Readings in Yiddish Ethnography, Dialectology, and Folklore

A list of selected online resources

(open links in a separate window, or tab, by using right-hand mouse click)

PHOTO: Pawel Figurski

Bershad, 2002


1. Living memory, ethnography, history

Yizkor Books online (New York Public Library)

Yizkor Books Project (JewishGen)

Shtetl Links (JewishGen)

Photos, Documents, Maps – 51 shtekekh in Lite (Eilat Gordin Levitan)

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2. Heritage tourism and roots (re)search

Routes to Roots (Miriam Weiner)

Witness to a Jewish Century (Centropa)

Jewish Genealogy Web Index (Ted Margulis)

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3. Dialectology and history of Yiddish

Samples of Southwestern Yiddish (from Elsass)

Reb Itzig Bische's moschelich
performed by Rabbi Max Warschawski

Lazare Metzger's memoir

Claude Vigée

Marcel Mordechai Sulzer of Grussenheim

Two Passover songs
in Southwestern Ashkenazi Hebrew by André Neher

Dialogue on preparations for Pesakh
performed by Rabbi Max and Rebbetzin Mireille Warschawski

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Evidence of Yiddish Documented in European Societies

EYDES site

EYDES index

their OLD site

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LCAAJ Collection of Spoken Yiddish (Columbia University)
interviews of the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazi Jewry
to listen to some samples go here.

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Samples of Northeastern ("Lithuanian") Yiddish
Ms Brunia Kur (born in Horodok)

The film on Horodok with a Brunia's Yiddish commentary

Three poems about prewar childhood

A poem about her mother

A poem about her coming back to her shtetl

A poem telling how she was saved and joined the partisans

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LITVISH, An Atlas of Northeastern Yiddish
by Dovid Katz, Vilnius University, in preparation:
Questionaire

Sample Map 1

Sample Map 2

Downloadable articles in PDF
YIDDISH entry
by Dovid Katz, forthcoming YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe

Origins of Yiddish Dialectology
by Dovid Katz, 1988

Zur Dialektologie des Jiddischen
"Yiddish Dialectology" by Dovid Katz, 1983

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Samples of Southern Eastern Yiddish

Mideastern ("Polish") Yiddish

Southeastern ("Ukrainian") Yiddish (from Romania)

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4. Folklore: some collections and resources

Yiddish song: an A-Z of research
an annotated bibliography by Abbi Wood

Index to Yiddish Songs
"mafteah leshirim be-yidish", JNUL

Jewish Rituals and Customs
bibliography by Eliezer Segal , University of Calgary

On the Phonoarchive of Jewish Folklore
(in Vernadsky Library, Kiev)
by L. Sholokhova

Jewish folklore in Israel
(Overview, references, list of professional periodicals)

RAMBI Index of Articles in Jewish Studies
The Jewish National and University Library (JNUL)

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5. Recent Yiddish ethnographic and oral history projects

The Last Shtetl Jews (Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Lithuania, see also the Questionaire)

Expeditions across Belarus (Minsk; see also Dr Dmitri Slepovitch's PAGE)

Oral history interview guidelines (Oral History Staff , USHMM, 1998; PDF)

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6. Digitalized video collections

Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies (Yale University Library)

Shoa Foundation Institute (University of Southern California)