How to read Polish written in Hebrew letters: discussion and exercises

For centuries, Polish and Yiddish developed side by side across the historic lands of Central and Eastern Europe. Yet most modern readers of Polish have little opportunity to become familiar with the Hebrew script once used by millions of Ashkenazi Jews. How to Read Polish Written in Hebrew Letters is a practical workbook designed to bridge this cultural and scriptal divide. It introduces Polish readers to a systematic method of rendering Polish in Yiddish-style Hebrew letters while preserving important features of Polish etymological spelling. The volume combines historical explanation, transliteration guidance and extended reading practice. It includes: • an accessible introduction to Yiddishland, Polish-Yiddish cultural interaction and the history of Hebrew-letter writing in Central Europe • a detailed Polish-to-Hebrew-letter conversion system • Bruno Schulz’s Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą presented in Hebrew letters with the corresponding Polish text in Latin script in the function of interlineal ‘romanization’ • a biscriptal (Latin-Hebrew) list of the 10,000 most frequent Polish word forms • extensive material for independent study, classroom use and repeated reading practice The parallel presentation allows readers to compare the familiar Latin-script Polish text with its Hebrew-letter counterpart line by line. The purpose is not to translate Polish into Yiddish, but to teach readers how Polish can be represented and read in another writing system. This workbook will be of particular interest to: • students of Polish, Yiddish, Hebrew and Jewish studies • historians of Central and Eastern Europe • linguists and scholars of writing systems • readers interested in Bruno Schulz • genealogists working with Jewish and Polish sources • anyone wishing to acquire practical familiarity with the Hebrew script Both a language-learning resource and a contribution to the recovery of a shared Polish-Jewish cultural heritage, this book offers a structured path from the Polish Latin alphabet to confident reading in Hebrew letters.