Yiddish Songs from Prague
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F25%3A10505172" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/25:10505172 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004730823_010" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004730823_010</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004730823_010" target="_blank" >10.1163/9789004730823_010</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Yiddish Songs from Prague
Original language description
A relatively extensive collection of 43 songs (or poems) from Prague, mostly written in Yiddish, sometimes in Yiddish and Hebrew, is part of Rabbi David Oppenheim's collection, which is stored at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Most of these printed songs date from the second half of the 17th century and the first two decades of the 18th century, but some are a hundred years older. The article suggests that we understand this corpus as a representative sample of local production and attempts to identify who its typical authors were and which song genres were most frequently published. It also points out certain similarities (or analogies) - in terms of themes, genres, and function - between Yiddish religious songs and the contemporary production of devotional Catholic songs in the Czech environment. Similar to Christian songs, Yiddish and Hebrew songs served for religious education and perhaps even as an ideological weapon. In conclusion, based on contemporary testimonies, it recalls the special role and popularity of music, singing, and local authors and foreign performers of synagogue songs in the culturally limited world of Prague's Jewish town, but also speculates again on the possibility that the higher number of religious Yiddish songs from Prague represented in Oppenheim's collection could be a remnant of Jewish opposition to contemporary Catholic propaganda. The distinctly Baroque themes and emotionality bring these songs closer to contemporary non-Jewish productions, and the author suggests that, despite all the differences between religions and cultural groups, we should consider similar themes more in terms of shared space, shared experiences, and shared emotionality.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
C - Chapter in a specialist book
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60500 - Other Humanities and the Arts
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Book/collection name
Bridges of Knowledge: Jewish Languages in Cultural Context
ISBN
978-90-04-73081-6
Number of pages of the result
23
Pages from-to
189-211
Number of pages of the book
318
Publisher name
Brill
Place of publication
Leiden
UT code for WoS chapter
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