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The Conversation
The Conversation
Ilan Stavans, Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture, Amherst College

Yiddish’s ‘revival’ points to its resilience as a portable homeland – and a global reach, from Russia to Mexico to the US

A sculpture by Deboray Kass that says 'Yo' from one side and the popular Yiddish expression 'Oy' from the other stood on display in Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York in 2015. AP Photo/Kathy Willens

I grew up in Mexico City, and when people find out that one of my native languages is Yiddish, they think I am pulling their leg. Isn’t that a Jewish language? Mexico? Impossible. Maybe you should write a science fiction novel that imagines Yiddish on Mars.

Actually, there is one already. In the 1950s, Ukrainian Argentine writer Velvl Tshernovetski published “Erev der Ferter Velt-Milkhome: Hines, di Kenign fun Mars,” which translates as “On the Eve of the Fourth World War: Hines, the Queen of Mars.”

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