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Tennessean
7 May 2005

Author Shares History, Hopes for Revival of Yiddish Language
by Ray Waddle

Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish
by Dovid Katz
New York: Basic Books. 446 pages.


If you lace your conversation with schlep, nebbish and mazel tov, then you're speaking Yiddish. It's a rich language whose playful spirit lives on in the linguistic antics of Woody Allen, Mike Myers and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

It's not all laughs. Yiddish was the daily language of 10 million East European Jews until the Nazi Holocaust slaughtered Yiddish civilization. In this absorbing history, author Katz hopes to see the jaunty old language rise again despite the death blows of the 20th century.

“The irreplaceable words, and spirit, of Yiddish are inherently incandescent with history, civilization, satire, irony, compassion and the inner strength to be cheerful amid troubles,” he writes.

Yiddish emerged 1,000 years ago as a hybrid language spoken by the new Jewish culture of Europe – a fusion of ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and medieval German, mostly. By 1900, it was enjoying a golden age. Yiddish presses, schools and literature (secular and religious) shaped world Jewish debate about politics, faith and Zionism.

Today, only three basic groups still speak Yiddish, he says - the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors, a few secularist enthusiasts and, most promisingly, the growing cadres of traditionalist Orthodox Jews (mostly Hasidim).

Can Yiddish return to its former pinnacle in Jewish civilization?

“The task is, as an old Yiddish saying goes, as difficult as parting the Red Sea,” he admits. But he concludes with Yiddish resilience:

“As a Hasidic grand master of old once put it ... As long as that tiny candle burns, it can still all be put right. Moreover, small is beautiful.”

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