@L'irlandais and
@berndf :
These are certainly good and important points and I realize that things a re a little more complicated,
not the least since Yiddish itself seems to be divided into major dialects depending on where people settled.
Wiki also has some interesting articles and they suggest that social and political/historical factors did play a role
in when and where it was decided to use Roman vs Aramaeic script.
I understand that the Hebrew letters had in favor of them that they went back to more ancient languages and were thusly well established already.
I am not so sure however that litteracy was more widespread in the 'common 'Jewish than in the Christian population.
Certainly the feudal lords had no interest in reading or writing among the peasants for obvious reasons.
I also would think that Rabbis were often highly learned an educated persomalities, making them such important members of the community.
But was there really much chance of reading/studying the Books - or writing- for the common man with the hard life and drudgery the people endured?
Is there much evidence that many (common) people owned books? (even after printing, a book probably would have been a very expensive item)