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Where did Old Yiddish literature first emerge?

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Portrait of Russian author Sholem Aleichem with wavy hair, glasses, and mustache, wearing a suit and tie with medals on his lapel, early 1900s. — Yiddish literature Pen name of Sholem Rabinovitsh, Sholem Aleichem was the most popular and well-known of all Yiddish writers.

Old Yiddish literature emerged in the Rhineland, a region where Jewish life was highly developed by the 12th century in German towns such as Worms, Speyer, and Mainz. Some linguists also suggest that it may have originated in Jewish communities along the Danube River, specifically in Regensburg, Bavaria.1

The earliest written evidence of Yiddish literature is a brief rhyme inscribed in a Hebrew prayer book from Worms, dated 1272–1273. This early literature was deeply connected to the medieval period and shared similarities with Middle High German, though it was distinguished by its use of Hebrew characters and the incorporation of Hebrew loanwords. While the earliest literary tradition was based on a Western Yiddish dialect, the language and its literature evolved significantly as Jewish communities migrated eastward into Slavic territories.12