Yiddish literature

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Yiddish literature encompasses all those belles-lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus for centuries in Eastern Europe, is evident in its literature.

It is generally described as having three historical phases: Old Yiddish literature; Haskalah and Hasidic literature; and modern Yiddish literature. While firm dates for these periods are hard to pin down, Old Yiddish can be said to have existed roughly from 1300 to 1780; Haskalah and Hasidic literature from 1780 to about 1890; and modern Yiddish literature from 1864 to the present.

An important bibliography of Yiddish literature is the Leksikon Fun Der Nayer Yidisher Literatur (Lexicon of Modern Yiddish Literature) published by the Congress for Jewish Culture in 8 volumes between 1956 and 1981, containing a brief presentation of around 7,000 writers.^[1]