Paul KriwaczekYiddish Civilisation
The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Maps
Introduction
1 Bist a Yid?
Roots schmoots!
Nostalgie de la boue
2 The Jews of Rome
A basket and a truss of hay
3 From the Mediterranean to the Baltic
As strange as a circumcised unicorn
Sennan and zippan
4 The Remaking of Western Europe
Charles’s elephant
New borders, new allegiances
Drang nach osten
5 At the Crossroads
In every castle a king
A blessing upon mieszko, king of poland
6 The New Yiddish World
The language
The literature
The religion
The scholarly tradition
7 Political Consolidation
Landowners, merchants, artisans, servants
At the jewish inn
8 The Reformation
Hussites
Luther
Now a miracle happened
9 The Yiddish Renaissance
Cracow
Prague
Dovid gans
10 Wide Horizons
Wealth and honour
The great divide
11 The Deluge
The cossacks
Poverty and disgrace
12 Decline . . .
Who permits the forbidden
The holy creed of edom
The famous ba’al shem tov,
May his light long shine
Oppose them strongly
13 . . . and Fall
The “jewish problem”
Words that fall on us like lashes
Shakespearean tragedy
14 A Winter Flowering
Notes
Bibliography
Index