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The Jewel in the Yiddish Crown

2012, Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 24

The plan to create a Chair for Yiddish at the University of Vilnius, Lithuania (previously the Polish Stefan Batory University) not long after the outbreak of WWII was cause more for acrimonious debates among Yiddishists than for collective rejoicing. Given the highly politicized and factious nature of interwar Jewish society, this should come as little surprise. The case of the Chair reflects as much personal rivalries and antagonisms as it does differing perspectives among Yiddishists on the very value and viability of secular Yiddish culture at a moment that was widely understood to represent a crossroads in Jewish history. Beyond this, it offers an opportunity to examine relationships between Jews and their neighbours in Eastern Europe in this tense period and to consider contemporary Yiddishists’ own evaluations of prospects for extraterritorial national cultural autonomy for Jews in differing political environments.

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