On the other hand
One of the many positive features of living in Israel is the experience of meeting and mixing with Jews from diverse parts of the world, sampling their culinary delights and learning about various traditions and customs.
Living in New Zealand, we had never been exposed to Jews from other non-Ashkenazi traditions and therefore having the opportunity to actually socialize and befriend those from other parts of the Jewish Diaspora opened up a hitherto completely unknown but very important part of Jewish continuity.
It soon became obvious when participating in synagogue services from these various traditions that language pronunciations and accents played a major role. The myriad ways in which prayers and Torah reading could sound can be experienced by visiting any one of the countless minyanim (prayer quorums) which abound in this country.
The diversity of the Hebrew language from Biblical times to the present is part of the miraculous survival of Hebrew during millennia of exile and its resurrection as a modern living language today.
That is why when I discovered this most interesting video clip, I thought it might be of general interest to readers of J-Wire.
Fascinating and well worth listening to. Thank you Michael