In the second haft of the nineteenth century, Jewish nationalism
developed in Europe. One vital form of this nationalism that took
root at the beginning of the twentieth century in Eastern Europe
was the Yiddishist movement, which held that the Yiddish language
and culture should be at the center of any Jewish nationalist
efforts. As with most European concepts of folklore, the
romantic-nationalist ideas of J. G. Herder on the volk were crucial
in the formulation of the study and collection of Yiddish folklore.
Herder's volk, however, denoted the peasantry, whereas Polish
Jewry were an urban population. This difference determined the
focus and pioneering work that this group of collectors
accomplished. Defining the Yiddish Nation examines how these
folklorists sought to connect their identity with the Jewish past
but simultaneously develop Yiddishism, a movement whose eventual
outcome would be an autonomous Jewish national culture and a break
with the biblical past.
Itzik Nakhmen Gottesman analyzes the evolution of Yiddish
folklore and its role in the creation of Yiddish nationalism in
Poland between the two world wars. Gottesman studies three
important folklore circles in Poland: the Warsaw group led by
Noyekh Prilutski, the S. Ansky Vilne Jewish Historic-Ethnographic
Society, and the Ethnographic Commission d the Yivo Institute in
Vilne.
This book is much more than a study of the evolution of one
particular folklore tradition, it is a look into the formation of a
nationalist movement. Defining the Yiddish Nation will prove
invaluable for scholars of Jewish studies and Yiddish folklore.
General
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