Jeffrey Shandler is Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. A scholar of modern and contemporary Jewish culture, he has written, edited, or translated sixteen books. Shandler has served as president of the Association for Jewish Studies and is a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research.

The most widely spoken Jewish language on the eve of the Holocaust, Yiddish continues to play a significant role in Jewish life today, from Hasidim for whom it is a language of daily life to avant-garde performers, political activists, and LGBTQ writers turning to Yiddish for inspiration. Yiddish: Biography of a Language presents the story of this centuries-old language, the defining vernacular of Ashkenazi Jews, from its origins to the present.
Jeffrey Shandler tells the multifaceted history of Yiddish in the form of a biographical profile, revealing surprising insights through a series of thematic chapters. He addresses key aspects of Yiddish as the language of a diasporic population, whose speakers have always used more than one language. As the vernacular of a marginalized minority, Yiddish has often been held in low regard compared to other languages, and its legitimacy as a language has been questioned. But some devoted Yiddish speakers have championed the language as embodying the essence of Jewish culture and a defining feature of a Jewish national identity. Despite predictions of the demise of Yiddish-dating back well before half of its speakers were murdered during the Holocaust-the language leads a vibrant, evolving life to this day.

Acknowledgments
Author's Note
Introduction
1. Date and Place of Birth
2. Family Background
3. Residence
4. Name
5. Gender
6. Appearance
7. Health
8. Religion
9. Education
10. Literacy
11. Occupation
12. Politics
13. Personality
14. Life Expectancy
Notes
Index