This paper will discuss how Yiddish and Yiddish culture figure in the European cultural landscape today. Once the language of millions of East European Jews and Jewish migrants in Europe, Yiddish all but vanished as a result of the Holocaust and the repression of Yiddish culture in the Soviet Union. But in the past two decades Yiddish, not just as a language but also as a culture, has become a more visible part of Europe’s Jewish heritage. The so-called klezmer revival of the 1980s brought a larger public in contact with Yiddish culture. Resurrecting a seemingly forgotten musical tradition contemporary klezmorim made Jewish folk music and Yiddish song an established part of the world music landscape. The resulting rediscovery of Yiddish culture has also led to an increasing number of Yiddish language summer courses attracting non-academics and academics alike. In academia, a growing interest in Yiddish Studies has led to an increase in possibilities to study Yiddish on various levels. All this suggests a growing interest in Yiddish culture. Yet what is often labelled as a ‘Yiddish revival’ is in reality a multi-faceted phenomenon that has little to do with a revival in the true sense of the word. This paper aims to qualify the increasing attention to Yiddish culture in Europe and analyse its various public expressions. It will discuss the divergence of interest and backgrounds between Western Europe and the historic heartland of Yiddish in Eastern Europe. While paying close attention to the wider context of the more general public interest Jewish heritage in Europe it will also argue that attention for the Yiddish part of Europe’s Jewish heritage fits into a broader context of increasing attention to migration processes in European history as well as its minority cultures & languages.

1. Presenting the Yiddish past
in contemporary Europe
Jewishness in Contemporary Culture:
American and European Perspectives
Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, 17-18 May 2011
Gerben Zaagsma
Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies
University College London
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2. Introduction
public history in Europe: Memoria e Ricerca
“Public history beyond the state: Presenting the Yiddish past in
contemporary Europe”
Yiddish = stateless: who takes responsibility for saving/promoting/
presenting the Yiddish past when it does not exclusively belong to
one country?
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3. Questions
how are Yiddish, its culture and its speakers, inscribed in
representations of Jewish history in Europe?
how is Europe’s ‘Yiddish past’ presented in institutional and non-
institutional settings?
who is involved?
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4. Structure
Yiddish ‘revival’?
Yiddish in pre- and post-war Europe
Yiddish and the Jewish heritage boom?
presenting the ‘Yiddish past’: Western vs. Central/Eastern Europe
the role of Europe
concluding remarks
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5. Yiddish revival?
Oxford English Dictionary
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6. Yiddish revival?
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7. Yiddish revival?
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8. Yiddish revival?
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9. Yiddish revival?
mistakes or equates an interest in cultural phenomena with an
interest in the language itself: “Yiddish without Yiddish” (Helen
Beer)
tendency „to reduce the Yiddish heritage merely to its musical
aspect and to some scraps of folklore” (Yitshok Niborsky)
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10. Europe’s ‘Yiddish past’
qualify the engagement with Yiddish, its culture and speakers, in
contemporary Europe
what is there beyond music?
Yiddish ‘history’ in public settings such as museums, websites,
walking tours, etc.
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11. Yiddish in pre-war Europe
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12. Yiddish in pre-war Europe
Western Europe: language of migrants
‣ Western Yiddish: demise during Haskalah and emancipation
‣ post-1880 migration: Eastern Yiddish returns
‣ different migratory trajectories and differences in acculturation:
varying numbers of speakers and linguistic attachments on eve of
WWII: Britain versus France
Central and Eastern Europe: main Jewish language
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13. Yiddish in post-war Europe
75% of world’s Yiddish speakers perished during Holocaust
Western Europe: 2nd/3rd generations abandon language
Central and Eastern Europe: repression alongside modest
“continuation”
so: pockets of Yiddish activity
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14. Yiddish & the (Jewish) heritage boom
growing preoccupation with heritage in Europe since early 1980s
creation of a “Jewish space” in the 1990s (Diana Pinto) and
following decades: beyond the Holocaust
post-1989 Central and Eastern Europe: revaluation of region’s
Jewish histories
more than Jewish context:
‣ reappraisal of histories of minority groups in the post-colonial era
‣ migration as a political and cultural theme in Europe
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15. Western Europe:
Jewish migrants & Yiddish culture
Jewish museums:
‣ reflect a community’s self-understanding
‣ narratives that emphasised succesful emancipation & upward
social mobility
‣ ommision of Jewish migrants> reproduced conflicts &
tensions between established Jewish communities/elites and
migrants
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16. Western Europe:
Jewish migrants and Yiddish culture
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17. Western Europe:
Jewish migrants and Yiddish culture
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18. Western Europe:
Jewish migrants and Yiddish culture
community initiatives:
private institutions, walking tours, internet blogs or websites, etc.
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19. Western Europe:
Jewish migrants and Yiddish culture
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20. Western Europe:
Jewish migrants and Yiddish culture
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21. Western Europe:
Jewish migrants and Yiddish culture
migration institutions in Europe:
part of a global phenomenon: International Network of Migration
Institutions (UNESCO and IOM) 2006
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22. Western Europe:
Jewish migrants and Yiddish culture
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23. Western Europe:
Jewish migrants and Yiddish culture
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24. Eastern Europe:
Jewish history as Yiddish history?
Jewish history to a large extent Yiddish history
killing fields of the Holocaust
ancestral lands of many American/Israeli Jews
Jewish history related activity driven by tourism and funded from
abroad
example: Poland
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25. Eastern Europe:
Jewish history as Yiddish history?
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26. Eastern Europe:
Jewish history as Yiddish history?
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27. Eastern Europe:
Jewish history as Yiddish history?
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28. Eastern Europe:
Jewish history as Yiddish history?
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29. Eastern Europe:
Jewish history as Yiddish history?
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30. Europe and Yiddish
Dovid Katz: Yiddish as a quintessentially European language...
“European more than anything else quite simply because it has thrived
across the time and space of medieval and modern Europe”
European role in preserving Yiddish heritage
Council of Europe:
‣ 1987: ‘Resolution on the Jewish contribution to European culture’
‣ 1995: conference on Yiddish Culture in Vilnius
‣ 1996: recommendation on Yiddish culture
‣ 1998: European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
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31. Europe and Yiddish
1996 recommendation on Yiddish culture: the assembly regrets ...
“that at present the main centres for Yiddish culture are outside
Europe: in Israel and the United States of America. For historical and
cultural reasons, Europe should take steps to encourage and develop
within Europe centres for Yiddish culture, research and language”
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32. Europe and Yiddish
1998: European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
‣ Finland (1994)
‣ The Netherlands (1996)
‣ Sweden (2000)
‣ Romania (2007)
‣ Poland (2009)
‣ Bosnia and Herzegovina (2010)
example charter effects: Sweden
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33. Europe and Yiddish
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34. Europe and Yiddish
preserving and presenting Yiddish online: the Internet
funding for large scale digitisations projects
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35. Europe and Yiddish
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36. Europe and Yiddish
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37. Concluding remarks
increase in interest/attention for Europe’s ‘Yiddish past’
impulses, actors and platforms vary:
Western Europe:
‣ migration as a theme: Jewish migrants and Yiddish culture included in
revised narratives in Jewish museums and migration institutions
‣ state indirectly involved as a funder
‣ beyond Jewish institutions: non-Jewish actors & venues (Cité in Paris)
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38. Concluding remarks
increase in interest/attention for Europe’s ‘Yiddish past’
impulses, actors and platforms vary:
Central/Eastern Europe:
‣ demand for heritage from abroad
‣ non-state & non-local Jewish actors
‣ new bottom-up initiatives
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39. Concluding remarks
Europe as an actor: role in preserving and promoting Yiddish
culture
importance of the Internet which reaffirms status of Yiddish as a
transnational language & culture
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40. Concluding remarks
to be continued...
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