“A Gift for the Jewish People”: Henry Einspruch's Der Bris Khadoshe as Missionary Translation and as Yiddish Literature

Abstract

The 1941 Yiddish translation of the New Testament by Henry Einspruch marked a turning point in the history of Yiddish translations of the New Testament aimed at proselytizing Jews. Breaking free from a centuries-long tradition in which Yiddish translators relied heavily on German translations, Einspruch produced a version that, in more fully mobilizing the Hebrew components of Yiddish, was designed to remind his Jewish readers that Christianity emerged in a Jewish context. This translation style also reflected and even embodied new trends in the conceptualization of conversion from Judaism to Christianity. More remarkably, it also spoke to the growing cosmopolitanism of secular Yiddish culture.