A West Germanic language that developed from Middle High German dialects, with an admixture of vocabulary from multiple source languages including Hebrew-Aramaic, Romance, Slavic, English, etc., and written in Hebrew characters which is used mainly among Ashkenazic Jews from central and eastern Europe
Yiddish is a language which comes mainly from German and is spoken by many Jewish people of European origin. a language based on German used by older Jewish people, especially those who are from Eastern Europe Hebrew
Productions of the professional Yiddish theatre. European Jewish drama originated in the Middle Ages, when dancers and jesters entertained at Purim celebrations. By the 16th century, these entertainments had become elaborate plays performed in Yiddish, the language of the majority of central and eastern European Jews. The professional Yiddish theatre dates from 1876, when Abraham Goldfaden (1840-1908) wrote a well-received musical sketch in Romania and organized a troupe to perform his songs and plays. In 1883 anti-Semitic laws in Russia that forbade Yiddish plays compelled many actors and playwrights to immigrate to England and the U.S. The playwright Jacob Gordin (1853-1909) brought new material and adaptations to the U.S. Yiddish theatre, including The Jewish King Lear (1892), starring Jacob P. Adler, founder of a family of Yiddish-and English-speaking actors. In 1918 Maurice Schwartz founded and directed the Yiddish Art Theatre, which trained actors such as Jacob Ben-Ami and Muni Weisenfreund (later known as Paul Muni). World War II destroyed most Yiddish culture in eastern Europe, and by the late 20th century only a few Yiddish theatres survived in New York City, London, Bucharest, and Warsaw
Language of Ashkenazic Jews and their descendants (see Ashkenazi), written in the Hebrew alphabet. Yiddish developed from southeastern dialects of Middle High German carried into central and eastern Europe beginning in the 12th century; it has been strongly influenced by Hebrew and Aramaic, from which it draws 12-20% of its lexicon. The isolation of eastern European speakers from High German and their exposure to Slavic languages, particularly Polish and Ukrainian, led to a primary distinction between West and East Yiddish dialects. From the late 18th century most Jews remaining in central Europe gave up Yiddish in favour of German; it has now virtually died out. East Yiddish dialects differ markedly in realization of vowels; there are central, northeastern, and southeastern dialects. A flourishing literary language in the 19th and early 20th century, Yiddish declined dramatically due to suppression, massive migration, assimilation, and Nazi genocide. The language nevertheless continues to flourish among the ultra-Orthodox Hasidim in numerous countries and among secular students of Yiddish at leading universities, including Columbia University (New York), Hebrew University (Jerusalem), McGill University (Montreal), the University of Oxford, and the University of Paris. Yiddish is spoken by three million people worldwide
~ The "international language" of Ashkenazic Jews, based primarily on German with words taken from Hebrew and many Slavic languages, and written in the Hebrew Alphabet
A language based on medieval Rhineland German used by Jews in eastern, northern, and central Europe and in areas to which Jews from these regions migrated It also contains elements of Hebrew, Russian, and Polish, and it is commonly written in Hebrew characters
(contracted from Yidish-daytsh, i e , Jewish-German) Language used by *Ashkenazi Jews Yiddish is related to German, but has many Slavic, Hebrew, and Aramaic words, and is written in the Hebrew script Before the Holocaust, there were estimated to be 11 million speakers