The Semantics of Nineteenth Century Yiddish Periodical Titles in Romania. Identity and Community Subjects and Recurrences
The Semantics of Nineteenth Century Yiddish Periodical Titles in Romania. Identity and Community Subjects and Recurrences

Summary/Abstract: In the nineteenth century, the press was a fundamental means of expression whereby Jewish society manifested its desire to be a part of modernity and of the major social changes in the “great history”. Yiddish periodicals were an essential part of this new way of expression, by which Jewish society adjusted itself to the parameters of modernity. Through their concentrated and concise expression, the titles of Yiddish periodicals are an illustrative indicator of the main currents of ideas, debates, realignments and redefinitions of identity in Jewish society. The semantic analysis of these titles of Yiddish periodicals from nineteenth century Romania reveals several thematic sequences, which delineate corresponding semantic series: the first circumscribes the identity issue and, primarily, the identity typology of Zionism, revealing the materialisation in public sphere of some type-characters such as the colonist, the emigrant, or the traveller; the second has a civic-political content, reflecting the establishment of modern typologies such as the public figure (the politician) and the exemplary figure (the hero) in the public sphere; the third refers to community issues, illustrating the emergence of new types of authority figures in the public sphere, such as the advisor, the observer, the awakener, or the compass; and the fourth is related to words or names that are compounds of the word “folk” (Volk) or “people’s” (Volks). The titles of Yiddish periodicals epitomise within discourse some key elements that mark the evolution of the history-reality of the Jews in Romania.

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