The history, tragedies, and bitter controversies that characterized a language once spoken by 11 million people brought vividly to life

For a people of exile, the language took the place of a nation. . .

In a time of rising antisemitism, some see greater awareness of Yiddish language and history as a way to foster understanding




** 25th Anniversary Edition **

** Winner of the National Jewish Book Award **

This 1st ever popular history of Yiddish is so full of life that it reads like a biography of the language. Once upon a time Yiddish was the glue that held a people together. Impoverished and disenfranchised in the eyes of the world, Yiddish speakers created their own reality—wealthy in appreciation of the varieties of human behavior, spendthrift in their humor, brilliantly inventive in maintaining and strengthening community. The written and spoken word formed the Yiddishland that never came to be. Words were army, university, city-state, territory. They were a people's home.

The tale of the language and its people ranges far beyond Europe, from North America to Israel to the Russian-Chinese border, and from the end of the first millennium to the present day.