{"id":36963,"date":"2026-04-08T14:54:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/?p=36963"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:54:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:54:42","slug":"the-ukrainian-jewish-encounter-cultural-dimensions-part-3-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/the-ukrainian-jewish-encounter-cultural-dimensions-part-3-1\/","title":{"rendered":"\"The Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter: Cultural Dimensions\": Part 3.1"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter was founded in 2008 with the goal of building stronger relations between Ukrainians and Jews, two peoples who, for centuries, lived side by side on the territory of what is modern-day Ukraine. Since then, in keeping with its motto, \"Our stories are incomplete without each other,\" UJE has sponsored conferences, round-table discussions and research, as well as translations and publication of works the organization anticipates will promote a deeper understanding between the two peoples and an appreciation of their respective cultures.<\/p>\n

We offer for the first time the book\u00a0The Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter: Cultural Dimensions\u00a0<\/em>in an eBook format.<\/p>\n

The book is a collection of essays that examine the interaction between the Ukrainian and Jewish cultures from the seventeenth century onwards. Written by leading experts from Ukraine, Israel, and other countries, the book presents a broad perspective on parallels and cross-cultural influences in various domains \u2014 including the visual arts, folklore, music, literature, and language. Several essays also focus on mutual representation \u2014 for example, perceptions of the \"Other\" as expressed in literary works or art history.<\/p>\n

The richly illustrated volume contains a wealth of new information on these little-explored topics. The book appears as volume 25 in the series\u00a0Jews and Slavs,<\/em>\u00a0published by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem since 1993. In several previous volumes, considerable attention is given to the defining role of the Old Testament in Ukrainian literature and art and to the depiction of Jewish life in Ukraine in the works of Nikolai Gogol, Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, Vladimir Korolenko, and other writers.<\/p>\n

This collection of essays was co-edited by Wolf Moskovich, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Alti Rodal, Co-Director of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, who also wrote the introduction to the volume. It was published in 2016 by Hebrew University of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Part 3.1<\/h1>\n

Click\u00a0here for a pdf\u00a0<\/a>of the entire book.<\/p>\n

Aspects of Ukrainian-Yiddish language contact<\/h2>\n

Wolf Moskovich (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

A<\/strong>t the end of the nineteenth century Ukraine had the highest concentration of Jews in the world with some thirty percent of world Jewry residing in ethnographic Ukrainian territories. They made up ten to fifteen percent of the population in Western and Right Bank Ukraine and were in relative majority in a number of towns in these areas. The presence among Ukrainians of such a numerous ethnic minority with which they were in permanent communication resulted in reciprocal interaction of the Ukrainian and Yiddish languages.<\/p>\n

The contact between Ukrainian and Yiddish, which continued through the last five centuries, left an indelible imprint on all levels of the Yiddish language (including its phonotactics, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, and phraseology) and contributed many Yiddish loanwords and loan translations to the Ukrainian language, in particular to Ukrainian regional dialects and urban sociolects.<\/p>\n

The number of bilinguals among Jews who spoke both Yiddish and Ukrainian was considerable before 1939. We also know of many Ukrainians who had a passive or active knowledge of the Yiddish language of their Jewish neighbours.<\/p>\n

The first Yiddish dictionary on the territory of the Russian Empire by Shiye-Mordkhe Lifshits, which was published in Zhytomyr in 1876, contains 280 Ukrainian loanwords. A list compiled by K.F. Liubarsky in Odessa in 1927 comprises 500 such loanwords in Yiddish, but their real number is much higher.<\/p>\n

Yiddishisms in the Ukrainian language were not studied systematically though they are well represented in comprehensive Ukrainian dictionaries. As the research material is vast, this presentation will concentrate only on some aspects of the fascinating subject of Yiddish\u2013Ukrainian language interaction.<\/p>\n

The Language of Odesa<\/h2>\n

Prior to 1917 Odessa was the largest city in Ukraine and the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire after St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Warsaw. Its multiethnic population comprised in 1897 around 51 percent Russians, 33 percent Jews, and 6 percent Ukrainians. Many more Ukrainians lived in the suburbs and villages around Odessa. The Russian colloquial language of Odesa, often called the Odessan jargon, is famous throughout the Russian-speaking world for its unique mixture of words and expressions that stem from both Yiddish and Ukrainian. Noteworthy in this regard is that the majority of Yiddishisms in Odessan jargon have their roots in Ukrainian. In many cases, when it seems that a word or expression was copied in Odessan Russian speech directly from Ukrainian, its immediate source may be the Yiddish language, which served as a kind of filter between Ukrainian and Russian. The presence of certain common lexical elements and syntactic features in both Ukrainian and Yiddish, which were acquired by Yiddish as a result of centuries-long language contact with Ukrainian, contributed to the ease of their penetration and acceptance in Odessan Russian. Examples include the following:<\/p>\n

In Odesa they call a gate \/fortka\/ (Yid. \/firtke\/, \/fortke\/, Ukr. \/firtka\/) whereas the standard Russian \/fortochka\/ denotes something different \u2014 a ventilator window.<\/p>\n

If you are offered tea with lemon or cream in Odessa, you may answer without hesitation: \/Bez nichego!\/\" Just tea!\", literally \"Without anything!\" The normative Russian expression is \/Bez vsego!\/, literally\" Without everything!\" while the Odessan expression is taken from Yid. \/Un gurnisht!\/ as it came from Ukr. \/Bez nichoho!\/.<\/p>\n

Tea without sugar is called in Odessa \/golyi chai\/, literally \"naked tea\" (cf. Yid. \/gole tey\/, Ukr. \/holyi chai\/).<\/p>\n

Some syntactic patterns come to Odessan Russian from Yiddish, but they originate from Ukrainian:<\/p>\n

\/skuchat' za nim\/\"to long for him\" (cf. Yid. \/benkn nokh im\/, Ukr. \/skuchaty za nym\/), while in standard Russian the usual form is \/skuchat' po nemu\/.<\/p>\n

In Odesa they say \/smeiat'sia s nego\/\"to make fun of him\" (Yid. \/(op)lakhn fun im \/, Ukr. \/smiiatysia z nioho\/. The Russian norm is different: \/smeiat'sia nad nim\/.<\/p>\n

The assumption that many similar features entered the Odessan Russian speech not directly from Ukrainian but via Yiddish is based on the fact that there was a massive presence in the city of tens of thousands of multilingual Jews whose dominant language was Yiddish and whose uneducated Russian speech, which abounded in loan translations from Yiddish, had an appreciable influence on the character of local colloquial Russian. At the same time there were relatively few ethnic Ukrainians residing in Odessa. On the other hand the similarity of Russian and Ukrainian as two closely related East Slavic languages had an important role in the ease of adoption of such elements in Odessan Russian. In this way the two languages \u2014 Ukrainian and Yiddish \u2014 produced a combined imprint on colloquial Russian in Odesa.<\/p>\n

The Language of Czernowitz<\/h2>\n

Another case of synergetic effect of Ukrainian and Yiddish on a third language is the urban German speech of Czernowitz (today Chernivtsi), the main city of Bukovina, when it was under Austrian rule before 1918. Bukovina was one of those regions of Ukraine where the proportion of Jews was among the largest. In 1900 they constituted 15.6 percent of the population of Bukovina and 37.9 percent of the population of Czernowitz. According to the Austrian census of 1910, which did not consider Yiddish to be a separate language and listed the Jews as speakers of German, 48.4 percent of Czernowitz residents were German speakers (most of them Jews). The same census showed 17.9 percent of Czernowitz residents as ethnic Ukrainians, 17.4 percent ethnic Poles, and 15.7 percent ethnic Romanians. The city's Jewish residents played a major role in strengthening the position of German, the official language of administration and business in Czernowitz. However, the reality of multilingual life demanded at the same time of all the ethnic groups of Bukovina the knowledge of one another's languages. There were many Ukrainians who understood and spoke Yiddish and German, and many Jews who knew Ukrainian and German.<\/p>\n

The Bukovinian Ukrainian speech (both urban and rural) absorbed dozens of words and expressions borrowed or calqued from Yiddish. Examples include:<\/p>\n

\/moiry maty\/\"to be afraid\" (Yid. \/hobn moyre\/ \u2014 idem) \/tsuris\/\" rage, fury\" (Yid. \/tsures\/\"trouble, plight, aggravation, misery\") \/tsuris maty na kohos'\/\" to be angry at somebody\"\/buty broigis z kym\/ 'to be angry at somebody\" (Yid. \/zayn broyges oyf emetsn\/ \u2014 idem) \/hokh mit pientes\/ \"conceited, presumptious, arrogant person\" (Yid. \/hoykh mit pyentes\/ \u2014 idem) \/tsimmes\/\"something very good (Yid. \/tsimmes\/<\/p>\n

1<\/strong>. \"vegetable\/fruit stew\" 2.\" <\/strong>something very good\", used in similes, e.g. \/A moyd vi a tsimmes\/ \"a girl in the full bloom of youth\") \/metsiia\/\"something very good\" (Yid. \/metsie\/\"bargain\") \/robyty Moishi kimyran\/\"to steal\" (Yid. \/Mayshe kim arayn\/\"Moyshe, come in\")<\/p>\n

Though Czernowitz was called \"klein Wien\" (Little Vienna), the local German was somewhat different from Viennese German, being under the influence of Yiddish, Ukrainian, and Polish. Many of its lexical borrowings could come from either Yiddish or Ukrainian, where their prototypes exist. Both languages acting in tandem produced the following lexical elements in Bukovinian German:<\/p>\n

\/laydak\/\"a lightminded person\" (Yid. \/laydak\/ and Ukr. \/laidak\/\"scoundrel\") \/smarkach\/\" snotty-nosed brat\" (Yid. and Ukr. \/smarkach\/ \u2014 idem) \/he! heyda!\/ \u201dforward!\u201d (Yid. \/he! heyda!\/, Ukr. \/he! heida!\/ \u2014 idem )<\/p>\n

\/abi\/\"as long as, only\" (Yid. \/abi\/, Ukr. \/aby\/ \u2014 idem) \/holodnik\/ \"ruffian\" (Yid. \/holodnik\/, Ukr. \/holodnyk\/ \u2014 idem) \/burlak\/\"bachelor\" (said disparagingly) (Yid. and Ukr. \/burlak\/ \u2014 idem) \/taki\/\"indeed, really\" (defiant affirmative answer) (Yid. \/taki\/, Ukr. \/taky\/ \u2014 idem)<\/p>\n

A specific Bukovinian Ukrainian curse is \/Ahi na tebe!\/. The exclamation \/Ahi!\/\"Fie! Dickens!\" is used as a sign of irritation or astonishment. The curse entered Bukovinian Yiddish in the forms \/Ahi na tebe!\/, \/Ahi tsu dayn kop! \/Ahi na tvoiu holovu!\/ \"Go to the Devil!\". \/Ahi\/ is also used a noun meaning \"hangman\" in both Bukovinian Ukrainian and Yiddish. Apparently its source in Ukrainian is the Turkish word \/agi\/\"poison\" which entered into the Ukrainian of Bukovina in the late Middle Ages during the Ottoman rule.<\/p>\n

In Bukovinian German the curses \/Ahi!\/, \/Ahi auf dayn Kopf!\/ are also used. They were adopted probably via the Bukovinian Yiddish-German bilingual milieu. The language proximity of Yiddish and German facilitated the adoption of Yiddish elements in German.<\/p>\n

We see in the case of the interaction among Ukrainian, Yiddish, and German in Bukovina the role of Yiddish as a mediating conduit in the penetration of Ukrainian language material into a third language.<\/p>\n

Surnames of Ukrainian Jews and Ukrainians<\/h2>\n

The process of the introduction of family names in all areas of Ukraine was complete by the middle of the nineteenth century. The choice of surnames for Jews in Galicia and Bukovina was in the hands of Austrian officials who based them mainly either on the Yiddish or the German languages. In the regions under Russian rule, responsibility was assumed by Kahal officials, who assigned surnames based on Yiddish, German, Ukrainian, and Russian. As a considerable number of these surnames were based on Ukrainian, there are many identical surnames among Ukrainians and Jews \u2014 for example, Gonta, Gaidamak, Chervonny, Shmandura, Tantsiura, Zabara, Zhvavy, etc.<\/p>\n

Many other Jewish surnames have diverse specific origins but are formed according to Ukrainian onomastic patterns. Among these are family names such as Bormashenko (\"son of Reb Moses Samuel\", formed from the Hebrew acronym \"Barmash\"), Evalenko (\"son of Ioel\"), Liberchuk (\"son of Liber\"), and Shaiuk (\"son of Shaia\").<\/p>\n

Around seventy percent of surnames of Ukrainian Jews are toponymic. There is hardly any name of a town or village in Ukraine which does not have a parallel Jewish family name \u2014 for example, Ivaner, Khotiner, Litinetsky, Nemirov, Umansky, etc. This type of surname is more common among Jews than among Ukrainians \u2014 for example, a Jew is named Tarasiuk because he comes from the village Tarasivka, and not because his father's first name was Taras, while for a Ukrainian to get this same surname based on his father's first name is natural.<\/p>\n

The lists of occupational surnames of Ukrainians and Ukrainian Jews are similar, though their frequency is different in each population. No Jews have the surnames Chumachenko (\"son of a chumak\" \u2014 a carter of salt in the Ukrainian steppe) or Kobzar (\"player on the kobza \u2014 <\/em>a Ukrainian national musical instrument). The surnames Korchmar' (\"innkeeper\"), Kramarenko (\"son of a shopkeeper\"), Kupchyk (\"petty merchant\"), Miniailo (\"money changer\"), and Shinkarenko (\"son of an innkeeper\") are more typical for Jews than for Ukrainians.<\/p>\n

Among characteristic types of Ukrainian surnames are compound family names. These are composites formed by combining two word roots or stems \u2014 for example, Chernous, Kryvoruchko, Tovstonoh, etc. These types of names were used by Jews as well. A specific subtype is the Jewish hybrid surname, where one component comes from Ukrainian and another from Yiddish \u2014 for example, Krutokop (from Ukr. \/Krutyholova\/\"turning one's head\"), Krutopeisakh (\"curling one's side locks\"), Kosiburd (from Ukr. \/Kosoboroda\/\"slanting beard\"), Krasnoshtein (from Ukr. \/krasnyi\/\"beautiful\" plus Yid. \/shteyn\/\"stone\"). Some surnames of this type are a combination of a Jewish first name and a Ukrainian apellative, e.g., Khantsenziat' (\"son-in-law of Khantse\"), Vdovareize (\"Reize, the widow\").<\/p>\n

The geographical distribution of Jewish surnames according to their suffixes roughly corresponds to the geographical distribution of Ukrainian surnames with corresponding suffixes. For example, the suffix -enko is common in the Kyivan region: Gubenko, Faibishenko, Magidenko, Motenko, Poliachenko; and the suffix -iuk in Galicia: Kvasiuk, Shlomiuk, Shmaiuk.<\/p>\n

Among family names of ethnic Ukrainians there are several that derive from Jewish given names \u2014 for example, Aronets, Moshko, Shlioma, Shlomenko, Shmil', Shmul', Shulim, Zel'man. Over a dozen other surnames of Ukrainians have been identified as originating in Yiddish: Kumhir, Nisht, Shabas, Shaigets', etc.<\/p>\n

Bilingual songs of Ukrainian Jews<\/h2>\n

Researchers of Jewish musical folklore have paid attention to Yiddish-Ukrainian bilingual songs and to the influence of Ukrainian folk music on Jewish music. The majority of such bilingual Jewish songs belong to the religious sphere although there are also lyric and humorous songs as well as nursery rhymes that demonstrate the influence of Ukrainian music. Yiddish words inserted into Ukrainian-language Jewish religious songs often belong to the Hebrew component of the Yiddish language.<\/p>\n

Jews were acquainted with Ukrainian folk customs, including with those relating to lamentation at funerals. Some Jewish bilingual songs follow the pattern of Ukrainian spoofs of such customs. Among the poetic elements of this genre in Ukrainian folklore, which were adopted in corresponding Jewish songs, are lyric-syntactic repetitions, questions, addresses, tautological expressions of ideas, syntactic parallelisms, and verbal rhymes. Perhaps the best known of Jewish songs of this kind is called \"Mykitka\". Here is the first part of the song:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Another song of the same genre, which was recorded in Galicia and remains relatively unknown, represents a confession of an atheist on his deathbed. Here is a part of this long song:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The following is an example of a humorous song, the comic effect of which is based on the phonic similarity and contrast of meanings of the Ukrainian word \/yidesh\/\"you drive\/ride\" and the Yiddish word \/yidish\/, the name of the Yiddish language \u2014 both words are pronounced in the song in the same way as \/yidish\/:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Ukrainian and Yiddish were in close contact through the last five centuries, the results of which are evident in both languages. Dozens of Yiddish loanwords entered Ukrainian dialects and sociolects and the Yiddish language is permeated with hundreds of borrowed and calqued Ukrainian words and expressions. In some instances Yiddish words came into Ukrainian via Polish.<\/p>\n

We showed the complex language interaction in the two multiethnic Ukrainian cities of Odessa and Czernowitz. In Odessa Ukrainian words and expressions entered the urban Russian speech in many instances through the mediation of Yiddish. A similar scenario played out in Czernowitz. We can speak of the phenomenon of specific Bukovinian German characterized by an admixture of localisms taken from Yiddish and Ukrainian.<\/p>\n

Another area of the interaction relates to family names. Here the Ukrainian influence upon the language practices of Jews is even more pronounced. Many surnames of Ukrainians and Ukrainian Jews are identical. Some other Jewish surnames were created by combining Ukrainian stems with Yiddish stems or suffixes.<\/p>\n

Jewish musical folklore in Ukraine shows the clear imprint of Ukrainian influence, including in a number of bilingual Ukrainian\u2013Yiddish songs that demonstrate the stylistic interplay of these two languages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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