Chart, or Primer to teach the English alphabet to Yiddish-speaking immigrants.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

J. Katzenelenbogen, circa

New York

1900

Fonts in English and Yiddish

A highly original and very scarce production, designed with a fine sense of graphic style. The method of instruction transliterates into Yiddish-phonetics each of the letters of the English alphabet, hence the letter “A” is delineated in Hebrew letters as “Ay” (Alef, Yud, Yud); “B” (Beis, Yud, Yud); “C” (Samech, Yud), etc. The transliterations of the letters “H,” “J,” and “W,” for which there are no obviously available Hebrew phonetical letters are here designated quite amusingly. Clearly this fragile chart was an important tool for the newly arrived Yiddish-speaking immigrant to America.