Yiddish: A Nation of Words
by Miriam Weinstein
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List Price: $19.00
Our Price: $11.34
Your Save: $ 7.66 ( 40% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 296
EAN: 9780345447302
ISBN: 0345447301
Label: Ballantine Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2002-08-27
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: 2002-08-27
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Simply the Best
Comment: Unlike pathetic academics like Dovid Katz and Ruth Wisse, engaged in their vicious little turf wars, Miriam Weinstein has written a delightful, informative and narrative history of Yiddish. Not without poignancy, the book celebrates the language and the tremendous achievements of the great writers and poets from whose pens flowed marvelous works of the imagination. While not a "scholarly" work, the author has obviously done a great deal of research and knows whereof she speaks. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to gain some understanding of Yiddish's historical importance to the Jews, and also an appreciation of its beauty and magnificence.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yiddish Language
Comment: A wonderful history of the language which some are trying to tell you is a dying one. However, it is alive and well and living as is mentioned in this account, particularly at the National Yiddish Book Center. This is a great account of how the language evolved and originated and where it is headed. It helps to clear up the erroneous impression that it is a street language but shows that it has a history of a culture and a marvelous literature.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Part History, Memoir and Phrasebook of a Glorious Tongue
Comment: I admit to being surprised by this book, knowing that it was the first effort from a former journalist. (I have found that most writers coming from the worlds of journalism or academia lack the ability to communicate on the same level as those of us outside of the twin ivory towers.) But here is an utterly delightful, at times moving, history of one of the most unique languages on the planet. Part history, part memoir, part dictionary and phrasebook, this book could not have been put together with greater love and craft. I especially loved the frequent garnishment of Yiddish proverbs and "Sprichworte" throughout the narrative.
Some additional thoughts:
1. Especially moving to me are the chapters on the early history of Yiddish in Germany and the nations of Eastern Europe. One of the great tragedies of history is the unique and fateful relationship between the German people and the Jews. Born linguistically from German, Yiddish took on a life of its own in the kitchens and shtetls of the Jews. The author's account of the manner in which moderate Jews turned their backs on Yiddish in Germany in the 18th and 19th centuries is an ironic chapter in the history of Germano-Judaic relations. (I have in my possession a German translation of the Tanakh published in Berlin in 1876, which I read now with a more wiser understanding.)
2. Having both lived in Germany for two years and studied Hebrew on the University level, I can understand much of written and spoken Yiddish.
3. For those who believe in the literal fulfillment of prophetic statements in the Tanakh, the gradual disappearance of Yiddish as a primary spoken language makes absolute sense, as the Jews are restored to their ancient homelands accompanied by the simultaneos "restoration of all things." Though it may fade as a spoken tongue, I for one hope that the rich literary tradition of Yiddish never fades.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best ever history of Yiddish for the general reader
Comment: Yiddish: A Nation of Words is the kind of book you don't want to put down once you've started. Weinstein has the perfect touch for getting across the facts about this almost lost language, neither weighing the reader down with the terrible sadness of the story nor degrading the story with humorous cliches. The research the book is based on is thorough and trustworthy. You will learn a lot about the Jewish diaspora, about Europe and the Middle East, about America in the last century--and enjoy doing it. Anyone from an immigrant family is going to resonate to the pressures that eventually saw the end of American Yiddish--and to the wisdom that is still preserved in the words.
Jeanne Guillemin
Cambridge
Customer Rating:
Summary: A cultural survival story, a great read--
Comment: A wonderful book, engaging, humorous, warm, and moving, that tells the compelling story of a culture's survival against all odds. The Jewish people, living at the edge of other cultures and nations, kept itself alive through a shared language full of wit, wisdom, irony, compassion, and spiritual resonance. Yiddish: A Nation of Words is less about a religion than it is about the way any group or ethnic culture finds its deep identity, and its common strength, in the bond of words. The book is full of proverbs and bits of poetry--you get a real feel for the language, its sly shrug of humorous resignation, and its emotional pathos. The book also has portraits of unforgettable characters--people like Eliezer Perlman, who turned himself into Ben Yehuda, the architect of modern Hebrew; Esther Frumkin, a Yiddish activist who tangled with Communist Russia; Peretz Markish, the 'heartthrob Yiddish poet'; and Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel laureate. Even the Holocaust is dealt with in a way that salvages meaning and hope from the ashes. Weinstein tells her stories with heart and humor -- a great read, that makes you laugh and cry at the same time, and teaches ways of living in a world of threat and change.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Simply the Best
Comment: Unlike pathetic academics like Dovid Katz and Ruth Wisse, engaged in their vicious little turf wars, Miriam Weinstein has written a delightful, informative and narrative history of Yiddish. Not without poignancy, the book celebrates the language and the tremendous achievements of the great writers and poets from whose pens flowed marvelous works of the imagination. While not a "scholarly" work, the author has obviously done a great deal of research and knows whereof she speaks. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to gain some understanding of Yiddish's historical importance to the Jews, and also an appreciation of its beauty and magnificence.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yiddish Language
Comment: A wonderful history of the language which some are trying to tell you is a dying one. However, it is alive and well and living as is mentioned in this account, particularly at the National Yiddish Book Center. This is a great account of how the language evolved and originated and where it is headed. It helps to clear up the erroneous impression that it is a street language but shows that it has a history of a culture and a marvelous literature.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Part History, Memoir and Phrasebook of a Glorious Tongue
Comment: I admit to being surprised by this book, knowing that it was the first effort from a former journalist. (I have found that most writers coming from the worlds of journalism or academia lack the ability to communicate on the same level as those of us outside of the twin ivory towers.) But here is an utterly delightful, at times moving, history of one of the most unique languages on the planet. Part history, part memoir, part dictionary and phrasebook, this book could not have been put together with greater love and craft. I especially loved the frequent garnishment of Yiddish proverbs and "Sprichworte" throughout the narrative.
Some additional thoughts:
1. Especially moving to me are the chapters on the early history of Yiddish in Germany and the nations of Eastern Europe. One of the great tragedies of history is the unique and fateful relationship between the German people and the Jews. Born linguistically from German, Yiddish took on a life of its own in the kitchens and shtetls of the Jews. The author's account of the manner in which moderate Jews turned their backs on Yiddish in Germany in the 18th and 19th centuries is an ironic chapter in the history of Germano-Judaic relations. (I have in my possession a German translation of the Tanakh published in Berlin in 1876, which I read now with a more wiser understanding.)
2. Having both lived in Germany for two years and studied Hebrew on the University level, I can understand much of written and spoken Yiddish.
3. For those who believe in the literal fulfillment of prophetic statements in the Tanakh, the gradual disappearance of Yiddish as a primary spoken language makes absolute sense, as the Jews are restored to their ancient homelands accompanied by the simultaneos "restoration of all things." Though it may fade as a spoken tongue, I for one hope that the rich literary tradition of Yiddish never fades.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best ever history of Yiddish for the general reader
Comment: Yiddish: A Nation of Words is the kind of book you don't want to put down once you've started. Weinstein has the perfect touch for getting across the facts about this almost lost language, neither weighing the reader down with the terrible sadness of the story nor degrading the story with humorous cliches. The research the book is based on is thorough and trustworthy. You will learn a lot about the Jewish diaspora, about Europe and the Middle East, about America in the last century--and enjoy doing it. Anyone from an immigrant family is going to resonate to the pressures that eventually saw the end of American Yiddish--and to the wisdom that is still preserved in the words.
Jeanne Guillemin
Cambridge
Customer Rating:
Summary: A cultural survival story, a great read--
Comment: A wonderful book, engaging, humorous, warm, and moving, that tells the compelling story of a culture's survival against all odds. The Jewish people, living at the edge of other cultures and nations, kept itself alive through a shared language full of wit, wisdom, irony, compassion, and spiritual resonance. Yiddish: A Nation of Words is less about a religion than it is about the way any group or ethnic culture finds its deep identity, and its common strength, in the bond of words. The book is full of proverbs and bits of poetry--you get a real feel for the language, its sly shrug of humorous resignation, and its emotional pathos. The book also has portraits of unforgettable characters--people like Eliezer Perlman, who turned himself into Ben Yehuda, the architect of modern Hebrew; Esther Frumkin, a Yiddish activist who tangled with Communist Russia; Peretz Markish, the 'heartthrob Yiddish poet'; and Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel laureate. Even the Holocaust is dealt with in a way that salvages meaning and hope from the ashes. Weinstein tells her stories with heart and humor -- a great read, that makes you laugh and cry at the same time, and teaches ways of living in a world of threat and change.
About a thousand years ago, European Jews began speaking a language that was quite different from the various tongues and dialects that swirled around them. It included Hebrew, a touch of the Romance and Slavic languages, and a large helping of German. In a world of earthly wandering, this pungent, witty, and infinitely nuanced speech, full of jokes, puns, and ironies, became the linguistic home of the Jews, the bond that held a people together.
Here is the remarkable story of how this humble language took vigorous root in Eastern European shtetls and in the Jewish quarters of cities across Europe; how it achieved a rich literary flowering between the wars in Europe and America; how it was rejected by emancipated Jews; and how it fell victim to the Holocaust. And how, in yet another twist of destiny, Yiddish today is becoming the darling of academia. Yiddish is a history as story, a tale of flesh-and-blood people with manic humor, visionary courage, brilliant causes, and glorious flaws. It will delight everyone who cares about language, literature, and culture.
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