Ashkenazi Settlement in Rhineland
and its Movement Eastwards
Yiddish as the vernacular language of
Ashkenazi Jews
Hamito - Semitic Languages
Berber
• Spoken in parts of Morocco,
Algeria, etc.
Semitic
• Arabic
• Hebrew
• Arameic
– the language of Talmud; a
language spoken in entire
Middle East 2000 years ago
Languages in Europe
Indoeuropean
• Roman
• German
• Slavic
• Baltic
• Celtic
Ural
• Ugrofinnic
Slavic Languages
• Western Slavic
Languages: Polish,
Slovak, Czech, Sorbian
(Lusatian Serbian)
• Eastern Slavic L.:
Russian, Belarussian,
Ukrainian
• Southern Slavic: Slovene,
Serbian, Croatian,
Bulgarian
Languages in Europe
Indoeuropean
• Roman
• German: English, German,
Dutch, Norwegian, Danish,
Swedish, Icelandic, Faroese,
Yiddish
• Slavic
• Baltic
• Celtic
Ural
• Ugrofinnic
Yiddish
• Western Germanic
language, shaped before
1150
• spoken by 4 million people
• Independent litterature in
yiddish mainly since the
19th C
Origins of Yiddish
• Laaz/ Loetz
– N – based on French
(Cerfati)
– S – based on Italian
• Knaan
– Lishon Knaan – based on
old Czech
– Western Slavic language
– Extinct due to the
expansion of yiddish –
last traced in the 16th c.
– Used in the Czech lands,
Poland and Lusatia
– Slavic influences in
yiddish through Knaanic
Yiddish
• Do you speak yiddish?
• What yiddish words do you use?
• What yiddish words do you know?
Yiddish
• Do you speak yiddish?
• What yiddish words do you know?
– Cholent (Tsholnt) – Northern Loez (Laaz) - from
the Latin calentem (kept warm)
• Spelled CLNT in the 13th c. by a Jew from Knaan
Yiddish
• Do you speak yiddish?
• What yiddish words do you know?
– Cholent (Tsholnt) – Northern Loez (Laaz) - from
the Latin calentem (kept warm)
– Jarmulka – from the Arameic yira malkhah – fear
of the king
Yiddish
• Do you speak yiddish?
• What yiddish words do you know?
– Cholent – from the Latin calentem (kept warm) –
developed from the Mediterranean cassoulet
– Jarmulka – from the Arameic yira malkhah – fear
of the king
– Pamelech – slowly – from Knaanic (Slavic) pomalu
• Diminutive suffixes – from Slavic langugages :
– Shtetl – Städt („town“ in German) – Shtetl - Shtetle
Geography
• Zarfat/ Carfat – N France
• Loter/ Ashkenaz - Germany
• Knaan – Slavic Lands
• Rus - Eastern Slavic Lands
– Hypothetical Khazar Empire – 8th- 12th c. –
between Black and Caspian Sea
Ashkenazi Jews
• Rhineland – 9th and
10th C.
• Oldest communities
–
–
–
–
Trier
Aachen
Cologne
‫שום‬
• Speyer
• Worms
• Mainz
Ashkenazi Jews
• Mainz (Rhineland)
– the oldest Jewish
settlement, since 903
– On a crossroad of
important trade
routes
– Jews expulsed in 1084
but were alowed to
come back – the
oldest synagogue
documented in 1093
• Speyer (Rhineland)
– Preserved parts of a
medieval synagogue
from 1104 – the
oldest on the north
of the Alps
– Preserved
romanesque mikvah
from 1128
– Medieval cemetery
with 45 tumbs from
12th -15th C
Ashkenazi Jews
• Worms (Rhineland)
– A synagogue documented
in 1034, renewed in 1174
• Model for the synagogues
in Regensburg and in
Prague
– The oldest surviving Jewish
cemetery in Europe – 60
tumbs from 11th and 12th
centuries
– Mikvah – 1185
– Rashi from Troyes studied
here in 1060-1065
• 11th (since 1095) and 12th c. – crusades to free God´s
tumb from muslims – on the way massacred Jews
bloody pogroms (Worms, Mainz, Speyer)
• 13th c. – Jews became dependent on the royal power
and were gradually isolated from their neighbourhood
– „servi camerae regiae“
1215 – IV. Lateran Council
–
–
–
–
–
Jews have to wear a distinctive garb
Consistent separation of Jews and Christians
Jews are not allowed to own or rent any land
Limited in crafts
Merchants, money lenders - medieval antisemitism often
inspired by economy reasons
Ashkenazi Jews
• Since the 13th c. Jews
expulsed from England
(1290), since the 14th c.
From France (1306) and
from Germany (1348 –
bulbonic plague –
practically only the
community in Worms
renewed)  moved
Eastward
• Ashkenazi culture is less
varied than the Sefardi
one – on constant
escape they focused
rather on Torah = Law
than on poetry or
philosophy