Acknowledgments:

Many works are consulted in the course of the project, including those by Paul Abelson; Alexander Astravukh, Solon Beinfeld & Harry Bochner; Aaron Bergman & Itche Goldberg; Solomon A. Birnbaum; Ignaz Bernstein; Alec Burko; Yeynesn Felendler; Raphael Finkel; Alexander Harkavy; Miriam Hoffman; Judah A. Joffe & Yudel Mark; Y.M. Lifschitz; Yudel Mark; James A. Matisoff; Wolf Moskovich; Yitskhok Niborski, Bernard Vaisbrot, & Simon Neuberg; Nehemiah Pereferkovich; Zalmen Reyzen; A. Roth; Mordkhe Schaechter; Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath & Paul Glasser; Yisroel Shteynberg (Israel Steinberg); Nokhem (Nahum) Stutchkoff; Mordechai Tsanin; Justus van de Kamp; Max Weinreich; Uriel Weinreich; and Yehoash & Spivak.

The project was inspired, over half a century, by Shimon Alperovich, Stanley H. Barkan, Hartog Beem, Solomon A. Birnbaum, Dovid Botwinik, Milan Chersonski, Donald Cohen, David Crystal, David Djanogly, Itamar Even-Zohar, Yoni Fain, Vivian Felsen, William J. Fishman, Lewis Glinert, Itche Goldberg, Troim Handler, Benjamin Harshav (Hrushovski), Marvin I. Herzog, Miriam Hoffman, Gershon Jacobson, Y.Y. Jacobson, Harriet Jasper, Edward M. (Meishke) Katz, Blumke (Bliuma) Katz, Menke Katz, Kh. Sh. Kazdan, Kalmen Kovl (Carl Cowl), Chatskel Lemchen, Yisroel Lempert, Stanley (Shimke) Levine, I.A. Lisky, Raphael Loewe, Yitskhok Niborski, Shlomo Noble, David Patterson, Faye Ran, Leyzer Ran, Aryeh Rohn, Mordkhe Schaechter, Meir Shub, Abraham Shulman, Sheine Sideraite, Harry Smith, Avrom-Nokhem Stencl, Abraham Sutzkever, Gershon Winer, Chic Wolk, and Wolf Younin.

Special thanks to colleagues who have read drafts, offered suggestions, and helped in various ways. Among the many are Leyzer Burko (Yiddish Dialect Dictionary, N.Y.); Lewis Glinert (Hanover, New Hampshire); Randi Hacker (Lawrence, Kansas); Stanley (Shimke) Levine (La Calmette, France); Michael Masarsky (NY), Albert Rosenblatt (NY); Julia Rets (St. Petersburg, Russia); Andrey Rozenberg (Weitzmann Institute of Science, Rehovot); Philip Schwartz (Wrocław), Justus van de Kamp (Amsterdam); and Arun (Arele) Schaechter-Viswanath (N.Y.). Mr. Viswanath’s critiques have illustrated anew that true scholars can constructively assist colleagues’ work in the midst of even pronounced differences of opinion.

Two expert readers who have with extraordinary generosity of spirit unceasingly offered extensive suggestions and corrections over many years are Chaim Berger (Monsey, N.Y.), consultant for southern dialects, and Yeynesn Felendler (Kiryath Sefer, Israel), consultant for northern dialects. The author owes them a profound expression of gratitude. Neither they, nor any of the others who have so graciously assisted the YCD project are responsible for errors and shortcomings, or for the opinions and choices herein.

YCD’s primary font is Frank Ruhl Curled Lamed by Maxim Iorsh with modifications by Yoram Gnat via the generous help of Aharon Varady at the Open Siddur Project.