Two Scholars, One Vision
In the rabbinic tradition, a chavrusa is a study partnership — two scholars learning together, each sharpening the other's thinking, each deepening the other's understanding. Bergmann and Krelenbaum never met. They were separated by a generation, a country, and very different institutional contexts.
And yet together, they form exactly such a partnership — a chavrusa across time. One gave the Tanakh its Yiddish voice. The other gave the Brit Chadasha its Yiddish voice. The result is something neither man could have produced alone: a complete 66-book Yiddish Bible, continuous from Bereshis to Revelation, speaking in the mama loshn with a single, coherent voice.
1898 / 1912 Edition
Genesis through Chronicles.
Mordechai Samuel Bergmann, 1912 revised edition.
1949 Edition
With Voice Model Audio, Bible Society in Israel
"One gave the Tanakh its Yiddish voice; the other gave the Brit Chadasha its Yiddish voice."
Continuous from Bereshis to Revelation
The significance of this union is difficult to overstate. No Yiddish Bible of this quality — Tanakh and Brit Chadasha together, in a single coherent voice — had existed before. Bergmann's Tanakh ends with Chronicles. Krelenbaum's Brit Chadasha begins with Matthew. Together they form an unbroken arc of Scripture in the heart language of a people.
With either testament YouVersion Parallel Mode with Yiddish and Transliteration and Transliteration and English aligned side by side.
With Bobby Gruenewald's YouVersion app there is a Gutenberg-sized printing delivery revolution in Oklahoma. The app was launched in 2008, coinciding with Apple's App Store debut, making it one of the first 200 apps available and pivoting to mobile, recognizing the potential of smartphone technology with the timing providential - YouVersion launched at the perfect moment to capitalize on the smartphone revolution, allowing them to reach users globally through a new medium that would become ubiquitous. With either testament YouVersion Parallel Mode with Yiddish and Transliteration and Transliteration and English aligned side by side.
From Bereshis (Genesis) to Revelation, the complete Scripture in the mama loshn — for the first time in a single, coherent, complete Yiddish Orthodox translation.
The digital home of the complete Yiddish Bible, with updated orthography, searchable text, and interlinear tools.
Living On at YiddishBible.net
Today, their work lives on at YiddishBible.net, where updated orthography, searchable text, and interlinear tools make the complete Yiddish Bible accessible to readers around the world — in a format that neither Bergmann nor Krelenbaum could have imagined, but that both men, in their different ways, made possible.
Tanakh and Brit Chadasha Triglot find their home here
What Bergmann and Krelenbaum knew and prepared the way for.