Mordkhe Schaechter

Who was Mordkhe Schaechter?

Itsye Mordkhe Schaechter was a leading Yiddish linguist, as well as a writer and educator who spent a lifetime studying, standardizing and teaching the language. Dr. Schaechter, whose passion for Yiddish dated to his boyhood in Romania, dedicated his life to reclaiming Yiddish as a living language for the descendants of its first speakers, the Ashkenazic Jewry of central and eastern Europe. He was also the third editor of Afn Shvel, a prestigious Yiddish magazine. He died on February 15, 2007 after a long bout of illness following a stroke in the summer of 2001.