communication, which follows a highly interactive style. If you DON'T interrupt you come across as disengaged! I hope this didn't prejudice the judge.
7/ There are also cultural specifics like not having friends of the opposite gender which may come across to a secular judge as shedding negative light on the individual's character, when in fact this is cultural. Again, the judge did a fantastic job being sensitive to that.
8/ Participating in court proceedings when English is not your language of familiarity is incredibly taxing. The Yiddish speaking witness was visibly exhausted. It's important that legal bodies are sensitive to that and to the uneven pressures on non-native speakers.
9/ Finally, male chassidic Yiddish is inextricably linked with Ashkenazi Hebrew, due to the highly scholarly nature of that culture. References to legal texts are part of everyday language. A good chassidic-Yiddish interpreter needs to be comfortable with these references.
10/ Thus even though I was hired as a Yiddish interpreter, I ended up translating in court dense legalistic Hebrew texts which were relevant for the case. The court was lucky, as they could've hired a Yiddish interpreter without that familiarity.

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More from @PosenIzzy

5 Dec
THREAD: who am I? I've received a lot of new followers lately. Let me present myself:

1/ I grew up in the Satmar, chassidic community in Stamford Hill London to a rabbinic and moderately elite family. I lost my faith in its worldview at the age of 20 and left/was cast out.
2/ I made it to university to study Physics and Philosophy and graduated with a master's in these subjects this past summer. I've been studying Yiddish and chassidic culture for some years now. I have written a lot on my blog: journeyerblog.wordpress.com/category/judai…
3/ For personal reasons I went through a period of low output. I'm now back and am experimenting with the best ways to use my voice to share my knowledge about a very unique culture and way of life. For now I'm using Twitter for my micro-blogging and threads.
Read 13 tweets
5 Dec
META THREAD: all my important threads on chassidic culture in one place:
1a. Thread on the significance of this moment in the evolution of chassidic culture; what to expect from my commentating.
1b. That same thrwadbur in blog format through the @threadreaderapp :

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1467131…
Read 13 tweets
4 Dec
Here's the thing. For the first time in forever the chassidic culture has a solid presence online. Do you guys understand how huge this is? The western world is about to get an intimate glimpse into one of the most secretive and insular cultures to ever exist in its midth.
Here is what we're gonna do. I will use my intimate knowledge of this community (I grew up at the very centre and in the elite of this community and lived there for 20 years) to comment live on the things happening in the community that make it online.
We're gonna look at examples in real time and together we're going to learn and discuss this culture. I invite scholars, anthropologists, lovers of chassidic culture to join me in starting to study this society, its rich culture, its unique way of life.
Read 34 tweets
3 Dec
@BrisFreeSpeech was due to host an event with Steven Greer who faced a concerted and bad faith campiagn of spurious allegations of Islamophobia.
I wrote more about this in this thread: .
The event was cancelled last minute due to pressure from uni authorities without any regard for the committee that worked so hard to put it together and for @BristolUni students who deserve answers to what one of their lecturers were put through.
We don't have all the details behind the decision to cancel this event, but here is the statement from Steven: Image
Read 9 tweets
2 Dec
@hd41321508 Busy day at work. Hope to finish another time
@hd41321508 We literally weren't allowed to read ANYTHING printed, produced, written by pretty much anyone outside of our tiny world (0.5-1 million people out of 7 billion). Yes, some read, but officially you're not allowed and depending on family/friends, can have serious consequences.
@hd41321508 All the world's movies, theatre, art, news, philosophy, knowledge, even lots of science is completely banned and censored. You are brought to be very strictly isolated from all that take serious risks if you try to access, again depending on family/social circle.
Read 8 tweets
1 Dec
THREAD: freedom of expression and censorship in the chassidic community compared to the current climate in wider society.
⬇️⬇️⬇️
2/
In the last few years I have been incredibly passionate about, and active in, the free speech movement. In my first year at uni I founded @BrisFreeSpeech and later I was amongst the founding members of @speechchampions.
3/ I have watched in horror as dogmatic ways to thinking consolidate themselves in our educated circles and as #NoDebate replaces a culture of curiosity and open-mindedness. #SilenceIsViolence told us all how we must think as indoctrination was renamed "educating oneself".
Read 25 tweets

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