September 1 – October 31 2025, Tier University, Library

Yiddish is primarily a language spoken and written by Jews in German-speaking regions. In its earliest stages, the language developed from various German dialects, which were enriched with Hebrew-Aramaic and Romance elements, and later, at the end of the Middle Ages in the East, with Slavic elements as well. These languages had a major influence on the vocabulary and structure of Yiddish, which is why Yiddish is also referred to as a component language. From the outset, Yiddish was written using Hebrew letters. Modern Yiddish works are mostly written in Eastern Yiddish, while the examples presented here mainly document (early) Western Yiddish. The exhibition aims to show the diversity of early Yiddish from its beginnings to the advent of printing. To this end, various forms of writing in the Yiddish language are presented. Our evidence ranges from glosses and single-word examples, legal texts, short texts, letters and narrative texts to scientific treatises. The different genres impressively demonstrate the diverse use of the early Yiddish language.
The exhibition was conceived in Trier by the Department of Yiddish Studies and the Junior Professorship for Medieval History with a focus on Jewish history and uses parts of the exhibition ‘Vom kalten Keller und falschen Versprechen. Neue jiddische Funde aus dem Mittelalter’, which was shown in Erfurt in 2023.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Maria Stürzebecher (August 16, 2025). Exhibition: Jiddisch/ייִדיש – Von den Anfängen bis zum Buchdruck. 55 Jahre Forschung zum Jiddischen in Trier. medievalJewishStudiesNow! Retrieved November 11, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/14hdy