Yiddish literature

Yiddish literature, the body of written works produced in the Yiddish language of Ashkenazic Jewry (central and eastern European Jews and their descendants).

Yiddish literature culminated in the period from 1864 to 1939, inspired by modernization and then severely diminished by the Holocaust. It arose in Europe out of a tradition that gave precedence to Hebrew prayers, commentaries, and scripture. As the vernacular expression of Ashkenazic Jews, Yiddish literature was often intended for ordinary readers rather than for the highly educated. Because few women learned Hebrew, their literacy was in Yiddish, and they became the primary audience for some forms of Yiddish literature.

The history of Yiddish literature falls into three general periods: Old Yiddish literature, Haskala and Hasidism, and Modern Yiddish literature. Old Yiddish literature (c. 1300–1780) emerged in the areas that are now Germany and Italy. After it moved eastward with Jewish migration to eastern Europe, publishing centres arose in Prague and Kraków. Haskala (the Jewish Enlightenment, c. 1755–1880) spread eastward from Berlin, one of its early centres, and Hasidism was a religious movement that originated about 1740 in an area of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that is now Ukraine. Haskala writers often opposed the use of Yiddish—which they viewed as a defective “jargon”—and favoured German, but by 1815 Hasidic publications reaffirmed the importance of popular storytelling in Yiddish. Modern Yiddish literature (1864 to the present) embraced Yiddish as the vehicle for a European literature like any other. Mass emigration to North America (especially after the political turmoil and pogroms of 1881) spread Yiddish poetry, drama, and fiction to the New World; emigration to Palestine (and later Israel) continued the literary tradition there.

Yiddish literature and culture have been in decline since the Nazi genocide (Yiddish khurbn) destroyed its major centres in Continental Europe. Oppression also cut short the Yiddish tradition in the Soviet Union, while assimilation has curtailed the role of Yiddish in the United States and Canada. Since the 1980s, however, Yiddish literature has received new attention in North America, Europe, and Israel, and there have been many efforts to revive Yiddish culture through klezmer music, translations, and university studies. Centres of secular Yiddish culture exist in New York, Montreal, Paris, Tel Aviv, and elsewhere, but Hasidic Jews are the main group that continues to use Yiddish as an everyday language. Yiddish literature has found indirect expression in American and British fiction written in English.

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Old Yiddish literature

By the 12th century, Jewish life was highly developed along the Rhine River in the German towns of Worms, Speyer, and Mainz. Some linguists have suggested that Yiddish originated in the Rhineland; others speculate that it began in Jewish communities along the Danube River, such as Regensburg, in eastern Bavaria. Yiddish of the medieval period was similar to contemporary Middle High German, but it was distinctive because it was written in Hebrew characters, incorporated Hebrew loanwords, and reconfigured some aspects of the Germanic component. As a result of the eastward migration of Jewish communities, by the 18th century Slavic loanwords also had become an important element of spoken Yiddish.

The first written evidence of Yiddish literature is a brief rhyme inscribed in the manuscript of a Hebrew prayer book—from the city of Worms—that was completed in 1272–73. A dozen Yiddish words appear inside the empty spaces of five large Hebrew characters. This example placed Yiddish in a subordinate role, serving the Hebrew text, and since then Yiddish literature often has been considered secondary to Hebrew literature. A Yiddish manuscript written in 1382 and discovered in the Cairo Genizah contains verses that retell biblical stories, with variants based on rabbinic commentaries. Other early instances of written Yiddish occur as glosses to Hebrew words in study texts. More significant are full translations of biblical books and Hebrew prayers into Yiddish; for instance, a translation of the Psalms dates from 1490, and the publication of a Yiddish rendering of the Hebrew prayer “Adir Hu” (“Mighty Is He”) has been dated to 1526. A Yiddish dictionary and concordance to the Hebrew Bible, attributed to the scholar Rabbi Anshel, was published in Kraków in 1534.

The most influential Yiddish rendering of the Bible was Tsene-rene (“Go Out and See”; Eng. trans. Tsenerene) by Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi. The text is a loose paraphrase of the biblical passages that are read in the synagogue: the Five Books of Moses, the supplementary readings (haftarot), and the five scrolls (megillot). First published about 1600, Tsenerene incorporated a wide selection of commentaries and narrative expansions based on rabbinic sources. Reprinted more than 200 times, this book was widely read by women and by men who did not possess sufficient Hebrew to read the original passages and midrashic works.

Tekhines, Yiddish prayers mainly for women, were another important form of religious literature. In contrast to Hebrew liturgy, the Yiddish tekhines tend to be more concrete, intimate entreaties addressed to God. Many of these prayer collections were written by men, but two notable collections are ascribed to Sara Bas-Toyvim, who lived in Ukraine at the beginning of the 18th century. Another distinguished author of a tekhine was Sarah Rebekah Rachel Leah Horowitz, who lived during the 18th century in an area of Poland that is now in Ukraine.

Some scholars, such as Max Weinreich and Shmuel Niger, have speculated that secular Yiddish literature began with oral performances by itinerant minstrels. Printed evidence for this view is scanty, but Menachem Oldendorf, who was born in 1450, did publish a collection of Hebrew and Yiddish songs. It refers to popular German melodies and reflects a form of entertainment that was removed from traditional Jewish life. Yiddish song performances may have inspired the later development of the badkhen (wedding jester).

Popular German folk literature was translated into Yiddish, usually excluding the Christian references and any anti-Semitic remarks. Legends about Dietrich von Bern and Hildebrand, for example, appeared in Yiddish. The Arthurian romances were well known, and, in spite of rabbinic opposition, Yiddish versions of these stories may have been performed over the course of several evenings. Traces of the cultural milieu of the performances are embedded in printed texts, as when the bard pauses and states, “Now we must remain stuck at this point, / until you give me good wine to drink.”

One of the most interesting early Yiddish adaptations is the Shmuel-bukh (1544; “Samuel Book”), which retells the biblical stories of Saul and David. While the content derives from the biblical books of Samuel and other Hebrew sources, the form was clearly influenced by German models. Using the “Hildebrand stanza” similar to that of the Nibelungenlied, each line contains six stresses, divided by a caesura; the four-line stanzas follow the aabb rhyme scheme. Like contemporary German fables, this book was popular for its descriptions of heroic deeds and battles; it is a clear indication that Jewish cultural production was not isolated from its surroundings. Although the earliest extant printed edition dates to 1544, the Shmuel-bukh may have been performed orally as early as the 14th century. David is portrayed as a powerful knight who displays great qualities and undergoes erotic temptations. Like some medieval mystery plays, the Shmuel-bukh contains remarkable dialogue between God and men. David hopes to emulate Abraham’s piety, but God tells him, “My beloved Abraham—with him you cannot compare.” According to the Shmuel-bukh, David’s wish to be tested, as Abraham was, leads to his undoing by Bathsheba’s beauty. As in the book of Job and some midrashic retellings of the binding of Isaac, Satan plays a role in the test.

The towering figure in Old Yiddish literature was Elijah Bokher Levita, who immigrated to Italy along with other German Jews but continued speaking and writing Yiddish. He was a noted Hebrew grammarian and tutor to Italian prelates. His most important Yiddish work was the Bove-bukh (written in 1507 and printed in 1541; “The Book of Bove”), based on an Italian version of the Anglo-Norman Buève de Hantone. The story revolves around a beautiful queen, Brandonia, who betrays the king and brings about his demise. The Bove-bukh is written in ottava rima, using the stanza form with an abababcc rhyme scheme. In reducing the length of his poem to 650 stanzas from 1,400 stanzas in the Italian original, Bokher Levita omitted some erotic scenes and added Judaic qualities to his characters. Pariz un Viene (printed in 1594; “Paris and Vienna”), a tale about a poor knight (Paris) who wishes to marry a princess (Vienna) and ultimately succeeds, may have been his second major literary work. Some scholars have questioned his authorship. They speculate that it was translated into Yiddish from another European language, because its complexity is atypical of Old Yiddish literature.

The Mayse-bukh (“Book of Stories”), a collection of short tales based on Hebrew and other sources, was first published in 1602. This work epitomizes a strand of edifying, ethical literature that became important in early Yiddish writing. Drawing from midrashic traditions, folktales, and legends, it developed an effective prose style distinct from the prior poetic narratives. The Mayse-bukh influenced the later development of story collections; moreover, it anticipated the hagiographic genre of some Hasidic works.

Early Yiddish literature also includes nonreligious lyrics, newspapers such as the Amsterdam Kuranton (1686–87; “Chime”), and historical poems. Many of these poems were verse narratives that responded to traumatic events such as pogroms, military actions, or fires. The rise of the false messiah Shabbetai Tzevi, which was a particularly troubling phenomenon, is the subject of the Meshiekh-lid (1666; “Messiah Poem”).

Glikl of Hameln (Germany) wrote a remarkable memoir, starting in 1691. She began writing after her husband died, leaving her with 12 children. The memoir describes her life and the cultural milieu in Hameln, Hamburg, and Metz; Glikl learned enough Hebrew to incorporate various Hebrew expressions into her language. The memoir manuscript was passed on from generation to generation until it was finally published in 1896. Because of its obscurity, the text did not influence the history of Yiddish letters, but it is a unique panorama of its time and place.