A number of Yiddish symbols have emerged to represent the language and the Yiddishist movement over history.
Yiddish symbols
The Golden Peacock
The Golden
Peacock () has historically been a common symbol in Yiddish literature, popularized by
Di Goldene Pave.
It has often been a subject of
Yiddish poetry, including a collection under that title from Moyshe-Leyb Halpern.
Yiddishpiel uses a logo of golden peacock plumage surrounding its theatre building, while
The Forward has used gold in its masthead (also recalling Di Goldene Medine) since 2015,
A variation of this symbol has been used as the logo of the Yiddish cafe
Pink Peacock in
Glasgow.
The Golden Goat
The traditional Jewish lullaby "Raisins and Almonds" popularized the golden goat as a Yiddish symbol, echoing that in
Chad Gadya, a traditional
Passover song.
The Yiddish Book Center has adopted the golden goat as its logo since 2012, designed by
Alexander Isley with lettering from
El Lissitzky's lithographs of Chad Gadya.
Komets-Alef
In the modern era, some have turned to the
kamatz-
aleph in search of a symbol for the Yiddish language, a letter that "
Oyfn Pripetshik" highlights as a distinctive letter in Yiddish orthography in a play on a Yiddish ABC song. This particular letter (אָ) is also used to represent Yiddish on
Duolingo,
replacing a "Yiddish flag" on the pattern of the flag of Israel but in black with a
temple menorah, promoted by a user from Wikimedia Commons which was used for a time in the Duolingo Incubator.
Flags
There is no historical language or
ethnic flag for Yiddish speakers, though in the 21st century there have been some minor proposals for digital use as flag icons for languages.
Flag with a menorah
It appeared on the internet around 2012, when it was published on Wikipedia. Rapidly, it disseminated in the
internet, becoming number one result in any google search for “Yiddish flag”. Soon after,
Duolingo, a vocabulary learning app, started using it for promoting its Yiddish course. Following the publication of the article
"What Flag Should Yiddish Fly?", which criticized the flag for its gloomy appearance and resemblance to the flag of Israel (which was considered inappropriate due to an unfavorable policy towards Yiddish in Israel's early years), Duolingo changed it to the komets alef.
Claims that the flag originated in
Jewish anarchism in the early 20th century are not true.
See also
