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Dovid Katz (Yiddish: הירשע־דוד כ״ץ, also דוד קאַץ, הירשע־דוד קאַץ—''Hirshe-Dovid Kats'') (born 9 May 1956) is an American-born, Vilnius-based Yiddish scholar, author and educator, and cultural historian of Lithuanian Jewry (the Litvak heritage). In recent years, he has become a human rights defender specializing in contemporary legacies of the East European Holocaust. He is editor of the website ''DefendingHistory.com''. == Early life and Yiddish Studies == Born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn into the Lithuanian-Jewish or Litvak family of the award-winning Yiddish and English poet Menke Katz,〔http://dovidkatz.net/menke/menke_books.htm Menke Katz〕 Dovid Katz attended the Brooklyn day schools Hebrew Institute of Boro Park, East Midwood Jewish Day School,〔http://emhds.org/about/history East Midwood Jewish Day School〕 and then, Yeshivah of Flatbush High School, where he led a student protest calling for the inclusion of Yiddish in American Hebrew day school curricula, and founded and edited the Yiddish-English student journal "Aleichem Sholem" (1972-1974).〔http://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/dovid_periodicals.htm#Sholem "Aleichem Sholem"〕〔See Bernard Bard, "Yiddish Rebels Upset Yeshiva," in the New York Post, August 14, 1972, p. 2.〕 He majored in linguistics at Columbia University, where he graduated in 1978, having studied concurrently at New York's Herzliah Yiddish Teachers' Seminary. He relocated to London in 1978 to work on a doctorate (completed in 1982) on the origins of the Semitic component in the Yiddish language at the University of London, where he won the John Marshall Medal in Comparative Philology (1980).〔The thesis is online at: http://dovidkatz.net/dovid/PDFLinguistics/1982.pdf.〕 In his early linguistic work, he began to argue for "continual transmission" of the Semitic component in Yiddish from ancient Hebrew through to Aramaic through to Yiddish, challenging the standard "text theory" that postulated entrance principally via religious texts later on.〔Katz, Dovid, "A yerushe fun kadmoynim: der semitisher kheylek in yidish",1979, publ. 1991 in Oksforder yidish 2, pp. 17-80, with a 1991 addendum pp. 80-95.〕 He proposed novel reconstructions for parts of the proto-Yiddish vowel system,〔Dovid Katz, "First steps in the reconstruction of the proto vocalism of the Semitic component in Yiddish", Dec. 1977, seminar paper available at: http://dovidkatz.net/dovid/PDFLinguistics/1977.pdf.〕 modifications in the classification of Yiddish dialects,〔Dovid Katz, "Zur Dialektologie des Jiddischen" in W. Besch et al (eds), "Dialektologie. Ein Handbuch zur deutschen und allgemeinen Dialektforschung", Berlin 1983, pp. 1018-1041.〕 and joined the school of Yiddish scholars that argues for a more easterly (Danube basin) origin of Yiddish over the western (Rhineland) hypothesis, bringing to the table Semitic component evidence; it was in that connection that he came across a thirteenth-century Hebrew and Aramaic prayerbook manuscript in the Bodleian that exhibited the vowel system he had earlier, in his thesis, reconstructed as underlying that of the Semitic component in Yiddish.〔Dovid Katz,"The Proto Dialectology of Ashkenaz" in D. Katz (ed), "Origins of the Yiddish Language", Pergamon 1987, pp. 47-60.〕 Over the years he published papers, in Yiddish and English, on various "history of ideas" topics, including the role of Aramaic in Aramaic-Hebrew-Yiddish internal Ashkenazic trilingualism (he rejected the notion of a single fused Hebrew-hypen-Aramaic); medieval rabbinic disputes over Yiddish; rabbinic contributions to Yiddish dialectology; the importance for Yiddish linguistics of the German underworld language Rotwelsch; Christian studies in Yiddish; and the 19th century roots of religious Yiddishism, among others.〔Papers on these and related topics are (listed and posted on Katz's website ).〕 For eighteen years (1978-1996) he taught Yiddish Studies at Oxford, building from scratch, sometimes single-handedly, the Oxford Programme in Yiddish. It grew in the 1980s and 1990s into an international program. His contributions include initiating a new four-week summer course〔http://dovidkatz.net/dovid/dovid_oxford.htm#4 Four-week summer course〕 at four levels of language instruction (in 1982), the annual Stencl Lecture (from 1983),〔http://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/dovid_periodicals.htm#Stencl Annual Stencl Lecture〕〔Katz edited the first six lectures in pamphlet form between 1984 and 1989; see:http://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/dovid_periodicals.htm; also (Mementos of the early Stencl Lectures )〕 annual winter symposiums (from 1985);〔http://dovidkatz.net/dovid/dovid_oxford.htm#5 Winter symposiums〕 University of Oxford BA, MSt and MPhil options (from 1982), and a doctoral program (from 1984), these being concentrated in the University's Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages.〔Various illustrative documents from the period are posted at: http://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/dovid_oxford.htm.〕 His former doctoral students are today professors of Yiddish inter alia at Indiana University (Bloomington) and Düsseldorf. He founded the series "Winter Studies in Yiddish" in English (vol. 1 appeared in 1987),〔Four volumes appeared of which Katz edited the first two: "Origins of the Yiddish Language" (Pergamon 1987) and "Dialects of the Yiddish Language" (Pergamon 1988); (mementos ) of the project〕 and "Oksforder yidish" (or "Oxford Yiddish"), entirely in Yiddish (vol. 1 appeared in 1990).〔Three vols. appeared, edited by Katz: 1 (1990) and 2 (1991) in standard format; vol. 3 (1995) is a large 1000 columned folio. The series was launched (at the London Press Centre ).〕 His posts, at the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies (renamed the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies) were instructor and junior fellow (1978-1982), senior research fellow and director of Yiddish studies (1983-1994). In 1994 he founded the Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies and served as its research director until 1997.〔''American Jewish Yearbook'', 1998, Vol. 98. Ed. David Singer. New York: American Jewish Committee, 1998. ISBN 0-87495-113-5 ISBN 978-0874951134. p. 245.〕 He was Research Fellow at St. Antony's College Oxford from 1986 to 1997, and a member of the Modern Language Faculty's Graduate Studies Committee from 1984 to 1997. After an initial trip to his ancestral Lithuania and Belarus in 1990 (during which he negotiated an agreement〔http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/06/arts/lithuania-and-oxford-are-linked-by-yiddish.html Agreement〕 enabling Lithuanian students to enroll in Oxford Jewish studies courses), Katz pioneered the mounting of in-situ post-Holocaust Yiddish dialectological and folkloristic expeditions in Eastern Europe. He focused on the "Lithuanian lands" (Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, etc.) and continues work on his Atlas of Northeastern Yiddish.〔Around thirty maps have appeared to date on the in-progress web version of the Atlas at: http://www.dovidkatz.net/WebAtlas/AtlasSamples.htm.〕 He has amassed thousands of hours of recorded interviews with "the last of the Yiddish Mohicans" in these regions but as far as is known has not succeeded to find a permanent home for the materials. In early 2013 he began posting clips from his interviews of Boro Park Yiddish speakers gleaned from his return trips to his native Brooklyn.〔His earliest collection constituted (a Youtube playlist ) on his channel.〕 His publications on Yiddish language include his "Grammar of the Yiddish Language" (London, 1987) and his book in Yiddish, "Tikney takones. Fragn fun yidisher stilistik" (Oxford, 1993),〔http://dovidkatz.net/dovid/PDFStylistics/1993.pdf "Tikney takones. Fragn fun yidisher stilistik"〕 both of which aimed to enhance the teaching of Yiddish as a vibrant language both spoken and for new literary and academic works, even if in (and for) small circles. In both works, he advocated a descriptivist stance, rejecting what he considered to be the excessive purism prevalent in the field. He also (controversially) championed the traditionalist variant of modern Yiddish orthography, and was the author of the "Code of Yiddish Spelling" (Oxford, 1992).〔http://dovidkatz.net/dovid/PDFStylistics/1992.pdf "Code of Yiddish Spelling"〕 He twice founded and directed (one-time only) Yiddish teacher training programs: at Oxford, a one-year program in 1996, and at Vilnius, an intensive course in spring 2005. For a nonspecialist English readership he wrote a history of the language and its culture, "Words on Fire: The Unfinished Story of Yiddish" (Basic Books 2004, revised edition with added academic apparatus, 2007), which attracted both acclaim and robust debate, particularly over his predictions of a vernacular future for Yiddish based in Haredi communities, and his contention that modern Hebrew could not replace the European-nuanced vibrancy of Yiddish.〔Reviews include (Zachary Sholem Berger ) in the Forward (Oct 29, 2004), (Jeremy Dauber ) in the New York Sun (Nov 3, 2004), (Norman Lebrecht ) in the Evening Standard (March 21, 2005),(Susanne Marten-Finnis ) in the Times Higher Education Supplement (Oct 6, 2006), (Julia Pascal ) in the Independent (March 4, 2005), (Miriam Shaviv ) in the Jerusalem Post (2004), (Gene Shaw ) in Library Journal (Dec. 2004), (Joseph Sherman ) in the Times Literary Supplement (May 27, 2005).〕 For years he wrote regular columns for the Forverts (1990s), and in more recent years for the Algemeiner Journal.〔DovidKatz.net has a number of his Algemeiner Zhurnal (Algemeyner zhurnal) posted, on the pages (for Yiddish studies ) and (for Lithuanian issues ).〕 He is the author of a number of articles on Yiddish in encyclopedias (including The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe)〔http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Language/Yiddish YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe〕〔He later posted a slightly (Amended version ) on his website.〕 and book introductions, including the Yivo's reprint〔http://yalepress.yale.edu/languages/pdf/Harkavy_preface.pdf The Yivo's reprint〕 of Alexander Harkavy's trilingual Yiddish-English-Hebrew dictionary. After a year as visiting professor at Yale University (1998-1999), Katz relocated to Vilnius in 1999 in order to take up a new chair in Yiddish language, literature and culture at Vilnius University, and to found the university's Center for Stateless Cultures,〔http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/939/ Center for Stateless Cultures〕 which he directed for its first two years. He had relocated his old Oxford Yiddish summer program to Vilnius a year earlier (summer 1998). In 2001, he founded the Vilnius Yiddish Institute at Vilnius University and remained its research director and primary instructor until 2010. His works on Litvak (Lithuanian Jewish) culture include the folio volume "Lithuanian Jewish Culture" (Baltos lankos, Vilnius 2004, revised edition 2010), "Windows to a Lost Jewish Past: Vilna Book Stamps" (Versus aureus, Vilnius 2008), and "Seven Kingdoms of the Litvaks" (International Cultural Program Center, Vilnius 2009).〔http://dovidkatz.net/dovid/Lithuania/7_KingdomsLitvaks.pdf "Seven Kingdoms of the Litvaks"〕 In 2009 he directed the "Jewish Lithuania" program for Summer Literary Seminars in Vilnius. He has proposed "Litvak Studies"〔http://defendinghistory.com/litvak-studies "Litvak Studies"〕 as a potential program of study. He began to write short stories in Yiddish following his father's death in 1991, and published three collections in book form in the 1990s under the nom de plume Heershadovid Menkes (Yiddish: הירשע־דוד מעינקעס—''Hirshe-Dovid Meynkes''): Eldra Don, 1992; The Flat Peak, 1993; Tales of the Misnagdim from Vilna Province, 1996. After experimenting with modern themes, he abandoned them for the vanished life of old Jewish Lithuania. Awards for his fiction include the Hirsh Rosenfeld Award (Canadian Jewish Congress, 1994), the Zhitlovsky Prize (Ikuf, 1996) and the most prestigious Yiddish literary award, the Manger Prize, in 1997. In 1994 he founded at Oxford the then sole literary monthly magazine in Yiddish, "Yiddish Pen"〔http://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/dovid_periodicals.htm#YP "Yiddish Pen"〕 and edited its first 27 issues.〔See: http://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/dovid_periodicals.htm〕 It did not, however, usher in the scale of literary revival he had hoped for. In 2001-2002 he was a Guggenheim Fellow in Yiddish literature. Two translated anthologies of his short stories appeared in 2012, in English〔City in the Moonlight: Stories of the Old-time Lithuanian Jews. Yiddish stories by Dovid Katz. Selected and translated by Barnett Zumoff. Ktav: New York 2012〕 and in German.〔Ostjüdische Geschichten aus dem alten Litauen. Yiddish stories by Dovid Katz. Selected and translated by Melitta Depner. Salon: München 2012.〕 Katz, taken aback by the poverty he found among the last aged Yiddish speakers in Eastern Europe (many of them "flight survivors" who survived the war by fleeing to the Soviet Union, hence not eligible for aid under the narrow definition of "Holocaust survivor"), alerted the wider world to the issue in a 1999 op-ed〔http://dovidkatz.net/dovid/Lithuania/1999-How%20to%20help%20the%20Holocausts%20Last%20Victims.jpg 1999 op-ed〕 in the Forward, which was cited by Judge Edward R. Korman in the Swiss Banks settlement〔http://www.swissbankclaims.com/Documents/Doc_51_HSF.pdf The Swiss Banks settlement〕 in the U.S. District Court in 2004. Katz began to work closely with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) on these issues, and he helped inspire and inform the 2004 founding of the Survivor Mitzvah Project by a group based in Santa Monica, California. In October 2012, he took part in the Channel 4 reality series "Jewish Mum of the Year" as one of the judging panel alongside Tracy-Ann Oberman and Richard Ferrer.〔See Richard Ferrer in the Independent,16 Oct 2012, online at: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/channel-4s-jewish-mum-of-the-year-was-my-idea-and-im-proud-of-it-8209464.html.〕 Most of the reviews of his own appearance judged it negatively.〔See the reviews by (Tom Sutcliffe in the Independent ) and (John Crace in the Guardian ).〕 In June 2014, two articles in Tablet magazine focused on the recent history and status of Yiddish linguistics, including his own contributions.〔See Cherie Woodworth's ("Where did Yiddish come from?" ) and Batya Ungar-Sargon's ("The mystery of the origins of Yiddish will never be solved" )〕 Katz promptly responded (in Yiddish).〔Dovid Katz, ("Tsu der zorglozer dekonstruktsye fun Maks Vaynraykhn" )〕 He divides the year between Vilnius, Lithuania and his home in North Wales. A list of his books〔http://dovidkatz.net/dovid/dovid_books.htm〕 and postings of selected articles〔For articles on Yiddish language topics, see: http://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/dovid_linguistics.htm; on Lithuanian, Belarusian and East European topics: http://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/dovid_lithuania.htm; on Holocaust and antisemitism related issues: http://defendinghistory.com/the-editor.〕 are available on his website. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dovid Katz」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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