ABSTRACT
In a globalizing world, contemporary historical, political, and social forces shape the life cycles of languages. Various communities, for example, indigenous language communities, are engaging in diverse ways with their linguistic and cultural resources (cf. Grenoble & Whaley, 2006; Hinton, 2011). Communities participating in language revitalization efforts (cf. Ahlers, 2006; Kroskrity, 2009; Meek, 2007) are in many ways challenged to be innovative as a means of responding to contemporary circumstances at the local and global levels. Heritage and endangered language communities, including Miami (Leonard, 2011), Apache (Nevins, 2004), and Judeo-Spanish (Kushner Bishop, 2004), share similar characteristics in terms of affective relationships with a language, deep historical connections within communities, and issues with intergenerational transmission. These characteristics also apply to Yiddish. As an example of a less commonly taught language (LCTL) (Lee & Wright, 2014; Leeman, 2015; Wiley, Kreeft Peyton, Christian, Moore, & Liu, 2014), Yiddish faces particular challenges in terms of availability of resources and teachers. These challenges, however, can also create opportunities for innovation.
