Hasidim as Exceptions and the Exceptionality of Yiddish

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

This session will feature three presentations considering different aspects of Hasidic culture in modern Yiddish literary discourse: the changing status of Hasidic characters in the early Yiddish fiction of Y. L. Peretz (Adi Mahalel); the uses of Hasidic thought and symbolism in 20th century neo-Hasidic" literature (Alyssa Masor), and the status of Yiddish in the complexly bilingual production of the Hasidic sermon (Daniel Reiser). By juxtaposing these presentations in a single session the interaction of Hasidim, as subject and object of cultural representation, with other linguistic and literary aspects of Yiddish culture will come more sharply into focus.

Sub Unit

• Yiddish Studies

Chair

• Justin Jaron Lewis, University of Manitoba

Individual Presentations

• Between Liberal Satire and Socialist Roots: I.L. Peretz's Hasidic Creations of the 1890's - Adi Mahalel, University of Maryland

• The Hasid as Other in Yiddish Literature - Alyssa E Masor, Columbia University

• The Hasidic Sermon and Yiddish - Daniel Reiser, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem