Aramaic in New Jersey

ARAMAIC (SYRIAC) WATCH: New Jersey is one of the few places you can hear these languages — and they’re in danger ( Blake Nelson, nj.com). And one of those languages is:

Spotlight: Aramaic
In Paramus, the Syriac Orthodox Church still uses Aramaic during services.

“It’s our identity,” said Saliba Kassis, a priest at Paramus' Mor Aphrem Center. Although the use of Aramaic is decreasing, Kassis said, thousands of people in the area still speak it.

Aramaic originated in the Middle East millennia ago, and is similar to Hebrew. Because it was spoken in first century Palestine, you can hear the actor Jim Caviezel use it in 2004′s The Passion of the Christ.

I mentioned Paramus in this context some years ago. Teaneck is another center for Syriac/Aramaic in New Jersey.

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