DOCSLIB.ORG

I.L. Peretz, Father of the Yiddish Renaissance

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
I.L. Peretz, Father of the Yiddish Renaissance Click here for Full Issue of Fidelio Volume 12, Number 2, Summer 2003 Jews celebrate completion of the writing of a Torah scroll, synagogue in Dubrovna, Belorussia, early Twentieth century, in the Pale of Jewish Settlement. Dubrovna, a textile center, produced most of the prayer shawls for the Russian Empire. I.L. Peretz, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Archives Father of theYiddish Renaissance by Paul Kreingold ‘It is not enough to speak Yiddish— you must have something to say.’ Introduction The year 2002 marked the 150th birthday of I.L. Peretz, the Father of the Yiddish Renaissance. Playwright, poet, composer, essayist, and political organizer, Peretz, by the time of his death in 1915, was the most published Yiddish writer in history, and the most beloved.1 Under his intellectual leadership, Yiddish was transformed, in less than a century, from a “kitchen jargon,” to one of the great languages of the world, spoken by over 11,000,000 people; a language which was capable of transmitting the ideas of the Isaac Leibush Peretz Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, to the Jews of Poland, 35 © 2003 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited. Russia, and the United States. The Haskalah was initiated a hundred years earlier by the great German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, who demonstrated that a Jew could free himself from the parochial- ism of ghetto life, become recog- nized as the most profound thinker in the “outside” world, and still remain true to the faith of his fathers. In a 1999 speech, Helga Zepp LaRouche describes Mendelssohn as follows: Moses Mendelssohn is a good example of a world-historical individual. By breaking out of the containment of the Jewish ghetto, taking the best of humanist culture from Plato to Leibniz to Bach to everybody Courtesy of Paul Kreingold else, he is a model of what every Political prisoners, in exile for crimes against the Russian Empire, pose with a Siberian farm oppressed minority can do family (seated), 1906. The author’s grandfather is reclining on the right. today. Take everything man- kind has produced so far, add your own creative contribu- crimes against the Russian Empire. My grandfather’s life tion, and be part of the creation of a new Renaissance.2 story: fighting Cossacks on the streets of Riga during the 1905 Russian Revolution; publishing an illegal newspa- I.L. Peretz and his collaborators did exactly that in per; his arrest and sentence to eight years in Siberian the late Nineteenth century, and, as a result, a Yiddish exile, his harrowing escape and eventual emigration to Renaissance flowered. America; these, not Cinderella, were the “fairy tales” on But, why is this worth looking at today? With the which we were raised. destruction of, especially, Polish Jewry, the assimilation of This, too, is the Yiddish Renaissance. The creators of American Jews, and the creation of modern Hebrew, this “new” language, speaking, for the first time, for an Yiddish is now, if not dead, then certainly dying. Why oppressed and despised people, living under brutal politi- then spend time studying its origins? This is not difficult cal and economic conditions, were of course concerned to answer. Firstly, the Jews of Eastern Europe were the with the well-being of their brothers, Jewish and Gentile. last national group in Europe to undergo a Renaissance; a Yiddish became not only a literate language, but a politi- Renaissance with Warsaw at its center and literature as cal language of labor, unionism, and protest, and Yid- its primary creation. Yiddish literature: the stories, dish-language organizations such as the Jewish Bund poems, and plays of Mendele Moykher-Sforim (Mendele played an important role in the history of late-Nine- Mocher Seforim), I.L. Peretz, Sholem Aleichem, and teenth-century Russia and Poland. others, is uniquely the literature of the Jewish Pale, but From a literary standpoint, the writers of the Yiddish like all world-class literature, it speaks universally to all Renaissance should be judged against the greats of Euro- of humanity. pean literature. Their stories are not “cute” and should And there is more. When I was growing up in New never be read aloud with pseudo-Yiddish accents; that is, York City, there was an old picture hanging on the wall to do them justice, the musical Fiddler on the Roof is an of my bedroom. Taken outdoors in 1906, carefully posed, insufficient model. These writers saw themselves in a its background is a thick pine forest and its subject is a brotherhood with Cervantes, Heine, Poe, and Pushkin.3 Siberian farm family, a father with five children. In the Many of them would have become great Polish writers, if foreground are two young men, half-lying, half-sitting. growing anti-Semitism had not frozen them out of civil One of them is my grandfather, Adolph Rambam, and society. both of them are political prisoners, in exile in Siberia for The general theme of their writing is the need for uni- 36 versal progress. The oppressed minority, of which they or Armenian merchants. The Roman Catholic majori- were the eloquent spokesmen, could never be free, unless ty was surrounded by a colorful array of sects and faiths— mankind as a whole were free. In this idea, they reflected by Calvinists, Lutherans, Arians, Unitarians; Orthodox, the cataclysmic social changes brought on by the freeing Uniates and Old Believers; by orthodox Jews, Karaim, Chassidim and Frankists; by Armenian monophysites and of the Russian serfs in 1861, the American slaves in 1863, by Tartar Muslims. The official languages of Polish and the Polish Rebellion the same year, and the freeing of the Latin in the kingdom were matched by Ruski and Polish in Polish serfs the following year. the Grand Duchy. Vernacular speech was conducted in I.L. Peretz was born, lived, and died in this period, anything from the four main regional dialects of Polish, from 1852 through 1915, and can be understood only plus Kashub and goralski (the highland brogue), to Ruthen- within its context. When Peretz died, on April 3, 1915, he ian in its northern (Byelorussian) or southern (Ukranian) had been the dominant figure in the Yiddish literary life forms; Lithuanian, Latvian and (to 1600) Prussian; plat- in Warsaw for 25 years, and over 100,000 people attended deutsch in the northern cities, Yiddish, Tartar, or Armen- his funeral. But, Polish newspapers reported nothing of ian. The liturgical languages in use included Church this event, as Poland was in the throes of a boycott of Latin, Old Church Slavonic, High (Lutheran) German, Jewish businesses. It was not always so in Poland. In fact, Hebrew, and Arabic. Documents were written in a variety only 52 years earlier, during the 1863 Polish Uprising of alphabets including the Roman, Cyrillic, Hebrew, and Arabic. Even the calendar showed marked variations. In a against the Russian Empire, Jews and Poles fought side city like Wilno, for example, when the Poles celebrated the by side against a common enemy. In fact, the history of Constitution of 3 May A.D. 1792, the Orthodox were still on Jewish immigration to Poland was, until the end of the 22 April, the Jews were in the month of Iyyar after Eighteenth century, basically a success story. Passover in the year 5552 AM, and the Tartars were in the eighth month of the year Hegira 1205.7 A Surprising Early History of Poland Now, one should not get overly sentimental about old The first Jews, in significant numbers, began to arrive in Poland. No American who cherishes our Constitution Poland in the Twelfth century, and by the Thirteenth and history, would actually want to live in pre-partition century, Poland was criticized by the Papal Legate for Poland. After all, this was a feudal nation, with the allowing Jews to dress like everyone else.4 When the majority of the population tied to the land and very poor, Black Death devastated Europe in the Fourteenth centu- ruled over, quite ruthlessly, by a noble class called ry, Poland, because of its lack of population density, was szlachta. Nevertheless, it is important to understand that spared. Of the thousands who escaped Western Europe, Poland offered to Jews and others a safe haven, where many were skilled artisans, and others were Jews who they could live in relative security, and that haven was brought with them banking and business skills. The offered for over 500 years. result of this immigration was a period of great growth for Poland, as thousands of acres were brought under The Partition of Poland cultivation to provide food for Europe. While in the rest of Europe Jews were blamed for the plague, and some of Between 1772 and 1795, Poland was absorbed into the the most horrific atrocities were committed against Jew- Russian Empire as a result of the First, Second, and ish communities, in the Kingdom of Poland, Jews were Third Partitions of 1773, 1793, and 1795. This, of course, allowed “their own fiscal, legal, and even political organi- was the period of the American Revolution, and, as one zation,” in an environment of tolerance established dur- would expect, the fight for a North American republic ing the reign of Casimir III (the Great) (1309-1370).5 was watched closely in Warsaw, Krakow, and Lubin. On The Jewish communities in Poland continued to May 3, 1791 the Polish parliament, or Seym, approved grow, especially as other countries expelled their Jewish Europe’s first written constitution. Other policies were populations, such as Spain in 1492, and Portugal in 1496. initiated to improve the lot of labor, peasants, and the By 1772, four-fifths of the world’s Jews were living in Jews, and create a national bank and paper currency.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Global Form and Fantasy in Yiddish Literary Culture: Visions from Mexico City and Buenos Aires
    Global Form and Fantasy in Yiddish Literary Culture: Visions from Mexico City and Buenos Aires by William Gertz Runyan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Comparative Literature) in the University of Michigan 2019 Doctoral Committee: Professor Mikhail Krutikov, Chair Professor Tomoko Masuzawa Professor Anita Norich Professor Mauricio Tenorio Trillo, University of Chicago William Gertz Runyan [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3955-1574 © William Gertz Runyan 2019 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my dissertation committee members Tomoko Masuzawa, Anita Norich, Mauricio Tenorio and foremost Misha Krutikov. I also wish to thank: The Department of Comparative Literature, the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan for providing the frameworks and the resources to complete this research. The Social Science Research Council for the International Dissertation Research Fellowship that enabled my work in Mexico City and Buenos Aires. Tamara Gleason Freidberg for our readings and exchanges in Coyoacán and beyond. Margo and Susana Glantz for speaking with me about their father. Michael Pifer for the writing sessions and always illuminating observations. Jason Wagner for the vegetables and the conversations about Yiddish poetry. Carrie Wood for her expert note taking and friendship. Suphak Chawla, Amr Kamal, Başak Çandar, Chris Meade, Olga Greco, Shira Schwartz and Sara Garibova for providing a sense of community. Leyenkrayz regulars past and present for the lively readings over the years. This dissertation would not have come to fruition without the support of my family, not least my mother who assisted with formatting.
    [Show full text]
  • SA-SIG-Newsletter June 2005
    S. A. SIG http://www.jewishgen.org/SAfrica/ Editor: Bubbles Segall [email protected] Southern African Jewish Genealogy Special Interest Group Newsletter Vol. 6, Issue 1 September 2005 In this Issue President’s Message – Saul Issroff 2 Editorial – Bubbles Segall 3 Meeting of the SA-SIG at the Las Vegas 2005 Symposium – Roy Ogus 4 SA-SIG Treasurer’s Report – Mike Getz 6 The Lost and Found Family – Sue and Elliot Axel 7 Plungyan of yesterday and Plunge today – Abel Levitt 10 19,234,000,000,000,000 bytes – Gary Mokotoff 13 Memories of Habonim in Port Elizabeth during the Thirties – Phyllis Sachar 14 Mendele Mocher Sforim – Manfred Schwartz 14 Zadok and Sara Bluma Zilber – Dov Sidelsky 17 © 2005 SA-SIG. All articles are copyright and are not to be copied or reprinted without the permission of the author. The contents of the articles contain the opinions of the authors and do not reflect those of the Editor, or of the members of the SA-SIG Board. The Editor has the right to accept or reject any material submitted, or edit as might be appropriate. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE My grandson's imminent bar mitzvah in New York The Southern Africa Jewish has focussed me on the sorts of life milestone events Genealogy Special Interest Group where we have little or no records from past (SA-SIG) generations. The Southern Africa Jewish Genealogy Special Although we genealogists are adept at getting birth, Interest Group (SA-SIG) was created to provide a marriage, and death records, we seldom see records forum for a free exchange of ideas, research tips, and of a bris milah, a pidyon haben, a bat or bar information of interest to those researching Jewish mitzvah.
    [Show full text]
  • Preliminary Remarks on Yiddish Culture in Poland 1945-1968
    SCRIPTA JUDAICA CRACOVIENSIA * Vol. 2 Kraków 2003 Magdalena Ruta Preliminary remarks on Yiddish Culture in Poland 1945-1968 Permit me to present some general remarks on Yiddish culture in Poland after the Second World War. This war brought the extermination of both Polish Jews and their culture which had flowered in the interwar period, especially in Poland, with enormous intensity. Nevertheless, a small group of Jewish writers and journalists, who had survived mostly in the Soviet Union, made an effort to later revive Yiddish culture in Poland. To my knowledge there has not been much research on this topic. Nonetheless, some historical works, in which authors concentrate mainly on the 1945-1956 period, have appeared in Poland in recent years. 1 In the Encyclopedia szel Galujot (VM) there is a 20 page article entitled “Yiddishe literarishe tetikeyt in Poyln in di yom 1946-1968” written by David Sfard, and in Encyclopedia Judaica (CD Rom Edition) one can find an entry for Poland with an article on Jewish cultural life in post­ war Poland by this same author. In 1987 the Bibliography of Hebrew and Yiddish Publications in Poland since 1944 was published in Israel. The same year Shlomo Straus-Marko wrote Di geshikhte fun yidishn yishuv in nokhmilkhomedikn Poyln, which contains reprints of articles from the Jewish press of 1945-1968 and reflections on subjects connected with culture (press, publicity, literary life, etc. ), but this work seems to lack a scholarly nature. There also exist remembrances referring to the epoch of 1945-1968. Among them are David Sfard’s and Hersh (Grzegorz) Smolar’s memoirs.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Humor
    Jewish Humor Jewish Humor: An Outcome of Historical Experience, Survival and Wisdom By Arie Sover Jewish Humor: An Outcome of Historical Experience, Survival and Wisdom By Arie Sover This book first published 2021 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2021 by Arie Sover All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-6447-9 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-6447-3 With love to my parents, Clara (Zipkis) and Aurel Sober, and my grandmother, Fanny Zipkis: Holocaust survivors who bequeathed their offspring with a passion for life and lots of humor. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements .................................................................................. xii Preface ..................................................................................................... xiii Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Literacy and critical Jewish thought ........................................................... 2 The sources of Jewish humor ..................................................................... 6 The Bible ..............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Yiddish Culture in the West
    Judah YIDDISH CULTURE Waten IN THE WEST The facts about the decline, often overlooked, of Yiddish culture in the West. Q FTEN when anti-Soviet propagandists assert that today Yiddish culture is in a serious plight in the Soviet Union and that soon the Soviet Jews will be without a literature and language, they appear to try to leave the impression that conversely in the West, the Yiddish language and literature are flourishing. Actually the reverse is true; Yiddish literature is at a very low ebb in the U.S.A. and is virtually extinct in Britain, but in the Soviet Union there is still considerable creative activity in the Yiddish language. As Dr. Nahum Goldmann said at the recent meeting of the World Jewish Congress, the Soviet Jewish community is “culturally one of the most creative” (Melbourne Herald, August 1, 1966). Yiddish, a younger language than Hebrew which goes back to antiquity, was derived from Middle High German between the 10th and 12th centuries, and after the Jewish migration eastward to Poland and Russia was mostly spoken in Eastern Europe where it was enriched by new words and word formations. Modern Yiddish literature was born in the mid-19th century in Czarist Russia in which lived nearly 50 per cent of the total Jewish population of the world at that time. Yiddish cultural expression grew up in the Pale of Settlement, the vast ghetto set up in 1835 by Nicholas I, in parts of white Russia and the Ukraine in which most of the Jews were compelled to live.
    [Show full text]
  • Rebecca Wolpe
    THE TRUE WAY TO LOVING GOD: NATURE IN THE HASKALA Rebecca Wolpe Abstract The maskilim (those committed to a Jewish Enlightenment) considered the study of nature necessary for any cultured, civilized person. It is thus not surprising that maskilim began to translate and adapt European texts on natural and scientific subjects into Hebrew and Yiddish, in order to spread general knowledge among Jewish readers. A number of scholars have discussed these scientific/natural texts, their content, the characteristics of the translation/adaptation process, and their approaches. However, less attention has been paid to works of maskilic belles lettres which include descriptions of natural phenomena. This central aspect of maskilic writing about nature, the religious/moral aspect, has been largely neglected by scholars. Writing about natural phenomena provided the maskilim not only with an opportunity to improve readers’ general education but also to counteract superstition. In the eyes of the Enlightenment, wonder seemed imbued with disruptive forces of enthusiasm and superstition. Yet the newly revealed intricacies of seemingly "everyday" phenomena such as the human eye, a fly’s wings, or explanations of changing weather conditions, could be simultaneously wonderful and scientifically explainable. The maskilim followed this Enlightenment strategy of decoupling wonder and fear. They emphasized what John Brooke and Geoffrey Cantor have referred to in their work Reconstructing Nature: The Engagement of Science and Religion (Edinburgh: OUP, 1998, 337–9)
    [Show full text]
  • Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum Congregation Beit Simchat Torah Introduction to Yiddish Culture and Literature in Translation Spring 2021
    (updated version 4/6/2021) Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum Congregation Beit Simchat Torah Introduction to Yiddish Culture and Literature in Translation Spring 2021 In this class, we will be learning about the culture and literature of Eastern European Jews. We will be studying literature in translation. Of course, this is a brief overview that I hope will inspire you to continue to study and learn and continue o love and appreciate the depths of this legacy. Many of the short stories are found in the Treasury of Yiddish Stories and poetry will be distributed to class registrants. If at all possible, please purchase or get from the library: 1. Sholem Aleichem, Tevye the Dairyman. There are many editions, if you have one at home, that’s fine, if you want to buy one, get Tevye The Dairyman, and the Railroad Stories, Translated by Hillel Halkin (Shocken Books: NY, 1987). 2. Treasury of Yiddish Stories by Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg (Available from the Yiddish Book Center online store https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/ In preparation for the class read the Introductions of both books! Reading assignments for each week are listed below. I can’t be too sure of our pace so feel free to start reading as you want. There will be NO TEST so don’t worry if you don’t want to do the homework. Showing up is just fine. Week 1-2: Introduction to Eastern European Jewish Life: • History overview, maps and glossary • What does “Yiddish” mean? What is Yiddish? • What do we mean by Yiddish literature? • What is Eastern Europe? • What is the Pale of Settlement? What are the 3 partitions of Poland? Why are they relevant? • Yiddish pre-Khurbn (1939) and post-Khurbn (1945) in the United States, South America, Israel, Soviet Union and Birobidzhan 1 • Beginning of Jewish life in Poland from museum in Warsaw https://www.polin.pl/en/common-roots Read: Isaac Bashevis Singer: “Nobel Lecture, 1978” Print out a map of Eastern Europe of approximately 1700 and 1900.
    [Show full text]
  • Mikan, Journal for Hebrew and Israeli Literature and Culture Studies
    Mikan, Journal for Hebrew and Israeli Literature and Culture Studies Vol. 16, March 2016 מכון והמחלקה לספרות עברית, אוניברסיטת בן־גוריון בנגב Editor: Hanna Soker-Schwager Editorial board: Tamar Alexander, Yitzhak Ben-Mordechai, Yigal Schwartz (Second Editor), Zahava Caspi (Third Editor) Junior editors: Chen Bar-Itzhak, Rina Jean Baroukh, Omer Bar Oz, Yael Ben- Zvi Morad, Tahel Frosh, Maayan Gelbard, Tami Israeli, Yaara Keren, Shachar Levanon, Itay Marienberg-Milikowsky,Rachel Mizrachi-Adam, Yonit Naaman, Yotam Popliker, Efrat Rabinovitz, Yoav Ronel, Tamar Setter. Editorial advisors: Robert Alter, Arnold J. Band, Dan Ben-Amos, Daniel Boyarin, Menachem Brinker, Nissim Calderon, Tova Cohen, Michael Gluzman (First Editor), Nili Scharf Gold, Benjamin Harshav, Galit Hasan-Rokem, Hannan Hever, Ariel Hirschfeld, Avraham Holtz, Avner Holtzman, Matti Huss, Zipporah Kagan, Ruth Kartun-Blum, Chana Kronfeld, Louis Landa, Dan Laor, Avidov Lipsker, Dan Miron, Gilead Morahg, Hannah Nave, Ilana Pardes, Iris Parush, Ilana Rosen, Tova Rosen, Yigal Schwartz, Uzi Shavit, Raymond Sheindlin, Eli Yassif, Gabriel Zoran Editorial coordinator: Irit Ronen, Maayn Gelbard Language editors: Liora Herzig (Hebrew); Daniella Blau (English) Graphic editor: Tamir Lahav-Radlmesser Layout and composition: Srit Rozenberg Cover photo: Disjointed Voices of Birds Behind the Water, 1994, Watercolor on Paper 16x25.4 Jumping FROM One Assuciation to Another, 2008, Black ink and Col on brown cardboard. 28.5x30.5 Hedva Harechavi IBSN: 978-965-566-000-0 All rights reserved © 2016 Heksherim Institute for Jewish and Israeli Literature and Culture, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, and Kinneret, Zmora-Bitan, Dvir - Publishing House Ltd., Or Yehuda Printed in Israel www.kinbooks.co.il Contents Articles Avidov Lipsker and Lilah Nethanel - The Writing of Space in the Novels Circles and The Closed Gate by David Maletz Tamar Merin - The Purloined Poem: Lea Goldberg Corresponds with U.
    [Show full text]
  • PDF EPUB} Benjomin De Derde by Mendele Moykher-Sforim Mendele Mocher Sforim
    Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Benjomin de Derde by Mendele Moykher-Sforim Mendele Mocher Sforim. — December 21, 1835 (O.S.) = January 2, 1836 (N.S.), Kapyl ,( מענדעלע מוכר ספֿרים , Mendele Mocher Sforim (also Moykher , also Sfarim שלום , November 25, 1917 (O.S.) = December 8, 1917 (N.S.). "Mendele the book peddler," is the pseudonym of Sholem Yankev Abramovich Russian: Соломон Моисеевич Абрамович — Solomon Moiseyevich Abramovich), Jewish author and one of the founders) יעקב ַאבר ַאמ ָאװיטש of modern Yiddish and Hebrew literature. Contents. Youth. Mendele was born to a poor family in Kapyl near Minsk. His father, Chaim Moyshe Broyde, died shortly after he became a Bar Mitzvah. He studied in yeshiva in Slutsk and Vilna until he was 17; during this time he was a day-boarder under the system of Teg-Essen , barely scraping by, and often hungry. Mendele next traveled extensively around Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania at the mercy of an abusive beggar named Avreml Khromoy (Russian for "Avreml the Lame"; Avreml would later become the source for the title character of Fishke der Krumer , Fishke the Lame ). In 1854, Mendele settled in Kamianets-Podilskyi, where he got to know writer and poet Avrom Ber Gotlober, who helped him to understand secular culture, philosophy, literature, history, Russian and other languages. Early work. Mendele's first article, "Letter on Education" , appeared in 1857 in the first Hebrew newspaper, Hamagid ; his mentor Gotlober submitted Mendele's school paper without Mendele's prior knowledge. At Berdychiv in the Ukraine, where he lived in 1858-1869, he began to publish fiction both in Hebrew and Yiddish.
    [Show full text]
  • Hayyim Nahman Bialik - Poems
    Classic Poetry Series Hayyim Nahman Bialik - poems - Publication Date: 2012 Publisher: Poemhunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive Hayyim Nahman Bialik(9 January 1873 – 4 July 1934) Hayim Nahman Bialik, also Chaim or Haim, was a Jewish poet who wrote primarily in Hebrew but also in Yiddish. Bialik was one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew poetry and came to be recognized as Israel's national poet. <b>Biography</b> Bialik was born in the village of Radi, Volhynia in the Ukrainian part of the Russian Empire to Yitzhak Yosef Bialik, a scholar and businessman, and his wife Dinah (Priveh). Bialik's father died in 1880, when Bialik was 7 years old. In his poems, Bialik romanticized the misery of his childhood, describing seven orphans left behind—though modern biographers believe there were fewer children, including grown step-siblings who did not need to be supported. Be that as it may, from the age 7 onwards Bialik was raised in Zhitomir (also Ukraine) by his stern Orthodox grandfather, Yaakov Moshe Bialik. In Zhitomir he received a traditional Jewish religious education, but also explored European literature. At the age of 15, inspired by an article he read, he convinced his grandfather to send him to the Volozhin Yeshiva in Lithuania, to study at a famous Talmudic academy under Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, where he hoped he could continue his Jewish schooling while expanding his education to European literature as well. Attracted to the Jewish Enlightenment movement (Haskala), Bialik gradually drifted away from yeshiva life. Poems such as HaMatmid ("The Talmud student") written in 1898, reflect his great ambivalence toward that way of life: on the one hand admiration for the dedication and devotion of the yeshiva students to their studies, on the other hand a disdain for the narrowness of their world.
    [Show full text]
  • Nineteenth Century Writers
    Nineteenth century writers Mendele Mokher Sforim; I.L. Peretz, “the fathers of modern Yiddish literature” Mendele Mocher Seforim "Mendele the book peddler"; 1836–1917 [N.S.], Odessa), born Sholem Yankev Abramovich • Yiddish literature had existed to some extent for hundreds of years, in the form of folk tales, legends, and religious homilies. • The nineteenth century literature differed in that novels, poetry, and short stories were now being written for the first time. • Sholem Jacob Abramowitz, popularly known by the pseudonym Mendele Mocher Sforim ("Mendele the bookseller"), is today considered the "father of Yiddish literature.“ • He wrote his stories, he said, in order to "have pity for Yiddish, that rejected daughter, for it was time to do something for our people." Abramovitsh wished to reach a far wider audience than the use of Hebrew afforded. He serialized one of the first modern Yiddish novels, Dos kleyne mentshele, in Kol mevasser (“A Voice of Tidings”), which was a new Yiddish supplement to the influential weekly Hebrew newspaper Ha-melitz (“The Advocate”). Dos kleyne mentshele introduces the figure of Mendele the Book Peddler (Mendele Moykher Sforim), a folksy character who narrates some of Abramovitsh’s best works From Dos Kleine Mentshele The Calf, Part Two Early one winter morning, as I lay huddled beneath my comforter, snatching the last few precious winks before going to study at the cheder, a hand shook me. "Hurry! Hurry and get up!" I opened my eyes and saw my sister, then about nine years old, standing near my bed. Her face was glowing, her eyes were burning with a peculiar light, and a fixed smile played on her lips.
    [Show full text]
  • Ruth R. Wisse
    NO JOKE RUTH R. WISSE JEWISH REVIEW of BOOKS No Joke LIBRARY OF JEWISH I DEAS Cosponsored by the Tikvah Fund Te series presents engaging and authoritative treatments of core Jewish concepts in a form appealing to general readers who are curious about Jewish treatments of key areas of human thought and experience. No Joke Making Jewish Humor Ruth R. Wisse PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS Princeton and Oxford Copyright © 2013 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved 2015 digital edition published by the Jewish Review of Books, a publicationLibrary of Congress of Bee.Ideas, Cataloging-in-Publication LLC. Data FirstWisse, published Ruth R., author. by Princeton University Press. Copyright © 2013 by PrincetonNo joke :University making Jewish Press. humor All /rights Ruth Rreserved.. Wisse. No part of this book may be reproducedpages or cm. transmitted – (Library inof anyJewish form ideas) or by any means, electronic or mechanical,Includes bibliographical including photocopying, references and index. recording, or by any information storageISBN and 978 -retrieval0-691-14946 system,-2 (alk. without paper) permission in writing from the Publisher.1. Jewish wit and humor—History and criticism. 2. Jews—Humor—History and criticism. I. Title. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data PN6149.J4W49 2013 ′ Wisse,809.7 98924 Ruth–dc R.,23 author. 2012051631 BritishNo jokeLibrary : making Cataloging- Jewish in- Publication humor / DataRuth is R. available Wisse. pages cm. – (Library of Jewish ideas) PublicationIncludes of bibliographical this book has been references aided by theand Tikvah index.
    [Show full text]