Yiddish and Power

(Hardback)

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Description

Yiddish and Power surveys the social, linguistic and intellectual history of the Yiddish language within the traditional civilisation of Jewish Ashkenaz in central, and then in eastern Europe, and its interaction with the surrounding non-Jewish culture. It explores the various ways in which Yiddish has empowered masses and served political agendas.

Reviews

Katzs book invites scholars of Yiddish and of vernacular languages generally, especially those spoken by minority peoples living in a diaspora, to think expansively about a languages potential to empower its speakers. In the case of Yiddish, this approach is key to considering the state of the language today and tracking its future. (Jeffrey Shandler, Journal of Jewish Languages, Vol. 4, 2016)

Author Bio

Dovid Katz is an international authority on Yiddish and Ashkenazic Jewish culture. He founded Yiddish studies at Oxford University, where he taught for 18 years, and then in Vilnius, where he wasprofessor of Yiddish in Vilnius for 11 years. He has published many academic works in Yiddish studies in addition to three collections of original Yiddish fiction. He is also a leader of the movement against Holocaust revisionism in Eastern Europe. His websites are www.dovidkatz.net and www.DefendingHistory.com.