ABSTRACT
In Amsterdam more than 220 titles were published in Yiddish between 1644 and 1750 alone. Yiddish was the language of the Ashkenazi Germanic diaspora, written in Hebrew script. The books were intended for an international readership, but they also filled a local need. Among them was the Mikra meforash by Eliezer Soesman Rudelsum and his brother-in-law Menachem Man Amelander, printed in the early eighteenth century. It had a clearly educational function and was intended to initiate children into Judaism by means of a conversation between a teacher and a pupil. Anyone wishing to reach the Ashkenazi public needed to write in Yiddish.
