The Story of Yiddish: How a Mish-Mosh of Languages Saved the Jews

The last one thousand years of Jewish history is inseparable from The Story of Yiddish. Underlying Neal Karlen's unique, brashly entertaining, yet thoroughly researched telling of the language's story is the notion that Yiddish is a mirror of Jewish history, thought, and practice--for better AND worse.

The story of how this mish-mosh of languages saved the Jews is told In the best story-telling tradition and soild, scholarly research of Robin McNeil and Robert McCrumm's The Story of English, and Simon Winchester's The Meaning of Everything,

Yiddish--an oft-considred "gutter language--is an unlikely survivor the ages, much like the Jews themselves. Its survival has been an incredible journey, especially considering how often Jews have tried to kill it themselves.