|
Yiddish was the mother-tongue of the vast majority of Eastern European Jewry.
It was a richly expressive language, based on medieval German, spiced with
Hebrew, Russian and Polish words, and written in Hebrew characters. It was
the language spoken in the home and workplace, in contrast to Hebrew which
was used for prayer.
Along with the Yiddish tongue came a rich and varied folk culture including
badchanim (wedding jesters and rhymesters), folk musicians and Broder singers -
itinerant male singers performing comic musical sketches. All of these
entertainers would appear in Purim plays, which for centuries were the
only form of theatre in Yiddish.
Yiddish theatre drew directly on these traditions, but it only developed
after Yiddish had emerged as a literary language in the second half of the
nineteenth century. Many of the early Yiddish writers were followers of the
Haskalah (the movement for Jewish enlightenment) and saw the advantages of
communicating in Yiddish, the language of the Jewish masses.
|
Print Page
