Science and Yiddish Don’t Mix: Really?

Mention the word ‘Yiddish’ and images of literary works—novels and plays, short stories and drama, and works on Jewish history—instantly come to mind. But science? Certainly this was not a subject most East European Jews were interested in—or so we have been led to believe. It thus came to the author as a surprise that books on science have, indeed, been published in Yiddish, sometimes translated from other languages but just as often written originally in Yiddish. These works range from popular exposition of scientific subjects to full-length textbooks intended for use by elementary and secondary students at Jewish schools. The author’s interest in this aspect of Yiddish books soon led him to collect them. What he found was a true eye opener.