Product Description

This title presents a major new history of the Yiddish language, its culture and its literature - with a provocative argument about its future as a living language. From its ancient roots in Hebrew and Aramaic, through its rise as the common language of Jews in medieval Europe to its blossoming as sophisticated modern literature, the story of Yiddish mirrors the history, tenacity and humour of the Jewish People. In "Words on Fire", leading Yiddish scholar Dovid Katz recounts the sweeping history of this evocative and multifaceted language. Although a secular Yiddish culture no longer exists, Katz argues that its resurgence among religious Jewish communities ensures that Yiddish will still be a thriving language in the twenty-first century. Gracefully narrated and generously illustrated, "Words on Fire" is a definitive account of this remarkable language and the culture that created and sustained it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #292864 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.38" h x 6.19" w x 9.13" l, 1.18 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Yiddish was the common language of central European Jewry before the Holocaust. The catastrophic loss of millions of Yiddish speakers has led to the impression that Yiddish is a dying, if not dead, language. Not so, claims Katz, head of the Yiddish Institute at Vilnius University, and in this ambitious, comprehensive and entertaining history he makes clear not only its past but its future. Most scholars claim that Yiddish began around A.D. 900, but Katz argues that many elements can be found "in a continuous language chain that antedated ancient Hebrew, progressed through Hebrew, and then Jewish Aramaic." Katz clearly explicates not only Yiddish's linguistic history, but how it helped shape, and was shaped by, Jewish culture. Much of the history is fascinating—for instance, 16th-century rabbis, worried that the printing press would allow women access to secular popular European stories, offered sacred writings in popular forms (plays and prose based on biblical themes and midrashic tales) that shaped Yiddish literature for centuries. Katz argues that Yiddish will continue as a spoken language not because of conscious efforts to "save" it (which, he writes, can "border on the downright meshuga") but because of the rapid growth of Yiddish-speaking ultra-Orthodox movements. This scholarly work is quite readable and a strong contribution to the ongoing academic and popular interest in Yiddish. B&w illus, maps.
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From Booklist
As fluent in cultural change as he is in etymology, linguist Katz provides a wholly enjoyable and many-faceted history of Yiddish, an essential chapter in the story of Judaism. He chronicles the great Jewish exodus from the Near East north into Europe, where the creators of Yiddish (which simply means Jewish) settled in German-speaking regions, called their new home Ashkenaz (the name of Noah's great-grandson), and forged a vibrant new language by fusing Semitic and Germanic tongues. Ashkenazim became a vibrant trilingual civilization: Yiddish was spoken, and sacred texts were read in Hebrew and Aramaic. But written Yiddish also thrived since women weren't taught to read Hebrew or Aramaic. Katz then follows the Ashkenazi diaspora to Poland and Lithuania, then on to America, tracking the flourishing of Yiddish letters until Yiddish was condemned as too Old World and began to die off. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"...(Words on Fire) is not only the clearest account of the (Yiddish) language I've come across, but also the most readable history of European Jewry I've seen." The Sunday Telegraph "The book is rich in detail and beautifully illustrated and Dovid Katz explains the genesis and development of Yiddish and its place in Jewish history." The Times "What a pleasure to have (this book) offering the muscularity of this political and linguistic debate, which is still at the heart of Jewish argument." The Independent "Drawing on years of research (Dovid Katz) has followed a friend's advice to write a 'radically alternative view of Yiddish for a wider readership'...the extensive scope and sharp insight of his survey admirably fulfil his aim." TLS"