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Article: Inventing Yiddish: Observations on the rise of a "debased" language.
- Article from:
- Judaism
- Article date:
- June 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 American Jewish Congress. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In a New York times magazine article last year, Jonathan Rosen described the resurgence currently enjoyed by Yiddish in the United States. Evidence of this new interest in the language includes not only an increase in Yiddish courses at U.S. colleges and the growing popularity of Yiddish literature, but also revivals of Yiddish theater and klezmer music. But the recent upswing in the popularity of Yiddish, Rosen reported, has provoked vigorous disagreements over the historical meaning of Yiddish and the implications of the language for contemporary Jewish identity.(1) As two recently reprinted books on Yiddish literary history make clear, such debates over the cultural ...