The Place of Yiddish Among Near-german Languages: Yiddish Section for German Academy’s Institute of

The German Academy (Akademie zur wissenschaftlischen Erforschung und zur Pflege des Deutschtums) has published the draft programme of a projected Yiddish Section of its Near-Languages Institute. The author of the programme, Dr. Salomo Birnbaum, Lecturer in Yiddish at Hamburg University, who starts out by describing the origin and status of the Yiddish language and the extent of its employment in the world of Jewry, envisages the Yiddish Section as divided into three parts, for research, teaching and promotion respectively. The Section would publish current reports on Jewish events and developments, the cultural position of Yiddish in the various countries, with special attention to the position of the Yiddish schools and educational system, as well as the political status of the Yiddish language in the East European places of Jewish mass settlement. There would also be regular publication of reports on philological work done in Yiddish, and the Institute would probably arrange for the formation of a Yiddish library. The philological section would proceed to the publication of a Yiddish dictionary and a Yiddish grammar, both historical and of the modern Yiddish language. Special importance is attached to the publication of an etymological dictionary. There would also be research work into the history of Yiddish literature, the Yiddish theatre, etc.

Dr. Birnbaum is a son of Dr. Nathan Birnbaum, who convoked the first Yiddish language Conference held in Czernowitz 20 years ago.