Crossing the Ocean: When Yiddish Left Home

What happened when millions of Yiddish speakers crossed the Atlantic? The ship was more than a vessel – it was a space where time dissolved, borders blurred, and language began to fragment. Through close reading of Y.D. Berkowitz’s haunting story Fun Beyde Veltn (“From Both Worlds”), we’ll follow Devorah, an elderly immigrant woman whose journey to America becomes a descent into silence and isolation. Comparing the Yiddish and Hebrew versions of the story reveals how language itself fractures under the pressure of migration. The ocean crossing marks the moment when Yiddish began its transformation from a rooted communal language to something more precarious and hybrid.

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