Ashkenazi Settlement in Rhineland and its Movement Eastwards

Yiddish as the vernacular language of Ashkenazi Jews

Yiddish

• Do you speak yiddish?• What yiddish words do you use?• What yiddish words do you know?

Yiddish

• Do you speak yiddish?• What yiddish words do you know?– Cholent – from the Latin calentem (kept warm) –

developed from the Mediterranean cassoulet

Yiddish

• Do you speak yiddish?• What yiddish words do you know?– Cholent – from the Latin calentem (kept warm) –

developed from the Mediterranean cassoulet– Jarmulka – from the Arameic yira malkhah – fear

of the king

Yiddish

• Do you speak yiddish?• What yiddish words do you know?– Cholent – from the Latin calentem (kept warm) –

developed from the Mediterranean cassoulet– Jarmulka – from the Arameic yira malkhah – fear

of the king– Pamelech – slowly – from Slavic pomalu

Yiddish

• Do you speak yiddish?• What yiddish words do you know?– Cholent – from the Latin calentem (kept warm) –

developed from the Mediterranean cassoulet– Jarmulka – from the Arameic yira malkhah – fear

of the king– Pamelech – slowly – from Slavic pomalu– Shlimazel – schelcht (bad in German) mazel (luck

in hebrew)

Yiddish

• Do you speak yiddish?• What yiddish words do you know?– Cholent – from the Latin calentem (kept warm) –

developed from the Mediterranean cassoulet– Jarmulka – from the Arameic yira malkhah – fear of the

king– Pamelech – slowly – from Slavic pomalu– Shlimazel – shelcht („bad“ in German) mazel

• Diminutive suffixes – from Slavic langugages : – Shtetl – Städt (town in German) – Shtetl - Shtetle

Slavic Languages

• Western Slavic Languages: Polish, Slovak, Czech, Sorbian (Lusatian Serbian)

• Eastern Slavic L.: Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian

• Southern Slavic: Slovene, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian

Languages in Europe

Indoeuropean• Roman• German• Slavic• Baltic• Celtic

Ural• Ugrofinnic

Languages in Europe

Indoeuropean• Roman : Spanish,

Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, Corsican, Lombard, Occitan, Gascon, Sardinian, Sicilian, Venetian, Neapolitan

• German• Slavic• Baltic• Celtic

Ural• Ugrofinnic

Languages in Europe

Indoeuropean• Roman• German: English, German,

Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Faroese, Yiddish

• Slavic• Baltic• Celtic

Ural• Ugrofinnic

Languages in Europe

Indoeuropean• Roman• German• Slavic• Baltic• Celtic: Welsh, Irish, Scottish

Gaelic, Breton

Ural• Ugrofinnic

Languages in Europe

Indoeuropean• Roman• German• Slavic• Baltic• Celtic

Ural• Ugrofinnic: Hungarian,

Estonian, Finish

Hamito - Semitic Languages

Berber• Spoken in parts of Morocco,

Algeria, etc.

Semitic• Arabic• Hebrew• Arameic

National Composition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

• Multilingualism – rule of cultivated families that were naturally polyglot

• Ten recognized national languages: German, Italian, Magyar, Czech, Polish, Ruthenian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, Romanian – e.g. in Galicia the classroom

instruction was conducted in as many as four languages including yiddish

– Various mixtures esp. in the border zones

• A journalist Charles Rappaport : "I speak ten languages -- all of them in Yiddish."

Yiddish

• Yiddish – West German language, spoken by 4 million people;

• According to some linguists developped from Cerfati (based on medieval French)

• spoken by 4 million people

• Independent litterature in yiddish mainly since the 19th C

• André Ochodlo – Polish singer, sings contemporary yiddish poetry

• Western Germanic language• Some linguists claim its similarities

with Lusatian (Western Slavic language)

Ashkenazi Jews• Jews in Italy, Northern

France (southern France more Sefardi), England, Germany, Bohemia, Poland, Russia etc.

• Ashkenaz = Germany / Central Europe

• In the Middle Ages less developped culture that in islamic Sefarad where Jews were much more tolerated than in Christian areas.

• Jews came to Central Europe as free merchants, mainly through Italy

• Northern France• London• Germany – Rhineland – Mainz,

Worms, Speyer• General litteracy (men and

women, boys since the age of four) in an age when almost everyone was illiterate + knowledge in mathematics, multilingualism

Ashkenazi Jews

• Rhineland – 9th and 10th C.– Jewish merchants from

Italy, France, Spain imported luxury goods from the Oriental countries, Iberian penninsule, Sicily, North Africa spices, incense, silk and brocade

• Mainz (Rhineland) – the oldest Jewish

settlement, since 903– On a crossroad of

important trade routes– Jews expulsed in 1084

but were alowed to come back – the oldest synagogue documented in 1093

Ashkenazi Jews

• Speyer (Rhineland)– Preserved parts of a

medieval synagogue from 1104 – the oldest on the north of the Alps

– Preserved romanesque mikvah from 1128

– Medieval cemetery with 45 tumbs from 12th -15th C

Ashkenazi Jews

• Worms (Rhineland)– A synagogue documented in 1034,

renewed in 1174• Double nave• Part for women added in the 13th c• Model for the synagogues in Regensburg

and in Prague (Alteneueshul)• Destroyed by Nazis in 1938 and 1942• Renewed in 1958-1961

– The oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe – 60 tumbs from 11th and 12th centuries

– Mikvah – 1185 – modeled after the mikvah in Speyer

– Rashi from Troyes studied here in 1060-1065• Ashkenaz Language = German

Ashkenazi Jews

• 11th and 12th c. – crusades bloody pogroms (Worms, Mainz, Speyer)

• 13th c. – Jews became dependent on the royal power and were gradually isolated from their neighbourhood– „servi camerae regiae“

• 1215 – IV. Lateran Council– Jews have to carry a

special sign– Consistent separation of

Jews and Christians– Jews are not allowed to

own or rent any land– Limited in crafts– Merchants, money

lenders

Ashkenazi Jews

• Since the 13th c. Jews expulsed from England (1290), since the 14th c. From France (1306) and from Germany (1348 – bulbonic plague – practically only the community in Worms renewed) moved Eastward

• Ashkenazi culture is less varied than the Sefardi one – on constant escape they focused rather on Torah = Law than on poetry or philosophy

Prague, Cracow• Both towns first mentioned by a

Jewish merchant Ibrahim Ibn Jakub in the 10th c. (965)

• On important trade routes

Prague– First Jewish settlement around the Maltese

Sq. (synagogue burned in 1142)– First Jewish cemetery around Míšeňská St.– Settlement around the present day Spanish

synagogue since 11th/12th c. (smaller part)– Larger Jewish settlement around the

Alteneueshul since 12th/13th c. – Ghetto since 1215, separated with walls

and gates– Old-New synagogue (Alteneueshul) – the

oldest surviving and functioning synagogue on the North of the Alps – 13th c.

Prague• Otakar II of Bohemia – 1253 –

servi camerae regiae• Charles IV

– Prague became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire in the mid 14th c.

– Nuremberg – pogrom and destruction of the Jewish houses to make place to the church of Our Lady

• 1389 – large pogrom reported by Avigdor Kara

• Hussites– Jan Hus was interested in hebrew

and in Rashi

• Reformation in Germany – Luther - antisemitic

• Bohemian Brethern – Czech reformation – sympathised with Jews, took care of Jewish cemeteries, etc.

• Around 1600 – Maharal, David Gans

• In 1729 the Prague Jewish community with its 12796 inhabitants was the second largest one in Europe after Istanbul

PragueCheb Bible (Eger) • Czech words in hebrew

caracters > Jews here spoke Czech and currently had Czech names

• http://bodleian.thejewishmuseum.org/?page_id=149

Rivka Tiktiner– The first yiddish writer (mameloshn)– Menekhet Rivka (Rivka´s Nurse)

• Ethical treatise for women• Published shortly after 1600 in

Prague and in Cracow• First book by a Jewish woman• Ideal of a religious woman• a vivid picture of the domestic

life of middle-class Ashkenazi Jewish women in the Renaissance

• The book is addressed to “young, inexperienced women”

– Preached to women, daughter of a rabbi – exceptional education

– Simkhes toyre lid – From polish town Tykocin near

Bilalystok– Died in 1550, buried at the Prague

old Jewish cemetery

Cracow• 14th c. : Golden age under Casimir

the Great (in Prague Charles IV) – last ruler from the Piast dynasty– Charles IV and Casimir the Great

made a peace covenant : the Czech king rennounced formally on the Polish crown and Silesia was added to the Bohemian lands since

– Casimir the Great welcomed Jews from the Western Europe

• 1364 founded university (in Prague 1348) – second oldest in the Central Europe

• Kazimierz – Jewish quarter established after

the expulsion of Jews from the town – right behind the town walls

– oldest surviving synagogue dates from the 15th c.

– Jews worked in salt industry – important mines in Wieliczka (in Germany in Halle)

– Jews traditionally worked in wine making (e.g. Rashi) and newly in vodka making

– Jews were musicians, tailors etc.– Jews worked in finance

• http://commonwealth.pl/

Old Synagogue in Kazimierz