Der Bay
December 2004
Review by Fishl Kutner
Prof. Dovid Katz aptly attacks the much-debated problem of Yiddish survival. Opposite camps have their proponents within and outside of academia. Unlike using non-factual and emotional arguments, the case for this viewpoint is based on past and present facts and a projection set in sound, logical principles.
While current thinking refers to Yiddish as an amalgam of German Hebrew/Aramaic and Slavic languages, Prof. Katz goes back prior to the common era. He first analyzes and then traces the roles of Hebrew and Aramaic up to the migration to Central Europe.
The laymen's mundane use of Aramaic and the scholarly, priestly use of Hebrew are then developed. This led to the Jewish migration into southern Europe and a northeasterly flow with the concurrent adoption and incorporation of Germanic terms.
Prof. Katz aptly analyzes the seesaw chronology of the Jewish fate from the Dark Ages through the Renaissance. Each location first accepted and often welcomed the Jews, but soon imposed various dicta imposing heavy taxes, imposing laws banning certain trades and types of commerce and even geographic prohibitions.
While some of the material presented is fairly well-known by readers of Der Bay, it is the manner in which it is presented that makes this book exceptional. Here are a few such quotes:
"Israeli Hebrew is a language that was artificially constructed by Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Zionists around a hundred years ago."
"Throughout history the traditionalists have been challenged by secular outbursts. They tend to occur during the first few generations of creative intermingling with tolerant, multicultural non-Jews." Katz gives examples of Philo of Alexandria, Maimonides, Spinoza, Freud, and Einstein.
"The rise and spread of Hasidism occurred during the lifetime of the greatest Ashkenaz scholar, the Gaon of Vilna, Eyliohu ben Shloyme Zalmen 1720-1797."
"The modernizers in East Europe in the early 1800s onward developed a literary tradition both Yiddish and Hebrew with such modern European genres as the poem, short story, novel, drama, periodical, newspaper, etc."
"The most brilliant Yiddish scholar of the 1900s, Ber Borokhov 1881-1917, single-handedly fashioned Yiddish studies as a field of academic research. He also was the founder and major theoretician of Labor Zionism."
"Traditional Judaism will never be accepted by modern Jews. The traditional kind of Judaism (ultraorthodoxy), which is winning the contest to become the future of American (and Diaspora) Jewry, believes in much more than the 613 commandments in rabbinic tradition..."
"Yiddish will be the future language of the bulk of Diaspora Jewry because speaking it is part of the Jewish civilization of the Hasidic movement…not because of Mendele, Sholem Aleichem, Peretz or any other Yiddish icon. Secular Yiddishism could only work as a real civilization in its native homeland of Eastern Europe."
Maps, photos and diagrams are interspersed throughout the book and add a significant dimension for the reader. Especially noteworthy is the diagram The Big Bang that created Yiddish. It graphically shows the interrelationships among Hebrew, Aramaic and Yiddish (Western and Eastern). However the half dozen maps, while excellent in content are a little difficult to read.
While some may discredit readability formulae, they nevertheless can be useful as an indicator of reading difficulty. Of those reviewed in the literature, this reviewer prefers the Fry Readability Curve.
This text was found to be in the long-word range, but off the chart on sentence-length which places it well in the above freshman college level. One consideration is the knowledge of terminology used. Thus a person with a good background in Jewish history would find this material reading at a lower level than one with a poorer Jewish background.
Prof. Katz has been a prolific writer, and this most recent book fits right in with his other masteries of Yiddish text. It is highly recommended.
Katz, Dovid, Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish, Basic Books, 430 pp, ISBN0-465-03728-3, 2004 hardcover, List $26.95 www.basicbooks.com
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