The Yiddish and American-Jewish Beat

Responding to the editor's request for a brief report on Prooftexts' coverage of Yiddish and American-Jewish literatures, this article singles out for praise the magazine's conception of an organic, comprehensive, Jewish literary history and its emphasis on contextual studies, which are particularly important in the still-underdeveloped field of Yiddish. Certain articles are highlighted for furthering these aims. Modern theoretical approaches, including feminism, are shown to be in tension with the magazine's original priorities and will put its direction to test in the coming years.