A review of Bilha Shilo's "Ein Drama in Akten. Die Restitution der Sammlungen de... more A review of Bilha Shilo's "Ein Drama in Akten. Die Restitution der Sammlungen des Wilnaer YIVO"
This article explores the unlikely collaboration by seminal language scholars Heinz Kloss and Sol... more This article explores the unlikely collaboration by seminal language scholars Heinz Kloss and Solomon Birnbaum to create a Chair for Yiddish in Weimar Germany on the eve of Hitler's rise to power.
Handbuch der Literaturen aus Czernowitz und der Bukowina, 2023
An overview of the First Yiddish Language Conference (held in Czernowitz in 1908), its reception,... more An overview of the First Yiddish Language Conference (held in Czernowitz in 1908), its reception, and contemporary resonances.
This article (in Yiddish) recreates a lost chapter in the history of Yiddish Studies and German a... more This article (in Yiddish) recreates a lost chapter in the history of Yiddish Studies and German academic politics - the attempt to create a university Chair for Yiddish in Weimar Germany by an unlikely pair brought together by academic interest and practical need: Orthodox Jewish scholar Solomon Birnbaum and German nationalist scholar Heinz Kloss, who joined the Nazi Party and became a renowned scholar of language minority rights after WWII.
The plan to create a Chair for Yiddish at the University of Vilnius, Lithuania (previously the Po... more The plan to create a Chair for Yiddish at the University of Vilnius, Lithuania (previously the Polish Stefan Batory University) not long after the outbreak of WWII was cause more for acrimonious debates among Yiddishists than for collective rejoicing. Given the highly politicized and factious nature of interwar Jewish society, this should come as little surprise. The case of the Chair reflects as much personal rivalries and antagonisms as it does differing perspectives among Yiddishists on the very value and viability of secular Yiddish culture at a moment that was widely understood to represent a crossroads in Jewish history. Beyond this, it offers an opportunity to examine relationships between Jews and their neighbours in Eastern Europe in this tense period and to consider contemporary Yiddishists’ own evaluations of prospects for extraterritorial national cultural autonomy for Jews in differing political environments.
Zukunft der Sprache – Zukunft der Nation? Verhandlungen des Jiddischen und Jüdischen im Kontext der Czernowitzer Sprachkonferenz, 2022
In the following discussion, Weinreich’s perspective on the First Yiddish Language Conference in ... more In the following discussion, Weinreich’s perspective on the First Yiddish Language Conference in Czernowitz and his changing understanding of its meaning for Yiddish will be traced across five decades. Naturally, understanding the nature of this evolution means understanding as much about Weinreich’s personal evolution as it does about the times in which he lived. For the sake of convenience, his life may be divided into three phases: 1. His youth and early adulthood (1894–1924) 2. The years 1925–1939, during which he established himself in Vilna, Poland as YIVO’s guiding spirit and an internationally renowned scholar 3. And finally, 1940–1958, when he transformed YIVO into an Americanized institution in New York City.
This article examines debates in Poland since the 1860s concerning Jews’ naming practices and att... more This article examines debates in Poland since the 1860s concerning Jews’ naming practices and attempts to resolve the practical and social problems they engendered. Polemics within the Jewish press in Poland, particularly in Warsaw’s Yiddish dailies, reveal competing conceptions of what constitutes an authentic and socially appropriate Jewish name. They also reflect changing perceptions of Yiddish, which had left its stamp on the inventory of names used by Ashkenazic Jews, and its growing place in urban life.
Noah Prylucki (1882-1941), a leading Jewish cultural and political figure in pre-Holocaust Easter... more Noah Prylucki (1882-1941), a leading Jewish cultural and political figure in pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe, was a proponent of Yiddishism, a movement that promoted secular Yiddish culture as the basis for Jewish collective identity in the twentieth century. Prylucki's dramatic path - from russified Zionist raised in a Ukrainian shtetl, to Diaspora nationalist parliamentarian in metropolitan Warsaw, to professor of Yiddish in Soviet Lithuania - uniquely reflects the dilemmas and competing options facing the Jews of this era as life in Eastern Europe underwent radical transformation. Using hitherto unexplored archival sources, memoirs, interviews, and materials from the vibrant interwar Jewish and Polish presses, Kalman Weiser investigates the rise and fall of Yiddishism and of Prylucki's political party, the Folkists, in the post-World War One era. Jewish People, Yiddish Nation reveals the life of a remarkable individual and the fortunes of a major cultural movement that has l...
A review of Bilha Shilo's "Ein Drama in Akten. Die Restitution der Sammlungen de... more A review of Bilha Shilo's "Ein Drama in Akten. Die Restitution der Sammlungen des Wilnaer YIVO"
This article explores the unlikely collaboration by seminal language scholars Heinz Kloss and Sol... more This article explores the unlikely collaboration by seminal language scholars Heinz Kloss and Solomon Birnbaum to create a Chair for Yiddish in Weimar Germany on the eve of Hitler's rise to power.
Handbuch der Literaturen aus Czernowitz und der Bukowina, 2023
An overview of the First Yiddish Language Conference (held in Czernowitz in 1908), its reception,... more An overview of the First Yiddish Language Conference (held in Czernowitz in 1908), its reception, and contemporary resonances.
This article (in Yiddish) recreates a lost chapter in the history of Yiddish Studies and German a... more This article (in Yiddish) recreates a lost chapter in the history of Yiddish Studies and German academic politics - the attempt to create a university Chair for Yiddish in Weimar Germany by an unlikely pair brought together by academic interest and practical need: Orthodox Jewish scholar Solomon Birnbaum and German nationalist scholar Heinz Kloss, who joined the Nazi Party and became a renowned scholar of language minority rights after WWII.
The plan to create a Chair for Yiddish at the University of Vilnius, Lithuania (previously the Po... more The plan to create a Chair for Yiddish at the University of Vilnius, Lithuania (previously the Polish Stefan Batory University) not long after the outbreak of WWII was cause more for acrimonious debates among Yiddishists than for collective rejoicing. Given the highly politicized and factious nature of interwar Jewish society, this should come as little surprise. The case of the Chair reflects as much personal rivalries and antagonisms as it does differing perspectives among Yiddishists on the very value and viability of secular Yiddish culture at a moment that was widely understood to represent a crossroads in Jewish history. Beyond this, it offers an opportunity to examine relationships between Jews and their neighbours in Eastern Europe in this tense period and to consider contemporary Yiddishists’ own evaluations of prospects for extraterritorial national cultural autonomy for Jews in differing political environments.
Zukunft der Sprache – Zukunft der Nation? Verhandlungen des Jiddischen und Jüdischen im Kontext der Czernowitzer Sprachkonferenz, 2022
In the following discussion, Weinreich’s perspective on the First Yiddish Language Conference in ... more In the following discussion, Weinreich’s perspective on the First Yiddish Language Conference in Czernowitz and his changing understanding of its meaning for Yiddish will be traced across five decades. Naturally, understanding the nature of this evolution means understanding as much about Weinreich’s personal evolution as it does about the times in which he lived. For the sake of convenience, his life may be divided into three phases: 1. His youth and early adulthood (1894–1924) 2. The years 1925–1939, during which he established himself in Vilna, Poland as YIVO’s guiding spirit and an internationally renowned scholar 3. And finally, 1940–1958, when he transformed YIVO into an Americanized institution in New York City.
This article examines debates in Poland since the 1860s concerning Jews’ naming practices and att... more This article examines debates in Poland since the 1860s concerning Jews’ naming practices and attempts to resolve the practical and social problems they engendered. Polemics within the Jewish press in Poland, particularly in Warsaw’s Yiddish dailies, reveal competing conceptions of what constitutes an authentic and socially appropriate Jewish name. They also reflect changing perceptions of Yiddish, which had left its stamp on the inventory of names used by Ashkenazic Jews, and its growing place in urban life.
Noah Prylucki (1882-1941), a leading Jewish cultural and political figure in pre-Holocaust Easter... more Noah Prylucki (1882-1941), a leading Jewish cultural and political figure in pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe, was a proponent of Yiddishism, a movement that promoted secular Yiddish culture as the basis for Jewish collective identity in the twentieth century. Prylucki's dramatic path - from russified Zionist raised in a Ukrainian shtetl, to Diaspora nationalist parliamentarian in metropolitan Warsaw, to professor of Yiddish in Soviet Lithuania - uniquely reflects the dilemmas and competing options facing the Jews of this era as life in Eastern Europe underwent radical transformation. Using hitherto unexplored archival sources, memoirs, interviews, and materials from the vibrant interwar Jewish and Polish presses, Kalman Weiser investigates the rise and fall of Yiddishism and of Prylucki's political party, the Folkists, in the post-World War One era. Jewish People, Yiddish Nation reveals the life of a remarkable individual and the fortunes of a major cultural movement that has l...
This volume includes over twenty essays regarding the relationship between select "Key Concepts" and antisemitism in the academic and public realms.
Written by leading scholars from a range of disciplines, each chapter highlights the history of a particular concept, details its various uses and changing meanings over time, and highlights its central role in the current study of and debates regarding antisemitism.
Structured around concepts rather than chronology or geography, the volume is designed as a pedagogical tool for scholars teaching undergraduate and graduate courses about antisemitism, the Holocaust, and Genocide Studies as well as about other forms of prejudice and hatred.
Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism also serves as an up to date reference book for scholars and students embarking on new research projects or those interested in learning more about the study of antisemitism and its relationship to other fields.
A review of Jess Olson's biography of the remarkable Jewish cultural and political activist Natha... more A review of Jess Olson's biography of the remarkable Jewish cultural and political activist Nathan Birnbaum, whose career spanned Zionism, Yiddishism, and anti-nationalist Orthodoxy.
A review of Marc Volovici's German as a Jewish Problem. The Language Politics of Jewish Nationali... more A review of Marc Volovici's German as a Jewish Problem. The Language Politics of Jewish Nationalism. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2020.
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Panel discussion hosted by Polin Museum of Polish Jewish History via Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofPOLINMuseum/videos/509434393561832/?fref=tag
This volume includes over twenty essays regarding the relationship between select "Key Concepts" and antisemitism in the academic and public realms.
Written by leading scholars from a range of disciplines, each chapter highlights the history of a particular concept, details its various uses and changing meanings over time, and highlights its central role in the current study of and debates regarding antisemitism.
Structured around concepts rather than chronology or geography, the volume is designed as a pedagogical tool for scholars teaching undergraduate and graduate courses about antisemitism, the Holocaust, and Genocide Studies as well as about other forms of prejudice and hatred.
Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism also serves as an up to date reference book for scholars and students embarking on new research projects or those interested in learning more about the study of antisemitism and its relationship to other fields.