The unique form of popular Jewish drama known as Jargon theater owes its name to the language employed by its actors. Not unlike today, the label Jargon had a normative, largely negative connotation in the past and carried the stigma of linguistic impurity. Originally, Jargon had a more universal meaning, distinguishing any dialect from Hochdeutsch (High German), the language of elite circles in German society. The distinction between Jargon and “High German” alluded to ethnic, geographic, and class differences. The often-amorphous term Jargon was meant to describe the multiplicity of its linguistic origins and point to its oral tradition and specificity to an identifiable milieu. Contemporaries often used Jargon interchangeably with Yiddish. While Berliners had their own local Jargon, in the world of theater Jargon came to be used almost exclusively for popular Jewish entertainment. It held two competing meanings: an ironic self-description employed by the performers, and a denigrating ascription of Jewish dialect theater by its middle-class audiences.

One may wonder why Jewish performers chose such a loaded label for their art. Why would they embrace a term that might hinder them in their quest for social acceptance and respect? Berliners had (and have) a particular love affair with dialects and idiomatic expressions. Numerous comedians built entire careers on the “authenticity” of their modulation and metaphors. Whereas Londoners seemed to punish any deviation from Oxford English as a breech of status boundaries, Berliners lauded familiarity with the local slang and intonation.