Development of Modern Yiddish Culture - Essay Example

‘Yiddish’ is a language that refers to the cultural heritage of the Ashkenazi Jews residing in the regions of Eastern Europe. The culture itself was rich having its roots in the deepest of music, theatre and literature. A Jewish settlement in the eastern side of Europe by the name of shtètl was considered the heart of Yiddish culture. The very name of the settlement depicts the diversity and the richness of culture the place harbored within till the fateful time of the holocaust. In spite of being unable to compose music through literal means, the culture has a true expression of music achieved through nothing more than improvisation and inspirations from the local folklore. From the initial days of the Yiddish, there were a few prayer books for women but were merely translations of existing Hebrew scripts. The first of the books published originally in Yiddish was “Come Out and See”, more commonly known by slurring of the name as ‘Tsenerena’; written in the early 1600s. It was written for women, who generally did not read Hebrew and were not as well-versed in biblical commentary, so it is an easier read than some of the Hebrew commentaries written for men. When secular Jewish fiction began to emerge, the religious authorities of that time did not approve of these irreverent Yiddish writings dealing with modern secular and frivolous themes. Some strictly observant people refused to even set type for these writers because they were so offended by their works, but Jewish people throughout Europe embraced them wholeheartedly and treasured them. Foundations of the Yiddish theatre can be traced back to Abraham Haim Lipke Goldfaden who was (at that time) a pioneer of Yiddish plays. He wrote and produced numerous plays while travelling throughout Eastern Europe.
The culture, as we all know, was not preserved and was laid bare to the brutalism of the Nazis and the communists… however; certain movements took place during that period in order to modernize the Jews and the Yiddish culture. Two of these movements are of great significance regarding the enlightenment of the Jews in Eastern Europe i.e. Haskole (Haskalah) and Hasidism (Hasidic Judaism).
Haskole is a word of Yiddish, the alternative of which in Hebrew is Haskalah. The movement began in the late 1880s its aim was to enlighten the Jews of Eastern Europe through better mixing of the Jews with the eastern societies so that they could learn and live the ways of their neighbors in order to acquire a wider horizon. Haskole encouraged education in secular studies and Jewish History. The major purpose of the movement was to engage as many Jews as possible into acquiring more awareness from the ‘outside’ secular world. The movement is still considered a milestone in Jewish history which triggered other religious and political movements.
In spite of the persecution faced by the Jews residing in Eastern Europe in that era, the movement of Haskole led to greater assimilation of the Jews into other European cultures. This awareness of Jews contributed towards a better and more modernized Yiddish culture and also to the joining of certain Haskole personalities which joined the Gentile Government in order to promote and secure proper education of the Jews. These people played an important role in forming the modern Yiddish culture.
Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (1698–1760) was the founder of the movement of Hasidism which came out to fulfill the spiritual gap felt by many Jews at that time. The movement began at a time when the Jews of Eastern Europe were in great turmoil and were met with great opposition from other Jews. The movement aims to implant two fundamental conceptions in the minds of its followers. The first being: the omnipresence of God; meaning that one should believe in the presence of God everywhere and ‘in’ everything, be it an opaque solid object of no importance at all, be it any landscape we visualize or be it the very soul of ours. The second concept leads to the belief in communion between man and God. A sense of union between the Creator and the creation, a connection between the two that an act of the creation affects the Creator, and the will of any one of the two inspires the other. Such a state of communion can only be attained by bending all thoughts onto God and by seeking His opinion in all the affairs of life.
The movement transpired great levels of spirituality amongst the Yiddish and the culture was more than affected by this movement. Read More