The language of a thousand years of European Jewish civilization that was decimated in the Nazi Holocaust, Yiddish has emerged as a vehicle for young people to engage with their heritage and identity. Although widely considered an endangered language, Yiddish has evolved as a site for creative renewal in the Jewish world and beyond in addition to being used daily within Hasidic communities. Yiddish Lives On explores the continuity of the language in the hands of a diverse group of native, heritage, and new speakers. The book tells stories of communities in Canada and abroad that have resisted the decline of Yiddish over a period of seventy years, spotlighting strategies that facilitate continuity through family transmission, theatre, activism, publishing, song, cinema, and other new media. Rebecca Margolis uses a multidisciplinary approach that draws on methodologies from history, sociolinguistics, ethnography, digital humanities, and screen studies to examine the ways in which engagement with Yiddish has evolved across multiple planes. Investigating the products of an abiding dedication to cultural continuity among successive generations, Yiddish Lives On offers innovative approaches to the preservation, promotion, and revitalization of minority, heritage, and lesser-taught languages.

"How Montreal's Yiddish community ensured its lasting cultural importance and influence."--WorldCat.

Discusses, among other subjects, the Canadian Jewish press's coverage of antisemitism in Canada (particularly in Quebec). The first Jewish newspaper (the "Jewish Times") was published in December 1897 in order to defend Jews against malignant statements circulated by the newspapers at the time of the Dreyfus case. Relates to discriminatory practices before World War II, the immigration restrictions against Jewish Holocaust refugees, the improved opportunities for Jews after the war, and the reactions to the trials of Ernst Zundel and Jim Keegstra.

Acknowledgements Introduction 1. A Child of the North End, 1912-1929 2. A Political Education, 1929-1940 3. It Did Happen Here, 1933-1940 4. The Defence of Canada, 1940-1942 5. The School Board Years, 1942-1962 6. The Cold War in Manitoba, 1945-1962 7. A Shield for the Poor, 1940-1986 8. A Communist at City Hall, 1962-1971 9. The Unicity Years, 1972-1983 Epilogue People Interviewed Bibliography Index

The texts collected in this volume unveil the practice and the methods of the translators and scholars who contributed to the reemergence of Yiddish in contemporary Canada. Each of the personalities discussed enlarged the historical position and interpreted various aspects of the Yiddish language in Montreal that until recently remained obscure or inaccessible. -- Les textes rassemblés dans ce volume tentent de lever le voile sur la démarche et les méthodes des traducteurs et chercheurs qui ont contribué à la réémergence du yiddish dans le Canada contemporain. Ces traducteurs et chercheurs ont élargi l’assise historique et interprété de nombreux aspects de la langue yiddish à Montréal, aspects qui jusque-là demeuraient obscurs et inaccessibles.