With the kind permission of the Nathan and Solomon Birnbaum Archives, Toronto.
I am sorry I am only able to reply today. I had
just begun my reply when I
fell ill. By the way,
I do not have much to report.
When I came to
was a Germanist at the
interested in Yiddish and who had even
read
Yiddish texts with his students. Admittedly, these were merely
from
the little book
an introductory reader on the thought, life,
and language of Eastern
European Jews
rather inadequate transcription. I learned of these things
when
received from
him brought me a surprise. For he informed
me that he had applied to the
I should give Yiddish “exercise courses” at
the
and
that his request had been approved. That
was in
Yiddish
language became a subject of teaching in a modern German university.
I cannot claim that the announcement
aroused great interest. I could not
have expected it either.
Considering most German Jews’ attitude
towards
Yiddish, a lack of interest was only natural:
They knew almost
nothing about the language, yet they treated it with contempt
and loathed
it and belittled it with the
name of “Jargon.” It seems fair to assume that
resentment
had something to do with it – for they well knew that they
themselves had come
from the “ghetto” and that people there lived in
medieval darkness
and spoke “Jargon.” An objective reason for
can only exist among a small percentage of
the population, and the number
of Jews in
large. As far as non-Jews were concerned,
they were in
complete ignorance with regard to Yiddish. Accordingly,
I
had almost exclusively Jewish students.
The motives for their interest were diverse.
For some it was a national
feeling for Yiddish as
Jewish cultural heritage although they did not have
a connection to
it themselves; for Zionists it probably provided a certain
folklore
interest; for others, namely non-Jews, it was
literary,
linguistic, and theological aspects
that were crucial, as was the case with
two non-Jewish scholars.
The former deserves particular mention. He was a very
thorough and versatile
familiar with a remarkable number
of languages and literatures.
His area of interest ranged from German
philology
to English philology, classical philology, Indology, cultural
history
and cultural criticism. Our acquaintance developed into a
cordial friendship.
Here are some of my lecture titles: The Yiddish Language, an introduction;
Historical Phonology of the Yiddish Language; Reading Yiddish
Folk Songs;
Reading the Yiddish novella
of Old and New
Yiddish Bible Translations; Yiddish Texts;
The Stories of
Introduction to Yiddish Philology/Linguistics;
Older Yiddish Text; Comparative
Phonology of the Yiddish
Language; History of the Yiddish Language;
Yiddish Literature.
The Yiddish lectureship expired in the
the
I gave much thought at the time. I realized immediately what
place for Jews. To those
who considered these events as a
period that would very soon end, I replied:
“It will take at least
ten years.” Very soon I went
to
and my brother
leave
I left after Pessach.
In
a short inquiry” of me. I replied on
to send me his
question by letter. This
did not happen, but in
old address, a letter from
the
I had left and “apparently decided not to ...
carry out my lectureship.” I
can only guess what the subject
of the “short inquiry” would have been.
Perhaps they planned
to suggest that I resign.
So much for my account. Perhaps I may hope that it
will somehow be useful to
you, perhaps printed in its entirety as
MEMOIRS.
Did I know
Only too well.
In
introduced himself with a letter in
(unidiomatic) Hebrew. I
cannot remember for how long he participated.
In
initial study of modern Hebrew
literature. I did what he
asked, but
all I remember from this episode is his astonishment at the Ashkenazic
stress on the
penultimate syllable in
.
He thanked me for my efforts by giving my habilitation thesis
an unfavorable
review as an evaluator (although he
of course knew nothing about Hebrew
paleography)
and then becoming a professor in the field of Hebrew and
Jewish studies himself.
So much for my