The Thieves' Jargon
The Thieves' Jargon
Yiddish and Jewish Criminality
Yiddish was widely believed to be the “secret language” not only of Jewish merchants but also of Jewish criminals, beggars, paupers, and vagrants, a perception further reinforced by the linguistic affinity between Yiddish and Rotwelsch, the secret language of the German underworld. Jewish criminality was associated with the serious poverty in early modern Germany, where the Jews were among the poorest of the poor. Their dire economic situation drove growing numbers of Jews to commit crimes ranging from pocketpicking to burglary, theft, and disposal of stolen goods. From the beginning of the eighteenth century, increasing interest in Jewish criminals and criminality brought attention to Yiddish literature on the thieves' language. Crime-related Yiddish literature focused on such activities as banditry during the period. Early modern criminological literature stressed the link between Yiddish and the thieves' jargon that also found clear expression in the Christian literature on Yiddish. In the courtroom, the Yiddish language presented Christian authorities with yet another challenge: the Judeneid or Jewish oath.
Keywords: Yiddish language, Jews, criminality, Yiddish literature, criminological literature, thieves' jargon, Jewish oath, Rotwelsch, banditry, Germany
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