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September 11, 2024
to December 15, 2024
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The Yiddish language underwent a radical transformation in the ghettos and camps under Nazi occupation. New realities demanded new words. According to one estimate, there were around 3,000 words and phrases that were added or drastically changed in the Yiddish language. One simply couldn’t describe the ghetto or camp using prewar vocabulary alone. But, the change went far beyond new descriptions of new objects: the very rules of communication also transformed in significant ways. In her lecture, Pollin-Galay will discuss language experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto as an example of the larger phenomenon of “Khurbn Yiddish.”
די ייִדישע שפּראַך האָט זיך געענדערט אויף אַ ראַדיקאַלן אויפן אין די געטאָס און לאַגערן אונטערן נאַצי–אָקופּאַציע. נײַע ווירקלעכקייטן האָבן געפאָדערט נײַע ווערטער. לויט איין אָפּשאַצונג, האָט מען צוגעגעבן (אָדער געביטן) אַן ערך 3,000 נײַע ווערטער און ווערטערלעך צו דער יידישער שפּראַך. מע האָט פּשוט ניט געקענט באַשרײַבן דעם געטאָ אָדער לאַגער נאָר מיטן פאַר–מלחמהדיקן וואָקאַבולאַר. אָבער עס רעדט זיך ניט בלויז וועגן נײַע ווערטער פאַר נײַע שילדערונגען אַליין: די כּללים פון קאָמוניקאַציע זײַנען אויך דורכגעגאַנגען אַ טיפע ענדערונג. אין איר רעפעראַט, וועט פּראָפ׳ פּאָלין–גלאי אַרומרעדן די איבערלעבונגען פון שפּראַך–טראַנספאָרמאַציעס אין וואַרשעווער געטאָ אַלס אַ בײַשפּיל פונעם גרעסערן פענאָמען פון ׳׳חורבן–ייִדיש.׳׳
Hannah Pollin-Galay is Associate Professor in the Department of Literature at Tel Aviv University, where she is also Head of the Jona Goldrich Institute for Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture. Pollin-Galay researches and teaches primarily in the fields of Yiddish literature and Holocaust Studies, and has recently begun to foray into the field of ecocriticism. Her first book, Ecologies of Witnessing: Language, Place and Holocaust Testimony came out with Yale University Press in 2018 and her second, Occupied Words: What the Holocaust Did to Yiddish (U Penn Press, 2024) asks how the Holocaust changed the Yiddish language. She is currently working on a project exploring the fraught connections between Jews and non-human nature, across time and space. In addition to being a 2024-2025 Senior Scholar at the Fortunoff Archive for Holocaust Testimony at Yale University, Pollin-Galay is also a Yiddish Book Center Translation Fellow, where she is translating Yiddish ecopoetry from the Holocaust.
Toronto Workmen's Circle Foundation and the California Institute for Yiddish Language & Culture.
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