In Praise of Yiddish

Plot

Maurice Samuel, a translator and man of letters who is unjustly forgotten today, weighs in here on the Yiddish language, one of his first loves. This is partly a linguistic analysis of the roots of various Yiddish words, but more than that, it's a tribute and an homage to the Eastern European shtetl, the quintessential small Jewish village that's now remembered mostly through the evergreen "Fiddler on the Roof."

Samuel's erudition and love for Yiddish is evident. At some points, the book veers off into the overly sentimental, but taken as what it is, it is a worthwhile read.