Yiddish Literature

Writers have celebrated the fruitful dialogue between English & Yiddish for decades. In this engrossing lexicon, the author reveals the full extent of that dialogue, introducinng "Anglish, or Anglicized Yiddish, in which a Yiddish word is integrated into English usage, as in 'shmo' & 'shmoozing'; & Yinglish, or Yiddishized English, in which an English word is integrated into Yiddish usage, as in 'allrighnik,' or the expression 'a Heifitz he isn't.'" The author's insights into & examples of countless Yiddish expressions that have made their way into American English are fascinating & delightful. They vividly remind us of the multiculturalism of the American language itself. The lexicon can be read selectively, like a dictionary, or straight through, as an informative & entertaining romp through a sumptuous linguistic tradition. Everywhere are the words of some of America's most distinctive voices - Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick, Isaac Bahevis Singer, Grace Paley, Philip Roth, Joseph Heller & countless others. This greatly expanded & updated second edition of Anglish/Yiddish is a splendid guide to the ways Yiddish has permeated & transformed the American language

God, Man, and Devil is an anthology of five Yiddish plays in translation, plus two additional independent scenes, all written by well-known playwrights in the first quarter of the twentieth century.

The settings range widely -- a luxurious parlor, a haunted graveyard, a farmyard, a sweatshop on strike, a subway, and the boardwalk of Atlantic City. The plays evoke tears and laughter through melodrama, expressionism, satire, fantasy, farce, suspense, and romance. But all consider the same question: what is life's moral purpose? And all display theatrical flair that made Yiddish audiences such passionate fans of their dramas and their stars.

Translated and edited to make them more accessible for both reading and performance, the plays are accompanied by prefaces and notes to help students of theater and of Jewish culture by providing historical context, production histories, and elucidation of references.

"Strongly recommended for undergraduate and graduate libraries; useful in theater, American history, and ethnic studies." Choice

This book examines representations of modernity in Yiddish literature between the Russian revolution of 1905 and the beginning of the First World War. Within Jewish society, and particularly Eastern European Jewish society, modernity was often experienced as a series of incursions and threats to traditional Jewish life. Writers explored these perceived crises in their work, in the process reconsidering the role and function of Yiddish literature itself.

The orientation of nineteenth-century Yiddish fiction toward the shtetl came into conflict with the sense of reality of young writers, who felt themselves part of a rapidly changing modern urban environment. This opposition between the generations was reflected in their principles of plot construction. The conservatives employed cyclical patterns, producing mythological schemes for incorporating the new experience into the traditional order. Modernists emphasized the uniqueness of the new, and therefore preferred a linear organization of plot with emphasis,on the transformation of individual character.

The texts under discussion (primarily novels and novellas) are analyzed with respect to the way they represent different aspects of the modern world: economic change, revolutionary politics, emigration, and the emancipation of women. The author's methodology draws upon a variety of semiotic, structuralist, and psychoanalytic approaches, informed by insights derived from the Soviet Marxist tradition.

The writers treated in the book include the classical figures Sholem Aleichem and Y. L. Peretz, their lesser-known contemporaries Yankev Dinezon, Mordkhe Spektor, and S. Ansky, younger authors from Russia and Poland, including SholemAsch, David Bergelson, and Itche-Meir Weissenberg, and the American Yiddish writers Leon Kobrin, David Ignatov, Joseph Opatoshu, Isaac Raboy, and Morris-Jonah Haimowitz.

The phenomenal rise of Yiddish language and culture is one of the most interesting and colorful sagas of modern Jewish history. In this significant book, Dr. Goldsmith relates the growth of Yiddish to the explosion of Jewish literature, the surge of Zionism, and the popularity of Socialism that impacted upon the Jews of Europe, America, and Israel. Including a study of the major personalities associated with the first Yiddish Language Conference (1908,) this is the first comprehensive work to explore a movement that affected the lives of millions of Jews before the Holocaust and continues to influence Jewish life throughout the world.