Introduction

"Welcome to Yiddish at Emory", a video message by Miriam Udel.

Yiddish belongs to the Germanic group of Indo-European languages. It is also referred to as Judeo-German and is spoken by about three million people in Israel, United States, and throughout Europe and Russia. Linguists believe that the Yiddish language arose around the eleventh century in Germany and Central Europe, where Ashkenazic Jews began writing Middle German with Hebrew letters. The language continued to develop through Judaic poetry, song, and daily use in through late Middle Ages and into the modern period, borrowing from German, Hebrew, and Slavic languages. It is estimated that the number of Jews speaking Yiddish before World War II and the Holocaust was close to 11 million.

Departments & Related Programs

Department of German Studies
Institute for Jewish Studies

Emory Favorites

Yiddish Forward (newspaper)
National Yiddish Book Center
The World of Yiddish
The Yiddish Voice
Yiddish Music
Yiddish Radio Project
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Medem Library
Mendele - Online Forum for Yiddish
Shtetl - Yiddish Language and Culture
Derbay - The Anglo-Yiddish Newsletter
Alexander Harkavy's Yiddish Dictionary
Yiddish Google
Yungntruf (Youth for Yiddish)
Daf Yomi in Yiddish