New York: Fordham University Press, 1997. — 320 p.
ISBN: 0-8232-1695-0
This study explores the jewish cultural ideology known as Yiddishism through an analysis of the positions of the four most prominent participants in the First Yiddish Language Conference in Czernowitz (Cernauti), Bukovina, in 1908. During this Conference, at which the Yiddish language was proclaimed to be a "national language" of the Jewish people, Yiddishism drew attention as a distinct ideological trend in Jewish life. The book traces the social, political, and literary roots of Yiddishism up until the Conference, anti attempts to clarify what it was that caused the devotees of Yiddish to develop into a distinct ideological grouping. It discusses the positions and activities of Nathan Birnbaum, Yitzkhok Leybush Peretz, Matisyohu Mieses, and Chaim Zhitlovsky before, during, and following the Conference. It attempts a summation of the chief factors in the growth and decline of Yiddishism and tries to assay its strengths and weaknesses in the context of modern Jewish life.