Forays into a Digital Yiddishland: Secular Yiddish in the Early Stages of the Coronavirus Pandemic

The self-isolation and social distancing associated with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic added a new dimension to a multifaceted and transnational secular Yiddish social landscape. The widespread use of digital communication technologies facilitated new forms of virtual participation in a heterotopic Yiddishland via lectures, concerts, classes and conversation groups. This study examines engagement with secular Yiddish mediated by digital technologies during the early lockdowns and restrictions from March to May 2020. It investigates the expansion of a cybervernacular mode of Yiddish in a virtual secular Yiddishland encompassing learners, speakers, activists and performers worldwide, and the roles that secular Yiddish social spaces played for their participants during the crisis.