Socialism in Yiddish Literature

Advanced leyenkrayz: Socialism in Yiddish Literature

This course will show the development of socialist ideas in Yiddish Literature. Yiddish has always been a language of poor masses and this is why those who wrote it were inevitably more or less involved in Socialist movements that flourished in Russian Empire of the beginning of the 20th Century and finally led to October Revolution of 1917 which engendered a literature of Social Realism, Yiddish literature included. Yiddish writers that emigrated to America often worked in sweatshops and portrayed the class differences in American Society. For the six lectures of the course, I've chosen different writers that represent different generations and different regions (Poland, Ukraine, Belorussia, Germany, America) of the flourishing of Yiddish Literature between the two wars and different literary styles, from realism and Social-realism to expressionism and modernism, in poetry, drama and in prose. Some of them were politically active in the socialistic movement, like Semen An-sky, one of the prominent figures of the Russian Populist Movement. Some shared a pronounced Socialist ideology (Avrom Reyzen, Izi Kharik), some were murdered by the Soviet Regime (Kharik, Dovid Bergelson) when Yiddish literature was no longer wanted. Some emigrated and lived a long life in America and Israel (Reyzen, Scholem Ash) We won't read the well-known works by Sholem Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer in this course, I deliberately chose less known authors and the works that are not translated into English. During the lecture I will give you a small introduction about each author and the work we are going to read and then we will read and discuss together an excerpt of the work. I hope you would be inspired to read the rest of it by yourself. I will provide you with the complete text of every work. The lectures are held in Yiddish. The works that are going to be read are listed here in chronological order.

1 An-ski (1863-1920), "Pionern" (The Pioneers), 1904-1905, a novel

Intensely involved with the Russian Populist movement and then the Socialist Revolutionary Party and the Bund (Jewish Labor Party), An-ski was a Revolutionary and served in prison several times. He worked as a bookbinder, a blacksmith, and a miner in order to experience the life of the people. Later in life he got interested in Jewish Shtetl life and organized ethnographic expeditions into the Pale of settlement in 1912-1914. His famous play "The Dibbuk" is based on this ethnographic material. In the much less known novel "The Pioneers" Ans-ski describes the life of ex-yeshiva boys (like he himself once was) familiarizing with Socialism and about to dive into the flow of the Russian Revolution. Born in Belarus, An-ski was active in Western Europe, returning to post- Revolutionary Russia, then fleeing the Bolsheviks to Poland, where he died in 1920.

2 Avrom Reyzen (1876-1953), "Der Ayngefundeveter" (The Well Established), a short story

Avrom Reyzen is famous for his poems and short stories on social subjects. He depicts the economic hardships of Jews and glorifies their moral value in spite of their hard lives. But the story I chose to read is about a well-to-do doctor. Once a poor shtetl boy he believes that the most important thing in life is to be "well established." He achieves social success in the Warsaw bourgeois society, makes a good career and finds fortune, and finally discovers that it brings neither happiness, nor love. Born in Belarus, he settled in Warsaw and moved to America in 1911. In Warsaw Reyzen suffered from poverty while sharing the same room with Scholem Asch. Reyzen identified with socialism and contributed to the Bund's publications.

3 Itsik Kipnis (1896-1974), "Khadoshim un Teg: A khronik" (Months and Days: A Chronicle) 1926, a novel

Kipnis is better known as a children’s writer, but his first book "Khadoshim un Teg" deals with impressions of a newlywed young man from a Ukrainian shtetl Sloveshne (where Kipnis was from), who sees pogroms and Revolution sweep through his shtetl. This modernist novella was first welcomed but then never reprinted in the USSR because of its modernist style and the absence of a strongly pronounced ideological tendency. Kipnis's later fiction is more aligned with Social Realism. Kipnis was born in a artisan's family in a Ukrainian shtetl. His proletarian descent helped him to identify with the values of Social justice which he believed to be expressed 3 by Soviet ideology. He tried his best to fit in in the Social-realistic Yiddish literature, but relapsed into sometimes too idyllic descriptions of the shtetl life. After WWII his Jewish nationalism awakened, but this was anathema to the Soviets. He was exiled to camps in 1946-1956. After the destruction of Soviet Yiddish Culture his work was no longer needed, but his life was spared.

4 Scholem Asch (1880-1957), "Khayim Lederer's Tzurickkumen" (The Return of Khaym Lederer), 1927, a novel

Sholem Asch is the best known Yiddish author from the list presented here, he is even sometimes included into the Classics of Yiddish literature. A prolific writer he has always been popular and very controversial. Asch managed to arouse scandals around his figure everywhere he went from denouncing the practice of circumcision, and writing a play about lesbians and prostitutes in Tsarist Russia, to choosing Christian subjects in the US in the forties. He wrote about shtetl, the Revolution of 1905, criminals, Jewish history and immigrant life in America. The novel I chose to present is hardly mentioned by critics. It takes a peculiar place in Yiddish American "Sweatshop" literature depicting the severe capitalist order of the American society not from the point of view of an exploited worker, but that of a capitalist, an ex-shtetl Jew Khaym, now a sweatshop owner. When the old Jewish way of life is irrevocably lost (for Asch's heroes), to be exploited 12 hours a day seems to be a better alternative than spending money and socializing. The realistic style of the novel contrasts with the idealistic view of the shtetl life. Asch grew up and wrote in Poland and then moved between Poland and the US several times and passed away in Israel.

5 Izi Kharik (1898-1937), "Mit Layb un Lebn" (With Body and Soul), 1928 a poem

A writer of proletarian descent and a volunteer in the Red Army, Kharik was very enthusiastic about the building of Socialism in the USSR and all over the world, but rather pessimistic in the evaluation of this possibility. "Mit Layb un Lebn" is a poem about a young Jewish Teacher who comes to educate the shtetl, the old way of life is confronted to new values and the young woman fails to transform the shtetl according to the Socialistic dream. The poem shows real hardships of the young builders of Communism in the Jewish Street in the twenties. Izi Kharik was born in Belorussia, he worked in Minsk and in Moscow, he was a brilliant Soviet Yiddish poet, an ardent Communist, that had been cherished by the Party and paid a hard price for his brilliant literary career. He was killed in the first wave of Stalin's repressions against the elite of the twenties in 1937.

6 Dovid Bergelson 1884-1952 Di Broytmil (The Flour Mill), 1930 a drama

Bergelson started with literary impressionism before the revolution, then shifted to realism and finally had to switch to Social Realism trying to conform with the demands of official censorship. The drama "Broytmil" is written at the time of his sincere infatuation with the Soviets but while living in Berlin, where he could still afford some creative freedom. Born in Ukraine, he emigrated to Berlin in the twenties here he contributed to Soviet publications and then returned to the Soviet State in 1934. During WWII he was an active member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and was murdered on August, 12 1952, along with the rest of its members.