A Shtetl and Other Yiddish Novellas / Edited by Ruth Wisse

A Shtetl and Other Yiddish Novellas / Edited by Ruth Wisse
Detroit : Wayne State University Press : 1986
376 str. ; 24 cm
ISBN: 9780814318492
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AUTHORS
Ruth R. Wisse obtained her Ph.D. from McGill University, Montreal, and is currently professor of Yiddish Studies at McGill. She has translated and edited numerous Yiddish works for publication and has published a variety of articles and books on Yiddish language and literature.
Contributors Include:
S. Ansky, David Bergelson, Joseph Opatoshu, Mendele Mocher Sforim, I. M. Weissenberg

DESTRIPTION
The five short novellas which comprise this anthology were written between 1890 and World War I. All share a common setting—the Eastern European Jewish town or shtetl, and all deal in different ways with a single topic—the Jewish confrontation with modernity. The authors of these novellas are among the greatest masters of Yiddish prose. In their work, today's reader will discover a literary tradition of considerable scope, energy, and variety and will come face to face with an exceptionally memorable cast of characters and with a human community now irrevocably lost.
In her general introduction, Professor Wisse traces the development of modern Yiddish literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and describes the many shifts that took place between the Yiddish writers and the world about which they wrote. She also furnishes a brief introduction for each novella, giving the historical and biographical background and offering a critical interpretation of the work.


Writers in Poland and the Soviet Union

Following the Russian Revolution and World War I, new trends in Yiddish literature appeared in Kiev, Moscow, and Warsaw (as well as in Berlin and New York). Some of the leading authors were David Bergelson, Der Nister, Peretz Markish, and David Hofshteyn. Their literary activities were most successful in the 1920s, after which Soviet restrictions made free expression increasingly difficult. In August 1952 several major Yiddish authors fell victim to the Stalinist purges.

Bergelson read widely in Russian and Hebrew literature and introduced a powerful, innovative, impressionistic style into Yiddish narrative. Arum vokzal (1909; “At the Depot,” translated into English in A Shtetl and Other Yiddish Novellas [1986]), his first novella, already exemplifies the new modernism—involving multiple perspectives and internal monologues in free, indirect style. Bergelson’s characteristic atmosphere of futility and despair is vividly present in the novella In a fargrebter shtot (1914; “In a Backwoods Town”). His masterpiece Opgang (1920; Departing) conveys the decline of the shtetl using techniques such as internal monologue, dream sequences, nonlinear narrative, and a roving narrative eye that views the town from the perspective of many different characters. When the novel opens, its main character has already died of uncertain causes; his friend returns to the shtetl and tries to understand his death. The novel’s sordid details hint at the moribund quality of small Jewish towns in eastern Europe. Opgang and two of Bergelson’s shorter works appear in English translation in The Stories of David Bergelson (1996).

Der Nister (“The Hidden One”; pseudonym of Pinhas Kahanovitsh) was a highly original Symbolist author. Early in his career he translated selected stories of Hans Christian Andersen and later incorporated folktale elements into his fiction. His major work was the two-volume novel Di mishpokhe Mashber (1939–48; The Family Mashber [the Hebrew word mashber means “crisis”]).

Expressionism (a movement that emphasized the representation of subjectivity through forceful, often exaggerated effects) in Yiddish is clearly represented by the poetry of Uri Tsvi Grinberg. Although he is best known as a Hebrew poet, his early Yiddish works from 1912 to 1921 are also remarkable. His first book of poems, Ergets af felder (1915; “Somewhere in Fields”) describes wartime experiences in deliberately shocking images. In the title poem, the poet exclaims, “Oh, give me fresh-blossoming red flowers! / Flowers that remind me of blood.” In 1920–22 he was associated with the Warsaw-based group known as Khaliastre (“The Gang”). After he moved to Palestine in 1924, he concentrated on writing in Hebrew.

Another member of “The Gang,” Markish, wrote outstanding epic poems. His 1922 pogrom poem “Di kupe” (“The Mound” or “The Heap”) contrasts sharply with his idyllic, ahistorical nature poetry in “Volin” (1919). His later work is less often studied, in part because Markish adapted himself to the Soviet regime. The Expressionism of his early poems gives way to mimetic, class-conscious representations. Markish was among the many Yiddish authors killed during the Stalinist purges of 1952.

In the 1920s I.J. (Israel Joshua) Singer worked with Markish as coeditor of literary journals in Warsaw. He wrote conventional novels about Hasidic life in Poland, such as Yoshe Kalb (1932; Eng. trans. Yoshe Kalb), which was serialized in Forverts and adapted for the Yiddish stage by Maurice Schwartz. After the great success of this work in Schwartz’s Yiddish Art Theatre, Singer moved to New York. Di brider Ashkenazy (1936; The Brothers Ashkenazi) is a three-volume historical novel about the growth of the Jewish textile industry in Poland.

Itzik Manger, born in Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine), also lived in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Tel Aviv. He wrote numerous books of poems, the most memorable of which are charming modern retellings of biblical stories, such as Khumesh lider (1935; “Songs from the Torah”), later included in Medresh Itsik (1951; “Isaac’s Midrash”). Written in traditional rhyming ballad stanzas (usually in the form abcb), Manger’s poems convey shrewd humour while affirming a link to both Hebrew scripture and Old Yiddish writing. Perhaps because of its accessibility to readers, Manger’s poetry achieved wide popularity. Some of his verses—such as “Eynzam” (“Alone”) and “Afn veg shteyt a boym” (“On the Path Stands a Tree”) have been effectively set to music; others have inspired stage adaptations. Manger made his Yiddish debut in the Czernowitz-based journal Kultur (“Culture”), edited by Eliezer Staynbarg, who himself wrote beloved fables in verse as well as stories for children. Like Manger, he was sometimes inspired by Bible stories.

In the 1930s a number of poets formed the Yung Vilne (“Young Vilna”) group. Among them were Chaim Grade and Abraham Sutzkever (see below). Grade published several highly esteemed volumes of poetry, such as Doyres (1945; “Generations”). He was one of the surviving eastern European writers who immigrated to North America after World War II. After his arrival in New York in 1948, Grade also published novels—many of which have been translated into English—and the philosophical post-Holocaust story Mayn krig mit Hersh Rasseyner (My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner). This work, which appears in English translation in A Treasury of Yiddish Stories, rev. and updated ed. (1990), presents an extended debate between a secular and a religious Jew.
Writers in Israel

Arguably the most important Yiddish writer in Israel during the 20th century was the poet Abraham Sutzkever. He moved to Vilna about 1920 and began publishing Yiddish poetry associated with the Young Vilna group in the 1930s; the Introspectivist poet A. Leyeles encouraged him. Sutzkever lived for several years in Warsaw, where he published his first book of poetry in 1937. He escaped from the Vilna ghetto in 1943 and wrote poems about his experiences—as well as one of the most powerful memoirs from Lithuania, Fun Vilner geto (1946; “From the Vilna Ghetto”). Some of his poetry that responds to the Nazi genocide is contained in Di festung (1945; “The Fortress” or “The Prison”) and in Lider fun geto (1946; “Poems from the Ghetto”). After Sutzkever moved to Palestine in 1947, he furthered Yiddish literary culture in Israel and around the world by editing the journal Di goldene keyt (1949–96; “The Golden Chain”). His poetry explored a wide range of subjects, including Israel and Africa. Selections from Sutzkever’s work were published in English translation as A. Sutzkever: Selected Poetry and Prose (1991). Other Yiddish writers in Sutzkever’s group Yung-Yisroel (“Young Israel”) were Shlomo Vorsoger, Tzvi Eisenman, Rivka Basman, and Rokhl Fishman.

Rikudah Potash was born in Poland and moved to Palestine in 1934. She published poetry in Poland and in Israel, including the volume Moyled iber Timna (1959; “New Moon over Timna”). Both her sense of fantasy and her knowledge of art history enrich this collection of poems. For example, “Dos rod mazoles fun Beys-Alpha” (“The Zodiac Wheel from Beit Alpha”) spins out an intimate encounter with the mosaic floor that had been discovered at Kibbutz Beit Alpha.

After surviving the Holocaust, Leyb Rokhman, who had moved to Warsaw in 1930 and studied in a yeshiva, published Un in dayn blut zolstu lebn (1949; And In Your Blood Shall You Live), a journal of his wartime experiences. He settled in Jerusalem in 1950. With his family he tried to carry on both the Hasidic tradition and secular life of prewar Poland. His second book, Mit blinde trit iber der erd (1968; “With Blind Steps over the Earth”), expresses the psychological complexities of life as a survivor.

Yosl Birshteyn was born in Poland, lived in Australia, and moved to Israel in 1950. He published poems, novels, and stories in Yiddish and Hebrew, including the novel Der zamler (1985; “The Collector”). Polish-born Tsvi Kanar survived three years in a concentration camp. He moved to Palestine in 1946, studied theatre in Tel Aviv, and performed as a pantomime artist. In 1980 he began writing fiction in Yiddish; among his books are Ikh un lemekh (1994; “Lemekh and I”) and Opgegebn broyt (1996; “Returned Bread” or “Returning the Favour”).

Lev Berinsky was a Russian poet who switched to Yiddish—in the tradition of Shimon Frug, a 19th-century Russian Yiddish poet. Berinsky’s first volume of Yiddish poetry, Der zuniker veltboy (1988; “The Sunny World-Structure”), was published in Moscow; after emigrating to Israel, Berinsky published Fishfang in Venetsie (1996; “Fishing in Venice”).
Yiddish women writers

In the 20th century women began to contribute substantially to the development and diversity of Yiddish literature. Coincidentally, the following three leading women poets were born in Belorussia (now Belarus), lived for a while in Warsaw, and later moved to New York.

Anna Margolin (pseudonym of Rosa Lebensboym) moved to Odessa, Warsaw, and, finally, New York City. She began publishing poems in 1920 and collected the volume of her Lider (Poems) in 1929. Her themes and use of rhyme associate her with poets of Di Yunge, but in other respects she has more in common with the Introspectivists. Margolin’s lyricism is typified by her short poem “Slender Ships,” which begins, “Slender ships drowse on the swollen green water, / black shadows sleep on the cold heart of the water.” Margolin portrays a natural scene that resonates with the poet’s psychology, concluding, “I shall be still.”

Celia Dropkin lived in Warsaw and Kiev before immigrating to the United States in 1912. She began writing poetry in Russian. She was associated with both Di Yunge and the Introspectivists, and, in the words of critic Kathryn Hellerstein, “her poems of sex, love, and death shocked and seduced her contemporaries.” Dropkin published poems and stories in many leading journals, and she authored one volume of poetry, In heysn vint (1935; “In the Hot Wind”).

Kadia Molodowsky moved from Belorussia to Odessa and then Kiev, where she published her first poetry and was influenced by David Bergelson and his circle. From 1922 to 1935 she lived in Warsaw and published her important collections of poems Kheshvndike nekht (1927; “Nights of Heshvan”) and Dzshike gas (1933; “Dzshike Street”). In her first book, the sequence entitled “Women Poems” reflects on the possibility and meaning of writing poetry as a woman. She immigrated to the United States in 1935. Her book Der melekh David aleyn iz geblibn (1946; “Only King David Remained”) mourns the destruction wrought by the Nazi genocide, as in the poem “Es kumen nit mer keyn briv” (1945; “No Letters Arrive Anymore”).

Born in Ukraine, Malka Heifetz Tussman immigrated to the United States in 1912. She lived in Chicago; in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and in California. She published her poems in many journals, including In zikh. Tussman’s early poetry, as evinced in her first book, Lider (1949; Poems), was written in sonnet form. She also experimented with the eight-line poetic form called a triolet (with a rhyme scheme of abaaabab). In later poems she sometimes used short lines of free verse. Her six important books of poetry include Mild mayn vild (1958; “Mild My Wild”) and Haynt iz eybik (1977; “Now Is Ever”). Selections from Tussman’s poetry appear in English translation in With Teeth in the Earth (1992).

The anthology Found Treasures (1994) provides a selection of short fiction by many significant women authors, including Rikudah Potash, Fradel Schtok, and Yente Serdatzky.

Yiddish periodicals, yearbooks, and anthologies

The history of modern Yiddish literature could be sketched according to the history and geographic distribution of Yiddish periodicals. The following discussion of representative journals reveals the shifting centres of literary production.

In 1862 Kol mevasser (“A Voice of Tidings”), a Yiddish supplement to the Hebrew newspaper Ha-melitz (“The Advocate”), began a new era in Odessa by printing Yiddish literature. This venue became important for a number of Yiddish authors, including S.Y. Abramovitsh, I.J. (Isaac Joel) Linetzky, and J.L. (Judah Leib) Gordon.

In 1888–89 Sholem Aleichem revitalized Yiddish writing by instituting high standards for his Di yudishe folksbibliotek (“The Jewish Popular Library”) in Kiev. After he went bankrupt, I.L. Peretz followed suit with Di yudishe bibliotek (1891–95; “The Jewish Library”) in Warsaw. During the same period, from 1888 to 1895, Mordechai Spektor edited Der hoyzfraynd (“The Home Companion”) in Warsaw. These yearbooks represented the best, most serious Yiddish writing of the late 19th century. Two other influential publications in Warsaw, edited by Peretz assisted by David Pinski, were the anthology Literatur un lebn (1894; “Literature and Life”) and the occasional periodical Yontev bletlekh (1894–96; “Holiday Papers”). At the turn of the century, the weekly Der yud (1899–1902; “The Jew”) was even more important in pointing the way for later Yiddish writing.

As noted above, in New York the two most important literary movements began with the publication of the journals Di yugend and In zikh. Popular Yiddish fiction has been published in the New York Forverts (“Forward”) since 1897, edited in the early decades by Abraham Cahan. At the turn of the 21st century, the Yiddish Forverts remained a prominent paper. It was published daily from 1897 to 1983, when it became a weekly. Other New York newspapers that were important to the development of Yiddish literature were Der morgnzhurnal (“The Morning Paper”) and Der tog (“The Day”). YIVO bleter (“YIVO Journal”) has been an important forum for scholarship in Yiddish studies since 1931. Its primary headquarters moved from Vilna to New York in 1940, together with the Yidisher Visnshaftlikher Institut (YIVO; “Institute for Jewish Research”). Yiddish writers also contributed to Di tsukunft (“The Future”), the Yidisher kemfer (“Jewish Fighter”), and Yugntruf (“A Call to Youth”).

In Vilna Literarishe monatshriften (from 1908; “Literary Monthly”) gave expression to new trends. Anthologies from poets in the Soviet Union include Eygns (1918, 1920; “One’s Own”) in Kiev (now in Ukraine) and the journals Shtrom (1922–24; “Stream”) in Moscow, Di royte velt (1924–33; “The Red World”) in Kharkov (now Kharkiv, Ukraine), and Shtern (1925–41; “Star”) in Minsk (now in Belarus). Conditions became more difficult in the 1930s, but Afn shprakhfront (1937–39; “On the Language Front”), Sovetish (1934–41; “Soviet”), and Sovetishe literatur (1938–41; “Soviet Literature”) continued to print Yiddish writing. Most Yiddish literary journals disappeared from the U.S.S.R. after World War II, but Sovetish heymland (1961–91; “Soviet Homeland”) lasted for three decades.

Poland was the home of Yung-yidish (1919; “Young Yiddish”) in Łódź and Khaliastre (1922; “The Gang”) in Warsaw, both known for innovative works. Also in Warsaw, Albatros (1922; “Albatross”) and Literarishe bleter (1924–38; “Literary Pages”) had a distinguished group of editors, including Peretz Markish and I.J. Singer.

The aforementioned journal Di goldene keyt was published in Tel Aviv. As this magazine became more difficult to sustain, a number of immigrants from the Soviet Union assisted in the creation in 1992 of the literary almanac Naye vegn (“New Paths” or “New Directions”). Chulyot (“Links”), founded in 1990, is written in Hebrew but is devoted to the study of Yiddish literature. Toplpunkt (“Double Point” or “Colon”), a literary journal, was launched in Tel Aviv in 2000.

Yiddish theatre

European Jewish drama had its origin in the late Middle Ages, when dancers, mimics, and professional jesters entertained at wedding and Purim celebrations. Amateur Jewish actors began performing door to door during the Purim holiday. Their verse plays combined Bible stories and references to contemporary matters. By the 16th century these plays, with their interpolated songs and free use of improvisation, were being performed in Yiddish. During the late 18th century, proponents of the Jewish Enlightenment in Berlin wrote short plays that expressed their ideology. Russian Jewish intellectuals of the mid-19th century wrote Yiddish plays that were seldom performed.
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Starting in the late 19th century, the Yiddish theatre became famous for its music, especially in the plays of Abraham Goldfaden, as well as for its remarkable dramatic works by authors such as Jacob Gordin, David Pinski, S. Ansky (Solomon Zanvel Rapoport), H. Leivick (Leyvik Halpern), Peretz Hirshbein, Sholem Asch, and Leon Kobrin. Goldfaden has been called the father of Yiddish theatre. Following his lead, there have been many important Yiddish playwrights, both in the tradition of serious, art theatre and in the realm of popular (or shund) theatre. In addition, prominent authors such as Sholem Aleichem and Peretz wrote for the stage, and other classic fictional works were adapted for stage performances.
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The beginning of professional Yiddish theatre is usually dated to 1876, when Goldfaden, a former schoolteacher and journalist, joined forces with two traveling musicians to present his own two-act musical sketch in a tavern in Romania. The little play was well received, and Goldfaden went on to found a professional Yiddish theatre in Iaşi, Romania, where he was then living. Over the next decade he produced plays that were widely performed and subsequently published. Like the rival groups that soon appeared, Goldfaden’s troupe toured constantly, performing in theatres and cafés; his performances relied heavily on the elements of song, slapstick, and spectacle. Among his most popular plays were Di tsvey Kuni-Leml, sometimes entitled Di beyde Kuni-Leml (first performed 1880, published 1887; “The Two Kuni-Lemls”), Di kishefmakherin (first performed 1880, published 1887; “The Sorceress”), and Bar Kokhba (first performed 1883, published 1887). After the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, conditions became harsher for Jews, and Yiddish theatre was banned from Russia in 1883. Goldfaden followed the mass immigration to North America and attempted to stage his plays in New York in 1887. He was never prosperous, but in 1907 his final play, Ben Ami, was well received in New York under the direction of Boris Thomashefsky, one of the leading actor-directors on the Second Avenue stage.

Another notable playwright, Jacob Gordin, had a strong literary background in Russian and western European literature. He emigrated in 1891 from Russia to the United States, where he wrote more than 70 plays, some of which were published and some of which were successfully staged in Russian, English, and other languages. Many of his works were based on European models by authors such as Franz Grillparzer, Gotthold Lessing, Victor Hugo, Israel Zangwill, and Maxim Gorky. One example is Gordin’s impressive, grandiose Got, mentsh, un tayvl (first performed 1900, published 1903; “God, Man, and Devil”), influenced by Goethe’s Faust. He also authored Der yudisher kenig Lear (performed 1892, published 1907; “The Jewish King Lear”) and Mirele Efros (1898; sometimes called Di yidishe kenigin Lear, “The Yiddish Queen Lear”). While emulating Goethe and Shakespeare, Gordin initiated a more serious literary period in Yiddish theatre and competed with the ongoing low theatre (shundteater) that was heavily based on exaggeration, light songs, and comic routines (shtick).

Peretz Hirshbein tried his hand at short avant-garde plays such as Eynzame veltn (first published in Hebrew, 1905; in Yiddish, 1906; “Solitary Worlds”) as well as more traditional dramas. His Tkies kaf (1908; “The Vow”) anticipated S. Ansky’s Der dibek, discussed below. Hirshbein’s first naturalistic play about provincial Jewish life was Di puste kretshme (1913; “The Deserted Inn”). Among several works about Jews in the countryside, his most enduring achievement was Grine felder (1916; “Green Fields”), which dramatizes a yeshiva boy’s decision to leave his Talmudic studies and return to a more wholesome, provincial life.

In 1918 Maurice Schwartz founded the above-mentioned Yiddish Art Theatre. In addition to his directorial success, Schwartz became the most highly esteemed actor of the Yiddish stage, and the theatre became the training ground of a generation of actors. Among the names associated with it is that of Muni Weisenfreund, later known in motion pictures as Paul Muni.

Influenced in part by I.L. Peretz’s artistic reworking of Hasidic stories, S. Ansky wrote the most famous play in the Yiddish theatre repertoire, Der dibek (written 1914, first performed 1920; The Dybbuk). Originally written in Russian, it is also known as Tsvishn tsvey veltn (“Between Two Worlds”). Ansky had conducted serious ethnographic expeditions, and his play combines Hasidic folk traditions with vivid character portrayals, bringing together folkloristic motifs—in particular, possession by a disembodied spirit—and psychological depth. Der dibek was under consideration by Konstantin Stanislavsky’s Moscow Art Theatre (founded in 1898), but Ansky was unable to arrange for any performance of Der dibek during his lifetime. Ansky wrote that Der dibek is “a realistic play about mystics”; only the character of the Messenger did he “intentionally portray with mystical traits…following the advice—or, more accurately, the demand—of Stanislavsky.” After the author’s death in 1920, Der dibek became the most important play in the repertoire of the Warsaw-based Vilna Troupe as well as (in Hebrew) of Habima, a Hebrew theatre troupe in Moscow.

H. Leivick (pseudonym of Leyvick Halpern), who was born in Belorussia (now Belarus), spent several years imprisoned for political activities and immigrated to the United States in 1913. While he worked as a wallpaper hanger in New York, he was associated with the avant-garde literary group called Di Yunge (“The Young”). Like Peretz, he referred back to folklore and Jewish mysticism, as in his powerful dramatic poem Der goylem (1921, but not performed in Yiddish until 1927; The Golem). He later wrote other dramatic poems centring on the longing for a better world. His realistic plays, often set in sweatshops, treated similar themes. His first play to be performed, Shmates (1921, published 1922; “Rags”), enjoyed a long run at the Yiddish Art Theatre; he wrote a similar play titled Shop (1926–27). Illness and exile were among his central themes; he also wrote biblical plays such as Sodom (1937) and In di teg fun Iyov (1953; “In the Days of Job”).

Yiddish theatre flourished most remarkably in New York, Warsaw, and the Soviet Union, but it also emerged everywhere Yiddish speakers settled—in countries such as Argentina, South Africa, and New Zealand. The New York Folksbiene (“People’s Stage”) performed continuously after its formation in 1915. It began as the merger of several amateur groups, but the group later hired professional actors. At the turn of the 21st century, Yiddish plays are still performed in many cities other than New York, including Montreal, Tel Aviv (Israel), Warsaw, and Bucharest (Romania).

In the 1930s, Yiddish films brought many stage classics to the screen, such as adaptations of Der dibek, Tkies kaf, and Grine felder in 1937. Other noteworthy Yiddish films based on major fictional works include Onkl Moses (1930), Tevye (1939), and Fishke der krumer (1939; “Fishke the Lame”; also known as Di klyatshe, “The Nag”), released with English subtitles as The Light Ahead.