What does it mean to conjure a place for Yiddish—a language that has never stood alone, that has always been spoken by a minority population, usually without official recognition, throughout an international diaspora? How have writers, artists, and others conceived of Yiddish as having indigeneity, territoriality, or nationality? How have notions of Yiddishland changed over time, especially in response to the devastation of Europe’s Yiddish speech community during World War II? And what are the implications of imagining a place for Yiddish not only for the language but also for its speakers?
Jeffrey Shandler, Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University and the author, editor, and translator of sixteen books, including
Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language and Culture (University of California Press, 2005) and
Yiddish: Biography of a Language (Oxford University Press, 2020) addresses these issues and presents multiple visions of Yiddishland through cultural, literary and artistic lenses.