from:
Politics and Prose
Bookstore and Coffeehouse
October 2004
by Carla Cohen
While Aaron Lansky was saving Yiddish books, Dovid Katz was constructing a
rationale for keeping the language alive. In Words on Fire: The Unfinished
Story of Yiddish (Basic Books, $26.95), Dovid Katz, a British linguist,
says that the "culture specific language" represents a unique way
of experiencing life and viewing just about everything. He reviews the history
of the language and speaks out strongly in favor of preserving its use. Yet
much stands in the way of continued use of Yiddish, including the emphasis on
Hebrew as the "modern" language and the identification of Yiddish
now with ultra-orthodox Jews.