Many were emigrants or were descendants of Central and Eastern European Jews from Germany, Poland and Russia (Ashkenazi Jews) and had a distinct culture based on the Yiddish language, a blend of Medieval German and other tongues. These people dominated the Jewish community of New York, and made many contributions to its culture and art. Their Yiddish tongue flavored their English with a distinct accent which is still common in New York, and in places colonized from New York, like Miami.

By accident, my mother lived in a Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx, New York for most of her teenage years and young adulthood, and went to school there, had Jewish girlfriends, dated Jewish boys, and was quite at home in that culture, she admired and respected the Jewish people, and passed that respect to me. She also spoke English with a Yiddish (Jewish) flavor. Although her English had no "Jewish accent" per se, she did use many of the phrases and colloquialisms peculiar to the NYC Jewish community, and easily fell into the rhythms and cadences of Yiddish-American English. I have been told there are traces of this in my own English, too.