Syracuse University SURFACE
Religion College of Arts and Sciences
1991
The Father of Modern Yiddish Literature
Ken Frieden Syracuse University
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Recommended Citation Frieden, Ken, "The Father of Modern Yiddish Literature" (1991). Religion. 65. https://surface.syr.edu/rel/65
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts and Sciences at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Religion by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Father 0/ Modern Yiddish Literature I.L. Peretz and the Making of Modem Hebrew editions demanded moral jewish Folk Library (Di Yidishe Folks ative bibliotek). Thereafter they ex מtu re support, inspiration and imagiו Jewish Cu Wsse journeys to the vanished world . changed some nasty corresponו .By Ruth R University o! Washington Press Hence Peretz's critical and satiric dence, in part mediated by Yankev 128pp,. $20 . tonalities were subordinated to nos- Dinezon, in which each expressed his talgic intonations. The potential for dissatisfaction and hinted that the The I.L Peretz Reader . such a wide range of interpretations other was insane. In this connection Wsse . results from the inherent ambiguity Professor Wisse cites an importantו .Edited by Ruth R Schocken, 381 pp,. $16 . of Peretz's texts and the implicit unpublished letter (from Mordecai ambivalences of their author. Spector to Y.H. Ravnitski, dated May By KEN FRlEDEN Peretz was "a troubled man with too 1, 1900: "Since Peretz spent time in As Professor Ruth Wisse remarks much on his mind," and he suffered prison he's become quite mad. Before, at the start of her most recent book , from "the many contradictory ele- as you know, he was already well on " There has not been a new English ments in his nature." According to his way, but since his imprisonment, srudy of Peretz in 30 years." During some accounts, his disposition made it he wants to play the martyr, though the past two years she has remedied impossible for him to write a novel , he was no more guilty tllan you or 1." this neglect by providing both a mono and indeed his greatest strength as a In any event, the relations between graph on Peretz and an extensive col - writer lies in short stories such as Peretz and Sholem Aleichem were lection of his writings . " Kabbalists," "The Teachings of the always strained, and it is certain that Ms. Wisse was recently appointed Chasidim," and "Between Two a measure of competitiveness hin LO the first endowed chair in Yiddish Peaks." Like his early poem "Mon- dered free exchange. Moreover, they literature. Although there are several ish," they are characterized by .their were geographically remote, with professors of Yiddish at American Peretz living most of his mature life in universities, formerly the most presti- Warsaw (1889-1916) and Sholem Ale gious position - the Atran Chair for ichem spending his most productive Yiddish at Columbia University - years in Kiev (1887-90, 1895-1905). was held by scholars working in lin- Professor Wisse observes that differ guistics. The appointment of Profes- ences in their literary tastes made sor Wisse at Harvard augurs well for true understanding impossible. On the future of Yiddish literary srudies . one occ6sion in Warsaw, Peretz " I.L. Peretz and the Making of Mod - refused to participate in a literary ern jewish Culture" originated in evening if the organizers insisted on 1988 as Professor Wisse's contribu - reading a story by Sholem Aleichem. tion to the Samuel & Althea Stroum The literary elite of Warsaw Lectures in jewish Srudies at the Uni - remained skeptical in the face of versity of Washington. Previous Sholom Aleichem's great popularity works that have received acclaim in among Yiddish readers. the same series are Robert.Alter's Professor Wisse adeptly combines " The Invention of Hebrew Prose : literary commentary with biographi Modern Fiction and the Language of cal and cultural materials, as in her Realism" and YosefHayim Yerushal- I.L. Peretz, drawn by Joseph Budko. previous book on the New York poets mi's "Zakhor: jewish History and Mani Leyb and Moyshe Leyb jewish Memory ". " compressed shorthand style that Halpern. In the case of I.L. Peretz, Professor Wisse sets out to correct never stops to explain or to amplify; given overwhe1ming evidence of his persistent misconceptions concerning the unfinished sentence, trai1ing the problematic personality, some read Peretz's work. For example, there three dots that became known as the ers might object that the portrait is have often been sentimental readings Peretz trademark; the tantalizing mix- too uniformly flattering. Peretz's of "Bontshe shvayg" ("Bontshe the ture of old and new that makes the cousin Rosa Laks-Peretz shattered Silent" 1894). To counter them, she familiar strange and the strange famil - the saintly aura around him with her illustrates a "tension between the iar." In many respects these charac- memoir "Arum Peretzn," which pre radical and the conservative impuls- teristics ally him with the European sents intimate details never conveyed es." Professor Wisse points out the modernist movement, and conse - by his literary acquain!ances. We original political thrust of this story , quently he has been called "the should approach such recollections while she also explains that subse - father" of modernist Yiddish writing with caution, but they are necessary quent events affecting the Yiddish - at a great distance from "grandfa- to moderate the otherwise one-sided readership gradually turned a ther" Mendele (S.Y. Abramovitsh ) biographical accounts of Peretz. pitiable character into a "suffering and "grandson" Sholem Aleichem Professor Wisse has made a valu saint, a holy fool, the jewish martyr. " (Rabinovitsh ). able contribution by reinterpreting In other words, the history of the The relationship between Peretz Peretz's literary output in its cultural, story's reception has mirrored jewish and Sholem Aleichem has been the political, and historical framework.1n ury . subject of much discussion. Peretz addition, she has edited the fullestז experiences during the past cen The most egregious misreadings of felt that he had been wronged when and most reliable collection of his sto Peretz's work pertain to his Chasidic Sholem Aleichem edited his first Yid- ries ever published in English trans stories, and their popularity in Israel dish poem, "Monish." Professor lation. "The I.L. Peretz Reader" will during the early.years of statehood Wisse dutifully notes that the latter become a standard point of reference attested to this misunderstanding. As was subsequently outraged when, in for Americans studying Peretz in was the case for "Bontshe shvayg," the 1891, Peretz created the journal The English. (,itekס Chasidic stories were generally read jewish Library (Di Yidishe Bibl as uncritical retellings of folktales . usurping the title Sholem Aleichem Mr. Frieden is an associate pro!essor Post-Holocaust readers of the had used for his two volumes of The at Emory University.