He’s brilliant, controversial and provocative. Professor Dovid Katz joined us in a live online talk and audience Q&A session on 10th August 2021 about the dialects of Yiddish. This talk, in English, was the second in the return of our Lockdown Matone (gift) series and explored some aspects of the past, present and future of Yiddish dialects, how they compare to standard language, and the ongoing question of whether Standard Yiddish counts as a legitimate Yiddish dialect, as we move further into the 21st Century.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NYC, based in Vilnius, Lithuania and currently in the UK, Dovid Katz is one of the world’s leading Yiddish scholars and Holocaust history advocates. He is a prolific author and engaging speaker who founded Yiddish studies at Oxford, and then later in Vilnius, where he was the professor of Yiddish for many years.
He is at work on his new Yiddish Cultural Dictionary, and teaches advanced Yiddish courses online. His website is www.DovidKatz.net and he edits DefendingHistory.com.