Thread by @PosenIzzy

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.

https://twitter.com/PosenIzzy/status/1467885153057976321?t=LADhMR_sRNhOTMRbm6gQNw&s=19

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.

@threadreaderapp unroll