Yiddish Paris : staging nation and community in interwar France / Nicholas Underwood.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Underwood, Nick, 1977- author.

Series:

Modern Jewish experience (Bloomington, Ind.)

The Modern Jewish Experience

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--France--Paris--History--20th century.

Jews.

Jews, Polish--France--Paris--Intellectual life.

Jews, Polish.

Yiddishists--France--Paris--Intellectual life.

Yiddishists.

Yiddish language--France--Paris.

Yiddish language.

Paris (France)--Ethnic relations.

Paris (France).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 245 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2022]

Summary:

"Yiddish Paris explores how Yiddish-speaking emigrants from Eastern Europe in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s created a Yiddish diaspora nation in Western Europe and how they presented that nation to themselves and to others in France. In this meticulously researched and first full-length study of interwar Yiddish culture in France, author Nicholas Underwood argues that the emergence of a Yiddish Paris was depended on "culture makers," mostly left-wing Jews from Socialist and Communist backgrounds who created cultural and scholarly organizations and institutions, including the French branch of YIVO (a research institution focused on East European Jews), theater troupes, choruses, and a pavilion at the Paris World's Fair of 1937. Yiddish Paris examines how these left-wing Yiddish-speaking Jews insisted that even in France, a country known for demanding the assimilation of immigrant and minority groups, they could remain a distinct group, part of a transnational Yiddish-speaking Jewish nation. Yet, in the process, they in fact created a French-inflected version of Jewish diaspora nationalism, finding allies among French intellectuals, largely on the left"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Yiddish culture, interwar Paris, and the crisis of belonging

Institutionalizing Yiddish cultural life in Paris

Cultural and intellectual strongholds are stronger than all others

Drama in Yiddish Paris

Singing for the people and against fascism

Parisian Yiddish culture on the world's stage

Conclusion: From rassemblement to resistance - the Yiddish culture of antifascism in interwar Paris

Epilogue: The Marianne of Yiddishland.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-253-05981-X

0-253-05980-1

OCLC:

1260171048