Yiddish literature

Yiddish literature

Introduction

      the body of written works produced in the Yiddish language of Ashkenazic (Ashkenazi) Jewry (central and eastern European Jews and their descendants).

      Yiddish literature culminated in the period from 1864 to 1939, inspired by modernization and then severely diminished by the Holocaust. It arose in Europe out of a tradition that gave precedence to Hebrew prayers, commentaries, and scripture. As the vernacular expression of Ashkenazic Jews, Yiddish literature was often intended for ordinary readers rather than for the highly educated. Because few women learned Hebrew, their literacy was in Yiddish, and they became the primary audience for some forms of Yiddish literature.

      The history of Yiddish literature falls into three general periods: Old Yiddish literature, Haskala and Hasidism, and Modern Yiddish literature. Old Yiddish literature (c. 1300–1780) emerged in the areas that are now Germany (German literature) and Italy. After it moved eastward with Jewish migration to eastern Europe, publishing centres arose in Prague and Kraków. Haskala (the Jewish Enlightenment, c. 1755–1880) spread eastward from Berlin, one of its early centres, and Hasidism was a religious movement that originated about 1740 in an area of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that is now Ukraine. Haskala writers often opposed the use of Yiddish—which they viewed as a defective “jargon”—and favoured German, but by 1815 Hasidic publications reaffirmed the importance of popular storytelling in Yiddish. Modern Yiddish literature (1864 to the present) embraced Yiddish as the vehicle for a European literature like any other. Mass emigration to North America (especially after the political turmoil and pogroms of 1881) spread Yiddish poetry, drama, and fiction to the New World; emigration to Palestine (and later Israel) continued the literary tradition there.

      Yiddish literature and culture have been in decline since the Nazi genocide (Yiddish khurbn) destroyed its major centres in Continental Europe. Oppression also cut short the Yiddish tradition in the Soviet Union, while assimilation has curtailed the role of Yiddish in the United States and Canada. Since the 1980s, however, Yiddish literature has received new attention in North America, Europe, and Israel, and there have been many efforts to revive Yiddish culture through klezmer music, translations, and university studies. Centres of secular Yiddish culture exist in New York, Montreal, Paris, Tel Aviv, and elsewhere, but Hasidic Jews are the main group that continues to use Yiddish as an everyday language. Yiddish literature has found indirect expression in American and British fiction written in English.

Old Yiddish literature
      By the 12th century, Jewish life was highly developed along the Rhine River in the German towns of Worms, Speyer, and Mainz. Some linguists have suggested that Yiddish originated in the Rhineland; others speculate that it began in Jewish communities along the Danube River, such as Regensburg, in eastern Bavaria. Yiddish of the medieval (Middle Ages) period was similar to contemporary Middle High German, but it was distinctive because it was written in Hebrew characters, incorporated Hebrew loanwords, and reconfigured some aspects of the Germanic component. As a result of the eastward migration of Jewish communities, by the 18th century Slavic loanwords also had become an important element of spoken Yiddish.

      The first written evidence of Yiddish literature is a brief rhyme inscribed in the manuscript of a Hebrew prayer book—from the city of Worms—that was completed in 1272–73. A dozen Yiddish words appear inside the empty spaces of five large Hebrew characters. This example placed Yiddish in a subordinate role, serving the Hebrew text, and since then Yiddish literature often has been considered secondary to Hebrew literature. A Yiddish manuscript written in 1382 and discovered in the Cairo genizah contains verses that retell biblical stories, with variants based on rabbinic commentaries. Other early instances of written Yiddish occur as glosses to Hebrew words in study texts. More significant are full translations of biblical books and Hebrew prayers into Yiddish; for instance, a translation of the Psalms dates from 1490, and the publication of a Yiddish rendering of the Hebrew prayer “Adir Hu” (“Mighty Is He”) has been dated to 1526. A Yiddish dictionary and concordance to the Hebrew Bible, attributed to the scholar Rabbi Anshel, was published in Kraków in 1534.

      The most influential Yiddish rendering of the Bible was Tsene-rene (“Go Out and See”; Eng. trans. Tsenerene) by Jacob ben Isaac Ashkenazi. The text is a loose paraphrase of the biblical passages that are read in the synagogue: the Five Books of Moses, the supplementary readings (haftarot), and the five scrolls (megillot). First published about 1600, Tsenerene incorporated a wide selection of commentaries and narrative expansions based on rabbinic sources. Reprinted more than 200 times, this book was widely read by women and by men who did not possess sufficient Hebrew to read the original passages and midrashic works.

      Tekhines, Yiddish prayers mainly for women, were another important form of religious literature. In contrast to Hebrew liturgy, the Yiddish tekhines tend to be more concrete, intimate entreaties addressed to God. Many of these prayer collections were written by men, but two notable collections are ascribed to Sara Bas-Toyvim, who lived in Ukraine at the beginning of the 18th century. Another distinguished author of a tekhine was Sarah Rebekah Rachel Leah Horowitz, who lived during the 18th century in an area of Poland that is now in Ukraine.

      Some scholars, such as Max Weinreich and Shmuel Niger, have speculated that secular Yiddish literature began with oral performances by itinerant minstrels. Printed evidence for this view is scanty, but Menachem Oldendorf, who was born in 1450, did publish a collection of Hebrew and Yiddish songs. It refers to popular German melodies and reflects a form of entertainment that was removed from traditional Jewish life. Yiddish song performances may have inspired the later development of the badkhen (wedding jester).

      Popular German folk literature was translated into Yiddish, usually excluding the Christian references and any anti-Semitic remarks. Legends about Dietrich von Bern and Hildebrand (Hildebrandslied), for example, appeared in Yiddish. The Arthurian romances (romance) were well known, and, in spite of rabbinic opposition, Yiddish versions of these stories may have been performed over the course of several evenings. Traces of the cultural milieu of the performances are embedded in printed texts, as when the bard pauses and states, “Now we must remain stuck at this point, / until you give me good wine to drink.”

      One of the most interesting early Yiddish adaptations is the Shmuel-bukh (1544; “Samuel Book”), which retells the biblical stories of Saul and David. While the content derives from the biblical books of Samuel and other Hebrew sources, the form was clearly influenced by German models. Using the “Hildebrand stanza” similar to that of the Nibelungenlied, each line contains six stresses, divided by a caesura; the four-line stanzas follow the aabb rhyme scheme. Like contemporary German fables, this book was popular for its descriptions of heroic deeds and battles; it is a clear indication that Jewish cultural production was not isolated from its surroundings. Although the earliest extant printed edition dates to 1544, the Shmuel-bukh may have been performed orally as early as the 14th century. David is portrayed as a powerful knight who displays great qualities and undergoes erotic temptations. Like some medieval mystery plays, the Shmuel-bukh contains remarkable dialogue between God and men. David hopes to emulate Abraham's piety, but God tells him, “My beloved Abraham—with him you cannot compare.” According to the Shmuel-bukh, David's wish to be tested, as Abraham was, leads to his undoing by Bathsheba's beauty. As in the book of Job and some midrashic retellings of the binding of Isaac, Satan plays a role in the test.

      The towering figure in Old Yiddish literature was Elijah Bokher Levita (Levita, Elijah Bokher), who immigrated to Italy along with other German Jews but continued speaking and writing Yiddish. He was a noted Hebrew grammarian and tutor to Italian prelates. His most important Yiddish work was the Bove-bukh (written in 1507 and printed in 1541; “The Book of Bove”), based on an Italian version of the Anglo-Norman Buève de Hantone. The story revolves around a beautiful queen, Brandonia, who betrays the king and brings about his demise. The Bove-bukh is written in ottava rima, using the stanza form with an abababcc rhyme scheme. In reducing the length of his poem to 650 stanzas from 1,400 stanzas in the Italian original, Bokher Levita omitted some erotic scenes and added Judaic qualities to his characters. Pariz un Viene (printed in 1594; “Paris and Vienna”), a tale about a poor knight (Paris) who wishes to marry a princess (Vienna) and ultimately succeeds, may have been his second major literary work. Some scholars have questioned his authorship. They speculate that it was translated into Yiddish from another European language, because its complexity is atypical of Old Yiddish literature.

      The Mayse-bukh (“Book of Stories”), a collection of short tales based on Hebrew and other sources, was first published in 1602. This work epitomizes a strand of edifying, ethical literature that became important in early Yiddish writing. Drawing from midrashic traditions, folktales, and legends, it developed an effective prose style distinct from the prior poetic narratives. The Mayse-bukh influenced the later development of story collections; moreover, it anticipated the hagiographic genre of some Hasidic works.

      Early Yiddish literature also includes nonreligious lyrics, newspapers such as the Amsterdam Kuranton (1686–87; “Chime”), and historical poems. Many of these poems were verse narratives that responded to traumatic events such as pogroms, military actions, or fires. The rise of the false messiah Shabbetai Tzevi, which was a particularly troubling phenomenon, is the subject of the Meshiekh-lid (1666; “Messiah Poem”).

       Glikl of Hameln (Germany) wrote a remarkable memoir, starting in 1691. She began writing after her husband died, leaving her with 12 children. The memoir describes her life and the cultural milieu in Hameln, Hamburg, and Metz; Glikl learned enough Hebrew to incorporate various Hebrew expressions into her language. The memoir manuscript was passed on from generation to generation until it was finally published in 1896. Because of its obscurity, the text did not influence the history of Yiddish letters, but it is a unique panorama of its time and place.

Haskala and Hasidism
      During the 18th century, the Enlightenment exerted a profound influence on Jewish life in western Europe by encouraging the Jews to modernize and assimilate. In Berlin the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment), led by the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (Mendelssohn, Moses), fought for the modernization of Jewish customs. While Mendelssohn's disciples emphasized the importance of Western learning, they also championed the literary use of Hebrew. They founded the Hebrew journal Ha-meʾasef (1784–1811; “The Literary Collection”) and—assisted by the Edict of Toleration (1782) under Joseph II—they rapidly spread the Haskala to Galicia (then part of Austria).

      Members of the Berlin Haskala, following Mendelssohn, scorned Yiddish as inferior to ancient Hebrew or modern German. Two satiric plays from this period mark the end of Western Yiddish as a literary language. Writing in German but using Hebrew characters, Isaac Euchel wrote Reb Henekh oder vos tut men damit (early 1790s; “Reb Henekh; or, What Is to Be Done?”), in which the foolish characters speak Yiddish (or pompous pseudo-German). Aaron Wolfssohn, from the same circle of Berlin rationalists, wrote Laykhtzin un fremelay (1796; “Frivolity and Piety”), which showed the influences of Euchel's play and Molière's Tartuffe. These short plays were not staged, however, and they did not influence the subsequent development of Yiddish drama. Instead, they typify what has been called a “suicidal principle” of Yiddish: the language was used by Enlightenment authors as a means to educate people. They believed that when it had served that purpose, it should be abandoned.

      Yiddish books played a more significant role in the dissemination of Hasidism, a spiritualist movement that began in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (now Ukraine). Israel Baʿal Shem Tov (Baʿal Shem Ṭov), the founder of Hasidism, became the subject of myriad legends. These stories were orally transmitted in Yiddish; they were compiled and published in Hebrew in 1815. Soon after, the first of many compilations written in or translated into Yiddish appeared. Vivid description and graphic language make Shivḥei ha-Besht (1815; In Praise of the Baʿal Shem Tov) an important link in the chain of Judaic literature. The stories recount the life of Israel Baʿal Shem Tov, paying special attention to how he was “revealed” as a spiritual leader and wonder-worker. Many episodes involve supernatural events, including the exorcism of demons. Subsequently, innumerable other Hasidic leaders became the subjects of analogous hagiographic narratives.

      Rabbi Naḥman ben Simḥah of Bratslav, great-grandson of the Baʿal Shem Tov, told allegorical Yiddish tales to his disciples. These Sippurey mayses (“Tales”) were collected by his scribe, Nathan Sternharz, and published in a bilingual Hebrew-Yiddish edition in 1815. The Hebrew lends an aura of religious authority to these tales, while the Yiddish is closer to the original language in which Naḥman narrated them in 1806–10. On the surface, they appear to be simple folktales and may be enjoyed as such. On another level, they provide guidance and inspiration to spiritual seekers. To the initiated, moreover, they conceal secrets of Jewish mysticism.

      The 1815 edition ascribes 13 canonical tales of varying length and complexity to Rabbi Naḥman. In “The Loss of the Princess,” for example, a man strives to liberate the lost princess by means of spiritual discipline. According to Naḥman, he told this story while traveling, and “whoever heard it had thoughts of repentance.” In cabalistic terms, this quest narrative may represent efforts to free the Shekhinah (immanent Divine Presence) from exile; this exilic condition not only has cosmological underpinnings but also parallels the Jewish Diaspora following the Roman destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. In “The Humble King,” a wise man is sent to fetch a portrait of a hidden king. On one level, the story refers to a paradoxical search for God, whose face cannot be seen. “The Sophisticate and the Simple Man” well expresses the populist ideology behind the Hasidic movement: while the sophisticate has too much learning for his own good, the simple man enjoys his modest life. The skepticism of the sophisticate brings only misfortune. “The Master of Prayer” tells of a leader who strives to convince the world that prayer is the only true purpose of life. The intricate narrative presents both a mystical picture of redemption and a quasi-autobiographical account of Naḥman's life as a Hasidic leader.

      These tales bring together popular folktales and religious teachings of the Hasidic movement. Apparently frustrated by the difficulty of conveying abstract teachings to his disciples, Naḥman turned to narratives with allegorical meanings. By publishing the stories in a bilingual Hebrew-Yiddish edition, Sternharz accorded Yiddish new stature as a language of Hasidic literature. Hence the writer I.L. (Isaac Leib) Peretz (Peretz, I.L.) commented in 1908 that the roots of modern Yiddish literature lay in Naḥman's tales. Dozens of Naḥman's other stories, anecdotes, and even dreams were recorded by disciples of the rebbe. The dream narratives especially, by giving expression to his anxieties, reveal a more personal side of the leader. Starting with Peretz (Peretz, I.L.) in Yiddish and Martin Buber (Buber, Martin) in German, Hasidic stories have inspired numerous retellings.

      As the Enlightenment moved eastward from Berlin, its proponents became adversaries of Hasidic practices. Authors such as Yisroel Aksenfeld, Shloyme Ettinger, Isaac Meir Dik, and I.J. Linetsky attacked what they saw as the antiquated and superstitious ways of the Jewish world.

      Aksenfeld, born in Nemirov (Ukraine), was early on a Hasid in the Bratslav circle; he was a disciple of Rabbi Naḥman and a friend of Sternharz. Later Aksenfeld opposed Hasidism, which he thought obstructed the spread of Enlightenment and progress. He knew Russian, Polish, and German and studied law in Odessa. His novel Dos shterntikhl (1861; “The Head-Covering”) is an incisive satire. Aksenfeld was perhaps the first novelist in Yiddish; because of Hasidic opposition he was unable to publish his works, and most have been lost.

      Shloyme Ettinger was born to a rabbinic family in Warsaw, and in addition to receiving a traditional Jewish education he read secular works. He studied medicine in Lemberg (now Lviv) and was influenced by the Berlin Enlightenment. A fine Yiddish stylist, influenced by the German playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim), he was able to differentiate his characters by their particular language. Like Elijah Bokher Levita (Levita, Elijah Bokher) and other Old Yiddish authors, Ettinger clearly followed European models and led Yiddish literature in that direction.

      Ettinger wrote many important plays, including the comedy Serkele (published 1861). A full-fledged work with a five-act structure, this is one of the most accomplished dramas of the Haskala period. The scholar Dan Miron has speculated that the author of Serkele must have read Molière (in German translation). Ettinger's criticisms focus less on traditional religious beliefs than on social foibles; the work strives to show that, ultimately, injustice is punished and good prevails. Distorted speech—by characters who affect good breeding in bad German—reflects a deformed reality. For the history of Yiddish drama it is significant that Abraham Goldfaden (Goldfaden, Avrom), subsequently an important producer of early Yiddish theatre, played the lead role in a Serkele performance of 1862.

      Isaac Meir Dik was born in Vilna (now Vilnius) and lived most of his life in this centre of rabbinic learning. Among the first champions of the Enlightenment in Lithuania, he laid the foundations for secular Yiddish literature. From the 1850s to the 1880s he was one of the leading Yiddish authors; his hundreds of stories, which comprised some of the earliest secular Yiddish books, sold up to 100,000 copies. Dik thus played a role in creating a wide readership for Yiddish fiction. His goals were didactic: “to educate the masses, improve their customs, familiarize them with the world, cleanse their religious ideas of superstitions and follies, and make them aware of their mistakes” (according to the Yiddish literary historian, Zalman Reyzn [1887–1941]). Like Rabbi Naḥman, but with diametrically opposed goals in respect to religious practice, Dik realized the importance of using stories to reach Yiddish readers. He stated openly that his critical portraits were written only for the sake of his readers' happiness and well-being. His works discuss issues surrounding education, social and economic reform, and the place of women in Jewish culture. Late in life, as conditions in Russia became harsher, he encouraged immigration to the United States.

Modern Yiddish literature

The classic writers
      The most important period in Yiddish literature began in 1864, with the publication of S.Y. (Sholem Yankev) Abramovitsh (Mendele Moykher Sforim)'s Dos kleyne mentshele (“The Little Man,” Eng. trans. The Parasite). Abramovitsh wrote his most important works while residing in Berdychev (now Berdychiv), Zhitomir (now Zhytomyr), and Odessa (all now in Ukraine). He was influenced by the Haskala during the 1850s and began his literary career writing in Hebrew. At that time, however, the sacred language did not afford the richness of expression he sought. Moreover, 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. Mendele is inclined to criticize outmoded practices, yet he is attuned to the traditional world of eastern European Jews. Abramovitsh thus uses Mendele to describe Jewish life while injecting ironic criticism. The Mendele persona was so popular that Abramovitsh himself has often been referred to as Mendele Moykher Sforim, and this name even appears as the author's on many of Abramovitsh's books.

      Abramovitsh's critique in Dos kleyne mentshele shows the poverty and corruption of Jewish life in eastern Europe. He demonstrates, for example, that apprenticeships did not adequately prepare Jewish boys for trades. He also unmasks the immoral practices of the wealthiest members of society. Abramovitsh continued his attack on corruption in his play Di takse (1869; “The Tax”). The title refers to the kosher meat tax imposed on members of the Jewish community, ostensibly to cover the costs of ritual slaughter. Abramovitsh's scathing account is more successful as social commentary than as a literary work.

      Fishke der krumer (1869; Fishke the Lame), in contrast, is a brilliantly executed short novel. As the narrative moves between Mendele and several other characters, a panorama of Jewish life unfolds. The short novel portrays the misfortunes of itinerant beggars such as the title character. At the same time, it points to the failures associated with arranged marriages and Jewish superstitions. Abramovitsh expanded this novel into a richer, more complex version that was published in 1888.

      The scope of Abramovitsh's social commentary broadens in Di klyatshe (1873; The Nag), an allegorical novel that compares the Jewish condition in Russia to the lot of a broken-down nag. The mare, unwilling to fight against her tormentors, represents passive Jews who show little interest in efforts at reform. Other elements of the allegory indict the tsarist regime that oppressed the Jewish minority. As a result, when the book was published in a Polish translation, it was quickly suppressed.

      Kitser masoes Binyomen hashlishi (1878; “The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third”) is Abramovitsh's parody of Cervantes's Don Quixote. In place of a Spanish gentleman who longs to be a heroic knight is a mock-heroic Jew who longs for adventure. His quest for the Holy Land, however, only shows his hopeless ignorance of geography and the modern world.

      This impressive sequence of early works marks Abramovitsh's greatest contribution to Yiddish fiction. Later in life, he devoted much of his creative energies to expanding these novels and translating them into Hebrew. Starting in 1886, he also wrote a number of new stories in Hebrew and contributed to the rise of modern Hebrew literature.

       Sholem Aleichem was the pen name of Sholem Rabinovitsh. The most popular of all Yiddish writers, Sholem Aleichem took up the cause of modern Yiddish literature where Abramovitsh left off. In recognition of his forerunner's central role, Sholem Aleichem dubbed Abramovitsh the grandfather of Yiddish literature. They met often in Odessa, where their circle of friends included the historian Shimon Dubnov and the Hebrew poet H.N. (Haim Naḥman) Bialik (Bialik, Haim Naḥman). Both Sholem Aleichem and Abramovitsh were deeply shaken by the pogroms of 1905, and both emigrated from Russia. Abramovitsh returned after two years, but Sholem Aleichem never resettled permanently in Russia, though he traveled there.

      Sholem Aleichem had an excellent background in European literature. His early novels, written in the 1880s after he had moved to Kiev, show the influence of Russian fiction. He attempted to adapt current techniques by creating “Jewish novels” such as Stempeniu (1888; Stempeniu: A Jewish Romance) and Yosele Solovey (1889; The Nightingale; or, The Saga of Yosele Solovey the Cantor). The heroes named in the titles of these works are a klezmer violinist and a cantor, and the plots adhere to Jewish mores by avoiding a typical romantic development. Most original, perhaps, is the narrator's self-reflexive awareness of how his stories and descriptions do not match novelistic norms.

      Many of Sholem Aleichem's longer works are episodic, such as the letters of Menakhem Mendel (1892–1909) and the narrative of Motl Peyse dem khazns (1907–16; Adventures of Mottel, the Cantor's Son). This episodic quality corresponds well to Sholem Aleichem's spontaneous, improvisational style.

      Sholem Aleichem achieved the greatest measure of success in short fiction. He superseded Abramovitsh's satiric bent, developing a nuanced combination of realism, humour, and social commentary. In 1894 he began writing a sequence of monologues by Tevye the Dairyman, who best expresses the author's trademark “laughter through tears.” As he undergoes a sequence of tragedies, Tevye maintains his sense of humour and his faith in divine providence. Tevye's family epitomizes the decline of patriarchal authority, as each of his daughters breaks away. "Hayntike kinder" (1899; “Today's Children”) depicts the eldest daughter's rejection of a match that was proposed to her. "Hodel" (1904) shows the next daughter becoming involved with a social revolutionary who is exiled to Siberia. The third daughter, in "Chava" (1906), embodies the ultimate transgression when she elopes with a non-Jew. These stories portray Tevye as an outmoded Jewish man who responds to his many adversities with Hebrew quotations. Tevye has become well known in dramatic and cinematic versions. The Yiddish-language stage production of 1919 anticipated the excellent Yiddish film Tevye (1939), with Maurice Schwartz as director and in the lead role. (Schwartz founded the Yiddish Art Theatre in New York and was influential as both an actor and a director.) The Broadway stage and the Hollywood film industry, in 1964 and 1971 respectively, successfully adapted Sholem Aleichem's story into the musical Fiddler on the Roof.

      Sholem Aleichem also employed the monologue form brilliantly in a series of short stories collected as Monologn (1901–16; “Monologues,” translated as Nineteen to the Dozen) and in Ayznban-geshikhtn (1911; “Railroad Stories”). These monologues re-create Jewish life in eastern Europe by taking on the voices of successive narrators who are poor and rich, female and male, unlettered and educated. Always showing sympathy for the poor and the working class, Sholem Aleichem often showed his wealthy monologists in a less favourable light. Two of the last monologues express Sholem Aleichem's dissatisfaction with New York City, where he lived from 1914 until his death in 1916.

      I.L. Peretz (Peretz, I.L.) inspired a generation of Yiddish writers in Warsaw. He lived primarily in Zamość, Poland, until 1888 and wrote Hebrew poetry; thereafter, he moved to Warsaw, where he had stayed for a year in the mid-1870s, and began publishing Yiddish poetry and fiction in Di yudishe folksbibliotek (“The Jewish Popular Library”), a yearly anthology edited by Sholem Aleichem. Peretz's first published Yiddish work—named after its autobiographically influenced hero—was the poetic ballad "Monish" (1888), which was followed by several short stories. In 1890 Jacob (Yankev) Dinezon, Peretz's friend and a fellow writer, edited three of Peretz's stories and published them in an important slim volume called Bakante bilder (“Familiar Scenes”). These introspective works are remarkable for their extensive use of internal monologue before this technique had been widely explored in other European literatures. "Der meshugener batlen" (“The Mad Talmudist”) enters the mind of a yeshiva boy who reflects on his unstable identity and illicit desires. "Der meshulekh" (“The Messenger”) follows an old man who carries a sum of money through a snowstorm and, as he freezes to death, imagines happier scenes. Unlike anything else in prior Yiddish fiction, these stories provided a new direction. Peretz was in touch with current trends in European fiction, which he read mainly in Polish, and he brought modernism into Yiddish.

      Peretz's politically radical period stretched from 1893 to 1899. During this time he penned stories that criticize outmoded beliefs. "Dos shtrayml" (1893; “The Fur Hat”) is a bitter attack on the Hasidic rabbis' authority. "Bontshe shvayg" (1894; “Bontshe the Silent”) combines sympathy for a simple man with criticism of religious traditions that encourage his passive acceptance of misfortune and oppression. "Mekubolim" (1891 in Hebrew and 1894 in Yiddish; “Kabbalists”) shows that mystical fervour, combined with harsh living conditions, can have disastrous results.

      As he continued to write, Peretz moved toward more complex portrayals and created the collection of stories he called Khasidish (“Hasidic”). In "Oyb nisht nokh hekher" (1900; “If Not Higher”), a skeptical Lithuanian visitor comes to appreciate the Hasidic rebbe, although he is not swayed by the mystical beliefs of the rebbe's disciples. Peretz's masterpiece is "Tsvishn tsvey berg" (1900; “Between Two Peaks”), narrated by a young Hasidic man. The story subtly balances Hasidic and anti-Hasidic views. These texts inspired the neo-Hasidism of authors such as Martin Buber, but Peretz himself did not romanticize Hasidic life.

      From 1904 to 1915 Peretz wrote literary versions of Jewish folktales, many of which appeared in Folkstimlekhe geshikhtn (1909; “Folktales”). Readers have often noted their simplicity but not their ironies. "Dray matones" (“Three Gifts”) tells of a wandering soul that has been sent to collect good deeds from around the Jewish world. The story initially appears to praise pious deeds, yet the story ultimately questions the merit of excessive, self-destructive piety.

      Although Peretz never wrote a novel, he did publish two longer works. Bilder fun a provints-rayze (1891; “Scenes from a Journey Through the Provinces”) describes life in small towns of southeastern Poland. In Mayne zikhroynes (1913–14; “My Memoirs”), Peretz recalls episodes from his life. He also wrote dramas, in particular his symbolist Bay nakht afn altn mark (1907; “At Night on the Old Marketplace”) and Di goldene keyt (1909; “The Golden Chain”). Many of Peretz's other works have been adapted for the stage.

      Peretz played a part in the historic Czernovitz conference of 1908, which underscored the legitimacy of Yiddish literature. At odds with Zionist authors who favoured Hebrew over Yiddish, the conference confirmed the role of Yiddish in the Diaspora, in tandem with a kind of “Diaspora nationalism”—a concept developed separately by historian Shimon Dubnov.

      An important circle of Yiddish writers formed around Peretz. His lifetime friend Jacob (Yankev) Dinezon wrote several novels. Dinezon began publishing in Yiddish in 1877, before Peretz, and he was in contact with writers such as Isaac Meir Dik in Vilna. His first published novel, Haneʾehovim ve-haneʿimim oder der shvartser yungermantshik (1877; “The Beloved and the Pleasant; or, The Dark Young Man”) was a popular success. He moved to Warsaw in 1885, where he met Peretz two years later. Another of Dinezon's novels, Hershele (1891), combines realism and sentimentality.

      David Pinski (Pinski, David) moved to Warsaw in 1892 and became involved in the workers' movement. In 1894 he began publishing stories in Yiddish and wrote essays in support of the emerging socialist movement. He also wrote plays about workers, such as Yesurim (1899; “Torments”) and Ayzik Sheftel (1899). In his career after 1900, he turned to other themes such as love and national Jewish identity. The play Yankl der shmid (1906; “Yankel the Blacksmith”) became important in the Yiddish theatre repertoire, and some of his plays were translated into English and German and performed in western Europe. He moved to New York in 1899, wrote dramas for the Yiddish Art Theater, and published fiction in the socialist Yiddish newspapers about dilemmas of Jewish life in America.

      Abraham Reisen wrote politically engaged poetry and prose, expressing his socialist sympathies both directly and indirectly. His short stories excel in subtly portraying everyday conflicts in the lives of indigent Jews. A friend of Reisen, H.D. (Hersh David) Nomberg, also achieved some renown early in the 20th century for his short stories, which present a tragic view of life and include incisive psychological portraits.

      L. Shapiro was an important prose stylist, born in the Kiev region, who came in contact with Peretz's circle in Warsaw. He met Peretz in 1896, moved to Warsaw in 1903, and began publishing short fiction in 1904. Following the pogroms of 1905, Shapiro immigrated to the United States. He returned to Warsaw in 1909, but thereafter he lived mainly in New York and Los Angeles. Some of Shapiro's most powerful stories, such as "Der tselem" (1909; “The Cross”) and "Vayse khale" (1918; “White Chalah”), centre on pogroms.

      Sholem Asch (Asch, Sholem) became closely associated with Reisen and Nomberg, who contributed to his literary development. Asch traveled to Warsaw in 1900 and showed his early writings, mostly in Hebrew, to Peretz. After meeting him, Peretz commented, “From fire comes ash, but from this Asch will come fire.” Encouraged by Peretz, Asch began to publish Yiddish stories in Warsaw journals. His idyllic portrayal of Jewish life in A shtetl (1904; “A Shtetl”) was published in 1904. Asch also turned to drama, and his play Got fun nekome (1907; The God of Vengeance)—set in a brothel—achieved notoriety. His plays were quickly translated into Russian, Polish, German, and French, and they were performed throughout Europe.

      During World War I the New York daily Forverts (Jewish Daily Forward) (“Forward”) began to publish Asch's novels serially. Motke ganev (1916; Mottke the Thief) is an unusually graphic portrayal of Warsaw thieves and prostitutes. Onkl Mozes (1918; “Uncle Moses,” Eng. trans. in Three Novels by Sholem Asch [1938]) depicts the immigrant life of Polish Jews working in a sweatshop on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Asch's later fame is associated with his historical novels, such as Kidush hashem (1919; “The Sanctification of the Name”) and Di kishef-makherin fun kastilyen (1921; “The Sorceress from Castille”). His works on Christian themes—such as Der man fun natseres (1943; “The Man from Nazareth,” published first in English translation as The Nazarene in 1939)—alienated some Jewish readers. The Forverts chose not to print this novel, in spite of having published Asch's fiction for three decades. Asch's prolific output and popularity made him one of the most important figures in 20th-century Yiddish literature. His success in English translation anticipated Isaac Bashevis Singer (Singer, Isaac Bashevis)'s work.

Writers in New York
      Several waves of immigration, starting in 1881, brought writers and readers to the United States. The earliest important group has been called the Sweatshop Poets, because they responded to the plight of working people. Their poetry represented a range of socialist and revolutionary ideas. Morris Winchevsky (pseudonym of Ben-Zion Novakhovitsh) was born in Lithuania, moved to Königsberg, Germany [now Kaliningrad, Russia], in 1877, and began to publish poems, stories, and articles in socialist Hebrew newspapers in the late 1870s. He was arrested and expelled from Prussia. In London he joined a communist workers' union and founded a socialist Yiddish journal (1885–86). Winchevsky immigrated to the United States in 1894 and worked closely with the New York daily Forverts after it was created in 1897. He was the first of the proletarian poets. Another, Morris Rosenfeld, wrote numerous poems describing the harsh conditions experienced by Jewish immigrants, who often worked in the textile industry. One famous poem, "Mayn yingele" (1887; “My Little Boy”), for example, expresses a worker's estrangement from his family—resulting from endless hours spent in a sweatshop. David Edelstadt was another poet who wrote about the harsh working conditions. He experienced them himself, joined the anarchist movement and edited its weekly Fraye arbeter shtime (original series 1890–92; “Free Workers' Voice”), and died very young of tuberculosis. Yehoash (pseudonym of Solomon Bloomgarden) wrote Yiddish poetry and a masterful poetic translation of the Hebrew Bible.

      American Yiddish poets in New York formed two innovative groups called Di Yunge (“The Young”) and Di Inzikhistn (“The Introspectivists”). Both groups began with the publication of journals—the former with Di yugend (1907–08; “The Youth”) and the latter with In zikh (1920; “Inside the Self” or “Introspection”). Di Yunge was the first movement in Yiddish literature to cultivate “pure poetry,” explicitly rejecting political goals. These poets emphasized a subtler rendering of emotional states in concrete, everyday life. In the poet Zishe Landau's memorable phrase, they refused to be “the rhyme department of the labour movement.”

      A leading figure in Di Yunge was Mani Leib (not known by his surname, which was Brahinsky), who immigrated to the United States in 1905 and became a shoemaker. He was influenced by Russian authors such as Aleksandr Pushkin (Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeyevich) and Mikhail Lermontov (Lermontov, Mikhail); in London en route to America, he met the Hebrew writer Y.H. (Yosef Haim) Brenner. By concentrating on themes of solitude, abandonment, and hopelessness, Leib became a poet of “the lost soul in the big city” (according to Zalman Reyzn), and his influence on modern Yiddish poetry was vast. He also wrote stories in verse for children. One of his best-known poems, "Shtiler, Shtiler" (1914; “Hush, Hush”) is “a credo for a poetry of nuance and understatement, a kind of allegorical reflection on the state of modern Jewish life, and a play upon the messianic expectation that runs through the whole Jewish experience” (according to the American literary and social critic Irving Howe (Howe, Irving)).

      Like the other poets of Di Yunge, Zishe Landau also turned from politicized poetry to individual experience. But, while his verses often probed feelings and psychological states in the first person, Landau made use of poetic personae, as in his "Meydlshe gezangen" (“Girlish Songs”) and "Don Quixote." His aestheticism often referred to paradoxes and contradictions.

      Some of the most caustic American Yiddish poems were written by Moyshe Leyb Halpern (Halpern, Moyshe Leyb), who immigrated to the United States in 1908. Halpern was born in Galicia but had lived for many years in Vienna, where he learned painting and was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche (Nietzsche, Friedrich) and other German authors. Among his major publications was In Nyu York (1919; “In New York”), from which selections appeared in a bilingual English-Yiddish edition with the same title (1982). His other important works were Di goldene pave (1924; “The Golden Peacock”) and two posthumously published volumes entitled simply Moyshe Leyb Halpern. Although Halpern was associated with Di Yunge, his verse shifts from private feelings to attacks on the public sphere. "In goldenem land" (“In the Golden Land”), for example, is a dialogue between son and mother that gradually reveals the harsh reality behind the dream of an easy life in the United States. "Undzer gortn" (“Our Garden”) similarly presents the gloom of a big city in which a tree has “scarcely seven leaves.”

      The Introspectivists continued and intensified the aestheticism of Di Yunge. The most important Introspectivist poets were A. Leyeles (pseudonym of Aaron Glanz), Jacob Glatstein (Glatstein, Jacob) (Yankev Glatshteyn), and Y.L. (Yehuda Leyb) Teller. Influenced by current trends in modernism, they rejected the more traditional metre and rhyme of Di Yunge. In their early manifesto, published in their anthology In zikh (1920), Leyeles, Glatstein, and N.B. Minkoff also renounced the earlier poetry of mood in favour of more thoroughly subjective expression. When they probed the “labyrinth” of the mind and the “kaleidoscope” of experience, they did not limit themselves to themes relating to Jewish life. By the late 1930s, however, in the shadow of rising anti-Semitism, Glatstein and Teller began to write more about Jews and political events.

      A. Leyeles was raised in Poland; he moved to London in 1905 and studied at the University of London until 1908. He moved to New York in 1909 and studied literature at Columbia University. In 1918 he published his first book of poems, Labirint (“Labyrinth”), still using familiar rhyme schemes. "New York," one memorable short poem, opens with a brusque rhythm and montage of images: “Metal. granit. geroysh. gebrazg. gepilder. / oytomobiln. hoykh-ban. tif-ban. kar” (“Metal. Granite. Uproar. Racket. Clatter. / Automobile. Bus. Subway. El” [translated by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav]). Leyeles also brought exotic names and places into his poems, referring to the dao and the Ganges River, for example, and creating an alter ego named Fabius Lind.

      Glatstein (Glatstein, Jacob) was one of the finest Yiddish writers of the 20th century. Born in Lublin, Poland, he moved to New York in 1914. With Leyeles and Minkoff he developed the Introspectivist manifesto and practiced it more effectively than any other writer. Like Leyeles, Glatstein had a penchant for exoticism, referring to nirvana, to a geisha, or to the Arabian Nights. One early poem, "Sezame" (1921; “Sesame”), takes on the voice of Ali Baba's doomed brother-in-law: “Open, sesame. / It darkens in the cave. / And I, / Weakened under the weight / Of the sacks of gold, silver, and diamonds, / Whisper without strength: / Open, sesame.” Other poems emphasize sound, such as the poem "Turtle Doves" (1921).

      With the book Yidish-taytshn (1937; “Yiddish Meanings,” alluding to the Yiddish Bible translations called taytshn), Glatstein began his return to Jewish themes. In one poem ( "Shomer" ) he acknowledges that he previously avoided Yiddish characters such as Abramovitsh's Fishke the Lame, but he there reaffirms his link to folk traditions. This affirmation intensified following the Nazis' annexation of Austria. "A gute nakht, velt" (1938; “Good Night, World”) is an enraged outcry in which Glatstein renounces Western civilization and defiantly turns back to the Jewish ghetto. As the destruction of eastern European Jews was taking place, Glatstein published Gedenklider (1943; “Memorial Poems”). A persona poem, "Der bratslaver tsu zayn soyfer" (“The Bratslav Rebbe to His Scribe”), in the voice of Rabbi Naḥman of Bratslav, continues his reappropriation of Jewish culture. Shtralndike yidn (1946; “Radiant Jews”) expresses sadness and despair following the Holocaust. In that volume the poem "Vidershtand in geto" (“Resistance in the Ghetto”) takes on the collective voice of starving Jews who fought the Germans in Warsaw and elsewhere. In "Nisht di meysim loybn got" (“The Dead Do Not Praise God”), Glatstein sings of the Judaic tradition while announcing its death: “We received the Torah at Mount Sinai, / And in Lublin we gave it back.” Many of his poems appear in English translation in American Yiddish Poetry (1986).

      Y.L. Teller is another major American Yiddish poet and journalist who expressed the turbulence of his age. Younger than the founders of Introspectivism, he began writing in a dreamy, Symbolist (Symbolist movement) mode. His early books Simboln (1930; “Symbols”) and Minyaturn (1934; “Miniatures”) emphasize the self and natural descriptions. But Teller worked as a journalist for, among other papers, Der morgnzhurnal (“The Morning Paper”), and his reportage gradually infiltrated his poetry. His third poetry volume, Lider fun der tsayt (1940; “Poems of the Age”), confronts recent political events in all their guises—imagining, for example, the Nazis' march into Vienna. Perhaps most remarkable—in contradistinction to his earlier work—is Teller's cycle of poems entitled “Psychoanalysis,” in which the German Jewish financier Jud Süss Oppenheimer meets Sigmund Freud (Freud, Sigmund), and Freud responds to the Nazis.

      Since World War II the only Yiddish author to achieve world renown has been Isaac Bashevis Singer (Singer, Isaac Bashevis), who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. He was born in Poland in 1904 and moved to New York City in 1935. In Yiddish he published under the name Isaac Bashevis (Yitskhak Bashevis) to distinguish himself from his brother I.J. Singer. His best novel is perhaps the early, experimental Der sotn in Goray (1935; Satan in Goray), which begins as an historical novel. As it recreates the aura following the massacres instigated by Bohdan Khmelnytsky (Khmelnytsky, Bohdan) in 1648, it refers to the false messiah Shabbetai Tzevi. (Bohdan Khmelnytsky was a Cossack leader who led an uprising against Polish landowners; his forces also destroyed hundreds of Ukrainian Jewish communities.) Revolving around a case of possession by a dybbuk, or disembodied spirit, the novel anticipates Singer's later fascination with demons. The final segment, which purports to be the text of a document from the 17th century about “the dybbuk of Goray,” is stylistically interesting for its deliberate archaisms. Singer subsequently wrote a number of successful monologues spoken by demons, such as "Mayse Tishevits" (“A Tale of Tishevitz,” Eng. trans. "The Last Demon" in The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer [1982]). His best-known work is "Gimpl Tam" (written in the mid-1940s but first published in 1953; Eng. trans. in Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories [1957]), a short story that was powerfully translated by Saul Bellow (Bellow, Saul). Using first-person narrative—by a simple man who allows himself to be duped by the community—it evokes the shtetl in a humorous and nostalgic manner. Singer's stories were regularly published in the Forverts and in The New Yorker; they appealed to American readers who sought to find a connection to eastern European life before the Holocaust.

Writers in Poland and the Soviet Union
      Following the Russian Revolution (Russian Revolution of 1917) 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 (Markish, Peretz), 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 (Andersen, Hans Christian) 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 (Markish, Peretz), 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 (Singer, I.J.) 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 (Grade, Chaim) 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 (Sutzkever, Avrom). 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 (Gordon, Judah Leib).

      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 (Jewish Daily Forward) (“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.

      Starting in the late 19th century, the Yiddish theatre became famous for its music, especially in the plays of Abraham Goldfaden (Goldfaden, Avrom), as well as for its remarkable dramatic works by authors such as Jacob Gordin, David Pinski (Pinski, David), S. Ansky (Ansky, S.) (Solomon Zanvel Rapoport), H. Leivick (Leivick Halpern), Peretz Hirshbein, Sholem Asch (Asch, Sholem), 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.

      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 emigration 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 Maksim 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 (Muni, Paul).

      Influenced in part by I.L. Peretz's artistic reworking of Hasidic stories, S. Ansky (Ansky, S.) 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 (Stanislavsky, Konstantin Sergeyevich)'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 Leivick Halpern), who was born in Belorussia, 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.

The achievements of Yiddish literature
      Some of the central achievements of Yiddish literature may be understood in terms of orality and intertextuality. These characteristics are linked to the social reality of Yiddish language usage. For most of its history, Yiddish was the vernacular of Ashkenazic Jews, while Hebrew was more important as the text-based language of religious life and study. Hence Yiddish has always been particularly well suited to conveying everyday speech.

      At the heart of classic Yiddish literature is the oral-style narrative voice (Russian skaz) that is a common feature of works by S.Y. Abramovitsh and Sholem Aleichem. The monologues of Sholem Aleichem epitomize the success of Yiddish fiction in creating the illusion of speech. Yet his most popular monologist, Tevye, continually resorts to Hebrew phrases. Because educated Yiddish readers also knew Hebrew, intertextual allusions to Hebrew writing have been a distinctive resource in Yiddish literature. The combination of folksiness and scriptural references typifies, for example, some of Itsik Manger's best verse.

      A modernist trend emerged in the circle of I.L. Peretz and contributed a more compressed narrative style as well as symbolist drama. There were some remarkable innovative voices, such as that found in the avant-garde works by David Bergelson. For the most part, however, Yiddish literature was not written for an elite literary audience but for a broader readership—until the Holocaust.

The 21st century
      At the turn of the 21st century, literature continued to be written in Yiddish but its secular reading audience was shrinking. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews still used Yiddish on a daily basis, but they seldom read literature from outside their own circle. New journals, local Yiddish clubs, Yiddish and klezmer festivals, and the Internet, however, generated a great deal of enthusiasm for Yiddish. Online users began to create a “Yiddish virtual community”: one popular Web site for Yiddish language and literature was called Mendele, and the poet Sholem Berger edited a Web-based magazine called Der bavebter yid (“The Webbed Jew”), publishing poetry, prose, and commentary.

      In spite of the declining readership, a small but active literary scene continued to evolve in the United States and Israel. Three prominent young Yiddish authors living in New York were Boris Sandler, Leye Robinson, and Sholem Berger. Their poems and stories were regularly published by the Forverts, Yugntruf (“A Call to Youth”), and Afn shvel (“On the Threshold”). A few other contemporary writers produced what might be called “postmodern” Yiddish poetry and fiction. (The works by ultra-Orthodox authors existed in a separate sphere.)

      Naye vegn and Toplpunkt, mentioned above, are two Tel Aviv-based journals that publish works by both new and established authors. Most encouraging for the future of Yiddish literature are the contributions by writers such as Moshe Lemster, Michael Felzenbaum, and Velvl Chernin. These authors, and many of the other active Yiddish poets and fiction writers, are emigrants from the former Soviet Union. Lev Berinsky, Sandler, Chernin, and Lemster were trained in Moscow at the Gorky Literary Institute under the direction of the novelist Aron Vergelis.

      Sandler was born in Belz (now in Ukraine) and studied in Kishinev (now Chişinău, Moldova). He moved to Israel in 1990 and published several prose volumes in Yiddish, including Toyren (1997; “Gates”), a strong collection of short stories that evoke the experiences of Russian immigrants in Israel. His other books include Der alter brunem (1994; “The Old Well”) and Treplekh aruf tsu a nes (1986; “Steps Up to a Miracle”). In 1998 he moved to New York and became editor of the Forverts.

      Yiddish scholar Dovid Katz was born in the United States and later moved to Vilna. In 1992, under the name Heershadovid Menkes, he published the first of three books of short fiction set mainly in 19th-century Lithuania. "Oyb nisht nokh kliger" (“If Not Wiser”), in the collection Misnagdishe mayses fun Vilner guberniye (1996; “Tales of the Mitnagdim from the Vilna Province”), is a clever, parodic reversal of Peretz's story "Oyb nisht nokh hekher" (“If Not Higher”). Gennady Estraikh, a Russian-born scholar who later taught in London, also published fiction in Yiddish, including the book Moskver Purim-shpiln (1996; “Moscow Purim Plays”). Kobi Weitzner, editor of the Yidisher kemfer, was also a writer at the Yiddish Forverts.

      Among the Yiddish authors who published in the New York journal Yugntruf were Hershl Glasser, Shmoyl Nydorf, Avrom Rosenblatt, Gitl Schaechter, Yermiahu Aaron Taub, and Sheva Zucker. Since the 1970s, this journal had sponsored a shraybkrayz (Yiddish writers' circle). Yiddish culture clubs around the United States supported the publication of books by poets such as Sarah Moskovitz and Troim Katz Handler; these writers sometimes printed their poetry in bilingual editions or accompanied it with transcriptions into Roman characters.

      Yiddish authors have often been multilingual; several of them became known as well for their writing in other languages. H.N. (Haim Naḥman) Bialik (Bialik, Haim Naḥman), an important Hebrew poet, also wrote poems in Yiddish. S.Y. Agnon (Agnon, S.Y.) (pseudonym of Shmuel Yosef Halevi Czaczkes), who in 1966 received the Nobel Prize for Literature, published poetry and prose in Yiddish before he turned to Hebrew. Elie Wiesel (Wiesel, Elie), author of the important Holocaust novel La Nuit (1958; Night), published an earlier version of this work in Yiddish under the title Un di velt hot geshvign (1956; “And the World Remained Silent”).

      For generations Yiddish literature found indirect expression in English and American Jewish literature. Israel Zangwill (Zangwill, Israel) of London wrote Children of the Ghetto (1892) and many other works about East End Jewish life. He later coined the term “the melting pot” in a play of the same title. Abraham Cahan (Cahan, Abraham) was one of the earliest American Jewish authors to publish stories and novels in English. His Yekl (1896) uses some Yiddish words that are explained in footnotes. The novel generally translates Yiddish dialogue into standard English, but it also includes what the narrator calls “mutilated English” present in the characters' Americanized Yiddish. Mary Antin (Antin, Mary), whose family moved from Russia to Boston in 1894, incorporates numerous Yiddish words in her short stories and in her novel The Promised Land (1912). Other immigrants to New York, such as Anzia Yezierska, represent Yiddish speakers in their English-language fiction. Many of Yezierska's characters in Hungry Hearts (1920), for example, speak English that is Yiddish-inflected; some phrases are translated word-for-word from Yiddish expressions. In the masterpiece of American Jewish immigrant fiction, Henry Roth (Roth, Henry)'s novel Call It Sleep (1934), the characters' Yiddish speech is rendered in eloquent English, while their English dialogue appears in nonstandard dialects and accents.

      Most second-generation Jewish Americans abandoned Yiddish, but creative artists illustrated its continuing relevance. In The Magic Barrel (1958), Bernard Malamud (Malamud, Bernard) presents a matchmaker and other characters whose mother tongue seems to be Yiddish. Grace Paley (Paley, Grace) invented characters who speak an English that contains echoes of Yiddish. Her "Goodbye and Good Luck," in The Little Disturbances of Man (1959), recalls the speech patterns and the milieu of New York City's Second Avenue Yiddish theatre. Philip Roth (Roth, Philip), in Goodbye, Columbus (1959) and Portnoy's Complaint (1969), shows the continuing presence of Yiddish words and syntax in American Jewish speech. Cynthia Ozick (Ozick, Cynthia)'s story "Envy; or, Yiddish in America" (1969; included in The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories [1971]) is set among aging Yiddish writers and brings in dozens of Yiddish expressions. Following this example, Clive Sinclair's "Ashkenazia," contained in Bedbugs (1982), centres on a character who resembles Isaac Bashevis Singer. A few of Irena Klepfisz's poems, especially "Etlekhe verter oyf mame-loshn /A few words in the mother tongue," are essentially bilingual. Steve Stern's stories in The Wedding Jester (1999) often include Yiddish words.

      Yiddish and Hebrew (Hebrew language) have switched positions in the secular life of Ashkenazic Jewish communities. Until the Holocaust, Yiddish was the dominant vernacular of the Jews in Europe, while Hebrew was the largely unspoken, “high” literary language of scripture and prayer. Afterward, however, Hebrew was revived as the vernacular in Israel, and Yiddish began to lose its voice. Few of the secular Yiddish authors and scholars of the 21st century will have learned Yiddish as their mother tongue.

Ken Frieden

Additional Reading

Studies of Yiddish literature
Critical overviews of Yiddish literature, theatre, and film include Ken Frieden, Classic Yiddish Fiction: Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem, and Peretz (1995); Benjamin Harshav, The Meaning of Yiddish (1990); Dan Miron, A Traveler Disguised: The Rise of Modern Yiddish Fiction in the Nineteenth Century (1996), and The Image of the Shtetl and Other Studies of Modern Jewish Literary Imagination (2000); David Roskies, A Bridge of Longing: The Lost Art of Yiddish Storytelling (1995); Nahma Sandrow, Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater (1996); and Ruth Wisse, I.L. Peretz and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture (1991). J. Hoberman, Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds (1991), discusses many films based on literary works.

Yiddish literature in English translation
Anthologies of Yiddish literature in English translation, with useful notes and introductions, include Eliezer Greenberg (ed.), Ashes Out of Hope: Fiction by Soviet-Yiddish Writers (1977); Ruth R. Wisse (ed.), A Shtetl and Other Yiddish Novellas, 2nd ed. (1986); Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg (eds.), A Treasury of Yiddish Stories, rev. and updated (1990); Frieda Forman et al. (eds.), Found Treasures: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers (1994); Joachim Neugroschel (ed. and trans.), The Dybbuk and the Yiddish Imagination: A Haunted Reader (2000), and No Star Too Beautiful: Yiddish Stories from 1382 to the Present (2002); Henry Goodman (ed. and trans.), The New Country: Stories from the Yiddish About Life in America (2001); Ken Frieden (ed.), Classic Yiddish Stories of S.Y. Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem, and I.L. Peretz (2004), trans. by Ken Frieden, Ted Gorelick, and Michael Wex. Nahma Sandrow (ed. and trans.), God, Man, and Devil: Yiddish Plays in Translation (1999), is a good introduction to Yiddish theatre.Yiddish poetry has been less amply represented in English, but useful volumes are Jules Chametzky et al. (eds.), Jewish-American Literature: A Norton Anthology (2001); Benjamin Harshav and Barbara Harshav (eds.), American Yiddish Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology (1986); Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg (eds.), A Treasury of Yiddish Poetry (1976); Irving Howe, Ruth R. Wisse, and Khone Shmeruk (eds.), The Penguin Book of Modern Yiddish Verse (1987); and Aaron Kramer (ed. and trans.), The Last Lullaby: Poetry from the Holocaust (1998).Ken Frieden

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