{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JD4CBS1?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"B08JD4CBS1","authors":["Jeffrey Shandler"],"book_id":"9780190651961","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780190651961","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780190651961.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","description":"The most widely spoken Jewish language on the eve of the Holocaust, Yiddish continues to play a significant role in Jewish life today, from Hasidim for whom it is a language of daily life to avant-garde performers, political activists, and LGBTQ writers turning to Yiddish for inspiration. Yiddish: Biography of a Language presents the story of this centuries-old language, the defining vernacular of Ashkenazi Jews, from its origins to the present. Jeffrey Shandler tells the multifaceted history of Yiddish in the form of a biographical profile, revealing surprising insights through a series of thematic chapters. He addresses key aspects of Yiddish as the language of a diasporic population, whose speakers have always used more than one language. As the vernacular of a marginalized minority, Yiddish has often been held in low regard compared to other languages, and its legitimacy as a language has been questioned. But some devoted Yiddish speakers have championed the language as embodying the essence of Jewish culture and a defining feature of a Jewish national identity. Despite predictions of the demise of Yiddish - dating back well before half of its speakers were murdered during the Holocaust - the language leads a vibrant, evolving life to this day.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780190651961","publication_date":"20201027","publisher":"Oxford University Press","slug":"yiddish","subtitle":"Biography of a Language","title":"Yiddish"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"REL040000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Judaism","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}],"hint":[],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"REL040000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Judaism","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Judaism","score":1,"slug":"judaism"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Judaism","Good for readers who enjoy Judaism."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Nikki Schreiber"],"book_id":"9781648294013","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781648294013.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":5.6875,"title":"Humans of Judaism","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781648294013"},{"authors":["Harold S. 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