Yiddishkeit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yiddishkeit (yidishkeyt in standard transcription) literally means Judaism or "Jewishness" in the Yiddish language. It has come to mean the "Jewishness" or "Jewish essence" of Ashkenazi Jews in general and the traditional Yiddish-speaking Jews of Eastern and Central Europe in particular. In particular, it is associated with the popular culture or folk practices of Yiddish-speaking Jews, such as popular religious traditions, Eastern European Jewish food, Yiddish humour, shtetl life, and klezmer music, among other things.
Before the Haskalah and the emancipation of Jews in Europe, central to this was the study of Torah and Talmud for men, and a family and communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men and women. But with modernization, Yiddishkeit now encompasses not just Orthodoxy and Hasidism, but a broad range of movements, ideologies, practices, and traditions in which Ashkenazi Jews have participated and retained a sense of "Jewishness." Although few Jews still speak Yiddish, Yiddishkeit can be identified in manners of speech, in styles of humor, in patterns of association. By extension, the term can refer to emotional attachment and identification with the Jewish people. [1]
However, for Haredi Jews, Yiddishkeit refers to a life of religious observance.[2]
