This book explores a unique and under-researched chapter in German-Jewish cultural history: the engagement of German-speaking Jewish authors, scholars, and intellectuals with their Yiddish literary heritage. From the late eighteenth century onwards, as growing circles of the German-Jewish population shifted from speaking Yiddish to German, the once-popular early modern corpus of Old Yiddish literature ceased to be published in the German-speaking lands. But this rich literary corpus did not entirely disappear from the cultural landscape of modern German Jews. Aya Elyada shows how Old Yiddish texts continued to be retold, translated, adapted, discussed, and explored in the works of nineteenth and early-twentieth-century German Jewish authors.
In doing so, she uncovers a rich afterlife, in which these beloved Yiddish works were not only newly appreciated as historical monuments, but served as the focus of lively discussions on a range of pertinent topics within modern German-Jewish culture, including tradition and secularization, acculturation and nostalgia, emancipation and antisemitism, gender relations, and religious reform. Illuminating how modern German-Jewish authors engaged with their premodern Yiddish heritage as central to modern Jewish experience and their distinctive cultural identity, this book unfolds a new dimension to German-Jewish history, culture, and literature.
| ISBN: | 9781503645998 |
| Publication date: | 7th April 2026 |
| Author: | Aya Elyada |
| Publisher: | Stanford University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 312 pages |
| Series: | Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture |
| Genres: |
Social and cultural history Social groups: religious groups and communities European history Literature: history and criticism |
This book explores a unique and under-researched chapter in German-Jewish cultural history: the engagement of German-speaking Jewish authors, scholars, and intellectuals with their Yiddish literary heritage. From the late eighteenth century onwards, as growing circles of the German-Jewish population shifted from speaking Yiddish to German, the once-popular early modern corpus of Old Yiddish literature ceased to be published in the German-speaking lands. But this rich literary corpus did not entirely disappear from the cultural landscape of modern German Jews. Aya Elyada shows how Old Yiddish texts continued to be retold, translated, adapted, discussed, and explored in the works of nineteenth and early-twentieth-century German Jewish authors.
In doing so, she uncovers a rich afterlife, in which these beloved Yiddish works were not only newly appreciated as historical monuments, but served as the focus of lively discussions on a range of pertinent topics within modern German-Jewish culture, including tradition and secularization, acculturation and nostalgia, emancipation and antisemitism, gender relations, and religious reform. Illuminating how modern German-Jewish authors engaged with their premodern Yiddish heritage as central to modern Jewish experience and their distinctive cultural identity, this book unfolds a new dimension to German-Jewish history, culture, and literature.
A Lingering Legacy features in the following genres: Social and cultural history, Social groups: religious groups and communities, European history, Literature: history and criticism
A Lingering Legacy is available in Hardback
A Lingering Legacy was written by Aya Elyada and published by Stanford University Press
A Lingering Legacy has 312 pages
Yes it is part of Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture series
£54.00