Origins
In 1861, Yehoshua Mordechai Lifshitz (1828–1878), who is considered the father of Yiddishism and Yiddish lexicography, circulated an essay entitled “The Four Classes” (Yiddish: di fir klasn די פיר קלאסן) in which he referred to Yiddish as a completely separate language from both German and Hebrew and the mother tongue of the Jewish people. He contended that the refinement and development of Yiddish were indispensable for the humanization and education of Jews. He also proposed Yiddish as a bridge linking Jewish and European cultures.
The first conscious, goal-oriented language reformer was Y.M. Lifshits (1828-1878). Although an adherent of the Enlightenment, he broke with its sterile anti-Yiddish philosophy, to become an early ideologue of Yiddishism and of Yiddish-language planning. He courageously stood up for the denigrated folk tongue, calling for its elevation and cultivation. He did this in the form of articles in the weekly Kol-mevaser (in the 1860s) and in his excellent Russian-Yiddish and Yiddish-Russian dictionaries .
Read more about this topic: Yiddish Renaissance
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