Judaic Studies

GERMAN AND SCANDINAVIAN, FOLKLORE — How does an oral Yiddish folk story become what is perhaps the most famous of all modern Jewish literary fantasies? Associate Professor of Scandinavian Gantt Gurley's research on this very question about the legend of golem is illuminating.

The perpetrators of World War II left mass destruction in their wake across much of Europe, physically and culturally. A new book, co-edited by Miriam Chorley-Schulz, assistant professor and Mokin Fellow of Holocaust Studies, examines cultural activities, the political engagement and the work of cultural activists who remained in Eastern Europe after the war, specifically related to Yiddish language and culture. 

The Judaic Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences recently acquired some important materials in Yiddish, including a complete and pristine set of the Soviet Yiddish journal, “Sovetish Heymland." Yiddish is a language originally spoken by Jews from Central and Eastern Europe and their descendants and combines elements of German, Hebrew, Aramaic and various Slavic and Romance languages.