# Does Israel have a large number of Spanish speakers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2011, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830 "2011-10-26T06:03:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/1 "2011-10-26T06:03:43Z")
The [Israeli Bar](http://www.israelbar.org.il/english.asp?catid=372) website is available in Hebrew, Arabic and English,which is not surprising, but it also has a [Spanish section](http://www.israelbar.org.il/english.asp?catid=1633). Any reason why? Lots of Spanish lawyers in Israel? ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/2 "2011-10-26T06:08:25Z")
Well, there are the [Sephardi Jews](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardi_Jews) of the Iberian Peninsula. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/3 "2011-10-26T06:13:19Z")
> [@Dahnlor](#): > > Well, there are the [Sephardi Jews](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephardi_Jews) of the Iberian Peninsula. Yes. Don’t they speak a pigdin of which Spanish is just a part? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/4 "2011-10-26T06:17:04Z")
[Ladino](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaeo-Spanish). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/5 "2011-10-26T06:47:04Z")
I know there’s been a pretty big population of Argentinian Jews, and between anti-semitism and discriminatory policies during the military government, and some terrorist attacks in the 2000s, a bunch moved to Israel. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/6 "2011-10-26T07:03:21Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Yes. Don’t they speak a pigdin of which Spanish is just a part? Not a pidgin, more like yet another romance language - it’s closer to medieval Spanish than to modern Spanish. There is a program in Ladino in Radio 3 and one in RNE Internacional, I can understand what they say. Jews are good at preserving things when they’re allowed to. The description in the [RNEi webpage](http://www.rtve.es/podcast/radio-exterior/emision-en-sefardi/) looks like someone was trying to spell things phonetically (“kultural”? R U srious?), but I don’t know whether that’s the case or whether there were any good sources for written Ladino prior to the 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/7 "2011-10-26T07:26:32Z")
Ladino is spoken in Israel, but like Yiddish, it’s a dying language. My in-laws speak it, and my wife can understand it, but it won’t be going any further than that - and I don’t think it’s beng spoken as a mother tongue anywhere in the world. Which is too bad, because unlike Yiddish, it’s a beautiful language to listen to. That aside, there aren’t that many actual Spanish speakers in Israel, at least not compared to the Russian and French speakers. I have no idea why the Bar Association has a Spanish option and not those two languages. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/8 "2011-10-26T08:11:34Z")
WAG: they use onsite translators and happened to have one with Spanish. I’ve seen that done before, a company with almost not business in German but hey, the receptionist spoke German so… ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/9 "2011-10-26T09:22:45Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Ladino is spoken in Israel, but like Yiddish, it’s a dying language. My in-laws speak it, and my wife can understand it, but it won’t be going any further than that - and I don’t think it’s beng spoken as a mother tongue anywhere in the world. Which is too bad, because unlike Yiddish, it’s a beautiful language to listen to. > > That aside, there aren’t that many actual Spanish speakers in Israel, at least not compared to the Russian and French speakers. I have no idea why the Bar Association has a Spanish option and not those two languages. Which languages would a website of a body which deals heavily with the public, would you reasonably expect to see? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/10 "2011-10-26T09:44:45Z")
According to [Ethnologue](http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=IL), there are 60,000 Spanish speakers in Israel, and (as of 1985) 100,000 Ladino speakers. (Note that these two sets are not necessarily distinct.) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/11 "2011-10-26T09:51:35Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Which languages would a website of a body which deals heavily with the public, would you reasonably expect to see? Hebrew, Arabic, English and Russian. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/12 "2011-10-26T12:40:39Z")
How about illegal immigrants/guest workers? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/13 "2011-10-26T12:48:38Z")
Hmm. Probably Tagalog, Thai, Mandarin, Romanian and several African languages. Guest workers generally interact with Israelis in English. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-israel-have-a-large-number-of-spanish-speakers/600830/14 "2011-10-26T13:24:50Z")
No, they mostly use Altec Lansing and Harmon Kardon.