Miriam Isaacs & Lewis Glinert (eds.), Pious voices: Languages among Ultra-Orthodox Jews. (International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 138.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990. Pp. 187. Pb $46.00.

Abstract

Yiddish has attracted more public and scholarly interest than any other Jewish language. There are a number of reasons: its thousand-year history as a Jewish internal vernacular for Ashkenazi Jews; the development during the 19th and 20th centuries of an important literature in the language; the bitterness of the struggle with Hebrew, in the first part of the 20th century, for status as a symbol of Jewish nationalism; the tragedy of the extermination of most of its speakers by the Nazis; and the pain of its suppression under Stalin. It is no doubt a sign that Yiddish is no longer being seen as a threat to Hebrew that the Israeli Knesset established and funded, three years ago, the Natzionale Instantz fur Yiddisher Kultur. The first activities of this Authority (a series of concerts, lectures, and other events) have just been announced, after a long leadership struggle that has reflected the complex politics of the movement.