Lingering Bilingualism: Modern Hebrew and Yiddish Literatures in Contact (Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art)

At the beginning of the twentieth century, ambitious young writers flocked from Jewish towns and villages to cultural centers like Warsaw, Odessa, and Vilna to seek their fortunes. These writers, typically proficient in both Hebrew and Yiddish, gathered in literary salons and cafés to read, declaim, discuss, and ponder the present and future of Jewish culture. However, in the years before and after World War I, writers and readers increasingly immigrated to Western Europe, the Americas, and Palestine, transforming the multilingualism that had defined Jewish literary culture in Eastern Europe. By 1950, Hebrew was ensconced as the language and literature of the young state of Israel, and Yiddish was scattered throughout postwar Jewish communities in Europe and North and South America. Lingering Bilingualism examines these early twentieth-century transformations of Jewish life and culture through the lens of modern Hebrew–Yiddish bilingualism. Exploring a series of encounters between Hebrew and Yiddish writers and texts, Brenner demonstrates how modern Hebrew and Yiddish literatures shifted from an established bilingualism to a dynamic translingualism in response to radical changes in Jewish ideology, geography, and culture. She analyzes how these literatures and their writers, translators, and critics intersected in places like Warsaw, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and New York―and imagined new paradigms for cultural production in Jewish languages. Her aim is neither to idealize the Hebrew–Yiddish bilingualism that once defined East European Jewish culture nor to recount the “language war” that challenged it. Rather, Lingering Bilingualism argues that continued Hebrew– Yiddish literary contact has been critical to the development of each literature, cultivating linguistic and literary experimentation and innovation. "At the beginning of the twentieth century, ambitious young writers flocked from Jewish towns and villages to cultural centers like Warsaw, Odessa, and Vilna to seek their fortunes. These writers, typically proficient in both Hebrew and Yiddish, gathered in literary salons and cafés to read, declaim, discuss, and ponder the present and future of Jewish culture. However, in the years before and after World War I, writers and readers increasingly immigrated to Western Europe, the Americas, and Palestine, transforming the multilingualism that had defined Jewish literary culture in Eastern Europe. By 1950, Hebrew was ensconced as the language and literature of the young state of Israel, and Yiddish was scattered throughout postwar Jewish communities in Europe and North and South America. Lingering Bilingualism examines these early twentieth-century transformations of Jewish life and culture through the lens of modern Hebrew-Yiddish bilingualism. Exploring a series of encounters between Hebrew and Yiddish writers and texts, Brenner demonstrates how modern Hebrew and Yiddish literatures shifted from an established bilingualism to a dynamic translingualism in response to radical changes in Jewish ideology, geography, and culture. She analyzes how these literatures and their writers, translators, and critics intersected in places like Warsaw, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and New York--and imagined new paradigms for cultural production in Jewish languages. Her aim is neither to idealize the Hebrew-Yiddish bilingualism that once defined East European Jewish culture nor to recount the "language war" that challenged it. Rather, Lingering Bilingualism argues that continued Hebrew-Yiddish literary contact has been critical to the development of each literature, cultivating linguistic and literary experimentation and innovation"--Publisher's website In a famous comment made by the poet Chayim Nachman Bialik, Hebrew—the language of the Jewish religious and intellectual tradition—and Yiddish—the East European Jewish vernacular—were'a match made in heaven that cannot be separated.'That marriage, so the story goes, collapsed in the years immediately preceding and following World War I. But did the'exes'really go their separate ways?Lingering Bilingualism argues that the interwar period represents not an endpoint but rather a new phase in Hebrew-Yiddish linguistic and literary contact. Though the literatures followed different geographic and ideological paths, their writers and readers continued to interact in places like Berlin, Tel Aviv, and New York—and imagined new paradigms for cultural production in Jewish languages. Brenner traces a shift from traditional bilingualism to a new translingualism in response to profound changes in Jewish life and culture. By foregrounding questions of language, she examines both the unique literary-linguistic circumstances of Ashkenazi Jewish writing and the multilingualism that can lurk within national literary canons. In a famous comment made by the poet Chayim Nachman Bialik, Hebrewthe language of the Jewish religious and intellectual traditionand Yiddishthe East European Jewish vernacularwere a match made in heaven that cannot be separated. That marriage, so the story goes, collapsed in the years immediately preceding and following World War I. But did the exes really go their separate ways? Lingering Bilingualism argues that the interwar period represents not an endpoint but rather a new phase in Hebrew-Yiddish linguistic and literary contact. Though the literatures followed different geographic and ideological paths, their writers and readers continued to interact in places like Berlin, Tel Aviv, and New Yorkand imagined new paradigms for cultural production in Jewish languages. Brenner traces a shift from traditional bilingualism to a new translingualism in response to profound changes in Jewish life and culture. By foregrounding questions of language, she examines both the unique literary-linguistic circumstances of Ashkenazi Jewish writing and the multilingualism that can lurk within national literary canons. Only a world war could bring us such elegance: Milgroym, Rimon, and periodic bilingualism in Berlin -- Breathing Hebrew with both lungs: Hebrew and Yiddish in Palestine -- The belated bilingualism of Zalman Shneour and Y.D. Berkovitz -- Bound up in the bond of Hebrew literature: translating Yiddish in the 1940s