Review by Dov Ber Kerler

Every year a new crop of students arrive at university summer programs professing their desire to study Yiddish. While not many actually learn the language, the demand for Yiddish Studies courses has been holding steady. Every year also brings forth a new crop of Yiddish instructors - many are gifted teachers and some develop a true affinity for the language of their parents and grandparents. As this pattern continues, there is a corresponding rise in the need for new, effective, and as authentic as possible instructional material - texts and exercises as well as grammatical and idiomatic constructions.

The newly published "Key to Yiddish" uniquely fits the bill. More than a textbook, it is a comprehensive work, large in format (665 pages) and breathtaking in scope. The author, Miriam Hoffman is a respected and authoritative voice in the field of Yiddish. She is beloved by readers of the Yiddish Forward for her wry, witty, widely read columns and features, and by Yiddish theater mavens for her accomplishments as a playwright, translator and adaptor of Yiddish drama and musical comedy. Above all, she is the revered teacher and mentor of many hundreds of students at Columbia University, where she has been a Lecturer since 1992, as well as at summer programs and academic conferences in Europe and North America.

True to its title, "Key to Yiddish" serves to unlock a genuine treasure trove of Yiddish language, literature and folklore. In its 14 chapters, Hoffman indulges no artifice, nor does she over-intellectualize. Readings, translations, exercises, grammar explanations and idiomatic expressions are all masterfully interwoven and thematically and linguistically matched to the content. The culmination of the author's thirty years of experience in teaching Yiddish on all levels, this volume showcases material that has proven successful when used by teachers as well as serious students of Yiddish. The creative spirit of Yiddish folk culture, represented by folksongs, proverbs and jokes, permeates the work and becomes part of the student's linguistic and cultural consciousness. The same holds true for the aptly chosen literary readings - prose and poetry - as well as the delightful adaptations of traditional and modern Yiddish writing and East European folktales.

While its subtitle proclaims it a "textbook for beginners," and it opens with an introduction to the Yiddish alphabet accompanied by appropriate exercises, "Key to Yiddish" is most suitable for serious students at university level courses and at intensive summer programs. Over the years, I have regularly encountered scores of advanced and excellent students who credit their achievements in Yiddish studies to Miriam Hoffman's classes at Columbia. Now with the publication of her magnificent book many, many more students both nationally and internationally get the chance to master Yiddish from a great book by a great teacher even if they themselves are not fortunate to have her as their teacher.