Chleb rzucony umarłym: how to read Polish written in Hebrew letters

Read Polish through the Hebrew alphabet—and use a major work of Holocaust literature as the bridge toward reading Yiddish. Bogdan Wojdowski’s Chleb rzucony umarłym (Bread Thrown to the Dead) is one of the most powerful Polish literary portrayals of life in the Warsaw Ghetto. This unusual edition presents Wojdowski’s complete Polish text in a radically different graphic form: Polish written in Hebrew/Yiddish letters and arranged from right to left, in the manner of a traditional Yiddish book. Above every Hebrew-script Polish word appears the corresponding Latin-script Polish form as an interlinear RTL (right-to-left) reading guide. Because the reader already knows the underlying Polish vocabulary, grammar and syntax, attention can be concentrated on acquiring fluency in the Hebrew alphabet itself. The volume is therefore conceived as a practical intermediary between ordinary Polish reading and the reading of Yiddish books. This is not a translation into Yiddish. Wojdowski’s language remains Polish throughout. Only its graphic representation has been transformed. The edition employs a systematic Polish-to-Hebrew conversion convention designed to preserve important distinctions of Polish spelling—including ą, ę, ó, ł, ć, ń, ś, ź, ż, rz and other specifically Polish graphemes—while making extensive use of the orthographic resources of the Yiddish-style Hebrew alphabet. German words and expressions occurring in Wojdowski’s novel are treated separately according to conventions derived from the historical tradition of writing German in Hebrew letters associated with Moses Mendelssohn. The volume includes: Wojdowski’s complete novel together with his “Od autora” preface; the Polish text converted into Hebrew/Yiddish script; a word-for-word interlinear Latin-script reading guide; full right-to-left book organization; an introductory Preface explaining the pedagogical purpose of the edition; “How to Read Polish Written in Hebrew Letters,” explaining the transcription system and its linguistic principles; detailed Polish-to-Hebrew conversion conventions. The edition is intended for Polish-speaking scholars, students, readers of Jewish and Holocaust literature, linguists, historians of writing systems, and anyone wishing to learn to read Hebrew script before progressing to Yiddish itself. The underlying Polish text is based on the electronic edition made available by Wolne Lektury under CC BY-SA 3.0 PL. The Hebrew-script transcription, interlinear RTL arrangement, editorial conception and accompanying material were prepared by T. D. I. Kamusella. Conceived and edited by T. D. I. Kamusella.