Di Yunge was the first major

literary movement Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide language for comparing ...

Yiddish poetry Yiddish literature encompasses all those belles-lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus for centuries in Eastern Euro ...

in America. During the early 20th century, their work emphasized

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

individualism Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...

subjectivism Subjectivism is the doctrine that "our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience", instead of shared or communal, and that there is no external or objective truth. The success of this position is historically attribute ...

, and free and indirect expression.

History

Yiddish literature was most prominent in Eastern Europe during the century preceding

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In the period leading up to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Yiddish literature in Poland and Russia changed in response to the political status of Jews. For a time in-between, countries across the Americas developed a literature of new immigrants, of which Di Yunge was the first important group of Yiddish poets in America. The writers of the literary movement known as Di Yunge emigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe between 1902 and 1911 as part of a wider migration of Jews from that region. Di Yunge, which translates as "the young ones" or "youngsters", typified the Jewish immigrant: young, unwed, and impoverished. As a group, their influences included

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

German Expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...

, and

Russian symbolism Russian symbolism was an intellectual and artistic movement predominant at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It arose separately from European symbolism, emphasizing mysticism and ostranenie. Literature Influences Primary ...

. Their work was characterized by its romanticism and advocacy for individualism, subjectivism, and free and indirect expression. Di Yunge was the first school of Yiddish literature to stress an aesthetic standard above a social and national purpose; it sought to eschew the communal and didactic perspectives of the socialist labor poetry of the previous generation (represented by poets such as

David Edelstadt David Edelstadt (Yiddish: דוד עדעלשטאַט; May 9, 1866, Kaluga, Russia – 17 October 1892, Denver, Colorado) was a Jewish, Russian-American anarchist poet in the Yiddish language. Edelstadt immigrated to Cincinnati and worked as a b ...

and

Morris Rosenfeld Morris Rosenfeld (Yiddish: מאָריס ראָסענפֿעלד; born as Moshe Jacob Alter; December 28, 1862 in Stare Boksze in Russian Poland, government of Suwałki – June 22, 1923 in New York City) was a Yiddish poet. His work sheds light ...

). Di Yunge writers included I. J. Schwartz,

Mani Leib Mani Leib (Mani Leyb, yi, מאַני לייב; born Mani Leib Brahinsky, russian: Мани Лейб Брагинский; 20 December 1883, Nezhin, Russian Empire – 4 October 1953, New York) was a Yiddish-language poet. He was one of eight chil ...

, Zishe Landau,

Itzik Manger Itzik Manger (30 May 1901, Czernowitz, then Austrian-Hungarian Empire – 21 February 1969, Gedera, Israel; yi, איציק מאַנגער) was a prominent Yiddish language, Yiddish poet and playwright, a self-proclaimed folk bard, visionary, a ...

Aaron Zeitlin Aaron Zeitlin (3 June 1898 – 28 September 1973) was a Jewish American educator and writer. He authored several books on Yiddish literature, poetry and parapsychology. Biography Zeitlin was born in Uvarovichi, Russia (now Belarus) to Hillel Zeit ...

, Moyshe-Leyb Halpern and

David Ignatoff David Ignatoff (; 15 October 1885 – 26 February 1954), born David Ignatovski (), was a Russian-born American Yiddish author and playwright. A member of the Di Yunge literary movement, Ignatoff wrote short stories, novels, plays, and childr ...

. The group of poets differed in regional origin and politics. Schwartz's ''Kentucky'' was the first American Yiddish epic—it tells how the new rural life of Jewish immigrants changed their Jewish spiritual life. Schwartz later won the 1970

Itzik Manger Prize The Itzik Manger Prize for outstanding contributions to Yiddish literature was established in 1968, shortly before Itzik Manger's death in 1969. Manger "was and remains one of the best-known twentieth-century Yiddish poets." The Prize has been desc ...

for poetry in Israel. After

and the

Russian Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

, a less defiant group known as the Insichists (or " In-Zikh"), who sought to "refract the outer world through the prism of the self", replaced Di Yunge.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * {{Portal bar, Poetry, Judaism, New York City American poetry in immigrant languages Yiddish-language literature American literary movements Yiddish-language poets 20th-century American literature Jewish American literature Romantic poets