Abstract:

Book or newspaper? Prose or poetry? Fiction or non-fiction? Fantasy or thriller? What did East European Jews read prior to the First World War? What were the fields and materials they could read in their vernacular that was a priori considered a “Jargon” lacking any cultural value? Who were the readers of non-religious texts in Yiddish? Who were their publishers and how were these publications distributed? Where and when were these texts read? The current book provides answers to these questions and more. Its focus is Tsarist Russia between 1860 and 1914, a period characterized by significant economic, social, political and cultural changes, which influenced the Jewish community as well. Following a futile and never-ending debate regarding the legitimacy of Yiddish, a vibrant book and newspaper market developed in that language, in which almost every potential reader could find his or her preferred reading material, either by purchasing or by borrowing from various sources. During the period of time under discussion, Yiddish changed from having to defend its right to exist to demanding its full recognition as a cultural language. The large variety of publications in Yiddish at all levels and in all genres, the demand for them by readers and the adoption of Yiddishism as an ideology, attest to the real state of the language among the vast majority of the Jewish masses. This comprehensive work examines the reading habits of East-European Jews from various perspectives. It follows the multifaceted development of the secular reading in Yiddish in a community that underwent a process of shifting from a traditional to a modern society; that was widely influenced by events and processes in the surrounding societies and that reacted to them.

In Hebrew.