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Yiddish literature


Subject Religion » Judaism

DOI: 10.1111/b.9780631187288.1992.x


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The first important works of Yiddish literature date from the 16th century. The most popular romance was the Bovo-buch (or Bovo-maase ). The Shmuel-buch is a heroic epic of Old Yiddish, and the Maase-buch a prose collection of talmudic legends and folktales. The Tz'enah u-re'enah is a combination of stories and teachings based on the Bible; other sacred works in Yiddish include devotional prayers (“tekhines”) composed for women. During the 19th century Yiddish was used as a medium of enlightenment by writers of the Haskalah. They were followed by a group of classic Yiddish writers: Mendele Mocher Sephorim, Isaac Leib Peretz, and Sholem Aleichem; in fiction contemporaries of the classicists were Jacob Dinesohn, Mordecai Spector, and S. An-Ski, and Shomer. Abraham Goldfaden is traditionally regarded as the father of the Yiddish theater. In the 20th century playwrights wrote for the Yiddish theater in the US, and in both Europe and the US Yiddish writers continue to produce lyrics, short stories, and novels. Prominent among modern Yiddish writers are Sholem Asch and Isaac Bashevis Singer. YIVO, founded in Vilnius in 1925 and later transferred to New York, is the principal institution for the study of Yiddish literature. ... log in or subscribe to read full text

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The Blackwell Dictionary of Judaica



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