Yiddish: A Nation of Words | 
|  | | | Title: | Yiddish: A Nation of Words | | Author: | Miriam Weinstein | | Publisher: | Ballantine Books | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 27 August, 2002 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0345447301 / 9780345447302 | | List Price: | $19.00 | | Amazon Price: | $19.00 | |
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Product Description
About a thousand years ago, European Jews began speaking a language that was quite different from the various tongues and dialects that swirled around them. It included Hebrew, a touch of the Romance and Slavic languages, and a large helping of German. In a world of earthly wandering, this pungent, witty, and infinitely nuanced speech, full of jokes, puns, and ironies, became the linguistic home of the Jews, the bond that held a people together.
Here is the remarkable story of how this humble language took vigorous root in Eastern European shtetls and in the Jewish quarters of cities across Europe; how it achieved a rich literary flowering between the wars in Europe and America; how it was rejected by emancipated Jews; and how it fell victim to the Holocaust. And how, in yet another twist of destiny, Yiddish today is becoming the darling of academia. Yiddish is a history as story, a tale of flesh-and-blood people with manic humor, visionary courage, brilliant causes, and glorious flaws. It will delight everyone who cares about language, literature, and culture.
Amazon.com Review
"Positive, upbeat, practical, deeply rooted in Jewish history. That's our language. That's Yiddish." These words refer to the first recognizable Yiddish sentence extant, dated 1272, translated as "A good day will happen to the person who brings this mahzor [prayer book] to the synagogue." Yiddish: A Nation of Words is a popular history of this dying Jewish language, an amalgam of Hebrew and European languages, which dates to the early Middle Ages. Author Mariam Weinstein, a freelance journalist in Massachusetts who grew up in the Bronx when Yiddish could still be heard on almost any street corner, takes to her subject with enthusiasm. Her casual tone doesn't compromise her considerable intelligence, which shines especially in her discussion of the leading roles that women have played in the history of the language. (For centuries, women were not educated in Hebrew, so Yiddish became their particular idiom.) Another of the book's strengths is its account of the demise of Yiddish, which Weinstein attributes primarily to the trauma of the Holocaust and its aftermath of rapid assimilation. Perhaps the most pleasing and important thing about Weinstein's book, however, is that it does for Yiddish something like what, she argues, Yiddish did for Hebrew. "By letting words and phrases slip from the prayers of the older language into the younger, it kept the sacred tongue available to people who did not speak it every day." --Michael Joseph Gross
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Customer Reviews:
• A Cultural Survival Story, A Great Read-- 20 October, 2001
A wonderful book, engaging, humorous, warm, and moving, that tells the compelling story of a culture's survival against all odds. The Jewish people, living at the edge of other cultures and nations, kept itself alive through a shared language full of wit, wisdom, irony, compassion, and spiritual resonance. Yiddish: A Nation of Words is less about a religion than it is about the way any group or ethnic culture finds its deep identity, and its common strength, in the bond of words. The book is full of proverbs and bits of poetry--you get a real feel for the language, its sly shrug of humorous resignation, and its emotional pathos. The book also has portraits of unforgettable characters--people like Eliezer Perlman, who turned himself into Ben Yehuda, the architect of modern Hebrew; Esther Frumkin, a Yiddish activist who tangled with Communist Russia; Peretz Markish, the 'heartthrob Yiddish poet'; and Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel laureate. Even the Holocaust is dealt with in a way that salvages meaning and hope from the ashes. Weinstein tells her stories with heart and humor -- a great read, that makes you laugh and cry at the same time, and teaches ways of living in a world of threat and change.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2BEJA9AQO5C20
• Part History, Memoir And Phrasebook Of A Glorious Tongue 24 February, 2002
I admit to being surprised by this book, knowing that it was the first effort from a former journalist. (I have found that most writers coming from the worlds of journalism or academia lack the ability to communicate on the same level as those of us outside of the twin ivory towers.) But here is an utterly delightful, at times moving, history of one of the most unique languages on the planet. Part history, part memoir, part dictionary and phrasebook, this book could not have been put together with greater love and craft. I especially loved the frequent garnishment of Yiddish proverbs and "Sprichworte" throughout the narrative.Some additional thoughts:1. Especially moving to me are the chapters on the early history of Yiddish in Germany and the nations of Eastern Europe. One of the great tragedies of history is the unique and fateful relationship between the German people and the Jews. Born linguistically from German, Yiddish took on a life of its own in the kitchens and shtetls of the Jews. The author's account of the manner in which moderate Jews turned their backs on Yiddish in Germany in the 18th and 19th centuries is an ironic chapter in the history of Germano-Judaic relations. (I have in my possession a German translation of the Tanakh published in Berlin in 1876, which I read now with a more wiser understanding.) 2. Having both lived in Germany for two years and studied Hebrew on the University level, I can understand much of written and spoken Yiddish. 3. For those who believe in the literal fulfillment of prophetic statements in the Tanakh, the gradual disappearance of Yiddish as a primary spoken language makes absolute sense, as the Jews are restored to their ancient homelands accompanied by the simultaneos "restoration of all things." Though it may fade as a spoken tongue, I for one hope that the rich literary tradition of Yiddish never fades.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1BMG34CO5CMZ5
• The Best Ever History Of Yiddish For The General Reader 28 January, 2002
Yiddish: A Nation of Words is the kind of book you don't want to put down once you've started. Weinstein has the perfect touch for getting across the facts about this almost lost language, neither weighing the reader down with the terrible sadness of the story nor degrading the story with humorous cliches. The research the book is based on is thorough and trustworthy. You will learn a lot about the Jewish diaspora, about Europe and the Middle East, about America in the last century--and enjoy doing it. Anyone from an immigrant family is going to resonate to the pressures that eventually saw the end of American Yiddish--and to the wisdom that is still preserved in the words. Jeanne Guillemin Cambridge
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2JV1C5X4VGGKP
• Yiddish Language 26 August, 2006
A wonderful history of the language which some are trying to tell you is a dying one. However, it is alive and well and living as is mentioned in this account, particularly at the National Yiddish Book Center. This is a great account of how the language evolved and originated and where it is headed. It helps to clear up the erroneous impression that it is a street language but shows that it has a history of a culture and a marvelous literature.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2UU7LXUQUG26I
• Simply The Best 03 June, 2008
Unlike pathetic academics like Dovid Katz and Ruth Wisse, engaged in their vicious little turf wars, Miriam Weinstein has written a delightful, informative and narrative history of Yiddish. Not without poignancy, the book celebrates the language and the tremendous achievements of the great writers and poets from whose pens flowed marvelous works of the imagination. While not a "scholarly" work, the author has obviously done a great deal of research and knows whereof she speaks. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to gain some understanding of Yiddish's historical importance to the Jews, and also an appreciation of its beauty and magnificence.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1TGFEF8YQ1H86
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