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Yiddish Civilisation by Paul Kriwaczek
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Yiddish Civilisation

The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation

The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation

By Paul Kriwaczek

By Paul Kriwaczek

By Paul Kriwaczek

By Paul Kriwaczek

Best Seller
Paperback $22.00

Oct 31, 2006 | ISBN 9781400033775

Ebook $4.99

Dec 18, 2007 | ISBN 9780307430335

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    Yiddish Civilisation by Paul Kriwaczek
    Paperback $22.00
    Oct 31, 2006 | ISBN 9781400033775

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    See All Formats (1) +
    • $22.00

      Oct 31, 2006 | ISBN 9781400033775

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Dec 18, 2007 | ISBN 9780307430335

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Buy the Ebook:

    About Yiddish Civilisation

    Paul Kriwaczek begins this illuminating and immensely pleasurable chronicle of Yiddish civilization during the Roman empire, when Jewish culture first spread to Europe. We see the burgeoning exile population disperse, as its notable diplomats, artists and thinkers make their mark in far-flung cities and found a self-governing Yiddish world. By its late-medieval heyday, this economically successful, intellectually adventurous, and self-aware society stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Kriwaczek traces, too, the slow decline of Yiddish culture in Europe and Russia, and highlights fresh offshoots in the New World.Combining family anecdote, travelogue, original research, and a keen understanding of Yiddish art and literature, Kriwaczek gives us an exceptional portrait of a culture which, though nearly extinguished, has an influential radiance still.

    About Yiddish Civilisation

    Paul Kriwaczek begins this illuminating and immensely pleasurable chronicle of Yiddish civilization during the Roman empire, when Jewish culture first spread to Europe. We see the burgeoning exile population disperse, as its notable diplomats, artists and thinkers make their mark in far-flung cities and found a self-governing Yiddish world. By its late-medieval heyday, this economically successful, intellectually adventurous, and self-aware society stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Kriwaczek traces, too, the slow decline of Yiddish culture in Europe and Russia, and highlights fresh offshoots in the New World.Combining family anecdote, travelogue, original research, and a keen understanding of Yiddish art and literature, Kriwaczek gives us an exceptional portrait of a culture which, though nearly extinguished, has an influential radiance still.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

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    About Paul Kriwaczek

    Paul Kriwaczek was born in Vienna in 1937 and, with his parents, narrowly escaped the Nazis in 1939, fleeing first to Switzerland and then to England. He grew up in London and graduated from London Hospital Medical College. After several… More about Paul Kriwaczek

    About Paul Kriwaczek

    Paul Kriwaczek was born in Vienna in 1937 and, with his parents, narrowly escaped the Nazis in 1939, fleeing first to Switzerland and then to England. He grew up in London and graduated from London Hospital Medical College. After several… More about Paul Kriwaczek

    Product Details

    Category: World History | Religion

    Paperback | $22.00
    Published by Vintage
    Oct 31, 2006 | 400 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9781400033775

    Category: World History | Religion

    Ebook | $4.99
    Published by Vintage
    Dec 18, 2007 | 400 Pages | ISBN 9780307430335

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    Praise

    “A highly enjoyable and surprisingly positive account of how Jewish culture helped shape European history and vice versa.” –The Sunday Telegraph “An outstanding survey. . . . Kriwaczek tracks the origins, flowering, and destruction of this unique, vibrant, and tenacious culture with a fine mixture of pride, regret, and eloquence.” –Booklist“Evocative and precise. . . . An enjoyable narrative that captures the intricacies of a very complicated history.”–Publishers Weekly“Informative and very entertaining . . . conjures up and re-creates baroque images and marvelous set pieces of feverish activity, long lost towns and shtetls [as well as] wonderful pictures of lost communities of Jews.”–The Irish Times

    Table Of Contents

    List of Illustrations

    Acknowledgments

    Maps

    Introduction

    1 Bist a Yid?
    Roots schmoots!
    Nostalgie de la boue

    2 The Jews of Rome
    A basket and a truss of hay

    3 From the Mediterranean to the Baltic
    As strange as a circumcised unicorn
    Sennan and zippan

    4 The Remaking of Western Europe
    Charles’s elephant
    New borders, new allegiances
    Drang nach osten

    5 At the Crossroads
    In every castle a king
    A blessing upon mieszko, king of poland

    6 The New Yiddish World
    The language
    The literature
    The religion
    The scholarly tradition

    7 Political Consolidation
    Landowners, merchants, artisans, servants
    At the jewish inn

    8 The Reformation
    Hussites
    Luther
    Now a miracle happened

    9 The Yiddish Renaissance
    Cracow
    Prague
    Dovid gans

    10 Wide Horizons
    Wealth and honour
    The great divide

    11 The Deluge
    The cossacks
    Poverty and disgrace

    12 Decline . . .
    Who permits the forbidden
    The holy creed of edom
    The famous ba’al shem tov,
    May his light long shine
    Oppose them strongly

    13 . . . and Fall
    The “jewish problem”
    Words that fall on us like lashes
    Shakespearean tragedy

    14 A Winter Flowering
    Notes
    Bibliography
    Index

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