Yiddish Hip Hop, a nineteenth-century “Hasidic Slasher,” obscure Yiddish writers, and immigrant Jewish newspapers in Buenos Aires, Paris, and New York are just a few of the topics featured in Choosing Yiddish: New Frontiers of Language and Culture. Editors Lara Rabinovitch, Shiri Goren, and Hannah S. Pressman have gathered a diverse and richly layered collection of essays that demonstrates the currency of Yiddish scholarship in academia today.Organized into six thematic rubrics, Choosing Yiddish demonstrates that Yiddish, always a border-crossing language, continues to push boundaries with vigorous disciplinary exchange. “Writing on the Edge” focuses on the realm of belles lettres; “Yiddish and the City” spans the urban centers of Paris, Buenos Aires, New York City, and Montreal; “Yiddish Goes Pop” explores the mediating role of Yiddish between artistic vision and popular culture; “Yiddish Comes to America” focuses on the history and growth of Yiddish in the United States; “Yiddish Encounters Hebrew” showcases interactions between Yiddish and Hebrew in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and “Hear and Now” explores the aural dimension of Yiddish in contemporary settings. Along the way, contributors consider famed and lesser-known Yiddish writers, films, and Yiddish hip-hop, as well as historical studies on the Yiddish press, Yiddish film melodrama, Hasidic folkways, and Yiddish culture in Israel. Venerable scholars introduce each rubric, creating additional dialogue between newer and more established voices in the field.The international contributors prove that the language—far from dying—is fostering exciting new directions of academic and popular discourse, rooted in the field’s historic focus on interdisciplinary research. Students and teachers of Yiddish studies will enjoy this innovative collection.

Fewer than one percent of all books written and published in Yiddish have been translated into English. Those that have give us a window into a culture that celebrates the full range of the human condition. This collection of stories, poems and folk songs offers work by Mendel Mykher-Sforim, Yitzhak Leib Peretz and Sholom Aleichem, the three figures who revitalised the language and its literature, as well as works by Shimon An-ski, I.B. Singer and others.

Did you know that Yiddish is written in Hebrew letters but pronounced more like German? Introduce your kids to their mama loshen (mother tongue) and open the door to their cultural heritage! The basic Yiddish vocabulary includes more than 150 words for family members, objects in the home and school, colors and numbers. Each concept is presented with a bright picture, the Yiddish word, and the translation and transliteration. The once-thriving language, spoken by millions, is undergoing a revival, and kids will enjoy learning to speak the colorful tongue.

The definitive guide to the conversion process—for a new generation of Jews-by-choice. However you choose to fashion your personal journey to Judaism, Anita Diamant is the perfect guide. In this comprehensive, wide-ranging book you will learn how to choose a rabbi, a synagogue, a denomination, and a Hebrew name; how to discuss your decision with your birth family; what happens at the mikveh (ritual bath) and at the hatafat dam brit (circumcision ritual for those already circumcised); how to find your footing in a new spiritual family and create a new Jewish identity; and how you and your children can maintain bonds to your family of origin. Also included are suggestions for readings, prayers, and poems that can personalize conversion rituals; a glossary of terms; and a short history of conversion in Judaism. This revised edition contains a completely updated chapter on how the mikveh is used in the conversion process and an updated list of online resources and books for further reading. Whether you are just beginning to consider converting or have already started down the path to Judaism, here is everything you will need to make the process joyous, sacred, and meaningful.

One of the great Yiddish scholars of the twentieth century, S.A. Birnbaum (1891–1989) published Yiddish: A Survey and a Grammar in 1979 towards the end of a long and prolific career. Unlike other grammars and study guides for English speakers, Yiddish: A Survey and a Grammar fully describes the Southern Yiddish dialect and pronunciation used today by most native speakers, while also taking into account Northern Yiddish and Standard Yiddish, associated with secularist and academic circles. The book also includes specimens of Yiddish prose and poetic texts spanning eight centuries, sampling Yiddish literature from the medieval to modern eras across its vast European geographic expanse. The second edition of Yiddish: A Survey and a Grammar makes this classic text available again to students, teachers, and Yiddish-speakers alike. Featuring three new introductory essays by noted Yiddish scholars, a corrected version of the text, and an expanded and updated bibliography, this book is essential reading for any serious student of Yiddish and its culture.

The texts collected in this volume unveil the practice and the methods of the translators and scholars who contributed to the reemergence of Yiddish in contemporary Canada. Each of the personalities discussed enlarged the historical position and interpreted various aspects of the Yiddish language in Montreal that until recently remained obscure or inaccessible. -- Les textes rassemblés dans ce volume tentent de lever le voile sur la démarche et les méthodes des traducteurs et chercheurs qui ont contribué à la réémergence du yiddish dans le Canada contemporain. Ces traducteurs et chercheurs ont élargi l’assise historique et interprété de nombreux aspects de la langue yiddish à Montréal, aspects qui jusque-là demeuraient obscurs et inaccessibles.

This collection of essays brings to Jewish Language Studies the conceptual frameworks that have become increasingly important to Jewish Studies more generally: transnationalism, multiculturalism, globalization, hybrid cultures, multilingualism, and interlingual contexts. Languages of Modern Jewish Cultures collects work from prominent scholars in the field, bringing world literary and linguistic perspectives to generate distinctively new historical, cultural, theoretical, and scientific approaches to this topic of ongoing interest. Chapters of this edited volume consider from multiple angles the cultural politics of myths, fantasies, and anxieties of linguistic multiplicity in the history, cultures, folkways, and politics of global Jewry. Methodological range is as important to this project as linguistic range. Thus, in addition to approaches that highlight influence, borrowings, or acculturation, the volume represents those that highlight syncretism, the material conditions of Jewish life, and comparatist perspectives.