Contemporary Hasidic Yiddish

The overarching aim of our research is to provide the first in-depth description of the grammatical features of the Yiddish used in Hasidic communities worldwide, to analyse their implications for linguistic theory, and to investigate the sociolinguistic context of Hasidic Yiddish using the Stamford Hill community as a case study. Yiddish was the everyday language of Eastern European Jews over the last millennium. In the interwar period, the Yiddish landscape comprised three traditional dialects and a standardised variety. The Holocaust and concomitant historical events contributed to a major decrease in the number of Yiddish speakers to the extent that it has become an endangered language. Today, Yiddish is overwhelmingly spoken by followers of Hasidism (a strictly Orthodox spiritual movement within Judaism). Yiddish-speaking Hasidic communities are dispersed globally with the largest centres in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv area in Israel, the New York area in the US, Antwerp in Belgium, and London's Stamford Hill. Even amongst scholars there is little appreciation of the fact that Yiddish is used as a daily language in these Hasidic communities. Consequently, few studies exist on Hasidic Yiddish language use, and none offer detailed grammatical descriptions.

Our project builds on a pilot study on the grammar of Stamford Hill Hasidic Yiddish, which revealed a number of characteristics that differ dramatically from the traditional dialects and Standard Yiddish, demonstrating that this is a distinct variety of Yiddish with its own rules. The first objective of our proposed project is to expand on these findings by conducting an in-depth examination of the spoken and written Yiddish used in six Hasidic communities worldwide (together comprising an overwhelming majority of Hasidic Yiddish speakers) to probe the question whether the language of these communities constitutes a cohesive linguistic system, Hasidic Yiddish. In our pilot study, we have uncovered an interconnected web of grammatical changes strongly suggesting an implicational relationship between them. The rate at which this grammatical shift occurred was so rapid (within the space of a single generation), and so pervasive (changing the typological character of the language) that it constitutes a remarkably rare phenomenon. Our second objective is to examine the significance of such rapid, pervasive and interconnected changes for linguistic theory. The third objective of our project is to determine the sociolinguistic context underpinning this linguistic development using the Stanford Hill community as a case study. We will investigate speakers' language attitudes, their proficiency, multilingualism, Yiddish language education, and speaker attitudes to the written language.

Our research will be relevant to scholars including linguists specialising in Germanic languages; language change and contact; minority and endangered languages; as well as to Jewish Studies, Genocide Studies, and Religious Studies scholars. Our work will also have a direct impact on the lives of contemporary Hasidic Yiddish speakers: First, by putting the unique nature of Hasidic Yiddish centre stage, we will provide speakers with a framework to enable them for the first time to conceptualise and recognise the special value of their language and to gain a deeper understanding of its history and development. Second, we will raise awareness of Hasidic Yiddish among scholars and the general public. We will do this through continued personal contact with our speakers, and through a number of public events including a series of social evenings facilitating cultural and knowledge exchange between Hasidic and non-Hasidic people, and through collaboration with a Hasidic charity on a youth heritage project. We will also hold two festivals of Yiddish and an academic conference open to the public to celebrate this extraordinary language.

The Yiddish language is a fundamental cornerstone of Ashkenazi Jewish society, in terms of its history and culture. It is the medium of many thousands of books, songs, and poems. This shared mother-tongue connected the geographically dispersed Jewish people across Europe. After the Holocaust, Yiddish language and culture have been widely perceived to be in terminal decline, with ever-decreasing numbers of speakers. However, in actual fact the Yiddish language continues to thrive as the everyday vernacular of roughly 750,000 Hasidic people around the world, with major centres in Israel, London, Antwerp, and the New York area. Although many people are unaware of this, even in the close proximity of such areas, Yiddish is being passed on to the next generations as the norm in these communities, while this has not generally been the case in Yiddish-speaking families outside the strictly Orthodox world. Perhaps surprisingly, despite the fact that recent decades have seen a blossoming of interest in Yiddish language and culture worldwide, the language of the Hasidic communities has been largely neglected as an object of study. Parallel to this, there is in fact relatively little appreciation in the Hasidic communities themselves of the unique role which they play in the preservation of the Yiddish language, as well as of the worth of the language itself. Simultaneously, government and community institutions in areas with large Hasidic populations are becoming increasingly aware of their role in fostering greater cross-community cohesion across Hasidic and non-Hasidic communities, and have recognised the centrality of the Yiddish language to this endeavour.

Our project thus provides an exceptional opportunity to raise awareness of the relevance of Hasidic Yiddish among Hasidic and non-Hasidic people. Specifically, it will be of interest to three distinct groups of non-academic beneficiaries. First, members of the Hasidic communities worldwide interested in their language and cultural heritage will be able to gain a better understanding of the unique characteristics of their language and an enhanced appreciation of its significance and value. Second, members of the public interested in Yiddish and more generally in Jewish culture and/or minority languages spoken in multilingual settings will have the chance to experience this widely-spoken but largely unfamiliar variety of the language. Finally, our work is of great relevance to public bodies in the UK including Ofsted, Hackney Council, and the Jewish Museum, with whom we have been in contact and who are seeking to gain and facilitate a deeper understanding of Hasidic culture.

We aim to reach these groups through our three-pronged public engagement strategy. First, we will cooperate with the Interlink Foundation, a Hasidic charity based in Stamford Hill, on a Hasidic cultural heritage project, which will engage young Hasidic Yiddish speakers in the community. Second, we will run a series of social and cultural events entitled 'Yiddish Tish' which will provide a meeting point for Hasidic and non-Hasidic people to interact both in Israel and in the UK. Third, we will organise a day-long Festival of Yiddish in Israel and another in London to showcase the outcome of the cultural exchange between the participants in the Yiddish Tish events. The London Festival will coincide with our project closing conference, which itself will be free and open to the public, thereby offering an opportunity for all three groups of beneficiaries to gain a better understanding of Hasidic Yiddish.