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Book Reviews 111 including (for the first time) his pseudonymic articles published under his wife's name of G[enya] Kuper. In its entirety, Norich's bibliography supersedes the previous compilations of primary sources in the lexikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur (Biographical Dictionary of Modern Yiddish literature). This monograph is exceedingly well researched and written, which is no mean accomplishment considering the enormous difficulties confronting Yiddish scholars in the absence of critical text editions, insufficient library holdings, and many others normally not encountered in other literary fields. A recurring motif of this study (not surprisingly) .is the question of audience, that the resurrection of Yiddish literature is merely a literary conceit: the Yiddish texts survive but the audience disappears. This irony will surely not be lost on Norich's present and future readers (may their tribe increase!) for whom her study ought to prove a splendid pathway indeed to an important part of the Yiddish literary canon (the present canon debate in other literatures notwithstanding). Arthur THo Alt DepartmentofGermanic Languages and literature Duke University Yiddish: Turning to Life, by Joshua A. Fishman. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co., 1991. 522 pp. $110.00 (c); $37.95 (p). There was Max Weinreich, and now there is Joshua Fishman. These two names represent the very best of the academic commitment to the field of Yiddish language studies in America. As we enter the last years of this century, there could be no more timely volume than a collection of the most significant writings of Joshua Fishman, Distinguished University Research Professor, Emeritus, of Yeshiva University, and one of the true giants of Yiddish linguistic study in the world. Besides the marvel of Fishman's scholarship, there is history of the academic discipline here. Fishman trained in America as a socio-linguist and began teaching social psychology at CCNY more than forty years ago. He came to the field of Yiddish after first establishing a sound reputation in his major area of research. The introductory pieces, written by Mordkhe Schaechter and Fishman, are touchingly anecdotal and help to establish Fishman in the context of Max Weinreich's pioneering work. 112 SHOFAR Fall 1993 Vol. 12, No. 1 But the hean of this marvelous collection is the approximately two dozen essays and papers, written over a period of nearly three decades. Some are left in the original Yiddish. Most represent the impeccable scholarly apparatus which Fishman brought to the field of Yiddish. A few are for the lay reader, and occasionally one is overwhelmed by the technical side of the linguistic discipline. But, if my library were limited to one lonely volume on the study of the Yiddish language, with all its facets reflecting on the European origins, the relationship to Hebrew, the emergence out of the shtetl as a literary device after centuries of numerous inferiority complexes which eventually led to a Nobel Prize, detailed dialect studies, and the impact of the Holocaust on Yiddish, I would select this collection of Fishman's essays. He is panicularly impressive on the status of Yiddish in America. Fishman is comfonable commenting on the relationship of the Hasidic community to the future of Yiddish in this country. He writes with ease and conviction. Above all, he has the scholar's detachment for a subject he loves, obviously and with considerable passion. There are wondrous chans, elegant tables, a useful bibliography in English and transliterated Yiddish, and a terminological appendix which can walk any beginner through these pages. As if realizing that one work among all was essential, Fishman includes the entire text of Yiddish in America, which originally appeared in 1965 under the imprint of the Indiana University Research Center in Anthropology , Folklore and Linguistics, some eighty pages in this anthology. We should be eternally grateful that Professor Fishman is one of those academics who speaks clearly and writes the way he speaks. Many of these published works were addresses, and they flow along the page with the same clarity that graced their presentation in the lecture rooms of American universities. If you know a little Yiddish, it won't hun. If you know a lot, you are in for a delightful experience. If you...

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