Creator Bio
Judah A. Joffe
1873–1966
Yiddish scholar, philologist, and lexicographer Judah A. Joffe was born in Bakhmut (in contemporary Ukraine) and came to the United States in 1891. Joffe specialized in classical and comparative philology as well as phonetics and historical English grammar. He was a strong advocate for standardized Yiddish spelling. As a musicologist and expert on Slavic languages, he contributed to several years of the International Yearbook, as well as the New International Encyclopedia (1902). In addition, Joffe translated works from Yiddish, English, and French and lectured on Russian language at Columbia University.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language
The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language has been assembled on the basis of inclusiveness—that is to say, as a dictionary which attempts to record and include all the words of the Yiddish language…
Related Guide
Language in Postwar Jewish Culture
Language shifts transformed Jewish culture in the postwar period, as Yiddish declined and Hebrew and English gained prominence.