Personality

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Abstract

This chapter examines the attention paid to the symbolic value of Yiddish, attributing an expressive character to the language, irrespective of semantic value. This attention becomes especially pronounced when Yiddish is engaged in the postvernacular mode—that is, when the fact that someone writes or speaks in Yiddish is deemed at least as meaningful as the content of what they have written or uttered. The attributions of a character to Yiddish range widely, from the pious to the carnivalesque, reflecting observers’ desires (or fears) as well as their self-consciousness about Yiddish in relation to other languages and to Jewish life.