History of Yiddish Culture

1. History of Yiddish Culture

2. JaldaRebling, Jews in Germany (1200-1700) • 1a. Waheb' uf, untnihtenvint - komponiert von Süßkind von Trimberg • 1b. Ichvaruf der torenvart - komponiert von Süßkind von Trimberg • 9. Addirhu - komponiert von Johann Stephan Rittangel Listen to • Style of music • Any words you can make out • What does this music tell us about medieval German Jewry?

3. The Course • why orient a history course around a culture? Problems, advantages…moves us away from geography and time as the only access for breaking up historical narratives • expectations: reading heavy, moderate writing with a research project • what ishevruse? You will stay in the same seats every day and will work with the person next to you as your “study partner” or hevruta” Put up hevruta explanation • Questions from syllabus? This is always a work-in-progress..as readings get added or taken away; new public events come online.

4. WARM UP HEVRUSE • Without communal separateness there is no separate language. --Max Weinreich, 1963 Questions: What is “communal separateness”? Is this something endemic to Jewish history? Is it still true? How does it relate to Yiddish?

5. Yiddish Dialect Map • Introduce YIVO encyclopedia, look at this map and ask yourself: • What do we learn about where Jews who speak Yiddish live? How did they get here? • Are these the only places Jews live? • What are the things that might have shaped how different dialects emerged?

6. Sarah Benor, linguist, 2008Founder of Jewish Language Research Where ever Jews go, they create their own language, even in the United States. • Her definition of an ethnolect—an ethnic group inflecting a dominant language to mark identity. Is this what Yiddish was/is/will be? • Is this unique to Jews? • Why might Jews do this whereever they go? • When is something a dialect, ethnolect, or language? (A language is a dialect with an army.)

7. Some Key Terms Yiddish/Ashkenaz: “A Slavic culture with a German-based language living in a Hebrew library” (Harshav, 29) The Year 1000: beginnings of Yiddish culture; Rabbi Gershom passes his edict banning polygamy. Having Jewish practices match Christian practices. Diaspora: dispersion of Jews from Jerusalem to Babylon then Amherst: Collective community of people who have historical connections. Widely used now (Irish diaspora, African diaspora). In Hebrew, it means exile. In Greek, it means dispersion. Texts holds diaspora Jews together when there is no homeland. A common body of knowledge. Creates common identity across space and time. Way of the Sha”s (Talmud) Fusion language (Weinreich) vs. Open language (Harshav, 28) Ashkenaz (vs. Sefarad) Worms/Mainz/Speyer: Origins of Ashkenazic Jewry (Rhine River) Vertical vs. horizontal legitimation Communal separateness (lehavdilloshn) and other argots Jewish-Christian relations

8. HEVRUSE: 1272 Worms Makhzor (Jewish high holiday prayer book), a blessing to the reader in Yiddish Gut takimbetage Se’vayrdismakhzor in beyshaknesettrage. A good day will be available (or lit up) for him who carries this High Holiday prayer book (makhzor) to the synagogue. Questions: What is the significance of the dating of the makhzor? What would a medieval manuscript have looked like? What can we learn about medieval Jewish culture in Ashkenaz from this one line of text?

9. Brantshpigl (Burning Mirror), Moshe benḤanokhAltshul of Prague (first printed in Kraków; 1596), ethical literature “The book was written in Yiddish for women and for men who are like women in not being able to learn much. So that when the Sabbath comes, they may read therein, and they will be able to understand what they read. For our holy books are in the sacred tongue, and often include complicated exegetical arguments from the Talmud, and they are not able to understand them…. Thus I write this book for women and for men who cannot fundamentally read or understand the holy books in the sacred tongue.” Can we learn anything about print culture from this opening preface to the Brantshpigl, a book of ethical literature? What do we learn about gender among Jews in this time period? How do tkhinesfit into this picture of gender and Jewish culture? What kinds of literature are being produced in Yiddish? Why?

10. Some Big Picture Conclusions Emergence of Yiddish and other vernaculars in Medieval Europe (when is this?) (Chaucer, Dante) Writing in vernacular widens access to ‘the common people’ It increases access to learning presuming people are literate. People will want to be literate in their vernacular Political statement: writing in a new language, signifies communal vs. educational differentiation. Beginning of emergence of identity based on something beyond local and confessional identities (which valley/village, which religion) Giving status to a spoken language Allows for personal interpretation of texts (no need for mediator—clergy, rabbi) Jewish migration in late medieval and early modern Europe. Where are Ashkenazic Jewish centers in the 16th century? Christian anti-Semitism: blood libels, passion plays, Jews have horns (because the devil has horns), Judensau, Desecration of the Host. Rise of Yiddish print in early modern Europe (when is this?) 15th/16th centuries. Jewish Integration vs. Jewish separation (which seems to be more powerful…what would Weinreich, Harshav, or Baumgarten say) Oral culture vs. written culture (folk culture vs. elite culture) Liturgical (siddur/prayer book) vs. spontaneous prayer (supplication/petitioning): creation of tkhines (many by most famous author of tkhinesSore bas Tovyim, breaks the boundary down. Gendered division of Ashkenaz as important as learned division of Ashkenaz