*"Yiddishkeit* (Yiddish <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish>: ?????????? /*yidishkeyt*/ in standard transcription) literally means "Jewishness", i.e. "/a Jewish way of life/", in the Yiddish <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish> language. It has come to mean the "Jewishness" or "Jewish essence" of Ashkenazi Jews <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews> in general and the traditional Yiddish-speaking Jews of Eastern and Central Europe in particular. In particular, it is associated with the popular culture <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture> or folk <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk> practices of Yiddish-speaking Jews, such as popular religious traditions, Eastern European Jewish food <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_cuisine>, Yiddish humour <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_humor#Eastern_European_Jewish_humor>, shtetl <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtetl> life, and klezmer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klezmer> music, among other things.
Before the Haskalah <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskalah> and the emancipation of Jews <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Emancipation> in Europe, central to /Yiddishkeit/ were the study of Torah <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah> and Talmud <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud> for men, and a family and communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men and women. Among Haredi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haredi_Judaism> Jews of Eastern European descent, who compose the majority of Jews who still speak Yiddish in their every-day lives, the word has retained this meaning.[1] <http://www.yiddishkeit.org/>
But with secularization <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularization>, /Yiddishkeit/ has come to encompass not just traditional Jewish religious practice, but a broad range of movements, ideologies, practices, and traditions in which Ashkenazi Jews have participated and retained their sense of "Jewishness". /Yiddishkeit/ has been identified in manners of speech, in styles of humor, in patterns of association. Another quality often associated with /Yiddishkeit/ is an emotional attachment and identification with the Jewish people.[2]" <http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/yz.htm#yiddishkeit>
That doesn't seem to be much related to social protest or anything near to what Tillie Olsen grew up with. Does anyone out there know anything more about this term and its association with Messianic/revolutionary movements among Ashkenazy Jews at the turn of the century?
Thanks,
Joanna