In this examination of the myth of the Jewish Pope in four Yiddish literary texts dating from between 1602 and 1943, Sherman explores to what extent Yiddish language and literature derive from the dominant values of mainstream European culture.
Sherman examines the recurring treatment of the myth of the Jewish Pope in four Yiddish literary texts dating from between 1602 and 1943. The roots of this myth - that one day a Jewish apostate might come to rule the world as Pope - lie deep in the Biblical story of the assimilation of Joseph (Genesis 37-50), from which it branches out into numerous Messianic fantasies informing Jewish existence through two thousand years of exile.
