In 19912002, he lived in england, where he worked at the oxfordbased institute of yiddish studies and the london universitys school of oriental and african studies. Estraikh, gennadyestraikh, gennady 1952, yiddish scholar, writer, and journalist. When the yiddish department was closed 1938, he became a university lecturer of general and russian linguistics. Letters that are silent or represent glottal stops in the hebrew language are used as vowels in yiddish. This first comprehensive study of yiddish in the former soviet union chronicles orthographic and other reforms from the state of the language in prerevolutionary russia, through active languageplanning in the 1920s and 1930s, repression, and subsequent developments up to the 1980s. Soviet yiddish culture is commonlyand erroneously, as the present study amply demonstratesregarded as having come to a definitive end on august 12, 1952, when several of its leading figures were executed together. This chapter looks at the history of yiddish orthographic reforms proposed and implemented in the soviet union. The major component of yiddish, in both its western and eastern varieties, is middle high german, with varying admixtures of slavic, hebrew, and other languages. Soviet jews in world war ii harriet murav, gennady. Soviet yiddish gennady estraikh oxford university press. Edited by gennady estraikh, kerstin hoge and mikhail krutikov. Soviet propaganda in illustrated yiddish childrens books.
From the collections of the yivo library, new york, in children and yiddish literature. Rare soviet yiddish songs of wwii hannah pollingalay at the international symposium global yiddish culture. Centering mainly on the soviet jewish literati but with an eye to their american counterparts, the book follows their paths from avantgarde beginnings in kiev after the 1905 revolution to their peak in the mid1930s. The majority of european yiddish speaking jews was murdered by hitlers national socialists, their cultural realm was destroyed. The purges of the late 1930s took their toll on soviet yiddish culture, and what the soviets called the great patriotic war 194145 brought about the near.
He is the author of yiddish in the cold war 2008, in harness. The world of yiddish theater, with professor debra caplan. This book studies yiddish in the former soviet union. Yiddishspeaking groups of communists played a visible role in many countries, most notably in the soviet union, united states, poland, france, canada, argentina and uruguay.
Yiddish writers romance with communism judaic traditions in literature, music, and art. It includes yiddish spelling rules and the hebrew script, which is used as the basis of a full vocalic alphabet. In a concise form, he described this standard in his article on yiddish, published in 1984 as an appendix to the russianyiddish dictionary. In 1920, the most radical part of the soviet yiddish orthographic reform was introduced the. Yiddish and the left papers of the third mendel friedman. Gennady estraikh, professor of yiddish studies at new york universi ty, is excellently.
Gennady estraikh to give lecture about holocaust soviet. Beider passed away in 2003, so boris sandler and gennady estraikh edited the final edition, now available through our bookstore, the cyco. Many of our text books have prices for both buying and renting, so choose your ideal way of. Falkovitshs volumes titled yidish issued in 1936 and 1940 remain the most comprehensive descriptions of the language standard that was established by the soviet school of yiddish linguistics.
Sholem aleichem and the myth of the ideal yiddish reader alexander frenkel sholem aleichem as a selftranslator eugenia prokopjaniec sholem aleichem and the polishjewish literary audience gennady estraikh soviet sholem aleichem roland gruschka du host zikh a denkmol af eybik. Gennady estraikh is an expert on yiddish literary and intellectual. From september 1939 to june 1941, bialystok was a soviet city that housed a. Everything about this book shows that it was written by a real linguist and a native speaker of soviet yiddish, i. The second, a captive of the dawn, edited by shneer with gennady estraikh, jordan finkin, and the late joseph sherman, is a scholarly examination of the foremost soviet yiddish poet, peretz markish. Yiddish in the cold war by gennady estraikh, hardcover. The storied history of yiddish publishing yiddish book. Yiddish and the creation of soviet jewish culture david. Here is a detailed glimpse into the lives and times of yiddish writers enthralled with communism at the turn of the century through the mid1930s.
The 1934 almanac of soviet yiddish writers, jews in eastern europe, 3 37 1998, pp. Estraikh received a doctorate from the university of oxford and is an associate professor of hebrew, judaic, and yiddish studies at new york university. See also gennady estraikh, a touchstone of socialist realism. The sacrificial role of the red army, and the soviet union as a whole, reinforced the. A chronicle of orthographic and other reforms from the state of the language in prerevolutionary russia, through active languageplanning in the 1920s and 1930s, repression, and subsequent developments up to the 1980s, is recreated from contemporary publications and archival materials. Yiddish writers romance with communism judaic traditions in literature, music, and art estraikh, gennady on.
Language planning and linguistic development 1999 and the coeditor of translating sholem aleichem. Sovetish heymland yiddish soviet homeland was a yiddishlanguage literary magazine published by poet and controversial clarification needed figure aron vergelis in moscow as a bimonthly from 1961 to 1965, then as a monthly until 1991. After the war, the communist regimes suppressed jewish culture, but despite emigration of jewish survivors, small jewish communities continued to exist and made efforts to revive their culture in most of the communist countries. Gennady estraikh is the author of intensive yiddish 4. For over a century yiddish served as a major vehicle for expressing. For this alone, estraikhs book is an important corrective to our understanding of yiddish in general, and soviet yiddish culture in particular. The volume is 464 pages, containing entries on 487. A life in fact and fiction, with professor jeremy dauber.
Almost all the sources are either in yiddish or russian, and few linguists other than estraikh a former journalist in the soviet union, with native fluency in both yiddish and russian could have brought this off. Born in zaporizhzhia, ukraine, he later lived in moscow, where he turned to writing in yiddish and worked as managing editor of the yiddish literary journal sovetish heymland soviet homeland from 1988 to 1991. The jews of latin america, with professor ilan stavans. This article originally appeared in the yiddish forverts three cities of yiddish. The 1920s and 30s were the heyday of yiddish publishing in the soviet union, with thousands of books, pamphlets, magazines, and journals appearing in kiev, kharkov, minsk, and moscow. Yiddish childrens book art by artists from the kiev kulturlige. Books by gennady estraikh author of intensive yiddish. Soviet jews in world war ii by harriet murav overdrive.
Buy cheap yiddish textbooks online yiddish textbook rentals. The binary division of soviet yiddish writers into victims and denouncers became part and parcel of western journalism. The yiddish and ladino press in the russian and ottoman empires by stillman, norman a. I cannot think of many questions about soviet yiddish that this book has not answered for me.
Pathbreaking frankfurter allegemeine zeitung finalist, 2005 national jewish book award, eastern europe empowered by the soviet state before world war ii to create a jewish national culture, soviet jewish activists were interested in building such a culture because they were striving for a national revolutionthrough the creation of a new culture in which jews would be able to identify. Yiddish orthography is the writing system used for the yiddish language. I cannot think of many questions about soviet yiddish that this book has not. Children have occupied a prominent place in yiddish literature since early modern times, but children s literature as a genre has its beginnings in the early 20th century. This is the first comprehensive study of yiddish in the former soviet union. Soviet yiddish culture is commonlyand erroneously, as the present study. Gennady estraikh is a professor at the skirball department of. Its emergence reflected the desire of jewish intellectuals to introduce modern forms of education, and promote ideological agendas, both in eastern europe and in immigrant. Born in zaporizhzhia, ukraine, into a yiddishspeaking family from a jewish agricultural colony, he received his first degree in electronics and lived in moscow 197691. Yiddish is a thousandyearold jewish language, with origins, according to a broad scholarly consensus, in the german rhineland.
The vocabulary of intensive yiddish from the very beginning would be impossibly daunting for a true beginner. Gennady estraikh is associate professor of yiddish studies, skirball department of hebrew and judaic studies at new york university. With the dissolution of the soviet union, the journal no longer received state support. Our most recent publication is the late chaim beiders biographical dictionary of yiddish writers in the soviet union.
Ideological confrontations between communist yiddish literati in the soviet union, united states, canada, poland, france and israel are in the centre of. Children and yiddish literature modern humanities research. In reality, i began to read the journal regularly and yiddish books only in the. In 1979 his familys application for an exit visa to israel was rejected. The last soviet yiddish school closed in the late 1930s, the moscow state yiddish theater had its. A chronicle of orthographic and other reformsfrom the state of the language in prerevolutionary russia, through active languageplanning in the 1920s and 1930s, repression, and subsequent developments up to the 1980sis recreated from contemporary publications and archival materials. Both books, in their own way, look at a certain jewish aesthetic. Gennady estraikh has 37 books on goodreads with 115 ratings. Gennady estraikhs most popular book is intensive yiddish. Upcoming yiddish events congress for jewish culture. Yiddish in the cold war legenda studies in yiddish. Yiddish writers romance with communism 2004, soviet yiddish. A palimpsest of literature and politics the forward. Other letters that can serve as both vowels and consonants are either read as appropriate to the context.
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