The Revolutionary Roots of Modern Yiddish, 1903-1917

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T h e R e v o l u t i o n a r y R o o t s o f Modern Yiddish 1 9 0 3 —1 9 1 7 Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art Ken Frieden and Harold Bloom, Series Editors 1905: Zamlung (1905: Collection), edited by A. Yehudski and E. Fininberg (Melukhe farlag fun ukrayne [State Press of the Ukraine], 1925). This Yiddish-language volume, published in the Soviet Union, commemorates the 1905 Russian Revolution and contains essays, poems, and memoirs by such figures as Trotsky, Lenin, Gorky, Sholem Aleichem, I. L. Peretz, Sholem Asch, among others. T h e R e v o l u t i o n a r y R o o t s o f Modern Yiddish 1903-1917 Barry Trachtenberg Syracuse University Press Copyright © 2008 by Syracuse University Press Syracuse, New York 13244-5160 All Rights Reserved First Edition 2008 08 09 10 11 12 13 6 5 4 3 2 1 chapters 1 and 2 originally published in revised form as “The Revolutionary Origins of Yiddish Scholarship,” by Barry Trachtenberg in The Revolution of 1905 and Russia’s Jews, edited by Stefani Hoffman and Ezra Mendelsohn (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), 174–84. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pennsylvania Press. chapter 4 originally published in revised form as “Ber Borochov’s ‘The Tasks of Yiddish Philology,’” Science in Context 20, no. 2 (June 2007): 341-52. Reprinted with permission. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.∞™ For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press, visit our Web site at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu. ISBN-13: 978-0-8156-3190-3 ISBN-10: 0-8156-3190-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Trachtenberg, Barry. The revolutionary roots of modern Yiddish, 1903–1917 / Barry Trachtenberg. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Judaic traditions in literature, music, and art) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8156-3190-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Yiddish language—Russia—History—20th century. 2. Yiddish language—Social aspects—Russia. 3. Jews— Russia—Intellectual life—20th century. 4. Niger, Samuel, 1883–1955. 5. Borochov, Ber, 1881–1917. 6. Shtif, Nahum, 1879–1933. I. Title. PJ5113.T728 2008 439'.1—dc22 2008031740 Manufactured in the United States of America For Paul Hoffman, 1947–2003 Barry Trachtenberg is assistant professor of European Jewish Studies at the University at Albany, SUNY. He was trained in Jewish history at the University of California, Los Angeles (PhD), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Oxford University (postgraduate diploma) and also holds degrees from the University of Vermont (MA in U.S. history) and Rowan University of New Jersey (BA in English). He is the recipient (2008) of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his work on Yiddish in the twentieth century. ...