io>
:lO
-I—
y^
,V~;
Ea JHg Mofytt
PREFACE
A suggestion to write the present book reached
me in the spring of 1898. At that time my library
contained several hundreds of volumes of the best
Judeo-German (Yiddish) literature, which had been
brought together by dint of continued attention and,
frequently, by mere chance, for the transitoriness of its
works, the absence of any and all bibliographies, the
almost absolute absence of a guide into its literature,
and the whimsicalness of its book trade made a syste-
matic selection of such a library a difficult problem to
solve. Not satisfied with the meagre details which
could be gleaned from internal testimonies in the
works of the Judeo-German writers, I resolved to visit
the Slavic countries for the sake of gathering data,
both literary and biographical, from which anything
like a trustworthy history of its literature could be
constructed. A recital of my journey will serve as a
means of orientation to the future investigator in this
or related fields, and will at the same time indicate my
obligations to the men and the books that made my
sketch possible.
From Liverpool, my place of landing, I proceeded at
once to Oxford, where I familiarized myself with the
superb Oppenheim collection of Judeo-German books
of the older period, stored in the Bodleian Library ; it
does not contain, however, anything bearing on the
vii
vjji PREFACE
nineteenth century. In London the British Museum
furnished me with a few modern works which are
now difficult to procure, especially the periodical Kol-
mewasser and Warschauer Judisehe Zeitung. Unfortu-
nately my time was limited, and I was unable to make
thorough bibliographical notes from these rare publica-
tions ; besides, I then hoped to be able to discover sets
of them in Russia. In this I was disappointed — hence
the meagreness of my references to them. The Rosen-
thaliana in Amsterdam and the Imperial Library in
Berlin added nothing material to my information.
Warsaw was my first objective point as regards facts
and books. The latter I obtained in large numbers
by rummaging the bookstores of Scheinfinkel and Mor-
genstern. In a dark and damp cellar, in which Mor-
genstern kept part of his store, many rare books were
picked up. In Warsaw I received many valuable data
from Perez, Dienesohn, Spektor, Freid, Levinsohn, both
as to the activity which they themselves have devel-
oped and as to what they knew of some of their con-
freres. In Bialystok I called on the venerable poet,
Gottlober ; he is very advanced in years, being above
ninety, is blind, and no longer in possession of his
mental faculties, but his daughter gave me some inter-
esting information about her father. Wilna presented
nothing noteworthy, except that in a store a few early
prints were found.
In St. Petersburg I had hoped to spend usefully a
week investigating the rich collections of Judeo-German
in the Asiatic Museum and the Imperial Library. The
museum was, however, closed for the summer, and the
restrictions placed on the investigator in the library
made it impossible to inspect even one-tenth of the
three or four thousand books contained there. When
PREFACE ix
about to abandon that part of my work the assistant
librarian, Professor Harkavy, under whose charge the
collection is, most generously presented me with one
thousand volumes out of his own private library. In
Kiev I had a long conference with S. Rabinowitsch
and with A. Schulmann ; the latter informed me that
he is now at work on a history of Judeo-German
literature previous to the nineteenth century ; the
specimen of his work which he published a few years
ago in the Jildische Volksbibliothek gives hope that it
will entirely supersede the feeble productions of M.
Griinbaum. In Odessa I learned many important facts
from conversations with S. J. Abramowitsch, J. J. Li-
netzki, J. J. Lerner, P. Samostschin, and depleted the
bookstores, especially that of Rivkin, of their rarer
books. Jassy in Roumania and Lemberg in Galicia
offered little of interest, but in Cracow Faust's book-
store furnished some needed data by its excellent
choice of modern works.
Thus I succeeded in seeing nearly all the living
writers of any note, and in purchasing or inspecting
books in all the larger stores and libraries that con-
tained such material. In spite of all that, the present
work is of necessity fragmentary ; it is to be hoped
that by cooperation of several men it will be possible
to save whatever matter there may still be in existence
from oblivion ere it be too late. The greatest difficulty
I encountered in the pursuit of my work was the iden-
tification of pseudonyms and the settlement of biblio-
graphical data. As many of the first as could be
ascertained, in one way or other, are given in an
appendix ; but the bibliography has remained quite
imperfect in spite of my efforts to get at facts. A
complete bibliography can probably never be written,
x PREFACE
on account of the peculiar conditions prevailing in the
Imperial Library, from which by theft and otherwise
many books have disappeared ; but even under these
conditions it would not be a hard matter to furnish
four or five thousand names of works for this century.
This task must be left to some one resident in St.
Petersburg who can get access to the libraries.
This history being intended for the general public,
and not for the linguistic scholar, there was no choice
left for the transliteration of Judeo-German words but
to give it in the modified orthography of the German
language ; for uniformity's sake such words occurring
in the body of the English text are left in their Ger-
man form. All Hebrew and Slavic words are given
phonetically as heard in the mouths of Lithuanian
Jews ; that dialect was chosen as being least distant
from the literary German ; for the same reason the
texts in the Chrestomathy are normalized in the same
variety of the vernacular. The consonants are read
as in German, and z is like French j. The vowels are
nearly all short, so that #, ie, i are equal to German
i ; similarly a, o, eh, ee are like German short e. The
German long e is represented by <?, oe, ae, and in Slavic
and Hebrew words also by ee. Ei and eu are pro-
nounced like German ei in mein, while ei is equal to
German ee ; a and o are German short o ; au sounds
more like German ou, and au and o resemble Ger-
man oi ; ail is equal to German ai.
The collection of data on the writers in America has
been even more difficult than in Russia, and has been
crowned with less success. Most of the periodicals
published here have been of an ephemeral nature, and
the newspapers, of which there have been more than
forty at one time or other, can no longer be procured ;
PREFACE xi
and yet they have contained the bulk of the literary
productions written in this country. It is to be hoped
that those who have been active in creating a Judeo-
German literature will set about to write down their
reminiscences from which at a later day a just picture
may be given of the ferment which preceded the absorp-
tion of the Russian Jews by the American nation.
The purpose of this work will be attained if it
throws some light on the mental attitude of a people
whose literature is less known to the world than that
of the Gypsy, the Malay, or the North American
Indian.
Cambridge, Mass.,
December, 1898.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface vii
I. Introduction 1
II. The Judeo-German Language .... 12
III. Folklore 25
IV. The Folksong . 53
V. Printed Popular Poetry 72
VI. Other Aspects of Poetry before the Eighties 95
VII. Poetry since the Eighties in Russia. . . 105
VIII. Poetry since the Eighties in America . . 118
IX. Prose Writers from 1817-1863 . . . .131
X. Prose Writers from 1863-1881 : Abramowitsch 148
XL Prose Writers from 1863-1881 : Linetzki, Dick 161
XII. Prose Writers since 1881 : Spektor . . . 177
XIII. Prose Writers since 1881 : Rabinowitsch, Perez 194
XIV. Prose Writers since 1881 : in America . . 216
XV. The Jewish Theatre 231
XVI. Other Aspects of Literature .... 244
xiii
xjv CONTENTS
CHRESTOMATHY
PAGE
I. Sseefer Koheles. Ecclesiastes. M. M. Lefin 258
II. Die Malpe. The Monkey . . S. Ettiuger 260
III. DAIGES NACH DEM TODT. WORRY AFTER DEATH
S. Ettiuger 260
IV. Der Elender sucht die Ruhe. The Forlorn
Man looking for Rest
B. W. Ehrenkranz-Zbarzer 261
V. Diwree Chochmo. Words of Wisdom
E. Z. Zweifel 264
VI. Die Stiefmutter. The Stepmother. M. Gordon 264
VII. Die Mume Sos.te. Aunt Sosie. A. Goldfaden 268
VIII. Semer le-Ssimchas Tore. Song of the Re-
joicing of the Law . . J. L. Gordon 272
IX. Die Klatsche. The Dobbin. S. J. Abramowitsch 276
X. TUNEJADEWKE. PARASITEVILLE .
S. J. Abramowitsch 284
XI. A HARTER BlSSEN. A TOUGH MORSEL
D. Frischmann 294
XII. Stempenju's Fiedele. Stempenju's Violin
S. Rabinowitscb 300
XIII. Der Talmud. The Talmud . . S. Frug 306
XIV. Das judische Kind. The Jewish Child .
S. Frug 308
XV. Der adeliger Kater. The Noble Tom-cat.
M. Winchevsky 312
X\ I. Jonkiper. The Atonement Day. J. Dienesohn 314
CONTENTS XV
PAGE
XVII. Auf'n Busen vun Jam. On the Bosom of the
Ocean M. Rosenfeld 324
XVIII. Bonzje Schweig. Bontsie Silent. J. L. Perez 332
I. Appendix. Bibliography 355
II. Appendix. Pseudonyms 383
Index 385
THE HISTORY OF YIDDISH LITEEATUEE
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTUEY
I. INTRODUCTION
The literatures of the early Middle Ages were bi-
lingual. The Catholic religion had brought with it the
use of the Latin language for religious and ethical pur-
poses, and in proportion as the influence of the clergy
was exerted on worldly matters, even profane learn-
ing found its expression through the foreign tongue.
Only by degrees did the native dialects manage to
establish themselves independently, and it has been but
a few centuries since they succeeded in emancipating
themselves entirely and in ousting the Latin from the
domain of secular knowledge. As long as the Jews
have not been arrested in their natural development by
external pressure, they have fallen into line with the
conditions prevalent in their permanent homes and
have added their mite towards the evolution of the
vernaculars of their respective countries. It would be
idle to adduce here proofs of this; suffice it only to
mention Spain, whose literature would be incomplete
without including in the list of its early writers the
names of some illustrious Jews active there before the
expulsion of the Jews in the fifteenth century. But
the matter everywhere stood quite differently in regard
to the Latin language. That being the language of the
Catholic clergy, it could not be cultivated by the Jews
I
2 YIDDISH LITERATURE
without compromising their own faith ; the example of
the bilingualism was, however, too strong not to affect
them, and hence they had recourse to the tongue of their
own sacred scriptures for purposes corresponding to those
of the Catholic Church. The stronger the influence of
the latter was in the country, the more did the Jews cling
to the Hebrew and the Jargon of the Talmud for literary
purposes. It need not, then, surprise us to find the Jew-
ish literature of the centuries preceding the invention
of printing almost exclusively in the ancient tongue.
As long as the German Jews were living in Germany,
and the Sephardic Jews in Spain, there was no urgent
necessity to create a special vernacular literature for
them : they spoke the language of their Christian fel-
low-citizens, shared with them the same conception of
life, the same popular customs, except such as touched
upon their religious convictions, and the works current
among their Gentile neighbors were quite intelligible,
and fully acceptable to them. The extent of common
intellectual pleasures was much greater than one would
be inclined to admit without examination. In Germany
we have the testimony of the first Judeo-German or
Yiddish works printed in the sixteenth century that
even at that late time the Jews were deriving pleasure
from the stories belonging to the cycle of King Arthur
and similar romances. In 1602 a pious Jew, in order to
offset these older stories, as he himself mentions in his
introduction,1 issued the 4 Maasebuch,' which is a collec-
tion of Jewish folklore. It is equally impossible, however,
1 "Drum ir liben Mannen un' Frauen, leient ir oft daraus so wert
ir drinnen behauen urn nit zu leienen aus dem Bicher von Kuhen un'
von Ditrich von Bern un' Meister Hildabrant sollt ir ach euch nit tun
miien, nun es sein warlich eitel Schinitz, sie geben euch nit Warem
noch Hitz, ach sein sie nit gettlich darbei." (Serapeum, Vol. XXVII.
p. 3.)
INTRODUCTION 3
to discover from early German songs preserved by the
Jews that they in any way differed from those recited and
sung by the Gentiles, and they have to be classed among
the relics of German literature, which has actually been
done by a scholar who subjected them to a close scru-
tiny.1 On the other hand, the Jews who were active
in German literature, like Susskind, only accidentally
betray their Jewish origin. Had they not chosen to
make special mention of the fact in their own works, it
would not be possible by any criterion to separate them
from the host of authors of their own time.
Had there been no disturbing element introduced in
the national life of the German Jews, there would not
have developed with them a specifically Judeo-German
literature, even though they may have used the Hebrew
characters in the transliteration of German books. Un-
fortunately, in the beginning of the sixteenth century,
a large number of Jews, mainly from the region of the
Middle Rhine, had become permanently settled in Bo-
hemia, Poland, and Russia. Here they formed compact
colonies in towns and cities, having been admitted to
these countries primarily to create the nucleus of a town
population, as the agricultural Slavs had been averse to
town life. They had brought with them their patri-
mony of the German language, their German intel-
lectual atmosphere and mode of life ; and their very
compactness precluded their amalgamation with their
Slavic neighbors. Their numerical strength and spirit-
ual superiority obliterated even the last trace of those
Jews who had been resident in those regions before
them and had spoken the Slavic dialects as their mother-
tongues. Separated from their mother-country, they
1 F. Rosenberg, Ueber eine Sammlung deutscher Volks- und Ge-
sellschafts-lieder in hebraischen Lettem, Berlin, 1888.
4 YIDDISH LITERATURE
craved the intellectual food to which they had been
accustomed there ; but their relations with it were
entirely broken, and they no longer took part in the
mental life of their German contemporaries. The
Reformation with its literary awakening could not
exert any influence on them; they only turned back
for reminiscences of ages gone by, and hungered after
stories with which their ancestors had whiled away their
hours of leisure in the cities along the Rhine. And so
it happened that when the legendary lore of the Nibe-
lungen, of Siegfried, of Dietrich of Bern, of Wigalois,
of King Arthur, had begun to fade away even from the
folk books of Germany, it lived on in the Slavic coun-
tries and continued to evoke pleasure and admiration.
These chapbooks, embodying the folklore of past
generations, were almost the first printed Judeo-German
books, as they certainly were the most popular. That
the early Judeo-German literature was intended mainly
for readers in the east of Europe is amply evidenced by
specific mention in the works themselves, as for example
in the 'Maasebuch,' where the compiler, or author,
urges the German women to buy quickly his book, lest
it be all too fast sold in Bohemia, Poland, and Russia.1
In fact, the patron of the * Maasebuch,' or the author of
the same, for it is not quite clear whether they are not
one and the same person, was himself a native of Mese-
ritz in Lithuania. Only after these story books had
created a taste for reading, and in order to counteract
the effects of the non-Jewish lore, the Rabbis began to
1 " Drum ir liben Frauen kauft ir sie behend, e sie werden kummen
in fremden Land, in Pehm un' in Reussen un' in Polen, aso wert man
sie ach tun weidlich holen, un' audern Landern mer, drum kauft ir
sie ser, dernoch werd ir sagen, warum hab ich keins gekauft, da sie
sein gewesen in Land." (Serapeum, Vol. XXVII. p. 3.)
INTRODUCTION 5
substitute the more Jewish legends of the i Maasebuch '
and the ' Zeena Ureena,' and the ethical treatises which
were intended to instruct the people in the tenets of their
fathers. In this manner the Judeo-German literature
was made possible. Its preservation for four centuries
was mainly due to the isolation of the German Jews in
Russia and Poland, where the German medievalism be-
came ossified and was preserved intact to within half a
century ago, when under favorable conditions the Rus-
sianization of the Jews began. Had these conditions
prevailed but a short time longer, Judeo-German litera-
ture would have been a thing of the past and of in-
terest only to the linguist and the historian. But very
soon various causes combined to resuscitate the dialect
literature. In the short time that the Jews had enjoyed
the privileges of a Russian culture, then German medie-
valism was completely dispelled, and the modern period
which, in its incipient stage, reaches back into the first
quarter of this century, presents a distinct phase which
in no way resembles the literature of the three hundred
years that preceded it. It is not a continuation of its
older form, but has developed on an entirely new basis.
The medieval period of Judeo-German literature was
by no means confined to the Slavic countries. It reacted
on the Jews who had remained in Germany, who, in
their narrow Ghetto life, were excluded from an active
participation in the German literature of their country.
This reaction was not due alone to the fact that the
specifically Jewish literature appealed in an equal degree
to those who had been left behind in their old homes,
but in a larger measure to the superior intellectual ac-
tivity of the emigrants and their descendants who kept
alive the spark of Jewish learning when it had become
weakened at home and found no food for its replenish-
6 YIDDISH LITERATURE
ment within its own communities. They had to turn
to the Slavic lands for their teachers and Rabbis, who
brought with them not only their Hebrew learning,
but also their Judeo-German language and literature.
Up to the middle of the eighteenth century there was no
division of the Jews of the west and the east of Europe ;
they took equal part in the common Judeo-German lit-
erature, however scanty its scope. What was produced
in Russia was read with the same pleasure in Germany,
and vice versa, even though the spoken form of the ver-
nacular in Slavic countries was more and more depart-
ing from that of Germany.
Even Mendelssohn's teacher was a Galician Jew.
But with Mendelssohn a new era had dawned in the
history of the German Jews. By his example the dia-
lect was at once abandoned for the literary language,
and the Jews were once more brought back into the
fold of the German nation. The separation of the two
branches of the German Jews was complete, and the
inhabitants of the Slavic countries were left to shift for
themselves. For nearly one hundred years they had to
miss the beneficent effects of an intellectual intercourse
with the West, and in the beginning of our century the
contrast between the two could not have been greater :
the German Jews were rapidly becoming identified with
the spiritual pursuits of their Gentile fellow-citizens,
the Slavic Jews persevered in the medievalism into
which they had been thrown centuries before. Only
by slow degrees did the Mendelssohnian Reform find
its way into Poland and Russia ; and even when its
influence was at its highest, it was not possible for it
to affect those lands in the same way that it affected
the districts that were more or less under German
influence. The German language could not become
INTRODUCTION 7
the medium of instruction for the masses, whose homely
dialects had so far departed from their mother-tongue
as to make the latter unintelligible to them. In Russia
it was a long time before the native literature could
make itself felt, or before Russian education came to
take the place of the German culture ; so in the mean-
while the Judeo- German language was left to its own
evolution, and a new literature had its rise.
In arriving at its present stage, Judeo-German lit-
erature of the nineteenth century has passed through
several phases. At first, up to the sixties, it was used as
a weapon by the few enlightened men who were anxious
to extend the benefits of the Mendelssohnian Reform
to the masses at large. It is an outgrowth of the
Hebrew literature of the same period, which had its
rise from the same causes, but which could appeal only
to a small number of men who were well versed in
Hebrew lore. Since these apostles of the new learn-
ing had themselves received their impetus through the
Hebrew, it was natural for them to be active both in
the Hebrew and the Judeo-German field. We conse-
quently find here the names of Gottlober and J. L.
Gordon, who belong equally to both literatures. Those
who devoted themselves exclusively to creating a Judeo-
German literature, like the other Mendelssohnian disci-
ples, took the German literature as the guide for their
efforts, and even dreamed of approaching the literary
language of Germany in the final amalgamation with
the Mendelssohnian Reform. In the meanwhile, in the
sixties and still more in the seventies, the Jews were
becoming Russianized in the schools which had been
thrown open to their youths. In the sixties, the Judeo-
German literature, having received its impetus in the
preceding generation, reached its highest development
8 YIDDISH LITERATURE
as a literature of Reform, but it appealed only to
those who had not had the benefits of the Russian
schools. In the seventies it became reminiscent, and
was in danger of rapid extinction. In the eighties, the
persecutions and riots against the Jews led many of
those who had availed themselves of the Russian culture
to devote themselves to the service of their less fortu-
nate brethren ; and many new forces, that otherwise
would have found their way into Russian letters, were
exerted entirely in the evolution of Judeo-German.
In this new stage, the Mendelssohnian Reform, with its
concomitant German language, was lost sight of. The
element of instruction was still an important one in this
late period, but this instruction was along universal lines,
and no longer purely Jewish ; above all else, this litera-
ture became an art.
Poetry was the first to be developed, as it lent itself
more readily to didactic purposes; it has also, until
lately, remained in closer contact with the popular poetry,
which, in its turn, is an evolution of the poetry of the
preceding centuries. The theatre was the latest to de-
tach itself from prose, to which it is organically related.
These facts have influenced the separate treatment of
the three divisions of literature in the present work.
It was deemed indispensable to add to these a chapter
on the Judeo-German folklore, as the reading of Judeo-
German works would frequently be unintelligible with-
out some knowledge of the creations of the popular
mind. Here the relation to medievalism is even more
apparent than in the popular poetry ; in fact, the greater
part of the printed books of that class owe their origin
to past ages ; they are frequently nothing more than
modernizations of old books, as is, for example, the case
with 'Bevys of Hamptoun,' which, but for the Ian-
INTRODUCTION 9
guage, is identical with its prototype in the begin-
ning of the sixteenth century.
In its popular form, Judeo-German is certainly not
inferior to many of the literary languages which have
been fortunate enough to attract the attention of the
linguist and student of comparative literature. In
its belleslettres it compares favorably with those of
countries like Bulgaria, which had their regeneration
at about the same time ; nay, it may appear to the un-
biassed observer that it even surpasses them in that
respect. And yet, in spite of it all, Judeo-German has
remained practically a sealed book to the world. The
few who have given reports of it display an astounding
amount of ignorance on the subject. Karpeles devotes,
in his history of Jewish literature, almost thirty pages
to the medieval form of it, but to the rich modern
development of it only two lines!1 Steinschneider
knows by hearsay only Dick, and denies the practical
value of modern Judeo-German.2 But the acme of com-
placent ignorance, not to use a stronger word, is reached
by Griinbaum,3 who dishes up, as specimens of literature,
newspaper advertisements and extracts of Schaike-
witsch, not mentioning even by name a single one of the
first-class writers. It is painful to look into the pages
of his work, which, apart from endless linguistic blun-
ders of a most senseless character, has probably done
1 G. Karpeles, Geschichte der judischen Literatur, Berlin, 1886,
1029 pp.
2 M. Steinschneider, Die italienische Litteratur der Juden, in Mo-
natschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums, Vol. XLII.
pp. 74-79.
3 M. Griinbaum, Die jildisch-deutsche Litteratur in Deutschland,
Polen und Amerika (Abdruck aus Winter und Wiinsche, Die judische
Litteratur seit Abschluss des Kanons, Bd. III. s. 531 n\), Trier, 1894,
8vo, 91 pp.
10 YIDDISH LITERATURE
more than anything else to divert attention from this
interesting literature.
Much more sympathetic are the few pages which
Berenson devotes to it in an article in the Andover
Bevieiv;1 though abounding in errors, it is fair and
unbiassed, and at least displays a familiarity with the
originals. Still better are the remarks of the Polish
author Klemens Junosza in the introductions to his
translations of the works of Abramowitsch into Polish ;
the translations themselves are masterpieces, consider-
ing the extreme quaintness of Abramowitsch's style.
There are, indeed, a few sketches on the Judeo-German
literature written in the dialect itself,2 but none of
them attest a philosophical grasp of the subject, or
even betray a thorough familiarity with the literature.
A number of good reviews on various productions
have appeared in the Russian periodical Voschod, from
the pen of one signing himself " Criticus."3 To one of
these reviews he has attached a discussion of the litera-
ture in general ; this, however short, is the best that
has yet been written on the subject.
It is hard to foretell the future of Judeo-German.
In America it is certainly doomed to extinction.4 Its
1 B. Berenson, Contemporary Jewish Fiction, in Andover Beview,
Vol. X. pp. 598-602.
2 J. Dienesohn, Die judische Sprache uri1 ihre Schreiber, in Haus-
freund, Vol. I. pp. 1-20 ; N. Solotkov, A Maisse wegen Maisses ; oder
A Blick uber die zargonische Literatur, in Stadt-anzeiger, No. I.
pp. 11-16, No. II. pp. 17-22 ; J. Goido, Die zargonische Literatur in
America, in Amerikanischer Volkskalender, Vol. III. pp. 73-77 ;
Amerieanus, Die jildisch-deutsche Literatur in America, in Neuer
Geist, No. VI. pp. 352-355.
3 Novosti zargonnoj literatury, in Voschod, Vol. IX. No. 7,
pp. 19-37; see also Sistematiteskij ukazateV, pp. 285-287, Nos. 4651-
4683.
4 ^f. Ph. Wiernik, Wie lang wet unser Literatur blilhen? in Neuer
Geist, No. VI.
INTRODUCTION 11
lease of life is commensurate with the last large immi-
gration to the new world. In the countries of Europe it
will last as long as there are any disabilities for the Jews,
as long as they are secluded in Ghettos and driven into
Pales.1 It would be idle to speculate when these perse-
cutions will cease.
1 The Pale of Jewish settlement is confined to the western provinces,
coinciding almost exactly with the old kingdoms of Poland and
Lithuania.
II. THE JUDEO-GERMAN LANGUAGE
There is probably no other language in existence on
which so much opprobrium has been heaped as on the
Judeo-German.1 Philologists have neglected its study,
Germanic scholars have until lately been loath to admit
it as a branch of the German language, and even now
it has to beg for recognition. German writers look
upon it with contempt and as something to be shunned ;
and for over half a century the Russian and Polish
Jews, whose mother-tongue it is, have been replete
with apologies whenever they have had recourse to it
for literary purposes.2 Such a bias can be explained
only as a manifestation of a general prejudice against
1 To cite one example out of many : In the Journal of American
Folklore, Vol. VII. pp. 72-74, there appeared a short appeal, by F. S.
Krauss, to the folklorists of America, to collect whatsoever of Jewish
lore may he found here ere the German Jews become entirely Ameri-
canized. It seems that Krauss had in mind the German language ;
but, for some reason, R. Andree, editor of the Globus, thought of
Judeo-German, whereupon he made a violent attack upon it in an
article, Sprachwechsel der Juden in Nor d- America, in Vol. LXV. of
his periodical, p. 363. Lenz, in his Eindringlinge im W'orter- und
Zitaten-schatz der deutschen Sprache (Minister, 1895, 8vo, 28 pp.),
caps, however, the climax in his antipathy for the Jargon by making
it the subject of antisemitic propaganda !
2 Even Frug, who is a master of the dialect, and who wields it with
more vigor than the Russian language, thought it necessary to devote
a whole series of poems to the reluctant defence of his vernacular, in
Lieder vun dem jildischen Zargon, in Judisches Volksblatt, Vol. VIII.
(Beilage) pp. 881-896 ; also reprinted in" his Lieder wn1 Gedanken.
Cf . p. 108 of the present work.
12
THE JUDEO-GERMAN LANGUAGE 13
everything Jewish, for passions have been at play to
such an extent as to blind the scientific vision to the
most obvious and common linguistic phenomena. Un-
fortunately, this interesting evolution of a German dia-
lect has found its most violent opponents in the German
Jews, who, since the day of Mendelssohn, have come
to look upon it as an arbitrary and vicious corruption
of the language, of their country.1 This attack upon
1 Witness the frequent dogmatic statements and attacks on it by the
historian Gratz. These finally brought forth a rejoinder by J. Diene-
sohn in the Jud. Volksblatt, Vol. VIII. (Beilage), pp. 33-43, entitled
Professor Gratz wtt1 der judischer Zargon, oder Wer mit was darf sich
schamen f and this was followed by a similar article (ibid. pp. 65-68,
129-133) from the editor of the Volksblatt, in which Gratz's dogmatism
is put in no enviable light. Even Steinschneider has no love for it ;
although he has written so much and so well on its literature, he
knows nothing of its nineteenth-century development, and nearly all
his quotations of Judeo-German words that in any way differ from the
German form are preposterously wrong. Karpeles, writing the history
of its literature, confessedly knows nothing of the language. M. Griin-
baum, in his Jiidisch-deutsche Chrestomathie and Die Jildisch-deutsche
Litteratur, displays an ignorance of the dialect which would put to
shame a sophomoric newspaper reporter of a scientific lecture. What
wonder, then, that D. Philipson, devoting a chapter to The Ghetto in
Literature (pp. 220-255 in Old European Jewries, Philadelphia, 1894),
should not even suspect the existence of an extensive and highly
interesting literature of the subject in the language of the Ghetto
itself ! Among the few memorable exceptions among German scholars
are Giidemann and Strack, who approach Judeo-German in a fair
and scholarly manner. See M. Giidemann, Quellenschriften zur Ge-
schichte des Unterrichts und der Erziehung bei den deutschen Juden,
etc., Berlin, 1891, pp. xxii, xxiii, and, by the same author, Geschichte
des Erziehnngswesens und der Cultur der Juden in Frankreich und
Deutschland, Vol. I. note iii. pp. 273-287, and Vol. III. note vii.
pp. 280-297. Still fewer are those who have subjected Judeo-Ger-
man to a thorough philological investigation. All efforts in that
direction will be found catalogued by A. Landau, Bibliographie des
Jiidisch-deutsche?i, in Deutsche Mundarten, Zeitschrift fur Bearbei-
tung des mundartlichen Materials, herausgegeben von Dr. Johann
Willibald Nagl, Vienna, 1896, Heft II. pp. 126-132. To those men-
14 YIDDISH LITERATURE
it, while justifiable in so far as it affects its survival in
Germany, loses all reasonableness when transferred to
the Jews of Russia, former Poland and Roumania, where
it forms a comparatively uniform medium of intercourse
of between five and six millions of people, of whom the
majority know no other language. It cannot be main-
tained that it is desirable to preserve the Judeo-German,
and to give it a place of honor among the sisterhood of
languages ; but that has nothing to do with the historic
fact of its existence. The many millions of people who
use it from the day of their birth cannot be held re-
sponsible for any intentional neglect of grammatical
rules, and its widespread dissemination is sufficient
reason for subjecting it to a thorough investigation.
A few timid attempts have been made in that direction,
but they are far from being exhaustive, and touch but
a small part of the very rich material at hand. Nor is
this the place in which a complete discussion of the
matter is to be looked for. This chapter presents only
such of the data as must be well understood for a cor-
rect appreciation of the dialectic varieties current in
the extensive Judeo-German literature of the last fifty
years.
All languages are subject to a continuous change, not
only from within, through natural growth and decay,
but also from without, through the influence of foreign
languages as carriers of new ideas. The languages of
Europe, one and all, owe their Latin elements to the
tioned by him must be added A. Schulmann's Die Geschichte vun der
Zargon-literatur, in Judisches Volksblatt, Vol. II. pp. 115-134, which
is very rich in data, and A. Landau's Das Deminutivum der galizisch-
judischen Mundart, Ein Kapitel aus der jiidischen Grammatik, in
Deutsche Mundarten, Vol. I. pp. 46-58. This is, outside of Saineanu's
work (mentioned in Landau's Bibliographie) , the best grammatical
disquisition on Judeo-German that has so far appeared.
THE JUDEO-GERMAN LANGUAGE 15
universality of the Roman dominion, and, later, of the
Catholic Church. With the Renaissance, and lately-
through the sciences, much Greek has been added to
their vocabularies. When two nations have come into
a close intellectual contact, the result has always been
a mixture of languages. In the case of English, the
original Germanic tongue has become almost unrecog-
nizable under the heavy burden of foreign words. But
more interesting than these cases, and more resembling
the formation of the Judeo-German, are those non-
Semitic languages that have come under the sway
of Mohammedanism. Their religious literature being
always written in the Arabic of the Koran, they were
continually, for a long period of centuries, brought
under the same influences, and these have caused them
to borrow, not only many words, but even whole turns
and sentences, from their religious lore. The Arabic
has frequently become completely transformed under
the pronunciation and grammatical treatment of the
borrowing language, but nevertheless a thorough knowl-
edge of such tongues as Turkish and Persian is not
possible without a fair understanding of Arabic. The
case is still more interesting with Hindustani, spoken
by more than one hundred millions of people, where
more than five-eighths of the language is not of Indian
origin, but Persian and Arabic. With these preliminary
facts it will not be difficult to see what has taken place
in Judeo-German.
Previous to the sixteenth century the Jews in Ger-
many spoke the dialects of their immediate surround-
ings; there is no evidence to prove any introduction
of Hebrew words at that early period, although it must
be supposed that words relating purely to the Mosaic
ritual may have found their way into the spoken Ian-
16 YIDDISH LITERATURE
guage even then. The sixteenth century finds a large
number of German Jews resident in Bohemia, Poland,
and Lithuania. As is frequently the case with immi-
grants, the Jews in those distant countries developed
a greater intellectual activity than their brethren at
home, and this is indicated by the prominence of the
printing offices at Prague and Cracow, and the large
number of natives of those countries who figure as
authors of Judeo-German works up to the nineteenth
century. But torn away from a vivifying intercourse
with their mother-country, their vocabulary could not
be increased from the living source of the language
alone, for their interests began to diverge. Religious
instruction being given entirely in Hebrew, it was
natural for them to make use of all such Hebrew
words as they thus became familiar with. Their
close study of the Talmud furnished them from that
source with a large number of words of argumentation,
while the native Slavic languages naturally added their
mite toward making the Judeo-German more and more
unlike the mother-tongue. Since books printed in
Bohemia were equally current in Poland, and vice
versa, and Jews perused a great number of books,
there was always a lively interchange of thoughts
going on in these countries, causing some Bohemian
words to migrate to Poland, and Polish words back
to Bohemia. These books printed in Slavic countries
were received with open hands also in Germany, and
their preponderance over similar books at home was
so great that the foreign corruption affected the spoken
language of the German Jews, and they accepted also
a number of Slavic words together with the Semitic
infection. This was still further aided by the many
Polish teachers who, in the seventeenth and eighteenth
THE JUDEO-GERMAN LANGUAGE 17
centuries, were almost the only instructors of Hebrew
in Germany.1
We have, then, here an analogous case to the forma-
tion of Osmanli out of the Turkish, and Modern Per-
sian out of the Old by means of the Arabic, and if the
word Jargon is used to describe the condition of Judeo-
German in the past three centuries, then Gibberish
would be the only word that would fit as a designa-
tion of the corresponding compounds of the beautiful
languages of Turkey, Persia, and India. A Jargon is
the chaotic state of a speech-mixture at the moment
when the foreign elements first enter into it. That
mixture can never be entirely arbitrary, for it is sub-
ject to the spirit of one fundamental language which
does not lose its identity. All the Romance elements
in English have not stifled its Germanic basis, and
Hindustani is neither Persian nor Arabic, in spite of
the overwhelming foreign element in it, but an Indian
language. Similarly Judeo-German has remained essen-
tially a German dialect group.
Had the Judeo-German had for its basis some dialect
which widely differs from the literary norm, such as
Low German or Swiss, it would have long ago been
claimed as a precious survival by German philologists.
But it happens to follow so closely the structure of
High German that its deviations have struck the super-
ficial observer as a kind of careless corruption of the
German. A closer scrutiny, however, convinces one
that in its many dialectic variations it closely follows
the High German dialects of the Middle Rhine with
Frankfurt for its centre. There is not a peculiarity
1 Cf. Zunz, Die gottesdienstlichen Vortrage der Juden, historisch
cnticicJcelt, Frankfurt a. M., 1892, pp. 452-463, and Gudemann, as
above.
18 YIDDISH LITERATURE
in its grammatical forms, in the changes of its vocal-
ism, for which exact parallels are not found within a
small radius of the old imperial city, the great centre
of Jewish learning and life in the Middle Ages. No
doubt, the emigration into Russia came mainly from
the region of the Rhine. At any rate those who arrived
from there brought with them traditions which were
laid as the foundation of their written literature,
whose influence has been very great on the Jews
of the later Middle Ages. While men received their
religious literature directly through the Hebrew, women
could get their ethical instruction only by means of
Judeo- German books. No house was without them,
and through them a certain contact was kept up with
the literary German towards which the authors have
never ceased to lean. In the meanwhile the language
could not remain uniform over the wide extent of the
Slavic countries, and many distinct groups have devel-
oped there. The various subdialects of Poland differ
considerably from the group which includes the north-
west of Russia, while they resemble somewhat more
closely the southern variety. But nothing of that
appears in the printed literature previous to the be-
ginning of this century. There a great uniformity
prevails, and by giving the Hebrew vowels, or the
consonants that are used as such, the values that
they have in the mouths of German Jews, we obtain,
in fact, what appears to be an apocopated, corrupted
form of literary German. The spelling has remained
more or less traditional, and though it becomes finally
phonetic, it seems to ascribe to the vowels the values
nearest to those of the mother-language and current
in certain varieties of the Lithuanian group. From
this it may be assumed that the Polish and southern
THE JUDEO-GERMAN LANGUAGE 19
Russian varieties have developed from the Lithuanian,
which probably bears some relation to the histori-
cal migrations into those parts of the quondam Polish
kingdom, and this is made the more plausible from the
fact that the vowel changes are frequently in exact
correspondence with the changes in the White Rus-
sian, Polish, and Little Russian. Such a phenomenon
of parallelism is found also in other languages, and in
our case may be explained by the unconscious changes
of the Germanic vowels simultaneously with those in
the Slavic words which, having been naturalized in
Judeo-German, were heard and used differently in the
new surroundings.
However it may be, the language of the Judeo-
German books in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eigh-
teenth centuries is subject to but slight variations.
It is true, the Blitz Bible printed in Amsterdam in
1676 seems to deviate greatly from other similar works,
and the uncouth compound which is found there does,
indeed, have all appearances of a Jargon. It owes
its origin to the Polish Jews who but a few years be-
fore had been exiled from more than two hundred and
fifty towns * and who, having settled in Holland, began
to modify their Judeo-German by introducing Dutch
into it. Although the Bible was intended for Polish
Jews, as is evident by the letters-patent granted by
John the Third of Poland, yet it has never exerted
any influence on the dialects in Russia and Poland,
for not one word of Dutch origin can be found in
them. This older stage of the language is even now
familiar to the Russian Jewish women through the
1 Cf. M. Steinschneider, Die italienische Litteratur der Jitden, in
Monatschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums, Vol.
XLII. p. 74.
20 YIDDISH LITERATURE
1 Zeena Ureena,' the prayer book, and the special pray-
ers which they recite in Judeo- German, and Jewish
writers have recourse to it whenever they wish to
express a prayer, as, for example, in Abramowitsch's
'Hymns' and 4 Saturday Prayers.' This older stage is
known under the name of Iwre-teutsch, Korben-ssider-
teutsch, Tchines-teutsch, thus indicating its proper sphere
in lithurgical works. This form of the language is
comparatively free from Hebrew words.1 On the other
hand, Cabbalistic works become almost unreadable on
account of the prevalence of Semitic over German
words.2
In the beginning of the nineteenth century a Galician,
Minchas Mendel Lefin, laid the foundation for the use
of the vernacular for literary purposes.3 This example
was soon followed by the writers in Russia who became
acquainted with German culture through the followers
of the Mendelssohnian School at Lemberg, who com-
prise nearly all the authors from Ettinger to Abram-
1 Naturally, words belonging to that stage of the language have sur-
vived in the cheeder (school), where the melamed (teacher) is fre-
quently compelled to fall back on the old commentaries for transla-
tions. Abramowitsch has, in his Das kleine Menschele, the following
passage (p. 49) bearing upon this point: "Die Talmudtore hat mir
auch gegeben a Bissel Deutsch vun die Teutschworter in Chumesch,
wie a Steiger (for example) : wealoto un' a Nepel, wesaadu libchem
un' lehent unter euer Harz, jereechi mein dich, machschof entpleckt,
boochu auf'n Gemeesachz, been hamischpessoim die Gemarken, wetcha-
lelo un' du hast sie verschwacht, kommijos hofferlich, uchdome noch
asblche Teutschen."
2 An example of this style is given by Linetzki, in Das chsidische
Jiingel, p. 32 : "a Steiger wie er hat mit mir geteutscht : ischo an Ische,
ki sitmo as sie wet tome weren, wessakriw un' sie wet makriw sein,
korbon a Korben, wehikriw soil makriw sein, hakohen der Kohen,
al hamisbeach zum Misbeach, beohel moed in'm Ohel-moed."
3 Cf. A. B. Gottlober, Sichrones uber zargonische 8chreiber> in
Jud. Volksbib., Vol. I. pp. 250-259.
THE JUDEO-GERMAN LANGUAGE 21
owitsch, most of whom wrote in some southern dialect.
The language of these abounds in a large number of
idiomatic expressions for which one would in vain
look in the older writings ; words of Slavic origin
that were familiar in everyday life were freely intro-
duced, and an entirely new diction superseded that
of the past century. At first their spelling was quite
phonetic. But soon their leaning towards German
literature led them into the unfortunate mistake of
introducing German orthography for their dialect, so
that it now is frequently impossible to tell from the
form of a word how it may have been pronounced. Add
to this the historical spelling of the Hebrew and the
phonetic of the Slavic words, and one can easily imagine
the chaos that prevails in the written language. And
yet it must not be supposed that Judeo-German stands
alone in this. The same difficulty and confusion arises
in all those tongues in which the historical continuity
has been broken. Thus Modern Greek is spelled as
though it were Ancient Greek, with which it has hardly
any resemblance in sound, while Bulgarian is still
wavering between a phonetic, a Russian, and an Old
Slavic orthography. Similar causes have produced
similar results in Judeo-German.
There is no linguistic norm in the language as now
used for literary purposes. The greater number of
the best authors write in slightly varying dialects of
Volhynia; but the Lithuanian variety is also well
represented, and of late Perez has begun to write in his
Polish vernacular.1 German influence began to show
itself early, and it affected not only the spelling, but
1 On the various dialects and styles, see Die judische Sprache, in
Hausfreund, Vol. V. pp. 60-64 ; cf. also Kabnizki, Hebraisch wn'
Judisch, in Hausfreund, Vol. V. pp. 38-48.
22 YIDDISH LITERATURE
also the vocabulary of the early writers in Lithuania.
Dick looked upon Judeo- German only as a means to
lead his people to German culture, and his stories are
written in a curious mixture in which German at
times predominates. This evil practice, which in Dick
may be excused on the ground that it served him only
as a means to an end, has come to be a mannerism in
writers of the lower kind, such as Schaikewitsch, Seif-
fert, and their like. The scribblers of that class have
not only corrupted the literature but also the language
of the Jews.
Various means have been suggested by the writers
for the enrichment of the Judeo-German vocabulary.
Some lovers of Hebrew have had the bad taste to propose
the formation of all new words on a Semitic basis, and
have actually brought forth literary productions in that
hybrid language. Others again have advised the intro-
duction of all foreign words commonly in use among
other nations. But the classical writers, among whom
Abramowitsch is foremost, have not stopped to consider
what would be the best expedient, but have coined
words in conformity with the spirit of their dialect,
steering a middle course between the extremes sug-
gested by others. In America, where the majority of
the writers knew more of German than their native ver-
nacular, the literary dialect has come to resemble the
literary German, and the English environment has
caused the infusion of a number of English terms for
familiar objects. But on the whole the language of the
better writers differs in America but little from that of
their former home. There is, naturally, a large diver-
gence to be found in the language, which ranges from
the almost pure German of the prayers and, in modern
times, of the poems of Winchevsky, to the language
THE JUDEO-GERMAN LANGUAGE 23
abounding in Russicisms of Dlugatsch, and in Hebraisms
of Linetzki, from the pure dialects of the best writers to
the corrupt forms of Dick and Meisach, and the even
worse Jargon of Seiffert, but in all these there is no
greater variety than is to be found in all newly formed
languages.1 The most recent example of such variety
is furnished by the Bulgarian, where the writers of the
last fifty years have wavered between the native dialects
with their large elements of Turkish and Greek origin, a
purified form of the same, from which the foreign infec-
tion has been eliminated, approaches to the Old Slavic
of a thousand years ago, and, within the last few years,
a curious mixture with the literary Russian. Judeo-
German not only does not suffer by such a comparison,
but really gains by it, for all the best writers have uni-
formly based their diction on their native dialects.
In former days Judeo-German was known only by the
name of Iwre-teutsch, or Jiidisch-teutsch. Frequently
such words were used as Mame-losehen (Mother-tongue),
or Prost-jildisch (Simple Yiddish), but through the ef-
forts of the disciples of the Haskala (Reform), the des-
ignation of Jargon has been forced upon it ; and that
appellation has been adopted by later writers in Russia,
so that now one generally finds only this latter form as
the name of the language used by the writers in Russia.
The people, however, speak of their vernacular as Jit-
disch, and this has given rise in England and America
to the word Yiddish for both the spoken and written
form. It is interesting to note that originally the
name had been merely Teutsch for the language of the
Jews, for they were conscious of their participation
1 An excellent satire on the widely different styles of Judeo-German
in vogue by their writers is given by S. Rabinowitsch, in his Kol-
mewasser (q.v.), under the title of Korrespondenzies (cols. 26-31).
24 YIDDISH LITERATURE
with the Germans in a common inheritance. Reminis-
cences of that old designation are left in such words as
verteutschen, 'to translate,' i.e. to do into German, and
steutsch, 4 how do you mean it ? ' contracted from is
teutseh t 4 how is that in German ? '
The main differences between Judeo-German1 and
the mother-tongue are these : its vocalism has under-
gone considerable change, varying from locality to lo-
cality ; the German unaccented final e has, as in other
dialects of German, disappeared ; in declensional forms,
the genitive has almost entirely disappeared, while in
the Lithuanian group the dative has also coincided
with the accusative ; in the verb, Judeo-German has lost
almost entirely the imperfect tense ; the order of words
is more like the English than the German. These are
all developments for which parallels can be adduced
from the region of Frankfurt. Judeo-German is, con-
sequently, not an anomaly, but a natural development.
1 For a complete discussion of the subject, see L. Saineanu, Studiu
dialectologic asupra graiului evreo-german, Bucuresti, 1889, 8vo, 78 pp.
III. FOLKLORE
There can be no doubt that the Jews were the most ,
potent factors in the dissemination of folk-literature
in the Middle Ages.1 Various causes united to make
them the natural carriers of folklore from the East
to the West, and from the West back again to the
East. They never became so completely localized as to
break away from the community of their brethren in
distant lands, and to develop distinct national charac-
teristics. The Jews of Spain stood in direct relations
with the Khazars of Russia, and it was a Jew whom
Charlemagne sent as ambassador to Bagdad. The Jew-
ish merchant did not limit his sphere of action by geo-
graphical lines of demarkation, and the Jewish scholar
was as much at home in Italy and Germany as he was
in Russia or Egypt. Again and again, in reading the
biographies of Jewish worthies, we are confronted with
men who have had their temporary homes in three con-
tinents. In fact, the stay-at-homes were the exception
rather than the rule in the Middle Ages. In this man-
ner not only a lively intercourse was kept up among the
Jews of the diaspora, but they unwittingly became also
the mediators of the intellectual life of the most remote
lands : they not only enriched the literatures of the
various nations by new kinds of compositions, but also
brought with them the substratum of that intellectual
1 Read, on this subject, Joseph Jacobs, Jewish Diffusion of Folk
Tales, in Jewish -Ideals and Other Essays, London, 1896, pp. 135-161.
25
26 YIDDISH LITERATURE
life which finds its expression in the creations of the
popular literature.
The Jews have always possessed an innate love for
story telling which was only sharpened by their travels.
The religious and semi-religious stories were far from
sufficient to satisfy their curiosity, and in spite of the
discussions by the Rabbis of the permissibility of read-
ing foreign books of adventure, they proceeded to create
and multiply an apocryphal and profane folk-literature
which baffles the investigator with its variety. Most
addicted to these stories were the women, who received
but little learning in the language of their religious
lore, and who knew just enough of their Hebrew char-
acters to read in the vernacular books specially prepared
for them. Times changed, and the education of the
men varied with the progress of the Hebrew and the
native literatures; but the times hardly made an im-
pression on the female sex. The same minimum of
ethical instruction was given them in the eighteenth
century that they had received in the fourteenth, and
they were left to shift for themselves in the selection of
their profane reading matter. The men who conde-
scended to write stories for them had no special inter-
est to direct the taste of their public, and preferred to
supply the demand rather than create it ; nor did the
publishers have any more urgent reason why they
should trouble themselves about the production of new
works as long as the old ones satisfied the women.
Consequently, although now and then a 'new' story
book saw daylight, the old ones were just as eagerly
received by the feminine readers. And thus it happens
that what was read with pleasure at its first appearance
is accepted as eagerly to-day, and the books that were
issued from the printing presses of the sixteenth cen-
FOLKLORE 27
tury may be found in almost unchanged hundredth
editions, except as to the language, printed in 1898 in
Wilna or Warsaw.
Time and space are entirely annihilated in the folk-
lore of the Russian Jews. Here one finds side by side
the quaint stories of the Talmud of Babylonian, Persian,
Egyptian origin, with the Polyphemus myth of the
Greeks, the English 4 Bevys of Hamptoun,' the Arabic
'Thousand and One Nights.' Stories in which half a
dozen motives from various separate tales have been
moulded into one harmonious whole jostle with those
that show unmistakable signs of venerable antiquity.
Nowhere else can such a variety of tales be found as in
Judeo-German ; nor is there any need, as in other liter-
atures, to have recourse to collections of the diligent
searcher ; one will find hundreds of them, nay thou-
sands, told without any conscious purpose in the chap-
books that are annually issued at Wilna, Lemberg,
Lublin, and other places. Add to these the many
unwritten tales that involve the superstitions and be-
liefs of a more local character, in which the Slavic
element has been superadded to the Germanic base, and
the wealth of this long-neglected literature will at once
become apparent to the most superficial observer.1
1 The following books and essays treat on Judeo-German folklore
in general : Herman Lotze, Zur jiidisch-deutschen Litteratur, in
Gosche's Archiv fur Litteratur geschichte, Vol. I., Leipsic, 1870, pp.
90-101 ; M. Steinschneider, fiber die Volkslitteratur der Juden, ibid.,
Vol. II. pp. 1-21 ; S. Gelbhaus, Mittelhochdeutsche Dichtung in ihrer
Beziehung zur biblisch-rabbinischen Litteratur, Frankfurt a. M., 1893,
IV. Heft, pp. 59 ff.; Briill, Beitrdge zur jiidischen Sagen- und Sprach-
kunde im Mittelalter, in Jahrbilcher fur jildische Geschichte und Lit-
teratur, IX. Jahrgang, Frankfurt a. M., 1889, pp. 1-71 ; J. Jacobs,
Jewish Diffusion of Folk Tales, a paper read before the Jews' College
Literary Society, in The Jewish Chronicle, London, June 1, 1888 (also
published separately in Jewish Ideals and Other Essays, as above);
28 YIDDISH LITERATURE
These stories have dominated and still dominate the
minds of the women and children among the Russian,
Roumanian, and Galician Jews. For them there exists
a whole fantastic world, with its objects of fear and
admiration. There is not an act they perform that is
not followed by endless superstitious rites, in which the
beliefs of Chaldea are inextricably mixed with French,
Germanic, or Slavic ceremonies. To pierce the dense
cloud of superstition that has involved the Mosaic Law,
to disentangle the ancient religion from the rank growth
of the ages, to open the eyes of the Jews to the realities
of this world, and to break down the timeless and space-
less sphere of their imaginings — that has been the task
of the followers of the Mendelssohnian Reform for the
last one hundred years. In the pages of the Judeo-
German works that they have produced to take the
place of the story books of long ago, one meets continu-
ally with lists of superstitions that they are laboring to
combat, with the names of books that they would fain
put in an index expurgatorius.
M. Gaster, Jewish Folk Lore in the Middle Ages, in papers read before
the Jews' College Literary Society during the Session 1886-87, London,
1887, pp. 39-51 (also published separately by The Jewish Chronicle,
1887, 8vo); G. Levi, Christiani ed Ebrei nel Medio Evo, Quadro di
costumi con un appendice di recordi e leggende giudaiche della mede-
sima epocha, Florence, I860, 16mo (pp. 307-406) ; A. M. Tendlau, Das
Buch der Sagen und Legenden jiidischer Vorzeit (2te Auflage), Stutt-
gart, 1845, 8vo, 335 pp. ; the same, Fellmeiers Abende, Mdhrchen und
Geschichten aus grauer Vorzeit, Frankfurt a. M., 1856, 16mo, 290 pp.;
Israel Levi, Contes juifs, in Bevue des JZtudes Juives, Vol. XI. pp. 209-
234 ; Is. Loeb, Le folklore juif dans la chronique du Schebet Jehuda
d^lbn Verga, in Bevue des Etudes Juives, Vol. XXIV. pp. 1-29. For
general ethnographic sketches of the Russian Jews, containing a great
deal of material of a folklore nature, see SistematUeskij ukazateV
literatury o evrejach na russkom jazyke so vremeni vvedenija grazdan-
skago Srifta (1708 g.) po dekabr" 1889 g., St. Petersburg, 1893, Part V.
pp. 198-204 and 206-207 ; of the works mentioned there, Nos. 2831
and 2912 are especially important.
FOLKLORE 29
It is not difficult to discern a number of distinct
strata in the many folk-tales that are current now, even
though the motives from various periods may be found
hopelessly intertwined in one and the same story. The
oldest of these may be conveniently called the Talmudi-
cal substratum, as in those older writings the prototypes
of them can be found. Of course, these in their turn are
of a composite nature themselves, but that need not dis-
concert us in our present investigation as long as the
resemblance is greater to the stories in the Talmud than
to the originals from which that collection has itself
drawn its information. There is a large variety of sub-
jects that must be classified in that category. Here
belong a number of animal fables, of stories of strange
beasts, much imaginary geography, but especially a vast
number of apocryphal Bible stories.1 One of the most
1 For stories of that period, cf . A. S. Isaacs, Stories from the
Babbis, London, Osgood (and New York, Webster), 1893, 8vo, 202 pp.;
M. Gaster, Beitrdge zur vergleichenden Sagen- und Mdrchenkunde,
Bukarest, 1883, 8vo. Dr. B. Konigsberger, Aus dem Beiche der
altjiidischen Fabel, in Zeitschrift des Vereins fur Volkskunde, Vol. VI.,
1896, pp. 140-161 ; F. Baethgen, Salomo in der jiidischen Sage, in
Allgemeine Zeitung, Nos. 151, 152, 181, 182 (Beilage). Other shorter
articles on the same subject will be found in the Urquell, Vol. II.
p. 209 ; Vol. IV. p. 76 ; Neue Folge, Vol. I. pp. 13, 14 ; Z. d. V. f. V.,
Vol. IV. p. 209; J. Trubnik, Talmudische Legenden, in Jud. Volksbib.,
Vol. I. pp. 264-279. Of special interest are the discussions of Tal-
mudical legends and fables with their western developments or imita-
tions, by L. Dukes, Ubersicht der neuhebrdischen Literatur weltlichen
Inhalts in Frosa und Versen, in Israelitische Annalen (edited by Jost),
1839, No. 13, pp. 100 ff.; No. 17, pp. 131 ff.; No. 25, pp. 196 ff.; No. 31,
pp. 244; No. 52, pp. 415 ff. Eisenmenger's Entdecktes Judenthum,
Konigsberg, 1711 (or Dresden, 1893), in spite of its bias, may be con-
sulted for the legends ; better than that is the English form of the
same, The Tradition of the Jews; or, The Doctrine of Expositions
Contained in the Talmud, etc., London, 8vo, (64) and 337 and 363 pp.,
the appendix of which has a Translation, by Way of Abridgement, of
Buxtorfs Latin Account of the Beligious Customs and Ceremonies of
30 YIDDISH LITERATURE
interesting series of that class is the one that comprises
tales of the river Sambation.1 This river has rarely
been discovered by poor mortals, although it has been
the object of their lifelong quest. During the week it
throws large rocks heavenwards, and the noise of the
roaring waters is deafening. On the Sabbath the river
rests from its turmoil, to resume again its activity at its
expiration. Behind the Sambation lives the tribe of the
Red Jews.
The best story of that cycle is told by-Meisach. An
inquisitive tailor sets out in search of the Sambation
River. Of all the Jews that he meets he inquires
the direction that he is to take thitherward; and he
makes public announcements of his urgent business at
all the synagogues that he visits. But all in vain.
Three times he has already traversed the length and
the breadth of this earth, but never did he get nearer
his destination. Undaunted, he starts out once more
to reach the tribe of the Red Jews. Suddenly he
arrives near that awful river. Overwhelmed by its
din, terrified at its eruptions, he falls down on the
the Jews (Vol. II. pp. 225-363). See also G. G. Bredow, Babbinische
Mythen, Erzahlungen und L'ugen, nebst zwei Balladen der christli-
chen Mythologie im Mittelalter (2te Aufiage), Weilburg, 1833, 16mo,
136 pp.; also C. Krafft, Judische Sagen und Dichtungen nach den
Talmuden und Midraschen, nebst einigen Makamen aus dem Divan
des Alcharisi, Ansbach, 1839, 16mo, 212 pp.
1 The Sambation is mentioned in Eldad ha-Dani aus dem Stamme
Dan; see for this Steinschneider's Jildisch-deutsche Litteratur, in
Serapeum, Vol. IX. (1848), p. 319, No. 13. See also Judische Litte-
ratur, by Steinschneider, in Ersch und Oruber, § X, A. 2. Other
essays and stories are : D. Kaufmann's Le Sambation, in Bevue des
iZtudes Juives, Vol. XXII. pp. 285-287, and Der' Sambation, eine ety-
mologische Sage, in Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, 1893, May
20. p. 247 ; Meisach, Sambation, in Jud. VolJcsblatt, Vol. VIII. (Bei-
lage), p. 53, and (the same story) in his fflsstm we-NiJloes, q.v.
FOLKLORE 31
ground and prays to the all-merciful God. It hap-
pened to be a few minutes before the time that the
river was to go to rest. The clock strikes, and, as if
b}' magic, the scene is changed. The tailor finds a
ford, passes on the other side, and, exhausted from his
wandering, he lies down to sleep in the grass. The
tribe of men that live there are a race of giants. One
of them, noticing the intruder, takes him to be a new
species of a grasshopper, picks him up, and slips him
in his spacious coat pocket. He proceeds to the bath-
house to take his ablution, and thence to the synagogue,
leaving the tailor all the while in his pocket. The giants
begin to pray. At the end, while a pause ensues, the
pious tailor unconsciously exclaims ' Amen ! ' Aston-
ished to hear that mysterious voice, the giant brings
the tailor to light and showers many signs of respect
upon him, for even the giants know how to honor a
pious man. The tailor liked it there so much that he
never returned to his native home.
Abramowitsch has made fine use of this story in his
Jewish 'Don Quixote.' The hero of that novel has so
long pondered about the Sambation River and the mys-
terious race of men that live beyond it, that he loses his
reason, and starts out to find them. But he does not
get beyond Berdichev. Another very fruitful class of
stories belonging to that category is the one in which
the prophet Elijah plays an important part.1 Accord-
ing to the popular belief, Elijah did not die ; he even
1In A. S. Isaac's Stories from the Babbis (see above), there is a
chapter on Elijah in the Legends (pp. 92-103). Other stories of
Elijah: D. Cassel, Elia in der Legende, in Allgemeine Zeitung des
Judenthums, 1892, Feb. 26, p. 104, and March 6, p. 115 ; Urquell,
Vol. IV. pp. 11-14, 42-45, 120, 121 ; Z. d. V. f. V., Vol. IV. p. 209.
An older story is mentioned in Steinschneider's Catalogue, Serqpeum,
Vol. IX. (1848), p. 384, No. 174. See also B. W. Segel, Materyaiy
32 YIDDISH LITERATURE
now frequently comes to visit men, to help them in
some dire necessity. His presence is surmised only
when he has disappeared, generally leaving behind him
a vapory cloud. So rooted is this belief in the visita-
tion of Elijah, that during the ceremony of the circum-
cision a chair is left unoccupied for the good prophet.
Elijah is not the only one that may be seen nowadays.
Moses and David occasionally leave their heavenly
abodes to aid their devotees or to exhort those that
are about to depart from the road of righteousness.
King David presides over the repast at the conclusion
of the Sabbath, for it is then that a song in which his
name is mentioned is recited. There are some who
regard it as a devout act to celebrate that occasion
with unswerving accuracy. To those who have made
the vow of i Mlawe-Malke,' as the repast is called, King
David is wont to appear when they are particularly
unfortunate. Unlike Elijah, he makes his presence
known by his company of courtiers and musicians,
and he himself holds a harp in his hands ; and unlike
him, he resorts to supernatural means to aid his
protSgSs.
Most of the medieval legends cluster around the Rab-
bis of Central Europe who have in one way or another
become famous. The cities of Amsterdam, Frankfurt,
Worms, Prague, Cracow, have all their special circle of
wonderful tales about the supernatural powers of the
worthies of long ago. But the king of that cycle of
miracle workers is Rambam, as Maimonides is called.1
do etnografii zydow wschodnio-galicyjskich, in Zbidr loiadomosci do
antropologii krajowej, Cracow, Vol. XVII. pp. 296-298.
1 Stories of Maimonides are contained in Maasebuch (or, rather in
addition Maase Adonai), according to Steinschneider, Serapeum,
Vol. XXVII. (1866), p. 5, No. 7. Eor other stories, see Bibliography.
FOLKLORE 33
His profound learning and great piety, his renowned
art of medicine, his extensive travels, have naturally
lent themselves to imaginative transformations. He
has undergone the same transmogrification that befell
Vergil. Like the latter, he is no longer the great
scholar and physician, but a wizard who knows the
hidden properties of plants and stones, who by will
power can transfer himself in space, and who can read
dreams and reveal their future significance. His
whole life was semi-miraculous. "When he had arrived
at the proper age to enter an academy of medicine, he
applied to a school where only deaf-mutes were ac-
cepted as disciples of JEsculapius. This precaution was
necessary, lest the secrets of the art be disseminated, to
the disadvantage of the craft. Rambam pretended to
have neither hearing nor speech. His progress was re-
markable, and in a short time he surpassed his teachers
in the delicate art of surgery. Once there came to the
school a man who asked to be cured of a worm that was
gnawing at his brain. The learned doctors held a con-
sultation, and resolved to trepan the skull and extract
the worm. This was at once executed, and Rambam
was given permission to be present at the operation.
With trembling and fear he perceived the mistake of
his teachers and colleagues, for he knew full well that
the man would have to die as soon as the seventh mem-
brane under the dura mater was cut away. With
bated breath, he stood the pang of anxiety until the
sixth covering had been removed. Already the doc-
tors were applying the lancet to the seventh, when
his patience and caution gave way, and he exclaimed,
4 Stop ; you are killing him ! ' His surprised colleagues
promised to forgive his deceit if he would extract the
worm without injury to the membrane. This Rambam
34 YIDDISH LITERATURE
carried out in a very simple manner. He placed a
cabbage leaf on the small opening in the seventh cover-
ing, and the worm, attracted by the odor of the leaf,
came out to taste of the fresh food, whereupon it was
ousted.1
Of such a character are nearly all of his cures. The
supernatural element of the later period, where every-
thing is fantastic, is still absent from the Rabbi le-
gends. There is always an attempt made to combine the
wonderful with the real, or rather to transfer the real
into the realm of the miraculous. The later stories of
miracle-working pursue the opposite course : they en-
graft the most extraordinary impossibilities on the ex-
periences of everyday life. Rambam's travels have also
given rise to a large number of semi-mythical journeys.
One of the legends tells of his sojourn in Algiers, where
he incurred the hatred of the Mussulmans for having
decided that an oil-vat had become impure because a
Mohammedan had touched it, whereas another vat into
which a weed had fallen was pronounced by him to be
ritually pure. Knowing that his life was in danger, he
escaped to Egypt, making the voyage in less than half
an hour by means of a miraculous document that he
took with him and that had the power of destroying
space. In Cairo he became the chief adviser of the
king, and he later managed to save the country from
the visitation of the Algerian minister, who had come
there ostensibly to pursue the fugitive Rambam, but in
reality to lay Egypt waste by his magical arts.
The most interesting stories that still belong to that
cycle are those that have developed in Slavic countries.
Out of the large material that was furnished them by
the German cities, in conjunction with the new matter
1 Nearly the same story is in Gaster's Jewish Folk Lore, etc.
FOLKLORE 35
with which they became familiar in their new homes,
they have moulded many new stories in endless variety.
The number of local legends is unlimited. There is
hardly an inn on the highways and byways of Western
Russia and Galicia that has not its own circle of won-
derful tales. Every town possesses its remarkable
Rabbi whose memory lives in the deeds that he is
supposed to have performed. But none, except the
town of Mesiboz, the birthplace of Bal-schem-tow, the
founder of the sect of the Khassidim, can boast of such a
complete set of legendary tales as the cities of Wilna
and Cracow. In Wilna they will still tell the curi-
ous stranger many reminiscences of those glorious days
when their Rabbis could arrest the workings of natural
laws, and when their sentence was binding on ghosts as
well as men. They will take him to the synagogue and
show him a large dark spot in the cupola, and they will
tell him that during an insurrection a cannon-ball struck
the building, and that it would have proceeded on its
murderous journey but for the command of the Rabbi
to be lodged in the wall. They will take him to a
street where the spooks used to contend with humankind
for the possession of the houses in which they lived : —
the contention was finally referred to the Gaon of Wilna.
After careful inquiry into the justice of the contending
parties he gave his decision, which is worthy of the wis-
dom of Solomon : he adjudicated the upper parts of the
houses, as much of them as there was above ground, to
the mortals, while the cellars and other underground
structures were left in perpetuity to the shadowy in-
habitants of the lower regions.1 One of the Gaons at
Wilna was possessed of the miraculous power to create
1 A similar story, also of a local character, is told by Dick in
Alte jildische Sagen oder Ssipurim, p. 42, where he mentions a Polish
36 YIDDISH LITERATURE
a Golem, a homunculus. It was a vivified clay man
who had to do the bidding of him who had given him
temporary life. Whenever his mission was fulfilled
he was turned back into an unrecognizable mass of
clay.1
A special class of legends that have been evolved in
Slavic countries are those that tell of the Lamed-wow-
niks. According to an old belief the world is supported
by the piety of thirty-six saints (Lamed- wow is the nu-
merical representation of that number). If it were not
for them, the sins of men would have long ago worked
the destruction of the universe. Out of this basal belief
have sprung up the stories that relate the deeds of the
4 hidden ' saints. They are called ' hidden ' because it
is the very essence of those worthies not to carry their
sanctity for show : they are humble artisans, generally
tailors or shoemakers, who ply their humble vocations
unostentatiously, and to all intents and purposes are
common people, poor and rather mentally undeveloped.
No one even dreams of their hidden powers, and no one
ever sees them studying the Law. When by some acci-
dent their identity is made apparent, they vigorously
deny that they belong to the chosen Thirty-six, and
only admit the fact when the evidence is overwhelm-
ingly against them. Then they are ready to perform
some act by which a calamity can be averted from the
work, Przechadzki po Wilnie i jego okolicach przez Jana ze ^liwnia
(A. Kirkor), Wilna, 1859, that contains many Jewish tales.
1 Also told of a Rabbi of Prague, in Sippurim, Sammlung judischer
Volkssagen, Erzahlungen, Mythen, Chroniken, Denkvmrdigkeiten und
Biographien beriihmter Juden alter Jahrhunderte, besonders des Mit-
telalters (Jildische Universalbibliothek) , Prague, 1895. These Sip-
purim have no great folklore value, as they show too much the hand
of the literary worker. Of similar value is H. Iliowizi's In the Pale;
Stories and Legends of the Russian Jews, Philadelphia, 1897.
FOLKLORE 37
Jews collectively, and after their successful undertaking
they return to their humble work in some other town
where there is no chance of their being recognized and
importuned.
One of the most perfect stories of that kind is told of
a hidden saint who lived in Cracow in the days of Rab-
benu Moses Isserls. The Polish king had listened to
the representations of his minister that as descendant of
the Persian king he was entitled to the sum of money
which Haman had promised to him but which he evi-
dently had not paid, having been robbed of it by the
Jews. He ordered the Jews of Cracow to pay forth-
with the enormous sum upon pain of being subjected to
a cruel persecution. After long fasting Rabbenu Is-
serls told his congregation to go to Chaim the tailor
who was living in the outskirts of the town and to ask
him to use his supernatural powers in averting the im-
pending calamity. After the customary denials, Chaim
promised to be the spokesman of the Jews before the
king. On the next morning he went to the palace.
He passed unnoticed by the guards into the cabinet of
his majesty and asked him to sign a document revoking
his order. In anger, the king went to the door to chide
the guards for having admitted a ragged Jew to his
presence. As he opened it, he stepped into space, and
found himself in a desert. He wandered about for a
whole day and only in the evening he met a poor man
who offered him a piece of dry bread and showed him a
place of shelter in a cave. The poor man advised him
not to tell of his being a king to any one that he might
meet, lest he be robbed or killed. He gave him a beg-
gar's garments, and supplied him with a meal of dry
bread every day. At the expiration of a year, the poor
man offered him work as a woodcutter with an improve-
38 YIDDISH LITERATURE
ment in his fare if lie would first sign a document. The
king was only too happy to change his monotonous con-
dition, and without looking at it signed the paper pre-
sented to him. His trials lasted two years more, after
which he became a sailor, was shipwrecked and carried
back to Cracow. Just then he awoke to discover that
his three years' experience had only lasted fifteen min-
utes by the clock. He abided by his agreement in the
document which he had signed in his dream, and thus
the great misfortune was once more warded off by the
piety of a Lamed-wow-nik. The minister, the story
continues, escaped to Italy and hence to Amsterdam,
where he became a convert to Judaism. In his old age
he returned to Cracow to make pilgrimages to the
graves of Rabbenu Isserls and Chaim, the saint.
All the previous stories and legends pale into insig-
nificance by the side of the endless miracles spun out by
the Khassidim and ascribed to the founder of the sect
and his disciples.1 Nothing is too absurd for them.
There seems to be a conscious desire in these stories
to outdo all previous records, in order to throw the
largest halo on their Bal-schem-tow, or Bescht, as he
1 On the Khassidim, read M. Sachor-Masoch, Sectes juives de la
Galicie, in Actes et Conferances de la Societe des ^Etudes Juives, 1889,
pp. cxli-clxiii, and S. Schechter, Studies in Judaism, pp. 1-45 and 341.
For the Russian sources on the Khassidim, see Sistematiteskij ukaza-
teV literatury o evrejach, pp. 177-179 (Nos. 2424-2476). Stories of
Adam Balschem are mentioned by Steinschneider, as Geschichte des
B. Adam Baal Schem, and Geschichte des B. Adam mit dem Kaiser,
in Serapeum, Vol. X. (1849), p. 9, No. 183. See also Urquell, Vol. V.
p. 266, and Vol. VI. p. 33. B. W. Segel's Judische Wundermanner,
in Globus, Vol. LXII. pp. 312-314, 331-334, 343-345, are merely trans-
lations from the Sseefer Ssipuree Maisses {Khal Chsidim); of similar
origin is his O chasydach i chasydyzmie, in Wisia, Vol. VIII. pp. 304-
31-, 509-521, 677-690 ; other stories by him are in his Materyaty do
etnografii zyddw, as above.
FOLKLORE 39
is called by his initials. Bal-schem-tow was neither
the miracle-worker that his adherents would have him,
nor the impostor that his opponents imagine him to
have been. He was a truly pious man who sought
a refuge in mysticism against the verbalism of the
Jews of his days, in the middle of the eighteenth
century. His followers, unfortunately mistaking the
accidental in his teachings for the essentials of the
new doctrine, have raised the Cabbalistic lucubrations
of his disciples to the dignity of religious books, and
have opened wide the doors for superstitions of all
kinds. The realities of this world' hardly exist for
them, or are at best the temporal reflexes of that mys-
tic sphere in which all their thoughts soar. Their
rabbis are all workers of miracles, and Bescht is adored
by them more than Moses and the Biblical saints. His
life and acts have been so surrounded by a legendary
atmosphere that it is now, only one hundred and fifty
years after his life, not possible to disentangle truth
from fiction and to reconstruct the real man. A large
number of books relate the various miraculous inci-
dents in his life, but the one entitled ' Khal Chsidim '
surpasses them all in variety, and attempts to give as
it were a chronological sequence of his acts.
In that book his grandfather and father are repre-
sented as foreshadowing the greatness of their descend-
ant. His grandfather is a minister to a king, and
Elijah announces to him that at the age of one hun-
dred years his wife will bear him a son who will be
a shining light. His father is a wizard and a scholar,
and enjoins his son before his death to study with a
hidden saint in the town of Ukop. After his studies
were completed he became a teacher in Brody, and a
judge. He marries the sister of Rabbi Gerschon, who
40 YIDDISH LITERATURE
takes him for a simpleton, and in vain tries to instruct
him. No one knows of the sanctity of Bescht. He
goes into the mountains accompanied by his wife, and
there meditates a long while. At one time he was
about to step from a mountain into empty space, when
the neighboring mountain inclined its summit and re-
ceived the erring foot of Bescht. After seven years
of solitary life he returns to Brody to become a
servant in Gerschon's household. Later his career of
miracle-working begins : he heals the sick, exorcises
evil spirits, brings down rain by prayers, breaks spells,
conquers wizards, predicts the future, punishes the un-
believers, rewards the faithful by endowing them with
various powers, and does sundry other not less wonder-
ful things. When he prays, the earth trembles, and
no one can hear his voice for loudness. He sleeps but
two hours at night and prays the rest of the time,
while a nimbus of fire surrounds him.
Not less marvellous are the deeds of his disciples
as related in the 4 Sseefer Maisse Zadikim ' and other
similar productions that are issued in penny sheets in
Lemberg to impress the believers with the greatness
of their faith. Many of these have sprung up from
the desire to instill the necessity of observing certain
religious rites, and this the authors think they can
accomplish best by connecting a moral with some
miraculous tale. For every imaginable vow there is
a special story telling of the blissfulness that the
devotee has reached or the misery that the lax follower
of Khassidism has had occasion to rue. Every good
deed according to them creates its own protecting
spirits, while every crime produces a corresponding
monstrous beast that pursues the sinner and leads
him to destruction. Interesting also are those cases
FOLKLORE 41
when a man has been as prone to sin as he has been
to perform virtuous acts, for then the struggle between
the beings of his creation leads to amusing results in
which all depends on the preponderance of one kind
of deeds over the other. The worst of men is not ex-
cluded from the benefits of mercy if he makes amends for
his crimes by an earnest repentance which is followed
by a long penance.
Of the latter class, the following is a typical story.
Chaim has brought many misfortunes to Jewish fami-
lies by denouncing and blackmailing them to the Polish
magnate, the chief authority of the district. Once
while on his way to the magnate he sees a half -starved
beggar in the road, and he divides with him his bread
and carries him to his house and takes care of him
until he is well enough to proceed on his journey.
Chaim has occasion after several years to denounce
some one to the magnate. He goes to the cupboard
to fill his wallet for the journey, when he sees a dead
person in it. After he has collected himself from his
fright, he steps up once more to the cupboard. The
dead person tells him that he is the beggar that he
saved from starvation some time ago, that he had
heard in heaven that Chaim was to be given his last
chance in life, and that he had come to warn him to
repent his misdeeds. Chaim takes his advice to heart,
and for seven years stays uninterruptedly in the syna-
gogue, perfecting himself in his knowledge of the re-
ligious lore. On the eve of the Passover he allows
himself to be tempted by Satan in the shape of a
scholar, to eat leavened bread at a time when the Law
prohibits it. As he steps out to the brook to wash
his hands before tasting of the bread, the dead person
once more appears to him and tells him that Satan
42 YIDDISH LITERATURE
has been sent to him to tempt him, because it was
thought that his seven years' penance alone was not
sufficient to atone for his many evil deeds ; that all
his labors have been in vain, and that he will have
to do penance another seven years. This Chaim is
only too ready to undergo, and he applies himself with
even more ardor than before to get a remission of his
sins. At the expiration of the allotted time Chaim
dies and is at once taken to heaven.
The legends and folk-tales so far considered are of a
strictly Jewish character, whatever their origin. They
are in one way or another connected with the inner life
of the Jewish community. They deal with the acts of
their worthies and inculcate religious truths. But
these are far from forming the bulk of all the stories
that are current to-day among the German Jews in
Slavic countries. Among the printed books of a popu-
lar character there are many that not only are of Gentile
origin, but that have not been transformed in the light
of the Mosaic faith ; they have been reprinted without
change of contents for the last four centuries, furnish-
ing an example of long survival unequalled probably
in any other literature.1 Many of the stories that
1 The older literature of that class is briefly discussed by Stein-
schneider in his articles in the Serapeum under the following numbers
(for the years 1848, 1849, 1864, 1866, 1869) : 392, Kalilah we-Dimnah;
393, Barlaam and Josaphat ; 59, 399, Diocletianus ; 266 b, Octavi-
anus; 22, Bevys of Hamptoun; 51, Bitter Sigmund und Magdalena;
286, Kdnig Artas; 13, Eldad ha-Dani ; 156-198, 410-413, 420, various
stories ; 212, 213, fables (Kuhbuch) ; 167, Maase Nissim ; 156-158,
Maasebuch. But the latter has been superseded by his Judisch-
deutsche Litteratur und Judisch-deutsch, mit besonderer Bucksicht
auf Ave-Lallemant ; 2. Artikel : Das Maase- Buck, Serapeum, Vol.
XXVII. (1866), No. 1. This Maasebuch is extremely rare now, but
in its day it was enormously popular, having been used for regular
religious readings on the Sabbath. Wagenseil and Buxtorf mention
FOLKLORE 43
had been current in Germany long before the time
of printing were among the first to be issued from
Jewish printing presses. Stories of the court of King
Arthur in verse, of Dietrich of Bern, of the ' Constant
Love of Floris and Blanchefleur,' of ' Thousand and One
Nights,' had been common in the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries, and many of them may be found in
editions of this century ; but none of them has been so
popular as the c Bovo-maisse,' the latest edition of which
is known to me from the year 1895. It is identical
with the English ' Bevys of Hamptoun ' and was done
into Judeo-German by Elia Levita in Venice in the
year 1501. It is, no doubt, related to some one of the
many Italian versions in which Bevys is turned into
Bovo. The popularity of this book has been second
only to the ' Zeena-Ureena ' which contains a very large
number of folk-tales interwoven in a popular exposition
this fact, while Helwich thought it of sufficient importance to trans-
late the book into German and supply it with critical notes. Hel-
wich's book seems to have escaped the attention of all who have
dealt on the Maasebuch, Steinschneider included ; and yet without it
a study of the Jewish folklore is very difficult, as the Maasebuch can
hardly be procured. The title of the book is : Erster Theil judischer
Historien oder Thalmudisclier Babbinischer wunderlicher Legenden,
so von Juden als wahrhaff tige und heylige Geschicht an ihren Sab-
bathen und Eesttagen gelesen werden. Darausz dieses verstockten
Volcks Aberglauben und Fabelwerck zu ersehen. Ausz ihren eigenen
Biichern in Truck Teutsch verfertigt, von neuem ubersehen und cor-
rigiert durch Christophorum Helvicum, der H. Schrift und Hebraischen
Sprach Professorem in der Universitet zu Giessen, Giessen, bey Cas-
par Chemlein, Im Jahre 1612, 16mo, 222 pp. Second part with slightly
different title. After gelesen werden follows : Sampt beygefiigten
Glossen und Widerlegung, 16mo, 207 pp. See also Is. Le>i, Cinq
contes juifs, in Melusine, Vol. II. col. 569-574. On the Konig Artus,
cf. Schroder, Mitteilungen uber ein deutsches Wigaloisepos aus dem
17. Jahrhunderte, M. Hanau B. V. Hess. Q. Some of these stories
are discussed in Jacobs's Jewish Diffusion of Folk Tales (as above).
44 YIDDISH LITERATURE
of the Bible. There are also books that contain stories
of 4 Sinbad the Sailor,' or what seem to be versions of Sir
John Maundeville's ' Travels,' and other similar fantastic
tales.
These stories, having once been committed to writing
and printing, have remained intact up to our times,
except that they have undergone linguistic moderniza-
tions. But there is also an unlimited number of fairy
tales and fables in circulation which have never been
written down, which have therefore been more or less
subjected to local influences ; in these Hebrew, German,
and Slavic elements meet most freely, causing the stories
to be moulded in new forms.1 It may be asserted with-
out fear of contradiction that among the Russian Jews
the investigator will find the best, most complete versions
of most, if not all, the stories contained in Grimm's or
Andersen's collections. The reason for it is to be
sought in the inordinate love of story-telling that the
Jews possess. They are fond of staying up late in the
1 A few scattered stories may be found in the following publica-
tions : M. Schwarzfeld, Basmul cu Pantoful la Evrei, la Romani si la
alte Popoare, Studiu folkloristic, Bucuresti, 1893, 8vo, 27 pp. {Extras
din Anuarul pentru Israelite, Vol. XV. pp. 138-165); by the same,
Scrisoarecatre DumnezeutCercetarefolcloristicd {Anuarul pentru Isra-
elite Vol. XV. pp. 191-198); R. T. Kaindl, Eine jiidische Sage uber
die Entstehung des Erdbebens, Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, Vol. XXV.
p. 370 ; B. W. Segel, Jiidische Volksmdrchen, in Globus, Vol. LX.
pp. 283 ff., 296-298, 313-315. The largest collection of folk-tales by
the same author are given in Zbidr wiadomosci do antropologii kra-
jowej, Vol. XVII., Cracow, 1893, under the title, Materyaiy do etno-
grafii zyddw wschodnio-galicyjskich, pp. 261-332 ; a review of this
important work, in German, is given in the Urquell, Vol. V. pp. 183-
186. Scattered through the Urquell there are many interesting tales,
mainly on gilgulim, leezim, meessim ; cf. Vol. IV, pp. 96, 97, 257;
Neue Folge, Vol. I. pp. 80, 81, 121, 122, 344, 345, 351 ; see also Z. d.
V. f. V., Vol. IV. p. 210. See also the bibliography of the legends,
etc., in Sistematiceskij ukazatel, p. 211 (Nos. 3133-3136).
FOLKLORE 45
night, particularly in the winter, and whiling away the
time with an endless series of stories. The stranger
who is a good raconteur is sure of a kind reception wher-
ever he may chance to stay; but his nights will be
curtailed by the extent of his fund of stories, for his
audience will not budge as long as they suspect that
the stranger has not spent all the arrows from his quiver.
The wandering beggar-students and tailors have the
reputation for story-telling ; it was by one of the latter
that a large number of fairy tales were related to me.
I choose for illustration one that is known in a great
variety of versions.
The Fool is Wiser than the Wise
" Once upon a time there lived a rich man who had
three sons : two of them were wise, while one was a
fool. After his death the brothers proceeded to divide
the property, which consisted mainly of cattle. The
two wise brothers suggested that the herd be divided
into three equal parts, and that lots be cast for each ;
but the fool insisted that corrals be built near the house
of each and that each be allowed to keep the cattle that
would stray into his corral. The wise brothers agreed
to this, and to entice the oxen and cows they placed
fresh hay in their enclosures ; but the fool did not
take measures to gain possession of cattle by unfair
means. The animals were attracted by the odor of the
new-mown hay, and only one calf strolled into the fool's
enclosure. The fool kept his calf for eight days, and
forgot to give it fodder during that time ; so it died.
He took off its hide, and placed it in the sun to get dry.
There it lay until it shrivelled up. Then he took the
hide to Warsaw to sell it, but no one wanted to buy it.
for it was all dried up.
46 YIDDISH LITERATURE
" He started for home and came to an inn where he
wanted to stay over night. He found there twelve men
eating, and drinking good wine. He asked the land-
lady whether he could stay there over night. She told
him she would not keep him in the house for all the
money in the world, and she asked him to leave the
house at once. He did not like her hasty manner, and
he hid himself behind the door where no one could see
him. There he overheard the landlady saying to the
men : ' Before my husband gets home you must go
down in the cellar and hide behind the wine-casks. In
the night, when he will be asleep, you must come up
and kill him. Then I shall be satisfied with you ! '
After a short while her husband returned from the
distillery with some brandy, and the men hurried down
into the cellar. He unloaded the brandy-casks, and went
into the house. He asked his wife for something to
eat ; but she said there was nothing in the house. Just
then the fool stepped in and asked the innkeeper whether
he could not stay there over night. The landlady got
angry at him and said : * I told you before that there
was no bed here for you ! ' But the innkeeper said :
1 He will stay here over night ! ' and the innkeeper's
word was law. He told the fool to sit down at
the table with him, and they started a conversation.
The fool accidentally placed his hand on the hide, which
being dry began to crackle. The innkeeper asked him :
' What makes the hide crackle that way ? ' and the fool
answered : ' It is talking to me!' c What does it say ? '
1 It says that you are hungry, and that your wife says
that there is nothing in the house, but that if you will
look into the oven you will find some dishes.' He went
up to the oven and found there enough for himself and
the fool to eat. Then the hide crackled again, and the
FOLKLORE 47
innkeeper asked again : 4 What does it say ? ' 'It says
that you should start a big fire in the oven ! ' 4 What
is the fire for V 4 1 do not know, but you must obey
the hide.' So he went and made a big fire in the oven.
Then the hide crackled again. Says he : ' What does
the hide say now?' 4It tells to heat kettles of water.'
When the water got hot, the hide crackled again.
Then he asked : _4 What does the hide say now ? ' 4 It
says that you should take some strong men with you to
the cellar and pour the water behind the wine-casks.'
And so he did. The robbers were all scalded, and they
ran away. Then he came upstairs, and the hide
crackled again. Said he : ' Why does it crackle now ? '
4 The twelve robbers wanted to kill you at night, because
your wife ordered them to do so.' When the wife
heard that, she also ran away. Then the innkeeper
said : 4 Sell me your hide ! ' The fool answered : 4 It
costs much money.' 4No matter how much it costs,
I shall pay for it, for it has saved my life.' 'It costs
one thousand roubles.' So he gave him one thousand
roubles. The fool went home, and when the brothers
heard that he had sold his hide for one thousand roubles,
the}' killed all their cattle, and took their hides to
Warsaw to sell. They figured that if their brother's
calf brought one thousand roubles, the hides of their
oxen ought to fetch them at least two thousand roubles
apiece. When they asked two thousand roubles apiece,
people laughed and offered them a rouble for each.
When they heard that, they went home and upbraided
their brother for having cheated them. But he insisted
that he had received one thousand roubles for his hide,
and the brothers left him alone.
44 After a while the fool's wife died. The undertakers
wanted one thousand roubles for her interment. But
48 YIDDISH LITERATURE
the fool would not pay that sum. He placed his wife
in a wagon and took her to Warsaw. There he filled
the wagon with fine apples and put the dead body at
the head of the wagon all dressed up. He himself stood
at some distance and watched what would happen.
There rode by a Polish count, and as he noticed the
fine apples, he sent his servant to buy some. The ser-
vant asked the woman several times at what price she
sold the apples ; but as she did not answer him, he hit
her in the face. Then the fool ran up and cried, saying
that they had killed his wife. The count descended
from his carriage, and when he had convinced himself
that the woman was really dead, he asked the fool what
he could do to satisfy him. The fool asked five thousand
roubles, and the count paid him. The fool paid the
undertaker in Warsaw a few roubles, and he buried his
wife. He returned home and told his brothers of his
having received five thousand roubles for his dead wife.
Upon hearing that, they killed their wives and children
and took the dead bodies to Warsaw to sell. When
they arrived in Warsaw, they were asked what they
had in their wagons. They said : ' Dead bodies for
sale.' The people began to laugh, and said that dead
bodies had to be taken to the cemetery. There was
nothing left for the brothers to do but to take them to
the cemetery and have them buried.
" They wept bitterly, and swore that they would take
revenge on their brother. And so they did. When
they arrived home, they told him that they wished to
make him a prince. They enticed him for that purpose
into a bag, and wanted to throw him into the water.
They went away to find a place where they could throw
him in without being noticed. In the meanwhile the
fool kept on crying in the bag that he did not care to
FOLKLORE 49
be a prince, that he wished to get out of the bag. Just
then a rich Polish merchant drove by. When he heard
the cries in the bag, he stepped down from his carriage
and asked the fool why he was crying so. He said : 4 1
do not want to be a prince ! ' So he untied him and
said : ' Let me get into the bag and be made a prince !
I shall make you a present of my horses and my car-
riage, if you will let me be a prince.' The rich man
crept into the bag, and the fool tied it fast. He went
into the carriage and drove away. The brothers came,
picked up the bag, and threw it into the water. The
fool watched their doings from a distance. The brothers
were sure they had drowned the fool and returned
home. The next morning they were astonished to see
their brother driving around town in a fine carriage.
They asked him : ' Where did you get that ? ' He an-
swered : 4 In the water.' 'Are there more of them left?'
'There are finer ones down there.' So they went down
to the water's edge, and they agreed that one of them
should leap in and see if there were any carriages left
there, and if he should find any, he was to make a noise
in the water, when the other one would follow him.
One of them leaped in, and beginning to drown, began
to splash the water. The other, thinking his brother
was calling him, also jumped in, and they were both
drowned. The fool became the sole heir of all their
property; he married again, and is now living quite
happily."
Corresponding to the diffusion of folklore among the
Jews, their store of popular beliefs, superstitions, and
medicine is unlimited. Their mysterious world is
peopled with the imaginary beings of the Talmud, the
creatures of German mythology, and the creations of
50 YIDDISH LITERATURE
the Slavic popular mind. These exist for them, how-
ever, not as separate entities, but as transfused into an
organic whole in which the belief of Babylonia and
Assyria has much of the outward form of the supersti-
tion of Russia, just as the spirits of Poland and Germany
are made to be brothers to those of Chaldea and Egypt.
To their minds the transmigrated souls of the Grilgulim,
the scoffing Leezim, the living dead bodies of the Mees-
sim, the possessing Dibukim, the grewsome Scheedim,
are as real as the Riesen and Schraetele of Germany
and the Nischtgute (niedobry), Wukodlaki (werewolf),
Zlidne, Upior (vampyre), and Domowoj of Russia. The
beast Reem of the Talmud, the Piperndtter (Lindwurm)
of Germany are not less known to them than the fabled
animals of Russian fairy tales. In case of sickness they
consult with equal success the miracle-working Rabbi
with his lore derived from Talmud and Cabbala, as the
Tartar medicine man (znachar), or get some old woman
to recite the ancient German formula for warding off
the evil eye. There is not an incident in their lives,
from their births unto their deaths, that is not accom-
panied by its own circle of superstitious rites and prac-
tices.1
1 On the customs, beliefs, superstitions, etc., of the Jews, see A. P.
Bender, Beliefs, Bites, and Customs of the Jews Connected with Death,
Burial, and Mourning, in Jewish Quarterly Beview, Vol. VI. pp. 317-
347, 664-671, and Vol. VII. pp. 101-118 ; Dan, Volksglauben und
Gebrauche der Juden in der Bukowina, in Zeitschrift fur osterreich-
ische Volkskunde, Vol. II. Nos. 2, 3 ; Hedvige Heinicke, Le carnaval
desjuifs galiciens, in Revue des Traditions populaires, Vol. VI. p. 118;
I. Buchbinder, Judische Sabobones, in Hausfreund, Vol. II. pp. 167-
170 ; Steinschneider mentions books dealing on superstitions in his
catalogue in the Serapeum, under the numbers 219 and 421. This sub-
ject is treated extensively in the Urquell, Vol. II. pp. 5-7, 34-36, 112,
165, 166, 181-183 ; Vol. III. pp. 18, 19, 286-288 ; Vol. IV. pp. 73-75,
fc4-96, 118, 119, 141, 142, 170, 171, 187-189, 210,211, 272-274; Vol.
FOLKLORE 51
Their literature, both oral and printed, is also full of
evidences of that popular creative spirit which finds its
expression in the form of maxims and proverbs. One
can hardly turn the pages of a novel or comedy without
finding some interesting specimens of this class. But
little has been done to classify them, or even to collect
them. The printed collections of Tendlau and Bern-
stein contain less than three thousand proverbs, while
the seven thousand saws on which Schwarzfeld bases
his generalizations in a Roumanian periodical (Anuarul
pentru Israeliti) have not yet been published by him.1
V. pp. 19, 81, 170, 171, 225-228, 290, 291 ; Neue Folge, Vol. I. pp. 9,
46-49, 270, 271 ; Vol. II. pp. 33, 34, 46, 108-110. See also Segel,
MateryaXy do etnografii zyddw, etc., pp. 319-328; S. Abramowitsch,
Das kleine Menschele, pp. 76-77 ; Linetzki, Das chsidische Jungel,
pp. 29-31, 114. For a general work on Jewish superstitions, see
M. Schuhl, Superstitions et coutumes populaires du Judaisme con-
temporain, Paris, 1882, 4to, 42 pp. The most important contribution
on the beliefs of the German Jews in the early Middle Ages is given
by Giidemann, Geschichte des Erziehungswesen und der Cultur der
Juden, etc., Vol. I. Chap. VII. pp. 199-228, under the title Der
jiidische Aber-, Zauber- und Hexen-glaube in Frankreich und Deutsch-
land im 12. und 13. Jahrhunderte. See also the bibliography of the
subject in the Sistematiteskij ukazateV , pp. 211, 212 (Nos. 3137-
3159). A large number of superstitions, beliefs, etc., are scattered
throughout the Judeo-German literature : probably the most impor-
tant of such works is Schatzkes' Der jildischer Var-Peessach (q.v.).
1 For proverbs and the discussion of the same, see : M. Spektor,
Jiidische Volkswortlich, in Jildisches Volksblatt, Vol. VI. pp. 63, 95,
112, 128, 191, 304, 423, 488 ; I. Bernstein, Sprichworter, in Hausfreund,
Vol. I. pp. 89-112, and Vol. II. pp. 1-49 (second part); S. Adelberg,
Przystowia zydowskie, in Wisla, Vol. IV. pp. 166-187 ; M. Schwarzfeld,
Literatura populara Israelitd ca element etnico-psichologic, in Anuarul
pentru Israeliti, Vol. XII. pp. 41-52 ; the same, Evreii in Literatura
lor populara sau Cumsejudecd evreii insusi, Studiu etnico-psichologic,
Bucuresti, 1898, 8vo, 37 pp. (Anuarul pentru Israeliti, Vol. XIX.
pp. 1-37). In connection with the last two, though not strictly on
Jewish proverbs, see his Evreii in Literatura populara Bomand, Studiu
de psichologie populara, — Anex, Evreii in literatura populara univer-
52 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Equally rich would prove the harvest of popular
anecdotes, either as told of separate individuals, as
Herschele Ostropoler, Motke Chabad, Jossef Loksch,
the wise man of Chelm, and the like, or as applied to
the inhabitants of certain Abderitic towns.1 Many
such collections are mentioned in the appendix, but
they do not by any means exhaust the stories that are
current among the people. Though they generally are
of the same character as those told of Schildburg and
Till Eulenspiegel, and are even borrowings from those
German stories, yet they contain so much original mat-
ter, and have been welded into such new forms, that
they deserve the attention of the student of folklore.
They also bear excellent witness to that pungent wit
for which the Jews are so justly famous.
sala, Tablou comparative Bucuresti, 1892, 8vo, 78 pp. {Extras din
Anuarul pentru Israelite Vol. XIV. pp. 97-172). A large number
of proverbs from various Slavic localities are given in the Urquell:
Vol. II. pp. 26, 27, 66, 112, 131, 163, 178, 196 ; Vol. IV. pp. 75, 76,
194, 212, 215, 256, 257; Vol. VI. pp. 33, 34, 69, 119-121 ; Neue Folge,
Vol. I. pp. 14, 15, 119-121, 172-175, 271-279; Vol. II. pp. 221, 222,
311-313, 338-340. For the proverbs of the German Jews, see A.
Tendlau, Sprichworter und Eedensarten deutsch-jiidischer Vorzeit, als
Beitrag zur Volks-, Sprach- und Sprichworter-kunde, aufgezeichnet
aus dem Munde des Volkes und nach Wort und Sinn erlautert, Frank-
furt a. M. (1860).
1 The older books on Eulenspiegel are given by Steinschneider in
the Serapeum, under Nos. 10, 288, and 388 ; in the Urquell, there are
a few stories on Chelm in Vol. III. pp. 27-29, and Neue Folge, Vol. I.
pp. 345, 346. A large number is given by Segel in his collection in
the Zbidr wiadomosci do antropologii krajowej, pp. 303-306.
IV. THE FOLKSONG
The Jews have been preeminently inhabitants of
towns ; their very admission into Poland was based
on the supposition that they would be instrumental in
creating towns and cities, from which the agricultural
Slavs kept aloof. Centuries of city life have incapaci-
tated them for any other occupation than commerce
and artisanship, and have entirely estranged them from
nature. On the other hand, their civil disabilities and
oppression have led them to cling more closely to the
Bible and their religious lore than was customary
among their coreligionists in other lands. It was in
these Slavic countries that the Talmud was rediscov-
ered and that it was introduced to the rest of Judaism.
All these circumstances developed in them a strong
retrospective spirit, so that in the centre of their intel-
lectual horizon stands man in all his varying moods
and vicissitudes of fortune. Consequently all their
folksongs1 have more or less of a lyrical tinge, and
1 In a general way the Judeo-German folksong was treated by I. G.
OrSanskij, in his Evrei v Bossii, Oterki ekonomiceskago i obsdestven-
nago byta russkich evreev, St. Petersburg, 1877, 8vo, on pp. 391-402 ;
more specially by J. J. Lerner, Die jiidische Muse, in Hausfreund,
Vol. II. pp. 182-198, from which a few songs are quoted here. The
most of the songs given here are from my manuscript collection
made in Boston and New York among the Russian Jews. In the
Urquell folksongs are given in Vol. IV. pp. 119, 120 ; Vol. V. p. 196 ;
Vol. VI. pp. 43, 158 ; Neue Folge, Vol. I. pp. 45, 50, 82, 83, 175,
239-242 ; Vol. II. pp. 27-29, 39, 40. Cf. B. W. Segel, Materyaiy do
etnografii zyddw wschodnio-galicyjskich, in Zbidr iviadomosci do antro-
pologii krajowej, Vol. XVII. pp. 306-319.
53
54 YIDDISH LITERATURE
the consideration of nature is almost entirely absent
from them ; occasionally a flower, a natural phenome-
non, finds a passing mention in them, but these are never
used for their own intrinsic interest. Outside of him-
self, the Jew knows only his duties to God and his
duties to man, as flowing from his duties to God. Not
feeling himself as a constituent part of a nation, having
no other union with his fellow-men except that of reli-
gion, he could never rise to the appreciation and forma-
tion of an epic poem, although the material for such a
one was present in the very popular legend of the one-
day king, Saul Wahl.1
The cradle songs reflect this spirit.2 While babies
of Gentiles hear meaningless nursery rhymes or comi-
cal ditties, Jewish infants are early made acquainted
with the serious aspects of life. They are told of the
ideal of their future occupation, which is commerce,
they are spurred on to ' Tore,' which is learning, mainly
religious, and they are reminded that they must remain
an 'ehrlicher,' i.e. an orthodox, Jew. The following
poem is, probably, the most popular song in Judeo-
German, as it is sung from Galicia to Siberia, and
from the Baltic provinces to Roumania :
Hinter Jankeles Wiegele
Steht a klar-weiss Ziegele :
1 The legend has been admirably treated by the historian, S. A.
Bersadskij, in Evrej TcoroV polskij, in the Voschod, Vol. IX. Nos. 1-5.
2 The Urquell (see above) gives some children's songs. See also
L. Wiener, Aus der russisch-jildischen Kinderstube, in Mitteilungen
der Gesellschaft fur jiidische Volkskunde, herausgegeben von M. Grun-
wald, Hamburg, 1898, Heft II, pp. 40-49 ; R. F. Kaindl, Lieder, Neck-
reime, Abzahlverse, Spiele, Geheimsprachen und allerlei Kunterbuntes
aus der Kinderwelt, in der Bukowina und 'in Galizien gesammelt, in
Z. d. V. f. V., Vol. VII. pp. 146, 147. In Linetzki's Das chsidische
Jilngel, p. 23, a number of children's songs are mentioned by title.
THE FOLKSONG 55
Ziegele is' gefahren handlen
Rozinkelach mit Mandlen.
•Rozinkelach mit Mandlen
Sanen die beste S-chore, —
Jankele wet lernen Tore,
Tore wet er lernen,
Briewelach wet er schreiben,
Un' an ehrlicher Jiid'
Wet er af tomid verbleiben.
Behind Jacob's cradle there stands a clear white goat : the goat
has gpne a-bartering raisins and almonds. Raisins and almonds
are the best wares, — Jacob will study the Law, the Law he will
study, letters he will write, and an honest Jew he will forever
remain.
But commerce and learning are not for girls. They
are generally incapacitated for the first by their onerous
duties of home ; and learning, at least a knowledge of
the Sacred language and its lore, has never been re-
garded as a requisite of woman. She received her
religious instruction and ethical training by means of
Judeo-German books which owe their very origin to
the necessity of educating her. The name of the script
in which all these books of the past three centuries are
printed is Weiberdeutsch, indicating at once the use to
which it was put. The title-pages of the works gener-
ally tell that they are 'gar hubsch bescheidlich far
frumme Weiber un' Maidlich,' or that ' die Weiber un'
Meidlich di Weil damit vertreiben die heiligen Tag.'
The Biblical injunction 4 fructify and multiply yourself '
invests family life with a special sacred ness, throws a
gloom over the childless home, and leads this people to
regard motherhood as the ideal state of the Jewish
woman. All these sentiments find frequent expres-
sions in their songs, and while the infant boy is lulled
to sleep with, a recitation of his future manly virtues,
56 YIDDISH LITERATURE
the baby girl hears in her cradle, 'In the month of
Tamuz, my little lady, you will become a mother ! '
Childhood alone claims exemption from oppressing
thoughts and gloom : childhood must have its merri-
ments, its pranks, its wantonness, no matter how seri-
ous life is to become later, or how soon it is to be ended.
With the Jew youth, indeed, lasts but ' an hour,' and
in after-life he has many an occasion to regret its short
duration :
Jahren kleine, Jahren schoene,
Was sent ihr aso wenig da ?
Ihr sent nor gekummen,
Me hat euch schoen aufgenummen,
Un' sent nor gewe'n bei uns ein Scho?
Jahren junge, Jahren g'ringe,
Was sent ihr aso gich aweg ?
Es seht euch nit kein Augel,
Es derjagen euch nit die Voegel,
Ihr sent aweg gar ohn' ein Eck' !
Little years, beautiful years, why are there so few of you ? You
had scarcely come, you were well received, and you stayed but an
hour with us ! — Young years, light years, why have you passed so
quickly? Not an eye can see you, not a bird can fly as swiftly,
you have passed without return !
The number of ditties sung by children is very great.
They do not in general differ from similar popular pro-
ductions of other nations, either in form or content ;
some are evidently identical with German songs, while
a few are Slavic borrowings.
But there are two classes of songs peculiarly Jewish :
the mnemonic lines for the study of Hebrew words,
and those that depict the ideal course of a boy's life.
To the second belongs :
A kleine Weile wollen mir spielen,
Dem Kind in Cheeder wollen mir fiihren,
THE FOLKSONG 57
Wet er lemen a Paar Schures,
Wollen mir horen gute Pschures,
Gute Pschures mit viel Mailes,
Zu der Chupe paskenen Schailes.
's 'et sein gefallen der ganzer Welt,
Chossen-kale — a vulle Geld,
A vulle Geld mit Masel-broche,
Chossen-kale — a schoene Mischpoche,
Schoene Mischpoche mit schoenem Trest,
Abgestellt auf drei Jahr Kost.
A little while we shall play, we shall lead the child to school;
there he will learn a few lines, and we shall get good reports, good
reports with many good things, and he will settle religious disputes
upon his wedding day. The whole world will be satisfied, — bride-
groom and bride — a purse full of money ; full of money, may it
bring blessings ; bridegroom and bride — a fine family ; a fine
family with fine apparel, and at their house you'll stay three
years.
The man's career used to run in just such a stereo-
typed manner: at a tender age, when children have
not yet learned to properly articulate their speech, he
was sent to the Cheeder, the elementary Jewish school ;
long before the romantic feeling has its rise in youth,
he was betrothed and married ; but unable to earn a
livelihood for the family with which he prayed to be
blessed, he had to stay for a number of years with his
parents or parents-in-law, eating 4 Kost,' or board ; this
time he generally passed in the Talmud school, perfect-
ing himself in the casuistry of religious discussion,
while the woman at once began to care for her ever-
increasing family. Under such conditions love could
not nourish, at least not that romantic love of which
the young Gentiles dream and which finds its utterance
in their popular poetry. The word ;love' does not
exist in the Judeo-German dictionary, and wherever
that feeling, with which they have become acquainted
58 YIDDISH LITERATURE
only since the middle of this century, is to be named,
the Jews have to use the German word 'Liebe.' The
man's hope was to marry into some 'schoene Misch-
poche,' a good and respected family, while the girl's
dream was to get a husband who was well versed in
'rabonische Tore,' i.e. Jewish lore. While the boy, by
his occupation with the Bible and the Talmud, was
taught to look on marriage as on an act pleasing to
God, the girl was freer to allow her fancy to roam in
the realms bordering on the sensations of love :
Schoen bin ich, schoen, un' schoen is' mein Namen :
Redt man mir Schiduchim vun grosse Rabonim.
Rabonische Tore is' sehr gross,
Un' ich bei mein Mamen a ziichtige Ros\
A llos' is' auf'n Dach,
A lichtige Nacht,
Wasser is' in Stub, Holz is' in Haus,
Welchen Bocher hab' ich feind, treib' ich ihm araus 1
Fischelach in Wasser, Krappelach in Puter,
Welchen Bocher hat mich feind, a Ruch in sein Mutter !
Pretty I am, pretty, and pretty is my name ; they talk of great
rabbis as matches for me. Rabbi's learning is very great, but I
am a treasured rose of my mother's. A rose upon the roof, a clear
night ; water is in the room, wood is in the house, — If I love not
a boy, I drive him away ! Fish in the water, fritters in butter, —
If a boy love me not, cursed be his mother I
But such an exultation of free choice could be only
passing, as the match was made without consulting her
feelings in the matter; her greatest concern was that
she might be left an old maid, while her companions
passed into the ordained state of matrimony. Songs
embodying this fear are quite common ; the following
is one of them :
Sitz' ich mir auf'n Stein,
Nemmt mir an a gross Gewein :
THE FOLKSONG 59
Alle Maedlach haben Chassene,
Nor ich bleib' allein.
Oi weh, Morgenstern !
Wenn well ich a Kale wer'n,
Zi heunt, zi morgen ?
A schoene Maedel bin ich doch
Un* a reichen Taten hab' ich doch !
I sit upon a stone, and am seized by great weeping : all girls get
married, but I remain single. Woe to me, morning star ! When
shall I become a bride, to-day or to-morrow ? I surely am a pretty
girl, and I have a rich father !
In the more modern songs in which the word * love '
is used, that word represents the legitimate inclination
for the opposite sex which culminates in marriage.
Now that love and love matches are not uncommon,
it is again woman who is the strongest advocate of
them ; love songs addressed by men to women are rare,
and they may be recited with equal propriety by the
latter. The chief characteristic of woman's love, as
expressed in them, is constancy and depth of feeling.
Schwarz bist du, schwarz, asd wie a Zigeuner,
Ich hab' gemeint, as du we'st sein meiner ;
Schwarz bist du, aber mit Cheen,
Fiir wemen du bist mies, fur mir bist du schoen ;
Schoen bist du wie Silber, wie Gold, —
Wer *s hat dich feind un' ich hab' dich hold.
Vun alle Fehlern kann a Doktor abheilen,
Die Liebe vim mein Herzen kann ich var Keinem nit derzaehlen.
Black you are, black as a Gypsy, I thought you would always
be mine ; black you are, but with grace, — for others you may be
homely, but for me you are handsome; handsome you are, like
silver, like gold, — let others dislike you, but I love you. Of all
troubles a doctor can cure, the love in my heart I can tell to no one.
Many are the songs of pining for the distant lover ;
they show all the melancholy touches of similar Slavic
60 YIDDISH LITERATURE
love ditties, and are the most poetical of all the Jewish
songs. They range from the soft regrets of the lover's
temporary absence to the deep and gloomy despair of
the betrothed one's death, though the latter is always
tempered by a resignation which comes from implicit
faith in the ways of Heaven. Here are a few of them
in illustration of the various forms which this pining
assumes :
Bei 'm Breg Wasser thu' ich stehn
Un' kann zu dir nit kummen,
Oi, vun weiten rufst du mich,
Ich kann aber nit schwimmen !
At the water's edge I do stand, and I cannot get to you. Oh,
you call me from afar, but I cannot swim !
Finster is' mein' "Welt,
Mein' Jugend is' schwarz,
Mein Gliick is' verstellt,
Es fault mir mein Harz.
Es zittert mir jetwider Eewer,
Es kiihlt mir das Blut,
Mit dir in ein Keewer
Wet mir sein gut.
Ach, was willst du, Mutter, haben,
Was mutschest du dein Kind ?
Was willst du mir begraben ?
Fur wassere Siind' ?
Ich hab' kein Xachas geha't,
Nor Leiden un' Kummer,
Ich welk' wie ein Blatt,
Wie ein Blum' Ssof Summer.
Wu nemm' ich mein' Freund
Chotsch auf ein Scho ?
Alle haben mir feind
Un' du bist nit da !
Dark is my world ; my youth is black, my fortune is veiled, my
heftrt is decaying. — Every limb of mine is trembling ; my blood
THE FOLKSONG 61
grows cold ; I should feel well with you in one grave. — Oh, what
do you want of me, mother? Why do you vex your child? Why
do you wish to bury me? For what sins of mine? — I have had
no joy, only suffering and sorrow. I am fading like a leaf, like a
flower at the end of summer. — Where shall I find my friend but
for one hour ? No one loves me, and you are not here.
With the same feeling that prompts the Jewish
woman to repeat the prayer, c O Lord, I thank Thee
that Thou hast, created me according to Thy will ! '
while the man prays, 4I thank Thee that Thou hast
created me a man,' she regards her disappointments in
love as perfectly natural ; and the inconstancy of man,
which forms the subject of all songs of unhappy love,
does not call forth recriminations and curses, which one
would expect, but only regrets at her own credulity.
One would imagine that the wedding day must ap-
pear as the happiest in the life of the woman, but such
is not the case. With it begin all the tribulations for
which she is singled out ; and the jest-maker, who is
always present at the ceremony of uniting the pair,
addresses the bride with the words:
Bride, bride, weep ! The bridegroom will send you a pot full
of horseradish, and that will make you snivel unto your very
teeth,
inviting her to weep instead of smiling, and he follows
this doggerel with a discussion of the- vanities of life
and the sadness of woman's lot. Even if her marital
happiness should be unmarred by any unfaithfulness of
her husband, — and Jewish men for the greater part
are good husbands and fathers, — there are the cares of
earning the daily bread, which frequently fall on the
woman, while the stronger vessel is brooding over some
Talmudical subtleties ; there are the eternal worries over
the babies, and, worst of all, the proverbial mother-in-
62 YIDDISH LITERATURE
law, if the wife chances to board with her for the first
few years after marriage. The ideal of the Jewess is
but a passing dream, and no one can escape the awaken-
ing to a horrible reality :
A Maedele werd a Kale
In ein Rege, in ein Minut,
Mit ihr freuen sich Alle
Die Freud' is' nor zu ihr.
Der Chossen schickt Presenten,
Sie werd gar neu geboren,
Wenn sie thut sich an,
Wiinscht sie ihm lange Jahren.
Sie geht mit 'n Chossen spazieren
Un' thut in Spiegele a Kuck,
Stehen Olem Menschen
Un' seinen mekane dem Gliick.
Ot fiihrt man sie zu der Chupe,
Un' ot fiihrt man sie zuriick,
Stehen a Kupe Maedlach
Un' seinen mekane dem Gliick.
Auf morgen nach der Chupe,
Die Freimut is' noch in Ganzen :
Der Chossen sitzt wie a Meelach
Un' die Kale geht sich tanzen.
Drei Jahr nach der Chupe
Der Freimut is schon arab :
Die junge Weibel geht arum
Mit a zudrehter Kopp.
*****
" Oi weh, Mutter, Mutter,
Ich will vun dir nit horen,
Ich wollt' schon besser wollen
Zuriick a Maedel wer'n ! "
A girl is made a bride in a moment, in a minute, — all rejoice
with her, with her alone. — The groom sends presents, she feels all
new-born ; when she attires herself, she wishes him long years. —
THE FOLKSONG 68
She gets ready to walk with the bridegroom, and looks into the
mirror, — there stands a crowd of people who envy her her good
luck. — Now she is led to the baldachin, now she is led back again,
— there stands a bevy of girls who envy her her luck. — The next
day after the marriage, — the joy is still with them: the bride-
groom sits like a king, the bride is a-dancing. — Three years after
the marriage, — the joy has left them: the young woman walks
around with a troubled head. . . . * Woe to me, mother, mother, I
do not want to hear of you, — I should like, indeed, to be a young
girl again.'
Pathetic are the recitals of suffering at the house of
her husband's parents, where she is treated worse than
a menial, where she is without the love of a mother to
whom she is attached more than to any one else, and
where she ends miserably her young years : *
Mein' Tochter, wu bist du gewesen ?
Bei 'm Schwieger un' Schwahr,
Was brummt wie a Bar,
Mutter du Hebe, du meine !
Mein Tochterl, awu hast du dorten gesessen ?
Anf a Bank,
Keinmal nit geramt,
Mutter du liebe, du meine !
Mein' Tochter, awu hast du dorten geschlafen ?
Auf der Erd,
Keinmal nit gekehrt, etc.
Tochterulu, was hat man dir gegeben zu Koppen?
A Sackele Heu,
In Harzen is' weh, etc.
Tochterulu, in was hat man dir gefiihrt?
In kowanem Wagen,
Mit Eisen beschlagen, etc.
1 See the prototype of this song in K. Francke, Social Forces in Ger-
man Literature, p. 120.
64 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Tochterl, iiber was hat man dir gefiihrt?
Uber a Biiick',
Keinmal nit zuriiek, etc.
Tochterulu, mit was hat man dir gefiihrt?
Mit a Ferd,
Jung in der Erd',
Mutter du. liebe, du meine !
My daughter, where have you been? — At mother-in-law's and
father-in-law's, who growls like a bear, mother dear, mother mine !
— My daughter, where did you sit there ? — Upon a bench never
cleaned, mother dear, mother mine ! — My daughter, where did
you sleep there ? — Upon the ground, never swept, etc. — Daughter
dear, what did they lay under your head? — A bag of hay, in my
heart there is a pain, etc. — Daughter dear, in what did they drive
you ? — In a wagon covered with iron bands, etc. — Daughter
dear, over what did they lead you ? — Over a bridge, never back,
etc. — Daughter dear, with what did they drive you ? — With a
horse, young into the earth, mother dear, mother mine !
Equally pathetic are the songs that sing of widow-
hood. This is a far more common occurrence among
Jews than among other people and causes much greater
inconveniences to the helpless woman. It is caused
either by the natural occurrences of death or by self-
assumed exile to escape military service which is natu-
rally not to the tastes of the Jew, as we shall see later,
or frequently by ruthless abandonment. This latter
case is the result of early marriages in which the con-
tracting parties are not considered as to their tastes ;
often the young man finds awakening in himself an
inclination for higher, Gentile, culture, but he finds his
path impeded by the ties of family and the gross inter-
ests of his consort. If he can, he gets a divorce from
her, but more frequently he leaves her without further
ado, escaping to Germany or America to pursue his
studies. His wife is made an Agune, a grass-widow,
THE FOLKSONG 65
who, according to the Mosaic law, may not marry again
until his death has been duly certified to :
Auf n Barg stent a Taiibele,
Sie thut mit ihr Paar brummen,
Ich hab' geha't a guten Freund
Un' kann zu ihm nit kummen.
Bachen Trahren thuen sich
Vun meine Augen rinnen,
Icli bin geblieben wie a Spiiudele
Auf dem Wasser scliwimmen.
Gar die Welt is auf mir gefallen,
Seit ich bin geblieben allein,
Sitz' ich doch Tag un' Nacht
Jammerlich un' wein\
Teichen Trahren thuen sich
Rinnen vun meine Augen,
Teh soil haben Fliegelach,
Wollt' ich zu ihm geflogen.
Legt sich, Kinderlach, alle arum mir,
Euer Tate is' vun euch vertrieben .
Kleine Jessomim sent ihr doch
Un' ich bin ein Almone geblieben.
On the mountain stands a dove ; she is cooing to her brood : I
have had a good friend, and I cannot get to him. — Brooks of tears
flow out of my eyes ; I am left like a piece of wood swimming on
the water. — The whole world has fallen upon me since I am left
alone ; I sit day and night and weep bitterly. — Rivers of tears pour
forth from my eyes. If I had wings I should fly to him. — Lie
down, children, all around me ! Your father has been taken away
from you : You are now young orphans, and I am left a widow.
As sad as the widow's is the lot of the orphan.
Fatherless and motherless, he seems to be in every-
body's way, and no matter what he does, he is not
appreciated by those he comes in contact with. There
are many songs of the dying mother who finds her last
66 YIDDISH LITERATURE
moments embittered by the thought that her children
will suffer privations and oppression from their step-
mother and from other unkind people. There are also
beggar's songs which tell that the singers were driven
to beggary through loss of parents. The following
verses, touching in their simplicity, recite the sad
plight of an orphan :
Wasser schaumt, Wasser schaumt,
Thut man ganz weit horen, —
Wenn es starbt der Vater-Mutter,
Giesst der Jossem mit Trahren.
Der Jossem geht, der Jossem geht,
Der Jossem thut gar umsiist, —
Leut' schatzen, Leut' sagen,
As der Jossem t'aug' gar nischt.
Der Jossem geht, der Jossem geht,
Un' in Zar un' in Pein, —
Leut' schatzen, Leut' sagen,
As der Jossem is' schicker vun Wein.
Bei meine Freund', bei meine Freund'
Wachst Weiz un' Korner, —
Bei mir Jossem, bei mir Jossem
Wachst doch Gras un' Dorner.
Gottunju, Gottunju,
Gottunju du mein,
Was hast du mich nit beschaffen
Mit dem Masel wie meine Freund ?
Water foams, water foams, one can hear afar. When father
and mother die the orphan sheds tears. — The orphan goes, the
orphan goes, the orphan does all in vain. People judge, people say
that the orphan is good for nothing. — The orphan goes, the orphan
goes, in pain and in sorrow. People judge, people say that the
orphan is drunk with wine. — With my friends, with my friends
there grows wheat and grain. With me, orphan, with me, orphan,
there grow but grass and thorns. — Dear God, dear God, dear God
of mine ! Why have you not created me with the same luck as my
fl lends have?
THE FOLKSONG 67
The tender feelings of love, replete with sorrows and
despair, are left almost entirely to women ; men are too
busy to sing of love, or less romantic in their natures.
But they are not entirely devoid of the poetic sentiment,
and they join the weaker sex in rhythmic utterance,
whenever they are stirred to it by unusual incidents
that break in on their favorite attitude of contemplation
and peaceful occupations. Such are military service, the
pogroms, or mob violence, and riots periodically insti-
tuted against the Jewish population, expatriation, and
the awful days of Atonement. On these occasions they
rise to all the height of feeling that we have found in
the other productions, and the expression of their
attachment to their parents, wives, and children is
just as tender and pathetic. The Russian Jew is nat-
urally averse to the profession of war. He is not at
all a coward, as was demonstrated in the Russo-Turkish
War, in which he performed many a deed of bravery ;
but what can be his interest to fight for a country
which hardly recognizes him as a citizen and in which
he cannot rise above the lowest ranks in civil offices
or in the army, although he is called to shed his blood
on an equal footing with his Christian or Tartar fel-
low-soldier ? Before the reign of Nicholas he was re-
garded beyond the pale of the country's attention and
below contempt as a warrior ; he was expected to pay
toward the support of the country, but was not allowed
to be its defender in times of war. He easily acqui-
esced in this state of affairs, and learned to regard the
payment of taxes as a necessary evil and the exemption
from enlistment as a privilege. Things all of a sudden
changed with the ukase of Emperor Nicholas, by which
not only military service was imposed on all the Jews
of the realm, but the most atrocious regime was inaugu-
68 YIDDISH LITERATURE
rated to seize the persons who might elude the vigilance
of the authorities. A whole regiment of Chapers, or
catchers, were busy searching out the whereabouts of
men of military age, tearing violently men from wives,
fathers from infant children, minors from their parents.
The terror was still increased by the order of 4 canton-
ment,' by which young children of tender age were
stolen from their mothers to be sent into distant prov-
inces to be farmed out to peasants, where it was hoped
they would forget their Hebrew origin and would be
easily led into the folds of the Greek-Catholic Church.1
This sad state of affairs is described in a long poem,
a kind of a rhymed chronicle of the event ; it lies at
the foundation of many later lyrical expressions dealing
with the aversion to military service, even at a time
when it was divested of the horrors of Nicholas' regime.
Under the best conditions, the time spent in the service
of the Czar might have been more profitably used for
the study of the Bible and commentaries to the same, is
the conclusion of several of such poems :
Ich gen' arauf auf'n Gass'
Derlangt man a Geschrei : " A <Pass, a Pass ! "
A Pass, a Pass nab' ich gethan verlieren,
Thut man mir in Prijom areinfiihren.
Fiihrt man mir arein in ersten Cheeder,
Thut man mir aus mem' Mutters Kleider.
Och un' weh is' mir nischt geschehn,
Was ich hab' mir nit arumgesehn !
Fiihrt man mir arein in andern Cheeder,
Thut man mir an soldatske Kleider.
Och un' weh is' mir nit geschehn, etc.
1 See p. 142 ff. ; add to these A. M. Dick, Der soldatske Syn. Wilna,
1876, 16mo, 108 pp., which gives a graphic description of the career of
a cantonist.
THE FOLKSONG 69
Fiihrt man mir arein in Schul' schworen,
Giesst sich vun mir Teichen Trahren.
Och un' weh is mir nit geschehn, etc.
Ehder zu tragen dem Keissers Hiitel,
Besser zu lernen dem Kapitel,
Och un' weh is* mir nit geschehn, etc.
Ehder zu essen dem Keissers Kasche,
Besser zu lernen Chumesch mit Rasche.
Och un' weh is mir nit geschehn,
Was ich hab' mir nit arumgesehn !
I walk in the street, — they cry : " A passport, a passport ! "
The passport, the passport I have lost. They take me to the en-
listing office. They lead me into the first room. They take off the
clothes my mother made me. Woe unto me that I have not be-
thought myself in time ! — They lead me into the second room ;
they put on me a soldier's uniform. Woe unto me, etc. — They
lead me into the synagogue to take my oath, and rivers of tears
roll down my face. Woe unto me, etc. — Rather than wear the cap
of the Czar — to study a chapter of religious lore. Woe unto me,
etc. — Rather than eat the Czar's buckwheat mush — to study the
Bible with its commentaries. Woe unto me that I have not be-
thought myself in time !
Other soldier songs begin with a detailed farewell
to parents, brothers, sisters, and friends, after which
follows a recital of the many privations to which the
Jewish soldier will be subjected ; in all of these, the
forced absence from wife or bride is regarded as the
greatest evil.
The cup of bitterness has never been empty for the
Jews that inhabit the present Russian Empire ; they
had been persecuted by Poland, massacred by the
Cossacks, and are now exiled from the central prov-
inces of Russia. Each massacre, each 'pogrom,' has
given rise to several poems, in which God is invoked
to save them from their cruel tormentors, or in which
70 YIDDISH LITERATURE
there are given graphic descriptions of the atrocities
perpetrated on the unwary. Like the soldier songs,
they vary in form from the chronicle in rhymes to the
metrical lyric of modern times. The oldest recorded
rhymed chronicle of this kind is the one that tells of
the blood bath instituted in the Ukraine in the middle
of last century. The simple, unadorned recital of in-
humanities concocted by the fertile imagination of a
Gonto, a Silo, a Maxim Zhelezniak, produces a more
awful effect than any studied poem could do.1
It is no wonder, then, that the Jew takes a gloomy
view of life, and that whenever he rises to any gener-
alizations, he gives utterance to the blackest pessimism.
One such poem depicts the vanities of human life, into
which one is born as into a prison, from which one is
freed at best at the Biblical age of three score and ten,
to leave all the gold and silver to the surviving orphans.
There is but one consolation in life, and that is, that
Tore, ' learning,' will do one as much good in the other
world as it does in this. And yet, under all these dis-
tressing circumstances, the Jew finds pleasure in whole-
hearted laughter. His comical ditties may be divided
into two classes, — those in which he laughs at his
own weaknesses, and those in which he ridicules the
weaknesses of the Khassidim, the fanatical sect, among
whom the Rabbis are worshipped as saints and are
supposed to work miracles. This sect is very numerous
in Poland and South Russia, is very ignorant, and has
opposed progress longer than the Misnagdim, to which
sect the other German Jews in Russia belong. As an
example of the first class may serve a poem in which
poverty is made light of:
1 Cf. Dr. Sokolowski, Die Gseere vun Gonto in Uman uri> Ukraine,
in Volksbibliothek, Vol. II. pp. 53-60.
THE FOLKSONG 71
Ferd' hab' ich vun Paris :
Drei ohn' Kopp', zwei ohn' Fiiss'.
Ladrizem bam, ladrizem bam.
A Rock hab' ich vun guten Tuch,
Ich hab' vun ihm kein Brbckel Duch.
Ladrizem, etc.
Stiewel hab' ich vun guten Leder,
Ich hab' vun see kein Brbckel Feder.
Ladrizem, etc.
Kinder hab' ich a drei Tuz',
Ich hab' vun see kein Brbckel Nutz.
Jetzt hab' ich sich arumgetracht
Un' hab' vun see a Barg Asch' gemacht.
Ladrizem bam, ladrizem bam.
Horses I have from Paris, three without heads, and two without
feet, — ladrizem bam, etc. — A coat I have of good cloth, — I have
not a trace left of it. — Boots I have of good leather, not a
feather's weight have I left of them. — Children I have some three
dozen, — I get no good out of them. — So I fell a-thinking and
made a heap of ashes of them.
The sensuality, intemperance, and profound igno-
rance and superstition of the Bebe, or Rabbi, of the
Khassidim, and the credulity and lightheartedness of
his followers, form, perhaps, the subject of the most
poems in the Judeo-German language, as they also form
the main subject of attack in the written literature of
the last forty years.
V. PRINTED POPULAR POETRY
The author of a recent work on the history of cul-
ture among the Galician Jews 1 has pointed out how at
the end of the last century the Mendelssohnian Reform,
and with it worldly education, took its course through
Austria into Galicia, to appear half a century later in
Russia. This quicker awakening in the South was not
due to geographical position alone, but in a higher
degree to political and social causes as well. The lan-
guage of enlightenment was at first naturally enough a
modernized form of the Hebrew, for the literary German
was not easily accessible to the Jews of Galicia in the
period immediately following the division of Poland.
Besides, although books had been printed in Judeo-
German for the use of women and c less knowing ' men,
the people with higher culture, to whom alone the
Mendelssohnian Reform could appeal, looked with dis-
dain on the profane dialect of daily intercourse. When,
however, the time had come to carry the new instruction
to the masses, the latter had become sufficiently familiar
with the German language to be able to dispense with
the intermediary native Jargon.2 Consequently little
opportunity was offered here for the development of a
dialect literature.
1 Max Weissberg, Die neuhebraische Aufklarungs-literatur in Gali-
zien. Eine literar-historische Charakteristik. Leipzig und Wien,
1898, 8vo, 88 pp.
2 The first two weeklies of Galicia, the Zeitung and Die judische
Post, published in 1848 and 1849 respectively, are not in the vernacu-
lar, but in a slightly corrupt German.
72
PRINTED POPULAR POETRY 73
While the Jews of the newly acquired provinces
were becoming more and more identified with their
coreligionists of German Austria, their Russian and
Polish brethren in the Russian Empire were by force of
circumstances departing gradually from all but the
religious union with them, and were drifting into en-
tirely new channels. Previous to the reign of Nicho-
las I., their civil disabilities barred them from a closer
contact in language and feeling with their Gentile
fellow-citizens, while their distance from Germany ex-
cluded all intellectual relations with that country. The
masses were too downtrodden and ignorant to develop
out of themselves any other forms of literature than the
one of ethical instruction and stories current in the
previous century. In the meanwhile the Haskala, as
the German school was called, had found its way into
Russia through Galicia, and such men as J. B. Levin-
sohn, A. B. Gottlober, M. Gordon, Dr. S. Ettinger, had
become its warmest advocates. They threw themselves
with all the ardor of their natures upon the new doc-
trine, and tried to correct the neglected education of
their childhood by a thorough study of German culture.
It was but natural for them to pass by the opportuni-
ties offered in their country's language and to seek en-
lightenment abroad : the Jews were a foreign nation at
home, without privileges or duties, except those of pay-
ing taxes, while from Germany, their former abiding-
place, there shone forth the promise of a salvation from
obscurantism and spiritual death. Henceforth the word
4 German ' became in Russia the synonym of ' civilized,'
and a 4 German ' was tantamount to ' reformed ' and
4 apostate ' with the masses, for to them culture could
appear only as the opposite of their narrow Ghetto lives
and gross superstition.
74 YIDDISH LITERATURE
The inauguration of the military regime by Nicholas
was in reality only meant as a first step in giving civil
rights to the Jews of his realm ; this reform was later
followed by the establishment of Rabbinical schools at
Wilna and Zhitomir, and the permission to enter the
Gymnasia and other institutions of learning. The Jews
were, however, slow in taking advantage of their new
rights, as they had become accustomed to look with
contempt and fear on Gentile culture, and as they
looked with suspicion on the Danaid gifts of the gov-
ernment. The enlightened minority of the Haskala,
anxious to lead their brethren out of their crass igno-
rance and stubborn opposition to the cultural efforts of
the Czar, began to address them in the native dialects
of their immediate surroundings and to elicit their
attention almost against their will. Knowing the
weakness of the Jews for tunable songs, they began to
supply them with such in the popular vein, now com-
posing one with the mere intention to amuse, now to
direct them to some new truth.1 These poems, like the
1 The love for songs is very old with the German Jews. Stein -
schneider's catalogue in the Serapeum mentions a very large number
of songs. See also L. Lowenstein, Judische und judisch-deutsche
Lieder, in Jubelschrift zu Ehren des Dr. Hildesheimer, Berlin, 1890,
pp. 126 ff., and under the same title, in Monatschrift fiir Geschichte
und Wissenschaft des Judenthums, Vol. XXXVIII. pp. 78-89; A.
Neubauer, Jildisch-deutsches Weingedicht, in Israelit Letterbode, Vol.
XII. 1. pp. 13 f. But the most thorough work is by F. Rosenberg,
Ueber eine Sammlung deutscher Volks- und Gesellschafts-lieder in
hebrdischen Lettern, Berlin, 1888, 8vo, 84 pp. That the modern songs
are set to music is generally indicated in the title-pages or the intro-
ductions to the printed collections, as, for example, Lieder zu singen
mit sehr schoene Melodien ; Schoen zum Singen un' zum Lesen ; Mit
sehr schoene Melodien. In one of his books Zunser (see pp. 90 ff. ) in-
forms us :
Ob ihr lejent in Buchel meine Lieder,
Un' die Melodie hat man euch nit ubergegeben,
PRINTED POPULAR POETRY 75
dramas and prose writings by this school of writers
previous to the sixties, were not written down, but
passed orally or in manuscript form from town to town,
from one end of Russia to the other, often changing
their verses and forming the basis for new popular
creations. The poet's name generally became disso-
ciated from each particular poem ; nay, in the lapse of
time the authors themselves found it difficult to iden-
tify their spiritual children. An amusing incident
occurred some time ago when the venerable and highly
reputed poet, J. L. Gordon, had incorporated a parody
of Heine's ' Two Grenadiers ' among his collection of
popular poems, for a plain case was made out against
him by the real parodist. Gordon at once publicly
apologized for his unwitting theft by explaining how
he had found it in manuscript among his papers and
had naturally assumed it to be his own production.1
Another similar mistake was made by Gottlober's
daughter, who named to me a dozen of current songs
Is' das wie a photographische Bild, liebe Briider, —
Dacht sich, Alles richtig, nor es fehlt Leben.
Introduction to Hamnageen.
While another, B. Z. Rabinowitsch (in Disput vun a Schiller mit a
Klausnik), thinks he must offer an apology for not having composed
a tune for his poem :
Mit was far a Melodie ihr wet spielen,
Wbllen die Worter gewiss nachtanzen !
Zunser, who did not scruple to make use of other people's property
(see p. 92), objects, in Kol-rina, to the people's appropriation of his
songs in the following words :
Wie me hat mich gehort a Mai zu zwei,
Is' schon gewe'n auf inorgen geschrieben bei see :
Es hat mir vardrossen sejer Muh', 'chleben,
Un' hab' see besser a fartigen, a gedruckten gegeben.
Woschod, 1886, No. 5.
76 YIDDISH LITERATURE
which she said belonged to her father, having received
that information from himself, but which on close
examination were all but one easily proven as belonging
to other poets.1
Most difficult of identification are now Gottlober's
poems,2 he having never brought out himself a collec-
tive volume of his verses, although he certainly must
have written a great number of them as early as the
thirties when he published his comedy 'Das Decktuch.'
Those that have been printed later in the periodicals
are either translations or remodellings of well-known
poems in German, Russian, and Hebrew ; but even they
have promptly been caught by the popular ear. The
one beginning c Ich lach' sich vun euere Traten aus,' in
which are depicted humorously the joys of the Jewish
recluse, has been pointed out by Katzenellenbogen as a
remodelling of a poem that appeared in a Vienna period-
ical;3 the sources of some of the others he mentions
himself, while the introductory poem in his comedy is
a translation of Schiller's 4Der J tingling am Bache.'
From these facts it is probably fair to assume that
most, if not all, of his other poems are borrowings from
other literatures, preeminently German. This is also
true of his other productions, which will be mentioned
1 The only collection of Judeo-German poetry accessible to those
who do not read the Hebrew type is G. H. Dalman's Jiidisch-deutsche
Volkslieder aus Galizien und Bussland, Zweite Auflage, Berlin, 1891,
8vo, 74 pp.; unfortunately there are a number of errors in it that
destroy the sense of some lines. See also L. Wiener, Popular Poetry
of the Bussian Jews, in Americana Germa?iica, Vol. II. No. 2 (1898),
pp. 33-59, on which the present chapter is based.
2 His poems have been printed in the following periodicals : Kol-
mewasser, Vol. I. Nos. 4, 5, 6 {Das Grdber-lied) et seq. ; Warschauer
jiidische Zeitung ; Jisrulik, No. 13 ; Jud. Volksblatt, Vol. II. No. 10;
Wecker, pp. 26-29 ; Jud. Volksbibliothek, pp. 148-153.
8 Katzenellenbogen, Jiidische Melodien (q.v.), p. 55, note.
PRINTED POPULAR POETRY 77
in another place. Nevertheless he deserves an honor-
able place among the popular poets, as his verses are
written in a pure dialect of the Southern variety, — he is
a native of Constantin in the Government of Volhynia,
— and as they have been very widely disseminated.
No one has exercised a greater influence on the suc-
ceeding generation of bards than the Galician Wolf
Ehrenkranz, better known as Welwel Zbarzer, i.e. from
Zbaraz, who half a century ago delighted small audiences
in Southern Russia with his large repertoire. There are
still current stories among those who used to know him
then, of how they would entice him to their houses and
treat him to wine and more wine, of which he was inor-
dinately fond, how when his tongue was unloosened he
would pour forth improvised songs in endless succession,
while some of his hearers would write them down for
Ehrenkranz's riling and finishing when he returned
to his sober moods. These he published later in five
volumes, beginning in the year 1865 and ending in
1878. While there had previously appeared poems in
Judeo-German in Russia, he did not dare to publish
them in Galicia except with a Hebrew translation, and
this method was even later, in the eighties, adopted by
his countrymen Apotheker and Schafir. Ehrenkranz
has employed every variety of folksong known to
Judeo-German literature except historical and allegori-
cal subjects. Prominent among them are the songs
of reflection. Such, for example, is 'The Nightin-
gale,' in which the bird complains of the cruelty of men
who expect him to sing sweetly to them while they
enslave him in a cage , but the nightingale is the poet
who in spite of his aspiration to fly heavenwards must
sing to the crowd's taste, in order to earn a living.
In a similar way 'The Russian Tea-machine,' 'The
78 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Mirror,' ' The Theatre,' and many others serve him
only as excuses to meditate on the vanity of life, the
inconstancy of fortune, and so forth.
i The Gold Watch ' is one of a very common type of
songs of dispute that have been known to various litera-
tures in previous times and that are used up to the
present by Jewish bards. They range in length from
the short folksong consisting of but one question and an-
swer to a long series of stanzas, or they may become the
subject of long discussions covering whole books. In
4 The Gold Watch' the author accuses the watch of
being unjust in complaining and in allowing its heart to
beat so incessantly, since it enjoys the privilege of being
worn by fine ladies and gentlemen, of never growing
old, of being clad in gold and precious stones. Each
stanza of the question ends with the words :
Was fehlt dir, was klapt dir das Herz ?
The watch's answer is that it must incessantly work,
that it is everybody's slave, that it is thrown away as
useless as soon as it stops. So, too, is man. Upon this
follows what is generally known as a Zuspiel, a byplay,
a song treating the contrary of the previous matter or
serving as a conclusion to the same. The Zuspiel to
4 The Gold Watch ' is entitled 4 'Tis Best to Live with-
out Worrying. ' There is a series of songs in his collec-
tion which might be respectively entitled 'Memento
mori' and 'Memento vivere.' Such are 4The Tomb-
stone ' and c The Contented,' 4 The Tombstone-cutter '
and 4 The Precentor,' 4 The Cemetery,' and ' While you
Live, you Must not Think of Death.' The cemetery,
the gravedigger, the funeral, are themes which have a
special fascination for the Jewish popular singers, who
nearly all of them have written songs of the same
character.
PRINTED POPULAR POETRY 79
Another kind of popular poetry is that which deals
with some important event, such as 4 The Cholera in the
Year 1866,' or noteworthy occurrence, as 4 The Leipsic
Fair,' which, however, like the previously mentioned
poems, serves only as a background for reflections.
There are also, oddly enough, a few verses of a purely
lyrical nature in which praises are sung to love and the
beloved object. These would be entirely out of place
in a Jewish songbook of the middle of this century had
they been meant solely as lyrical utterances; but they
are used by Ehrenkranz only as precedents for his
'Zuspiele,' in which he makes a Khassid contrast the
un- Jewish love of the reformed Jew with his own blind
adoration of his miracle-working Rabbi. These latter,
and the large number of Khassid songs scattered through
the five volumes, form a class for themselves. The
lightheartedness, ignorance, superstitions, and intem-
perance of these fanatics form the butt of ridicule of all
who have written in Judeo-German in the last fifty
years, but no one has so masterfully handled the sub-
ject as Ehrenkranz, for he has treated it so deftly by
putting the songs in the mouth of a Khassid that half
the time one is not. quite sure but that he is in earnest
and the poems are meant as glorifications of Khassidic
blissfulness. It is only when one reads the fine humor
displayed in ' The Rabbi on the Ocean ' that one is in-
clined to believe that the extravagant miracles per-
formed by the Rabbi were ascribed to him in jest only.
Owing to this quality of light raillery, the songs have
delighted not only the scoffers, but it is not at all un-
usual to hear them recited by Khassidim themselves.
Ehrenkranz also has some songs in which are described
the sorrows of various occupations, — a kind of poetry
more specially cultivated by Berel Broder. Of the
80 YIDDISH LITERATURE
latter little is known except that he composed his songs
probably at a time anterior to those just mentioned, that
he had lived at Brody, hence his name, and that he had
never published them. They were collected by some
one after his death and published several times ; how-
ever, it is likely that several of them are of other author-
ship, as is certainly the case with 4The Wanderer,'
which belongs to Ehrenkranz. As has been said above,
he prefers to dwell on the many troubles that beset the
various occupations of his countrymen, of the shepherd,
the gravedigger, the wagon-driver, the school teacher,
the go-between, the usurer, the precentor, the smuggler.
They are all arranged according to the same scheme,
and begin with such lines as: 'I, poor shepherd,' 'I, lame
beadle,' 4I, miserable driver,' 'I, wretched school
teacher,' and so forth. The best of these, and one of
the most popular of the kind, is probably the ' Song of
the Gravedigger.' Of the two songs of dispute, 'Day
and Night ' and ' Shoemaker and Tailor,' the first is re-
markable in that each praises the other, instead of the
more common discussions in which the contending par-
ties try to outrival one another in the display of their
virtues.
The style of these two Galicians and their very sub-
ject-matter were soon appropriated by a very large class
of folksingers in Russia who amuse guests at wedding
feasts. Before passing over to the writers in Russia we
shall mention the two other Galicians who, writing at a
later time, have remained unknown beyond their own
country, but one of whom at least deserves to be known
to a larger circle of readers. The one, David Apothe-
ker, in his collection 4 Die Leier,' pursues just such aims
as his Polish or Russian fellow-bards and is entirely
without any local coloring. The poems are written in
PRINTED POPULAR POETRY 81
a pure dialect, without any admixture of German words,
but their poetic value is small, as they are much too
didactic. Of far higher importance and literary worth
are the productions of his contemporary, Bajrach Bene-
dikt Schafir. Being well versed in German and Polish
literature, he generally imitates the form of the best
poems in those languages and often paraphrases them
for his humble audiences. His language is now almost
the literary German, now his native dialect, according
as he sings of high matters or in the lighter vein. In
the introduction to one of his earlier pamphlets written
in a pure German, he sa}rs that in Germanizing his
native dialect it has been his purpose so to purify the
Jargon that it should become intelligible even to German
Jews. The most of his songs were collected in * Melo-
dies from the Country near the River San.' These he
divided into four parts : Jewish national songs, songs of
commemoration, songs of feeling, and comical songs, —
the first three, with an elegy on the death of Moses
Montefiore, forming the first part, the comical songs the
second part, of the collection.
The most of the comical songs are in the form of dia-
logues in which a German, i.e. a Jew of the reformed
church, discusses with a Khassid the advantage of edu-
cation ; in others he describes the ignorance of the latter.
Many of them do not rise above the character of theatre
couplets, but in the lyrical part the tone is better, and
in some of his songs he rivals the best folksingers of
Russia. His ' Midnight Prayer ' and 4 Greeting to
Zion' are touching expressions of longing for the
ancient home, just as ' Przemysl, You my Dear Cradle,'
and 4 Homesickness,' are full of yearning for his native
country. Of the four songs of commemoration, two
deal on the famous accusation, in 1883, of the use of
82 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Gentile blood by the Jews in tbe Passover ceremony,
one describes the fire in the Vienna Ring theatre, while
another narrates a similar catastrophe in the town of
Sheniava.
As early as 1863 * there was printed in Kiev a volume
of songs under the name of ' The Evil-tongued Wed-
ding-jester,' by Izchak Joel Linetzki. Before me lies a
somewhat later edition of the book : it is published in
a form of rare attractiveness for those days and bears
on the title-page a picture of two men, one in European
dress, the other in the garments of a Khassid, in the
attitude of discussion. This illustration has appeared
on all the subsequent editions of the same work ; it ex-
presses the author's purpose, which becomes even more
patent in his prose works, to instruct the Khassidim in
the advantages of culture , however, the few poems in
the book devoted to this differ from the usual uncon-
ditional praise of reform, in that they point out that
the servile imitator of the Gentiles is no better than
the stubborn advocate of the old regime. Two of the
poems are versified versions of the Psalms, and there
are also the usual songs of reflection, and a song of dis-
pute between the mirror and the clock. Two of the
poems sing of the joys of May, presenting the rare ex-
ample of pure lyrics at that early time. These alone
will hold a comparison with the best of Ehrenkranz's
songs; the others are somewhat weak in diction and
loose in execution.
Few poets have been so popular in Russia as Michel
Gordon and S. Berenstein were in the past generation,
the first singing in the Lithuanian variety of the lan-
1 This I merely surmise, from the statement in the Sseefer Sikoron,
that he wrote it in 1863, in Kiev, though it is probable that he did not
print it before 1869. For biography of Linetzki, see pp. 161 ff.
PRINTED POPULAR POETRY 83
guage, the second in a southern dialect. Both published
their collections in Zhitomir in 1869, and Gordon wrote
an introductory poem for the book of his friend Beren-
stein. In this he indicates the marked contrast that
exists in the productions of the two. While the first
writes to chide superstition and ignorance, the other
sings out of pity for his suffering race ; while the one
sounds the battle-cry of progress, the other consoles his
brothers in their misery ; the one, fearing prosecution
from the fanatic Khassidim whom he attacks, sent his
poems out into the world anonymously, the other signed
his name to them. And yet, however unlike in form
and content, they were both pervaded by a warm love
for their people whom they were trying to succor, each
one in his own way.
Gordon's 1 poems are of a militant order : 2 he is not
satisfied with indicating the right road to culture, he
also sounds the battle-cry of advance. The keynote is
struck in his famous ; Arise, my People ! ' i Arise, my
people, you have slept long enough ! Arise, and open
your eyes ! Why has such a misfortune befallen you
alone, that you are asleep until the midday hour ? The
sun has now long been out upon the world ; he has put
all men upon their feet, but you alone lie crouching and
bent and keep your eyes tightly closed.' In this poem
he preaches to his race that they should assimilate
themselves in manners and culture to the ruling people,
that they should abandon their old-fashioned garments
1 For short notices of Gordon and his work, see B. Woloderski, A
kurze Biographie vun Michel Gordon, in Hausfreund, Vol. II. pp. 147-
149, and necrology in Hansfreund, Vol. III. p. 312.
2 Other poems by M. Gordon than those contained in his collective
volume are to he found in Jud. Volksblatt, Vol. VIII. (Beilage) pp.
93, 94, 362, 363 ; Vol. IX. No. 16 ; Hausfreund, Vol. I. pp. 39-43 ;
Vol. II. pp. 73-75, 261-264 ; Familienfreund, Vol. I. pp. 3-6.
84 YIDDISH LITERATURE
and distinguishing characteristics of long beard and
forelock, and that they should exchange even the lan-
guage in which he sings to them for the literary
language of the country.
Assimilation was the cry of all the earnest men
among the Russian Jews before the eighties, when the
course of events put a damper on the sanguine expecta-
tions from such a procedure. Many of his other poems
are of a humorous nature and have been enormously
popular. In ' The Beard,' a woman laments the loss of
that hirsute appendage of her husband, who, by shav-
ing it off, had come to look like a despised 'German.'
' The Turnip Soup ' and ' I Cannot Understand ' are
excellent pictures of the ignorance and superstitious
awe of the Khassidim before their equally ignorant and
hypocritical Rabbis ; other poems deal with the stupid-
ity of the teachers of children, and the undue use of
spirituous drinks on all occasions of life.
Two of his earliest poems are devoted to decrying
the evil custom of early marriages, in which the tastes
of the contracting parties are not at all considered. In
the one entitled 'From the Marriage Baldachin,' he
paints in vivid colors the course of the married life of
a Jew from the wedding feast through the worries of
an ever-increasing family, and the helplessness of the
father to provide for his children, with the consequent
breaking up of the family ties. The catching tune to
which the poem is sung, and all folksongs are naturally
set to music, generally by the authors themselves, and
the lifelike picture which it portrays, have done a
great deal to diminish the practice ; while the other,
'My Advice,' addressed to a girl, advising her to
exercise her own free will and reasonable choice of
her life's companion, has helped to eliminate misery
PRINTED POPULAR POETRY 85
and to introduce the element of love in the marital
stage.
In his advocacy of reform, Gordon had in mind the
clearing of the Jewish religion from the accumulated
superstitions of the ages which had almost stifled its
virgin simplicity, not an abandonment of any of its fun-
damental principles in the ardent desire for assimilation.
True culture is, according to him, compatible with true
piety, and a surface culture, with its accompanying
slackness of religious life, is reprehensible. When he
saw that so many had misunderstood the precepts of
those who taught a closer union with the Gentiles in
that they adopted the mere appearances of the foreign
civilization and overthrew the essential virtues of their
own faith, he expressed his indignation in 4The True
Education and the False Education,' of which the final
stanza is :
True culture makes good and mild,
False culture makes bad and wild.
The truly-cultured is a fine man,
The falsely-cultured is a charlatan.
Gordon has also written a ballad, 4 The Stepmother,'
which has given rise to a large number of popular imi-
tations. In this he tells of a mother whose rest in
the grave is disturbed by the tears of her child. Upon
learning that the child has been maltreated by his step-
mother, she sends up her voice to God, interceding in
her son's behalf, and then addresses herself to her weep-
ing child, assuring him that God has heard her prayer.
Berenstein was no less cultured a man than Gordon.
His acquaintance with German literature is evidenced
by his motto from Korner, an occasional quotation from
Schiller, and his several epigrams which he frankly ac-
knowledges as translations or adaptations of German
86 YIDDISH LITERATURE
originals. Thus it happens that Schiller's c Hoffnung '
has been popularized among the Russian Jews in the
form of a stanza of a long poem, 'The False Hope.'
Except for these literary allusions, Berenstein wrote
in the true popular vein. His c The Cradle,' in which
he makes use of the well-known verses, ' Hinter Jankeles
Wiegele,' has become as universal as the oral cradle
song. Its last stanza enjoins the child to sleep well in
order to gather strength for the sufferings of the next
day, and this pessimistic view of life becomes ever after
the prevailing tone in the many cradle songs that have
been written by younger men.1 4 The Sleep ' is a varia-
tion on the motto from Korner's ' Tony,' which is put at
the head of it : 4 Der Schlummer ist ja ein Friedenhauch
vom Himmel — Schlummern kann nur ein spiegelreines
Herz.' 'Young Tears' is one of the very few love
lyrics that appeared in print before the second half of
the eighties. In 4 The Bar of Soap ' Gordon shows that
with soap one cannot wash off the blot from his brow,
the sorrow from his heart. 4 The Empty Bottle ' de-
scribes the loneliness of him who has lost his wealth,
and with it his friends. As a 'byplay' to it follows
a pretty lyric, 4 Consolation.' A * byplay ' bearing the
same name follows an elegy upon the death of an only
son. Several of the poems are devoted to the praise
1 In this conjunction a few of the very many cradle songs will be
mentioned here as an offset to the statement, frequently heard, that the
Jews have no songs of that character ; in the chapter on the traditional
folksongs there have been mentioned a few such ; add to these the
one given in Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft fur judische Volkskunde,
Heft II. p. 49. Of the literary cradle songs, the best are Abramo-
witsch's Alululu, bidne Kind, 'Weh is' der Maine, weh und wilnd (in
Das kleine dfenschele, p. 121) ; Linetzki's Varscliliess schon deine
Augen (in Der bceser Marschelik, p. 66); Goldfaden's ScUdf in Freu-
den, Du weisst kein Leiden (in Die Judene, p. 6) ; S. Rabinowitsch's
Schlaf\ mein Kind (with music, in his Kol-mewasser, col. 25, 26).
PRINTED POPULAR POETRY 87
of the Sabbath, and only two are given to sarcastic
attacks on the Khassidim. In the latter, the words
are put in the mouth of a Khassid, who prays to- God
that he may send again darkness instead of the victori-
ous light in order that his kind may the more securely
shear their sheep.
Another very popular poet of the sixties was Abra-
ham Goldfaden,1 who, in 1876, became the founder of
the Jewish theatre. His literary activity may be
roughly divided into the period before, and the period
after, the establishment of the theatre. The first only
is the subject of our present discussion. Like the other
two, he published his works in Zhitomir, which, on ac-
count of the Rabbinical school opened there in the
forties, had come to be the rallying ground of all those
who were advocating a progressive Judaism. As the
title of his first collection, 'The Jew,' indicates, his
poems are all devoted to strictly Jewish matters. Al-
though he occasionally has recourse to the method of
Ehrenkranz, or, foreshadowing his future career, even
descends to the use of theatre couplets, yet the most
of his poems have an individual character, differing
from all of his predecessors. He treats with great
success, and in a large variety of rhymes, the allegorical
and the historical song, sometimes as separate themes,
more often by combining them.
One of the best allegorical poems is the triad, 4 The
Aristocratic Marriage.' In the first part, 4The Be-
trothal,' he tells us how the humble Egyptian slave,
1 Some of Goldfaden's poems may be found in : Kol-mewasser ;
Jisrulik; Wecker, pp. 7-15, 56-62; Der jiidischer Handelskalender,
pp. 114-118 j Familienfreund, Vol. I. pp. 27-35, Vol. II. pp. 57-59;
Hausfreund, Vol. II. pp. 5-7 ; Volksbibliothek, Vol. II. pp. 188, 247,
267, 268; Das heilige Land, pp. 25-29; New Yorker Elustnrte
Zeitung.
88 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Israel, was betrothed to his aristocratic bride on Mount
Sinai. God was the father who gave away the Law to
his son, and Moses was the Scliadclien, the go-between,
the never-failing concomitant of a Jewish marriage.
The second part describes a typical Jewish wedding —
Israel's entrance into Jerusalem ; while the third shows
how Israel has misused his opportunity while living in
the house of his wife's father during the years that im-
mediately follow the marriage. He committed adultery
with idolatry, and God drove him out of his home, but
out of regard for his pious ancestry He allowed him
to take his wife along with him on his wanderings,
and promised him that after ages of repentance He
would send him the Messiah to restore him to his former
home.
A similar triad, but of a historical nature, is his well-
known 4 That Little Trace of a Jew,' in which he suc-
cessively portrays the virtues, the sufferings, and the
vices of his race. The last part is identical in senti-
ment with Gordon's ' Arise, my People,' and inculcates
tolerance for the various religious parties of the Jews
and love of worldly learning. ' The Firebrand ' relates
the destruction of the Temple ; 4 Rebecca's Death ' gives
a Talmudical version of the event ; and 4 Cain ' tells of
his wanderings over the face of the earth after his kill-
ing of his brother, and his vain search of death. The
latter is the most popular of his Biblical songs. Among
the other poems, many of which are of sterling worth,
there must be mentioned his lullaby, whose widespread
dissemination is only second to Berenstein's cradle song.
The poems which Goldfaden has written during his
lifetime would fill several large volumes ; they can be
found scattered through various periodicals which have
appeared in the last thirty years, and in the greater
PRINTED POPULAR POETRY 89
part of the dramas which he has composed for the
stage which he has created. Most of these are mere
street ballads, but there are some of a serious nature ;
of these mention will be made in the chapter on the
theatre. To the best productions of his first, the most
original period of his poetical activity, belong the poems
touching women, contained in the volume entitled 4 The
Jewess.' From the contents we learn that one of them
is a translation from Beranger, the other from the Rus-
sian. It is also characteristic of the history of Jewish
folk-music that one of the songs, as we are informed in
the same place, is to be sung to the tune of a well-known
Russian lullaby, the other with a Little-Russian melody,
while for a third, is mentioned one of M. Gordon's songs.
All the above-mentioned poets belong to what might
be termed the German school. These men were more
or less intimately acquainted with German literature,
and frequently borrowed their subject-matter from that
source. They all were active at a time when the con-
flict between the old religious life of the Russian Jews
and the modern tendencies was at the highest. They
looked for a solution in the reform which, since the days
of Mendelssohn, has become the watchword of progress
in Germany. They hoped finally to substitute even the
German language for the Judeo -German, which they
regarded as a corrupted form of German, and, therefore,
named Jargon, an appellation that has stuck to it ever
since. In the meanwhile, the better classes were receiv-
ing their instruction in Russian schools that alienated
them alike from the German influence and from a closer
contact with their humble coreligionists. Even such
men as had begun in the forties and fifties as folk-poets,
were abandoning their homely dialect for the literary
language of the country. Jehuda Loeb Gordon, the
90 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Hebrew scholar and poet, had given promise of becom-
ing the greatest of popular singers. Yet, in the seven-
ties, he wrote only in Hebrew and Russian, and it was
only in the eighties, when the riots and expatriations of
the Jews had destroyed all hopes that had been placed
in assimilation, that he returned to compose songs for
the consolation of his humble and unfortunate brothers.1
J. L. Gordon has written but few Judeo-German poems,
and, of these, not more than nine or ten are folksongs ;
but they represent the highest perfection of the older
school of the popular bards. He has not been surpassed
by any of them in simplicity of diction, warmth of feel-
ing, and purity of language. Two of his oldest poems,
4 A Mother's Parting,' and 'A Story of Long-Ago,' relate,
the first, the hardships of a Jewish soldier in the forties ;
the second, the horrors of the regime of Chapers, the
dishonesty and inhumanity of the Rahal, the represen-
tative body of the Jewish community. The newer
poems are all of a humoristic nature, except the one
devoted to the praise of 4 The Law Written on Parch-
ment ' that has been the consolation of the Jews during
their many wanderings and persecutions.
Parallel with the German school, now overlapping
its territory, now pursuing its own course, ran the class
of poetry that had for its authors the Badchens or Mar-
schaliks2 — the wedding jesters. In medieval times
1 A song expressive of this sentiment, under the title Unsere Hebe
Schwester tm' Bruder, appeared in Jild. Volksblatt, Vol. I. (1881),
No. 2. Other poems were printed in the same year in Nos. 1 and 5 ;
another poem was printed in Jud. Volksbibliothek, Vol. I. pp. 295,
296. A review of his collected poems is given in Voschod, Vol. VI.
(1886), Part. II. pp. 26-31. For necrology see Hausfreund, Vol. III.
p. 312.
2 Cf. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, pp. 198 ff. It
is not uncommon in Judeo-German literature to meet with the descrip-
PRINTED POPULAR POETRY 91
the jester's function was to amuse the guests at the wed-
ding, while the more serious discourses were delivered
by the Rabbi and the bridegroom. In Russia he had
come to usurp all these functions. He improvised
verses upon the various stages of the marriage cere-
mony, delivered the solemn discourses to bridegroom
and bride, and furnished the wit during the banquet.
His improvisations were replete with Biblical and Tal-
mudical allusions, and cabbalistic combinations of the
Hebrew letters of the names of the married couple.
His verses were mere rhyming lines, without form or
rhythm, and his jests were often of a low order and
even coarse. The name of 4 badchen ' came to be the
byname of a coarse, uncultured jester. A change for
the better was made in the second half of the fifties by
Eliokum Zunser,1 then but in his teens, who had con-
ceived the idea of making the badchen a singer of
songs, rather than a merry person. He was, no doubt,
led to make this innovation through the many new folk-
songs, by Gordon, Ehrenkranz, and Berel Broder, that
were then current among the people, and that were
tion of the old-fashioned badchen and his craft, but probably the best
illustrations of his performances are to be found in the following
works : Linetzki, Das chsidische Jungel, pp. 94 ff. ; Gottlober, Das
Decktuch, pp. 43 ff. (2d act, 2d scene) ; Der krummer Maschelik mit
a blind Aug\ Es is' sehr schoen zu lejenen die Lieder, was der Mar-
schelik hat gesungen, un' wie er hat Chossen-kale besungen, un' see
sennen noch kein Mai nit gedruckt gewor'en : Kukariku ! Der Mar-
schelik is' da, Warsaw, 1875 ; U. Kalmus, Geschichte vun a seltenem
Bris wn' a genarrte Chassene, Theater in vier Akten, Warsaw, 1882,
pp. 65-72.
1 In addition to the large number of collective books of poetry,
Zunser has published his poems in: Jild. Volksblatt, Vol. V. pp. 51,
67 ; Wecker, pp. 74-88 ; Familienfreund, Vol. I. pp. 6-27 ; Haus-
freund, Vol. II. pp. 99-108 ; Spektor's Familienkalender, Vol. IV.
pp. 94-103; Jud. Volksbib., Vol. I. pp. 273, 274; Das heil. Land,
pp. 134-141.
92 YIDDISH LITERATUKE
received with so much acclamation, both on account of
their pleasing contents and the excellent tunes to which
they had been set. In 1861, he published eight of his
songs which he had been singing at weddings. One of
these, at least, 'The Watch,' is merely a differently
versified form of Ehrenkranz's ' The Gold Watch,'
which must have reached him in its oral form, as it
was printed only in 1865. Zunser possessed an excel-
lent voice, and had received a good musical training,
and his songs and tunes spread with astonishing
rapidity throughout the whole length and breadth of
Russia, wherever Jews lived, and became also popular
in Galicia and Roumania. This innovation came to
stay, and, within a short time, the host of badchens
throughout the country began to sing songs at wedding
feasts. Whoever could, composed songs of his own ;
whoever was not gifted with the power of versification,
sang the songs of others. These badchens were the
most potent factors in the dissemination of the songs
of the above-mentioned poets, long before they were
accessible in a printed form.
Since it was the badchen's business to amuse, it was
natural for Zunser to adopt the manner of Ehrenkranz
and Berel Broder, rather than that of his countrymen,
Gordon and Goldfaden. But to the Russian Jew, that
is amusing which gives him food for reflection, and
nature and its manifestations are interesting to him
only in so far as they interpret man in all his aspects of
life and vicissitudes of fortune. It is this facile power
of dissolving external facts in the alembic of his intro-
spective imagination, that has brought Zunser so near to
the people, and that has made him so popular. He does
not possess the poetical instincts of his contempora-
ries, Gordon and Ehrenkranz ; and many of his poems
PRINTED POPULAR POETRY 93
are mere plagiarisms from other singers. Yet they have
become better known in the form in which he has sung
them than in their original verses.
All the characteristics of the poets whom he imitates
are repeated in Zunser : we have the dispute in 4 The
Countryman and the Townsman,' ' The Old World and
the New,' * Song of Summer and Winter.' The best
of his songs of reflection is ' The Flower,' in which the
Jew is compared with a neglected flower ; other poems
of the same category are 'The Railroad,' 'The Ferry,'
■ The Iron Safe,' « The Clock,' 4 The Bird.' There are
also songs in which he scourges the Irypocrite, the usu-
rer, the inordinate love of innovations and fashion, and
some give good pictures of various incidents in the life
of a Russian Jew.
Zunser has had many imitators, and their name is
legion ; few of them have been so versatile or have
become so popular as he. They delight in their voca-
tion of badchen, and take pains to mention their pro-
fession on the title-pages of the pamphlets which they
publish, and frequently they try to make their publica-
tions more attractive by giving them the title of 4 The
Lame Marschalik,' 4 The Marschalik with One Eye,' and
so forth. Many of the improvisations of the badchen
never see daylight, but pass in manuscript form to their
brothers in the profession. Although, in the eighties,
there has arisen a new class of singers who sing in the
manner of the poets of the literary languages, yet the
badchens still recite in the old style, frequently, how-
ever, reflecting the new conditions of life in their poems.
A strange departure has taken place in the badchen's
profession in America, where, under more favorable
conditions of existence and increased well being, there
has come to be a greater demand for amusement ; the
94 YIDDISH LITERATURE
wedding day is no longer the one day of joy, but the
'jester' is now invited to entertain companies at any
and all pleasurable meetings. He is now no longer
required to create new poems, but to sing well the
current couplets of the day.
VI. OTHER ASPECTS OF POETRY BEFORE
THE EIGHTIES
The popular poem, i.e. the tunable song, had only-
two purposes, to. amuse and to prepare a way for the
Reform. But these did not exhaust all the possibilities
of poetic compositions and, in fact, were not the only
ones to task the powers of the Judeo-German versifiers.
An opportunity for more extended themes was given
the badchens in their songs of contemplation, in which
the moralizing tendency needed only to be developed
at the expense of the allegory, in order to change the
song into a rhymed sermon. Nor was the public un-
prepared for serious matters, for the greater part of all
Judeo-German literature had been merely treatises of an
ethical character in which the element of sadness caused
by centuries of suffering predominated. The perfec-
tion of art is to the mind of a Jew its ability to move
to tears. It is expected of the violinist that he shall
play the saddest tunes in the minor key, such as will
make his hearers weep like * beavers ' ; the precentor's
reputation depends on his powers to crush his audience,
to call forth contrition of spirit, to make the hearts
bleed ; and the author who can make his reader dissolve
in tears, no matter how absurd the story, is sure to
become popular with a Jewish public. We have seen
how the badchen at the marriage ceremony bade the
bride to weep, and it has also been mentioned that he
delivered the more serious discourses upon that occa-
sion. It was then that he would spin out hundreds of
95
96 YIDDISH LITERATURE
stanzas upon such subjects as 'The Unhappy Man,'
4 Pity,' 4 Dialogue of the New-born Soul with the Angel
of Life,' l Sorrow,' and the like.
In the meanwhile, the old rhymed moral treatises
continued in force and gave rise to compositions of a
more regular structure. Two authors must here be
specially mentioned, S. Sobel and Elieser Zwi Zweifel.
The first published, in 18T4, a book under the title of
4 Destiny, or Discussions for Pleasant Pastime,' in which
he makes use of the popular method of disputes between
various objects in order to inculcate a series of moral
truths. He excels in the use of a vigorous, idiomatic
language, while Zweifel has shown what strength there
lies in the employment of the simplest words for a simi-
lar kind of literature. Zweifel's1 older productions,
only two in number, are, one, a translation from
the Hebrew, the other probably an imitation of a
foreign model. The first contains a series of aphorisms,
while the other teaches the wisdom of life in the testa-
ment of a dying father. These verses, like his prose
works, belong among the most cherished writings of
the Russian Jews and have been reprinted in a large
number of editions. After his death another one of
his poems was published which differs from its prede-
cessors in that it is somewhat more elaborate and is
entirely original.
Considering the love of verse on the one hand and the
great demand on the other for a Judeo-German prayer-
book for women, which has never ceased to be a neces-
sity, the book-firm Eisenstadt and Schapiro had the
1 Other works by Zweifel than those given in the Bibliography are :
Hausfreund, Vol. I. pp. 73-78, Vol. II. pp. 143-145 ; Spektor's Fami-
lienkalender, Vol. II. pp. 82-87; Jud. Volksbibl., Vol. I. pp. 48-61,
Vol. II. pp. 132-135.
OTHER ASPECTS OF POETRY 97
happy idea to ask the then famous author Abramo-
witsch1 to make a trial translation of a part of the
Psalms in verse. This appeared to them so successful
that they had him proceed with the Sabbath-prayers and
the hymns, which were then printed in 1875 at Zhitomir.
By the "machinations of the great firm of Romm, in
Wilna, who were afraid that such an excellent transla-
tion might seriously interfere with their sale of their
old, stereotyped form of the prayer-book, Abramowitsch
was made to desist from finishing the meritorious task
that he had begun, and even the two books printed were
for a long time kept out of circulation. The Sabbath-
prayers he gave not merely in a versified form, but
the most prosaic passages, by slight additions and
remodellings, he so changed that they resemble the
songs in a Gentile hymn-book. Still greater has been
the work that he had to perform in making poetry out
of the laconic hymns, for that could be accomplished
only by amplifying them to ten and twenty times their
original size. For this purpose he has availed himself
of the current commentaries to the hymns, and this he
has done in such a way that the hymns, in their origi-
nal form, occur as conclusions to the poems. Except
for a certain monotony of the masculine rhymes which
are employed in them, they are masterpieces of religious
poetry, and it is only a pity that the author has not
published yet a translation of the Psalms, which cer-
tainly lend themselves more easily to poetic diction.
While these sacred poems were being printed in
Zhitomir, there appeared in Warsaw another poetical
production by the same author, in its way the most
remarkable work in the whole range of Judeo-German
literature. It bears the title of 4Judel, a Poem in
1 For note on Abramowitsch, see pp. 148 ff.
98 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Rhymes,' and in about four thousand verses tells the
unfortunate course of the life of Judel, — the Jew.
When examining it closely, one discovers that, like
Goldfaden's 4 The Aristocratic Marriage,' it is an alle-
gorical story of the historical vicissitudes in the develop-
ment of Judaism and of the sufferings of the Jew through
the centuries. Not only is the story told unobtrusively,
so that one does not at all suspect the allegory, but the
wonderment increases when upon a second and third
perusal one becomes aware of the wealth of Biblical
allusions upon which alone the whole plot is based.
The future commentator of this classic will, when it
shall be fully appreciated, find his task made much
easier by the many references to Biblical passages which
Abramowitsch has himself made in footnotes. The
value of this gem is still more enhanced by the refined
language used in it, — a characteristic of all of Abramo-
witsch's works.
Ten years later Goldfaden returned to the allegory
of his 4 Aristocratic Marriage,' completing it, after the
example of Abramowitsch, in a poem of about six hun-
dred lines, entitled 4 Schabssiel, a Poem in Ten Chap-
ters (Thoughts after the Riots in Russia).' The
master's influence on this poem is not to be mistaken,
for it serves as a pendant to the previous work ; it is
as it were a continuation of it. Abramowitsch's
poem ends with the futile attempt of Mephistopheles
to tempt Judel to a course of vice, when he discovers
Jiidel's wife, i.e. the Law, faithfully by his side. In
Schabssiel, the sufferings of the Jew are ascribed to his
having departed from the Law, to his having desecrated
the Sabbath. Though somewhat fantastic in its plot,
and far from reaching his predecessor's philosophic
grasp of the Jew's history, his work is full of fine pas-
OTHER ASPECTS OF POETRY 99
sages and may be counted among the best of his produc-
tions. At about the same time, another young writer,
M. Lew, made use of the form of i Judel ' in a poem
whose title fc Hudel ' seems to indicate its obligation to
the prototype. There is in this even less of a philo-
sophical background than in the verses just mentioned,
and by its subject-matter it clearly belongs to the fol-
lowing period, for it describes not a purely Jewish
theme, but one of a more general character, namely the
fall of an orphan who is left to shift for herself in the
world. It is, however, given in this place as being, at
least in outward form, a direct descendant of Abramo-
witsch's 'Judel.' While not of the highest poetic value,
it is written in a good style and gives promise of better
things should the author choose to proceed in his poetic
career. Mention must here also be made of a versified
story, ' Lemech, the Miracle Worker,' by M. Epstein, to
which we shall return later.
Like the allegory, the fable has been a favorite sub-
ject of imitation among the writers from the beginning
of this century. We possess such, partly translations
or adaptations, partly original, from Suchostawer, Dr.
Ettinger, Gottlober, Reichersohn, Katzenellenbogen.
Of Suchostawer's, only one, a translation of one of Kry-
lov's fables, ' The Cat and the Mice,' 1 has come down to
us. It was written in 1829, and, like the fables by
Ettinger, circulated in the thirties and forties, is far
superior to any translation from Krylov that has ap-
peared before 1880. The most original production is
that by Gottlober called 4 The Parliament,' a poem of
more than one thousand lines, in which he gives an
explanation why the lion had been chosen king of all
1 Mordechai Suchostawer, Der woler Eeze-geber, in JM. Volks-
blatt, Vol. V. p. 310.
100 YIDDISH LITERATURE
the animals. While some of the matter contained in it
is unquestionably borrowed from other sources, yet the
whole is moulded in so novel a form, with such a pro-
nounced Jewish setting and biting wit, that it occupies
a place by itself in the history of fables. After the
candidacy of all the beasts, from the donkey to the
wolf, had been rejected as incompatible with the highest
security of the rest, the lion appears on the scene, and
by his majestic presence at once silences the contend-
ing parties ; and he is at once and unanimously chosen
to his high post. " He rules in fairness, does no wrong,
not a sigh is heaved by any of the animals against him ;
the forest is ruled as of yore : the weak lie still, the
strong go free, the great are great, the humble are
humble : well to him who has sharp teeth ! It has
been so of old, and you cannot change the course of
things. But no one need complain of the lion as
long as he feels no hunger in his stomach, for then
he is all peace and rest, — God grant there be many
such ! "
The whole of Krylov was translated into Judeo-Ger-
man, though with but moderate success, in 1879 by Zwi
Hirsch Reichersohn, and more weakly still in 1890 by
Israel Singer. Two of the fables have been admirably
rendered by Katzenellenbogen, who has also produced a
number of excellent poems in the popular style which
surpass those of Goldfaden in regularity of structure.
He has also translated a few poems from the Russian
and Hebrew, all with the same degree of care dis-
played in the renderings from Krylov. His songs
have not been disseminated among the people, the
most of them not having been published until quite
lately.
The most unique person in Judeo-German literature
OTHER ASPECTS OF POETRY 101
of the first half of this century is Dr. Ettinger.1 All
that is known about him is given in the scanty literary
recollections by Gottlober. He there says that Dr.
Ettinger had studied medicine at Lemberg, where he
became acquainted with the Judeo-German writings
of Mendel Lefin, who is regarded as the first man of
modern times to use the dialect of everyday life for
literary purposes. He then settled in Zamoszcz, which
had been a seat of Hebrew learning of the Haskala.
Being prohibited to practise medicine with his foreign
diploma, he became a colonist in the newly formed
Jewish colonies of the South, but not being successful
there, he finally settled in Odessa. This is all that is
given of his biography. It is further known that he
wrote his comedy 4 Serkele ' in the twenties and that
he composed a large number of poems, a few of which
were published in the Kol-mewasser in the sixties, a
few in the Volksblatt in the eighties. In 1889 his
family issued a volume of his poetical works which
forms the basis of our discussion. In this book are
contained sixty fables, a number of poems of various
character, and epigrams. About one-half of the collec-
tion consists of translations from the German ; among
these are fables and epigrams by Lessing, ballads and
poems by Schiller, Blumauer, and others. The other
half is made up of original compositions. All are of
equal excellence both as to the language used in them
and the more mechanical structure of the verses.
In all these poems there is nothing specifically Jewish
1 Several of the poems contained in the volume of his poetry had
appeared before : J'ud. Volksblatt, Vol. I. No. 12, Vol. V. pp. 239, 357,
Vol. VI. pp. 83, 717 ff. ; Familienfreund, Vol. I. pp. 86-93. The
Astor Library of New York possesses a manuscript of Ettinger's
fables.
102 YIDDISH LITERATURE
except the language, and they might as well have been
written in any other language without losing the least
part of their significance. Dr. Ettinger is thus an
exceptional phenomenon among his confreres, but ex-
ceptional only in appearance, as the cause for it is not
far to seek. From the few data of his life we have
learned that he received his training in the beginning of
this century in Galicia, where at that time the influence
of the Mendelssohnian school was most potent. He
brought with him to Russia not only a love for enlight-
enment, but also what then was a necessary concomitant
of that culture, a love for German learning; hence his
exclusive imitation of German originals. At first the
privileges of Western education were not only enjoyed
by a small number of learned men, but there was no
attempt made at introducing them to the masses at
large, for that would have been a hazardous occupation
for those who entered in an unequal combat with the
superstitious people. It was only after J. B. Levinsohn
had pointed out in his Hebrew works the desirability
of educating them, and after he had undertaken to do
so single-handed, that the other writers, late in the
thirties and in the forties, began to approach the masses
in the least offensive manner, by means of the folksong.
Dr. Ettinger's activity, however, fell in the period
preceding the militant energy of the Haskala. If he
wished at all to write in Judeo-German, he could
appear only as the interpreter of German culture to a
public imbued with a love for it. What in the begin-
ning was only a pastime of his leisure hours, soon
became a passion to try his ingenuity, and he proceeded
in writing original poems, and continued that practice
even at a time when the main purpose of Judeo-German
literature was to educate the people.
OTHER ASPECTS OF POETRY 103
Judeo-German poetry has developed in Russia in
precisely the opposite direction from the one generally
taken by that branch of literature among other nations.
Whereas the usual course would have been to pass
from the simple utterings of the folksong to more and
more elaborate forms, the process among the Jews
in Russia has been inverted. The first poetical expres-
sions were those of Dr. Ettinger, who may be regarded
as a dialectic continuator of Schiller and Lessing.
After that followed the school of popular poets of
the Gordons, Goldfaden, Linetzki, Ehrenkranz, Berel
Broder. In the seventies a few traces of that school
are still to be found, but the majority of songs pro-
duced then smack of the badchen's art, while Gold-
faden himself has deteriorated into a writer of theatre
couplets. The explanation of this is found in the fact
that in the sixties the efforts of the folk-singers were
crowned with success. The Rabbinical schools had
graduated several classes of men trained in the Reform,
the Gymnasia and Universities had been thrown wide
open to the Jewish youths, and in the next decade
a large number of them had availed themselves of
the highest advantages offered in these institutions
of learning. The cloud of a stubborn ignorance had
been successfully dispelled, the light shone brightly
over the whole land. The bard's task was done; he
had no need to spur the people on to progress, for
that duty was now devolved on the large host of
younger men who had tasted the privileges of a Russian
education. But these had been identifying themselves
with Russian thought, with Russian ideals. For them
German culture had little of significance, except as it
appeared in universal literature, or had affected Russian
ideas. Still less were they interested in Jewish letters,
104 YIDDISH LITERATURE
whether in Hebrew, or in Judeo-German. On the con-
trary, they were trying hard to forget their humble
beginnings. Neither for these nor by these could the
Judeo-German language be employed for any literary
purposes. The masses had become accustomed to look
with favor on the new education, and one by one the
better elements were disappearing from the narrow
world of the Ghetto. There was still left a large pro-
portion of those who could not avail themselves of the
benefits offered them. They knew no other language
than the homely dialect of their surroundings, and
they were still thirsting for entertainment such as the
folk-singers have offered to them. The older men, the
champions of the Haskala, were dead, or too old to
write ; the younger men had other interests at heart,
and thus it was left to a mediocre class of writers to
supply them with poetry. This part naturally fell to
the badchens. Another quarter of a century, and
Judeo-German literature would have run its course ;
even the badchen would have been silenced. But it
suddenly rose from its ashes with renewed vigor after
the riots against the Jews in 1881.
VII. POETRY SINCE THE EIGHTIES IN
RUSSIA
The latest blood-bath was instituted against the Jews
of Russia in 1881. In the same year there was started
in St. Petersburg a weekly periodical, Jiidisches Volks-
blatt, by the editor of the Kol-mewasser which had
gone out of existence ten years before. The purpose
of the new publication was to focus all the available
forces that had been dispersed in the decade preceding
through the agencies that made for assimilation, and
to prepare the way for a reneAved activity among the
people. These no longer needed to be urged on to
progress, but had to be comforted in the misfortunes
that had befallen them, and in the dangers that awaited
them. In the first number of the new periodical there
appeared the poem of J. L. Gordon on 4The Law written
on Parchment,' while the second brought one by the
same author, outlining his plan to sing words of en-
couragement to his suffering, hard-working brothers and
sisters. However, very soon after all singing ceased.
The year 1882 had been one of too much suffering,
when even consolation is out of place. Two years
later S. Rabinowitsch, who was destined by his unrest-
ing energy and good example to cause a revival of
Judeo-German literature, justly exclaimed in the same
weekly 1 in a poem ' To Our Poet ' : "Arise, thou Poet !
Where have you been all this time ? Send us from
afar your words of wisdom ! For what other pleasure
i Vol. IV. p. 175.
105
106 YIDDISH LITERATURE
have your brothers if not your sweet and consoling
songs ? "
While no other singers were forthcoming, Rabino-
witsch composed himself a series of songs, although he
was preparing himself to be a novelist. His heart was
with the poetry of the Russian Nekrasov, and his
native Judeo-German gave him Michel Gordon for a
model. He imitated both, taking the structure from
the Russian, and the manner of the folksong from Gor-
don. When his talent was just reaching its fullest
development, he abandoned this branch of literature to
devote his undivided attention to prose. Only twice
afterwards he returned to the use of rhythm, once in a
poem, entitled 4 Progress, Civilization,' an imitation of
Nekrasov's ' Who lives in Russia Happily,' and at
another time in a legend in blank verse. The first
has never been finished, the other appeared in a collec-
tive volume of poetry published in 1887 by M. Spektor,
his friend and rival in the resuscitation of Judeo-Ger-
man letters.
That volume, named 4Der Famttienfreund,' was in-
tended as an attempt to bring together all those who
wrote poetry ; but we find in it only names that had
been known to us from the previous period : M. Gor-
don, Zunser, Goldfaden, Linetzki.1 To these must be
added the name of Rabinowitsch just mentioned, and
of Samostschin, who had furnished a few poems to the
Kol-mewasser nearly twenty years before. In the
Volksblatt there were published in the meanwhile a
few songs by various authors, most prominently by
Moses Chaschkes. He also printed in 1889 a volume
of his poems at Cracow, under the name of 'Songs
1 This is also true of the poets who contributed to ' Der jiidischer
WeckerS a similar volume published in the same year at Odessa.
POETRY SINCE 1881 IN RUSSIA 107
from the Heart,' in which are contained a number of
reflections on the riots in Russia. There are some
good thoughts in them, although the technique is
not always faultless. He, too, belongs to the older
type of folk-singers.
The Jews had at that time furnished three names to
Russian poetry: those of Nadson, Vilenkin (Minski),
and Frug. Of these the first had a Christian mother
and died at the early age of twenty-four, in 1886.
The second had begun his poetical career in the seven-
ties, after having received a thorough Russian educa-
tion. There was only Frug left, who had not entirely
broken with his Jewish traditions, for he had gone
directly from the Jewish farmer colony where he had
been born to St. Petersburg to engage in literary
work. His first Russian poem was published in 1879.
In 1885 he began to compose also in Judeo-German,
continuing to do so to the present time.1 Like many
other Jewish writers he had become convinced that
his duties were above all with his race, as long as it
was oppressed and persecuted, and his energy was thus
unfortunately split in two by writing in two languages.
For the same reason such poets as Perez, Winchevsky,
Rosenf eld, have taken to Judeo-German, which is under-
stood by few and which in a few decades is doomed to
extinction, except in countries of persecution. They
adorn their humble literature, but they would have
been an honor to other literatures as well, and from
these they have been alienated.
1 His poems were printed in : Jild. Volksblatt, Vol. V. p. 515 ; Vol.
VII. No. 36 ; Vol. VIII. No. 10 ; Beilage No. 3 passim ; Vol. IX. No. 3
passim; Hausfreund, Vol. I. p. 44; Vol. III. pp. 172-175 (On the
death of M. Gordon)-, Jud. Volksbib. Vol. I. pp. 260-263 ; Vol. II. pp.
1-6, 120-125, 139-141, 167-168, 195-204; Jud. Volkskalender, Vol.
III. pp. 117-124.
108 YIDDISH LITERATURE
When Frug began to write in his native dialect,
he had already acquired a reputation in a literary
language. He had passed the severe school of the
poet's technique, had been trained in the traditions of
his vocation. One could not expect that in descending
to speak to his coreligionists in their own tongue, he
would return to the more primitive methods of the
popular bard. He simply changed the language, but
nothing of his art. By this transference he only gains
in reputation, although he loses in popularity, for the
accusation frequently brought against him, that he con-
fines himself to too narrow a sphere, falls to the ground
when he intends that that narrow sphere alone should
be his audience. Half a century had gone by since
Dr. Ettinger had introduced the form and subject-
matter of German poetry, and since those days no such
harmony had been heard to issue from the mouth of a
Jewish poet. There were no literary traditions to fall
back upon, except the folksong of the preceding gen-
eration ; there scarcely existed a poetical diction for
Judeo- German, and a variety of dialects were striving
for supremacy. What he and the people owed to
Michel Gordon, he expressed in two poems entitled
4 To Michel Gordon ' and 4 On Michel Gordon's Grave ' ;
both collectively he named 4 One of the Best.' In an
allegorical series, 4 Songs of the Jewish Jargon,' he
sings of the history of the language which is iden-
tical with that of his downtrodden race. The prologue
is a model of beautiful style. The Slavic dactyllic di-
minutives, grafted on German stems, the gentle cadence
of words, the simplicity of the diction, remind one
rather of mellifluous Italian than of a disorderly mix-
ture which, in the poem, he compares to the bits of
bread in a beggar's wallet, or which, according to
POETRY SINCE 1881 IN RUSSIA 109
another part in the same allegory, excludes the de-
ceased Jew from heaven, as the angel at the gate can-
not understand him.
There are a few poems in his collection in which he
bewails the lot of a Jewish poet who has only tears for
his subject, but the most deal with incidents in the life
of his oppressed coreligionists, now painting pictures of
their misery, their poverty, their lack of orderliness,
now giving them words of consolation. He never
passes the narrow frame of his people's surroundings,
no matter what he sings. Even when he chooses
nature of which to sing, it appears to him trans-
formed under a heavy cloud of his own sufferings
superinduced by the persecution of his brethren. The
best of his poems are those entitled * Night Songs,' in
which he depicts a few night scenes. Here is the way
he describes the Melamed, the teacher of children in
those miserable quarters called a school : " Behold the
palace, oh, how beautiful, how magnificent : ivory and
velvet, silk, leather, bronze, cedar wood . . . here lives
a Jewish teacher. ... Of velvet is his skullcap — it
glistens and shines from afar; the fescue is made of
ivory; his girdle is of silk; the candelabrum is of
bronze; the knout is of leather; the stool, the stool
is cut out of cedar wood ! " One can easily see that
the rest of the picture is in keeping with the glory
just described. There is gloom everywhere in his
songs. And how could it be otherwise? It was
proper for Ettinger to smile and to jest, for he was
active at the dawn of better days ; it was natural for
the poets of the thirties and fifties to battle against
superstitions and to sound the cry of progress; for the
poets of the eighties there was nothing left but tears.
It has been Frug's ambition to be a continuator of
110 YIDDISH LITERATURE
the bards who sang for the masses, to be a folk-poet,
and the people look upon him as such, although he
hardly appeals to them in the manner of the older
bards. He is entirely too literary to be understood
without previous training, and his allegory is not so
easily unravelled. His greatest faults are, perhaps, an
absence of dramatic qualities and a certain coldness of
colors. Nevertheless, he is one of the best poets in
Judeo-German literature, who may also claim recogni-
tion by a wider class of readers.
The year 1888 is momentous in the history of Judeo-
German literature: it gave birth to two annuals, Die
jiidische Volksbibliothek and Der ITausfreund, around
which were gathered all the best forces that could be
found among the Jewish writers. The first, under the
leadership of S. Rabinowitsch, started out with the pur-
pose of clearing away all rubbish from the field of Jew-
ish letters and to prepare it for a new, a better harvest ;
the second set out to serve the people with the best
existing literary productions. The latter was doomed
to a certain mediocrity on account of the bounds which
it had placed around itself ; the first, in exercising a
severe criticism on the productions presented for pub-
lication, and in purifying the public taste, attracted
from the start the best talent obtainable and encour-
aged young promising men to try themselves in Jargon
letters. In the Volksbibliothek appeared the firstling
from the pen of Leon Perez, the poet and novelist, who
must be counted among the greatest writers not only
of Judeo-German literature, but of literature in general
at the end of the nineteenth century. If he had
written nothing else but 4 The Sewing of the Wedding
Gown,' his name would live as long as there could
be found people to interpret the language in which
POETRY SINCE 1881 IN RUSSIA 111
he sings. But he has produced several large volumes
of admirable works in prose and in verse.
Leon Perez, or Izchok Leibusch Perez, as he proudly
prefers to be called, was born in 1855 in Zamoszcz, the
city which has been the birthplace of so many famous
men in Hebrew and Judeo-German letters, the home of
Zederbaum and Ettinger. He obtained his education
in a curious way. In his town there had lived a sur-
geon's assistant who, on becoming rich, had collected
a library on all kinds of subjects, numbering nearly
three thousand volumes. There came reverses to him,
and his books were stored away pell mell in the loft.
Perez somehow got hold of the key to that room, and
without choice took to reading, until the whole library
was swallowed up by his omnivorous appetite. He
read everything he could get hold of, and he learned
German through a work on physics which he had dis-
covered in the loft. Then he passed on from science
to science, all by himself. Then he studied Heine by
heart, then Shelley, and then he became a mystic. This
history of his education is also the history of his genius.
There is reflected in it the subtleness of the Talmud,
the wisdom of the ancients, the sparkle of Heine, the
transcendency of Shelley, the mysticism of Hauptmann.
He has treated masterfully the Talmudical legend, has
composed in the style of the Romancero, and has carried
allegory to the highest degree of perfection.
Perez is even less of a popular poet than Frug. He
has entirely parted company with the people. Although
he started with the avowed purpose of aiding his race
to a better recognition of itself, yet his talents are
of too high an order, where language, feelings, and
thoughts soar far above the understanding of the
masses. He can hardly be properly appreciated even by
112 YIDDISH LITERATURE
those who enjoy the advantages of a fair school educa-
tion, not to speak of those who are merely lettered.
It is only an unfortunate accident, the persecutions of
the Jews, that has thrown him into so unpromising a
field as that of Judeo-German letters, where to be great
is to be unknown to the world at large and to be sub-
jected to the jealous attacks of less gifted writers. He
could easily gain a reputation in any other language,
should he choose to try for it, but, like many of his
predecessors, he is pursued by the merciless allurements
of the Jewish Muse. Her enchantment is the more
powerful on her devotees since she appears to them
only in the garb of their own weaving. They spend
so much work in creating the outer form and fashion-
ing a poetic diction that they get fascinated by their
creative labor, and stick to their undertaking, even
though they have but few hearers for their utterances.
4 Monisch ' is the name of the ballad with which Perez
made his debut ten years ago.1 It is the old story of
Satan's recovery of power over the saint by tempting
him with an earthly love. But the setting of the story
is all new and original. The fourth chapter, beginning
with
Andersch wollt' mein Lied geklungen
*ch soil far Goim goisch singen,
Nischt far Jiiden, nischt Jargon
(My song would sound quite differently, were I to sing to Gen-
tiles in their language, not to Jews in Jargon)
is the best of all. He describes there the difficulty of
singing of love in a dialect that has no words for 4 love '
and 4 sweetheart ' ; nevertheless he acquits himself well
1 Jud. Volksbib. Vol. I. pp. 148-158 ; better than this is his own
edition of the ballad in a separate pamphlet (q.v.).
POETRY SINCE 1881 IN RUSSIA 113
of his task to tell of Monisch's infatuation, for which,
of course, a saint and a Jew can only become Satan's
prey. Perez has written a number of stories in verse.
Some of them are mosaics of gems, in which the unity
of the whole is frequently marred by a mystic cloud
which it is hard to penetrate. Such, for example, is his
? He and She,' 1 a story of the Spanish inquisition, and
4 Reb Jossel,' 2 the temptation of a teacher of children
by his hostess, the wife of a shoemaker. The latter
poem is very hard to grasp at one reading, but the
details, such as the description of the teacher, his pale
and ailing pupil with his endless school superstitions,
the jolly shoemaker, are drawn very well. Much more
comprehensible are his 4 The Driver ' 3 and * Jossel Bers
and Jossel Schmaies.'4 The first is a sad picture of a
Jewish town in Poland, in which the inhabitants have
lost, one after the other, their means of subsistence after
the railroad had connected them with Warsaw. The
drivers, the merchants, the artisans who throve at
their honest professions before, have become impover-
ished and are driven to despised occupations, only to
keep body and soul together. It is a very sad picture
indeed. In the other, the author tells of two boys who
had been fellow-students out of the same prayer-book,
but who soon separated at the parting of the roads.
The one, a faithful believer in all the teacher told him,
becomes a Rabbi ; the other asks for facts and reasons
to fortify the statements of his mentor, and subjects
himself to many privations in order to acquire worldly
wisdom in the gymnasium and the university. The
1 Jud. Bibliothek, Vol. II. pp. 170-180.
2 Ibid., Vol. III. pp. 123-155.
3 Ibid., Vol. I. pp. 246-257.
* Ibid., Vol. I. pp. 276-285.
114 YIDDISH LITERATURE
final picture is placed in Roumania (or Russia, had
the censor permitted it), where the student is driven
through the streets by a mob, while the Rabbi, uncon-
scious of the outer world, is somewhere thinking hard
over the solution of a question of ritual.
The shorter poems are either translations from the
Russian poet Nadson, or imitations of Heine. They
are well done, though some suffer somewhat by their
veiled allegory, at least at a superficial reading. The
best of these are those that deal with social ques-
tions, or describe the laborer's sufferings. Preeminent
among them is 'The Sewing of the Wedding Gown.'1
If Thomas Hood's ' Song of the Shirt ' is to be com-
pared to a fine instrument, then this poem is a whole
orchestra, from the sounds of which the walls of Jericho
would fall. Instead of a criticism, a short review of
the story will be given here. The scene is at a dress-
maker's ; the cast : the modiste, two dressmakers, and
sewing-girls. The modiste tells of the care with which
the wedding gown has to be sewed. The choir of sew-
ing-girls sing the song of the prison. The first dress-
maker speaks of the beauty of the gown, and compares
the bride to an angel from heaven, whereupon the choir
sings of the misery at home, of asking the ' angel ' to
advance a rouble on the work, of the 'angel's' cruel
refusal, of the pawning of her silks for a loaf of bread,
and of the girl's arrest by the 'angel.' " And the angel
has taken care of me during the great frosts, and for
three months has provided me with board and lodging."
The second dressmaker compares the rustle of the silk
to the noise made by her tired bones, speaks of the
diamond buttons that will be sewed on the gown " as
1 Jontew-blattlech, Zweite Serie, Oneg Schabes, pp. 27-31, Cha-
mischo Osser, pp. 22-31.
POETRY SINCE 1881 IN RUSSIA 115
large as tears of the poor," and bids the wheel of the
machine to drown the noise of her breaking bones.
The choir sings the song of the grave, where no sewing
is done, where all go down in a shroud forever. The
second dressmaker continues the song, whereupon a
girl, named 4 Fond-of-Life,' protests, telling of her
good health, of her desire to pass her youth in pleas-
ure. The choir chides her with the Ragpicker's song,
in which ' Fond-of -Life's ' future is portrayed, and the
conclusion to the song is given by the first dressmaker.
The first dressmaker contrasts the luxury of the bride's
bed with her straw bed on the floor, the bride's splen-
dor of light in her parlor with the two candles at her
head when she is dead. The modiste, oppressed by
the sad songs that portray their own unhappiness, bids
them sing of other people's happiness. To this the
choir responds by singing the happiness of the bride,
but the modiste sees in this only the girls' jealousy,
whereupon the choir tells of the obedient daughter who
is advised by her mother to scorn sweetness, getting
the promise of a gilded nut if she behaves properly.
When the nut is brought and cracked it is found to be
wormy and bitter. Of course, that is a picture of a
match made by the parents for their daughter. The
modiste answers that happiness does not always dwell
in high places ; and the first dressmaker tells the story
of labor, which is quite unique : There lived two
brothers happily together. A stranger, who is no
other than the Biblical serpent, visits them ; he is clad
in diamonds and costly stones, and dazzles the older
brother with his splendor. He, too, would like to be
rich. He follows the stranger out into the woods, and
seats himself at his side to inquire of the manner of
acquiring such wealth. " What a fool you are to allow
116 YIDDISH LITERATURE
your opportunities to slip by," says the serpent. " You
do not know that the sweat of your brother is nothing
but diamonds, the tears are brilliants, his blood pearls."
The elder brother returns home, beats his younger
brother to elicit blood and sweat and tears. His
wealth grows, but not his happiness, for he suffers as
much from fear of his hoarded riches as his brother
sighs under tears. They finally fall to blows, — but
here the poet purposely breaks his story, for he will
not undertake to tell the end of their hostility. The
choir sings the ten o'clock song, when all must go to
rest : " You are rested, and at times you dream of — a
loaf of bread ! The clock strikes ten, the work is
done, — good night, madame ! " The modiste answers :
" Be back early in the morning ! "
This is the bare skeleton of the poem, of whose pain-
ful beauties nothing but a perusal in the original can
give an adequate idea. There is the making of a great
poet in one who can sing like that; but Perez has
chosen, like Rabinowitsch, to devote his best energies
to prose, and to this part of his activity we shall return
later. Of the minor poems of this period there might
be mentioned those by David Frischmann, Rosa Gold-
stein, M. W. Satulowski, M. M. Penkowski, W. Kaiser,
Paltiel Samostschin. Frischmann has produced but a
few poems, but they are all of excellent quality. His
best is a ballad, c Ophir,' 1 but he has also written some
clever satires in verse. Samostschin,2 who had begun
composing in the sixties, has translated several poems,
1 His legend Ophir, printed in JM. Volksbib., Vol. I. pp. 211-224.
2 His poems appeared in JM. Volksblatt, Vol. I. Nos. 10, 11 ; Vol.
II. Nos. 9, 46 ; Vol. III. pp. 402 ; Vol. IV. p. 94 ; Vol. V. pp. 565, 664 ;
Vol. VI. pp. 190, 195 ; Vol. VII. pp.. 277, 759 ; Hausfreund, Vol. III.
pp. 304-306 ; Spektor's Familienkalender, Vol. V. p. 71 ; Lamteren,
col. 26.
POETRY SINCE 1881 IN RUSSIA 117
especially from the Hebrew of J. L. Gordon, and has
written some clever feuilletons in rhymes. Minchas
Perel has published a small collection of poems on the
Fall of Jerusalem, of which the first, ' The Night of the
Destruction of Jerusalem,' is a very spirited and dra-
matic story of the event. Another good book of poems
is 'The Harp,' by G. O. Hornstein. Although some
of them are in the style of the coupletists, others betray
original talent that might be well developed. The best
of these is the ballad, 'The Cat and the Mouse,' an
allegory of Jewish persecutions, in which the Jew is
represented as a mouse living on the fat of the oil can-
delabrum in the Temple at Jerusalem, and the Romans
and other nations are represented as cats who drive the
mouse out of her abiding place.
The riots of the early part of the eighties affected
the whole mental attitude of the Jews of Russia by
rousing them to a greater consciousness of themselves
and by rallying them around distinctly Jewish stan-
dards. For hundreds of thousands life had become
impossible at home, and they emigrated to various
countries, but mostly to America, where, under the
influence of entirely new conditions, Judeo-German
literature, and with it poetry, developed in new
channels.
VIII. POETRY SINCE THE EIGHTIES IN
AMERICA
Judeo-German poetry has developed in two direc-
tions in America, — downwards and upwards. Many
of the poets left Russia in the beginning of the eighties,
together with the involuntary emigration of the Russian
Jews, to escape the political oppression at home ; but
once in America they came in contact with conditions
not less undesirable than those they had just left ; for,
instead of the religious persecution to which they had
been subjected there, they now began to experience
the industrial oppression of the sweat-shops into which
they were driven in order to earn a livelihood. At
the same time, the greater political liberty which they
enjoy makes it possible for them to give free utterance
to their feelings and thoughts, without veiling them
in the garb of a far-fetched allegory. However, they
have not all suffered who have come here. Many
have found on the hospitable shores of the United
States opportunities to earn what to their humble
demands appears as a comfortable income. With the
increased well-being, there has come a stronger desire
to be entertained. The wedding day, Purim, and the
Feast of the Rejoicing of the Law no longer suffice
as days of amusements, and Goldfaden's theatre, which
had been proscribed in Russia, has found an asylum in
New York. Soon one theatre was not large enough
to hold the crowd that asked for admission ; and three
118
POETRY SINCE 1881 IN AMERICA 119
companies, playing every evening, were doing a good
business. But qualitatively the theatres rapidly dete-
riorated to the level of dime shows. The theatre, as
established by Goldfaden, has never been of an elevated
character even in Europe, except as it treated the Bib-
lical and the historical drama. Still, it reflected in a
certain respect the inner life of the Ghetto. In the
New World, the Jewish life of the Russian Ghetto is
rapidly losing all interest, and that part of New York
which in common parlance is known as the Ghetto,
deserves its name only in so far as it is inhabited by
former denizens of other Ghettos. There is taking
place a dulling of Jewish sensibilities which will ulti-
mately result in the absorption of the Russian Jews
by the American people. This lowered Jewish con-
sciousness finds its expression in poetry in the develop-
ment of the theatre couplet in imitation of the American
song of the day. As in Russia, the plays are written
by a host of incompetent men, not so much for the
purpose of carrying out a plot as in order to weave
into them songs of which Jews have always been fond.
Nearly all the plays are melodramas, in which the con-
tents go for nothing or are too absurd to count for
anything. But the couplets have survived, and are
fast becoming street ballads or folksongs, according to
the quality of the same. Goldfaden's songs, in which
there is always a ring of the true folksong, are giv-
ing place to the worthless jingles of Marks, Hurwitz,
Awramowitsch, Mogulesco, and the like, and the old
national poems are being superseded by weak imita-
tions of • Daisy Bell,' ' Do, do, my Huckleberry, Do,'
1 The Bowery Girl,' and other American ballads. Now
and then a couplet of a national character may be heard
in the theatres, and more rarely a really good poem
120 YIDDISH LITERATURE
occurs in these dramatic performances, but otherwise
the old folksong is rapidly decaying.
I. Reingold, of Chicago, is a fruitful balladist who
at times strikes a good note in his songs ; but in these
he generally painfully resembles certain passages in
Rosenfeld's poetry, from whom he evidently gets his
wording if not his inspiration. Side by side with this
deteriorated literature there goes on a more encourag-
ing folk-singing. Zunser, who now owns a printing-
office in New York, continues his career as a popular
bard as before, and has written some of his best poems
in the New World. It is interesting to note how Amer-
ica affects his Muse, for he sings now of the c Pedlar '
and the * Plough.' The latter, a praise of the farmer's
life, to which he would encourage his co-religionists,
has had the honor of being translated into Russian.
Among his later poetry there is also one on ' Columbus
and Washington,' in which, of course, both are lauded.
The Stars and Stripes have been the subject of many a
song by Judeo-German poets, which is significant, since
not a single ode has been produced praising Russia or
the Czar.
Goldfaden, too, has written some of his songs in
America, and Selikowitsch has furnished two or three
translations and adaptations that may be classed as
folksongs. Still more encouraging is the class of
poetry which has had its rise entirely in America or
in England, for among these poets it has received the
highest development yet attained.
The volume entitled ' Jewish Tunes,' by A. M. Shar-
kansky, contains a number of real gems in poetry.
Sharkansky has a good ear for rhythm and word
jingling, and in this he always succeeds. But he is
not equally fortunate in his ideas, for he either over-
POETRY SINCE 1881 IN AMERICA 121
loads a picture so as to bury the meaning of the poem
in it, or else he does not finish his thought, leaving an
impression that something ought to follow. Now and
then, however, he produces a fine song. Among his
best are i Jewish Melodies,' in which he says that they
must always be sad, and * Songs of Zion,' of similar
contents. ' Jossele Journeys to America,' which is a
parody on Schiller's ; Hektor and Andromache,' and
■ The Cemetery,' a translation of Uhland's ' Das Grab,'
give evidence of a great mastery of his dialect. It is
hardly possible to suspect the second poem of being a
translation. Sharkansky has for some reason ceased to
sing, which is to be regretted, for with a little more
care in the development of his ideas he might have
come to occupy an honorable place among the best
Judeo-German poets.
New York is the place of refuge not only of the
laboring men among the Russian Jews, but also of
their cultured and professional people. These had
at home belonged to liberal organizations, which in
monarchical countries are of necessity extreme, either
Socialistic or Anarchistic. Such advanced opinions
they shared in Russia with their Gentile companions,
with whom they identified themselves by their educa-
tion. Their relations to the Jewish community were
rather loose, for the tendency of the somewhat greater
privileges which the Jews enjoyed in the sixties and
the seventies had been to obliterate old lines of demar-
kation between Jew and Gentile. They had almost
forgotten that there were any ties that united them
with their race, when they were roused from their
peaceful occupations, to which they had been devoting
themselves, to the realization of their racial difference.
They then heard for the first time that they were
122 YIDDISH LITERATURE
pariahs alike with the humblest of their brethren.
The same feeling which prompted the Russian poet
Frug to take up his despised Judeo-German, drove
many a man into the Judeo-German literary field, who
not only had never before written in that language, but
who had hardly ever spoken it. In England and Amer-
ica such men could only hope to be understood by a
Jewish public, and those who felt themselves called to
write poetry wrote it in Judeo-German. But with them
the language could only be the accidental vehicle of
their thought, without confining them to the narrow
circle of their nation's life. Their interests, like those
of young Russia in general, are with humanity at large,
not with the Jew in his Ghetto, and their songs would
not have lost a particle of their significance had they
been written in any other tongue. They suffer with the
Jew, not because he is a Jew, but because, like many
other oppressed people, he has a grievance, and they
propose remedies for these according to their political
and social convictions.
David Edelstadt was the poet of the Anarchistic
party, as Morris Winchevsky represents Socialistic ten-
dencies. The influence of both on their respective
adherents has been great, but the latter has been a
power for good among a wider circle of readers, within
and without his party. Both show by the language
which they use that it was mere accident that threw
them into the ranks of Judeo-German writers, for
while usually the diction of the older poets abounds in
words of Hebrew origin, theirs is almost entirely free
from them, so that one can read their productions with
no other knowledge than that of the literary German
language.
Edelstadt mastered neither his poetical subjects nor
POETRY SINCE 1881 IN AMERICA 123
the dialect. The latter is a composition of the literary
German with dialectic forms, and his rhythms are halt-
ing, his ideas one-sided. There is not a poem among
the fifty that he has written that is not didactic. Many
of these are in praise of Anarchists and heroes of free-
dom who have fallen in the unequal combat with the
present conditions of society. There are poems in
memory of Sophia Perovskaya, Louise Michel, John
Brown, and even Albert Parsons and Louis Ling. He
sings of the eleventh of November, the Fall of the Bas-
tile, of strikes, misery, and suffering. Most of these are
a call to war with society. They are neither of the
extreme character that one generally ascribes to the
Anarchists, nor do they sound any sincere notes.
They seem to be written not because Edelstadt is a
poet, but because he belongs to the Anarchistic party.
In all his collection there is one only in which he directs
himself especially to the Jews, and one of its stanzas is
significant, as it lies at the foundation of much of Rosen-
f eld's poetry: it tells that they have escaped the cruel
Muscovite only to be jailed in the dusky sweat-shops
where they slowly bleed at the sewing-machine.
Morris Winchevsky is a poet of a much higher type.
He is a man of high culture, is conversant with the
literatures of Russia, France, Germany, and England, is
pervaded by what is best in universal literature, follows
carefully all the rules of prosody and poetic composition,
and above all is master of his dialect. His Socialistic
bias is pronounced, but it does not interfere with the
pictures that he portrays. They are true to life, though
somewhat cold in coloring. His mastery of Judeo-
German, nearly all of German origin, is displayed in
his fine translation of Thomas Hood's 'Song of the
Shirt' and some of Victor Hugo's poems. His other
124 YIDDISH LITERATURE
songs show the same care in execution and are as
perfect in form as can be produced in his dialect.
Winchevsky began his poetical career in England,
where he was also active as a Socialistic agitator. The
small collection of his poetical works (unfortunately
unfinished) contains almost entirely songs which were
written there. His American poems appeared in the
Emeth, which he published in Boston in 1895 and
in other periodicals. Although he has tried himself
in all kinds of verses, he prefers dactyllic measures,
which in 'A Broom and a Sweeping' he uses most
elaborately. The poems all treat on social questions
and describe the misery of the lower strata of society.
He speaks of the life of the orphan whose home is
in the street, of the eviction of the wretched widow,
of the imprisonment of the small boy for stealing a
few apples, of the blind fiddler, of night-scenes on
the Strand, of London at night. A large number of
songs are devoted more strictly to Socialistic propa-
ganda, while a series of forty-eight stanzas under the
collective title 4 How the Rich Live ' is a gloomy kaleido-
scope through which pass in succession the usurer, the
commercial traveller, the journalist, the preacher, the
cardplayer, the lawyer, the hypocrite, the old general,
the speculator, the lady of the world, the gambler at
races, the man enriched by arson, the dissatisfied rich
man, the doctor, the Rabbi. Winchevsky has also
written some excellent fables, of which 4 The Rag and
the Papershred ' and 4 The Noble Tom-Cat ' are probably
the best. In all those the language alone is Jewish,
everything else is of a universal nature, and the freeing
of society from the yoke of oppression is the burden of
his songs.
The most original poet among the Russian Jews of
POETRY SINCE 1881 IN AMERICA 125
America is Morris Rosenfeld. He was born in 1862 in
a small town in the Government of Suwalk in Russian
Poland. His ancestors for several generations back
had been fishermen, and he himself passed many days
of his childhood on the beautiful lake near his native
home. He had listened eagerly to the weird folk-
tales that his grandfather used to tell, and as a boy
had himself had the reputation of a good story-teller.
At home he received no other education than that which
is generally allotted to Jewish boys of humble families :
he studied Hebrew and the Talmud. But his father
was more ambitious for his son, and when he moved to
the city of Warsaw he provided him with teachers for
the study of German and Polish. However, Rosenfeld
did not acquire more than the mere rudiments of these
languages, for very soon his struggle for existence be-
gan. He went to England to avoid military service,
and there learned the tailor's trade. Thence he pro-
ceeded to Holland, where he tried himself in diamond
grinding. He very soon after came to America, where
for many weary years he has eked out an existence in
the sweat-shops of New York. He learned in them to
sing of misery and oppression. His first attempts were
very weak ; he felt himself called to be a poet, but he
had no training of any kind, least of all in poetic dic-
tion. For models in his own language he had only the
folk-singers of Russia, for Frug began his activity at the
same time as he, and Perez published his 4 Monisch '
some years after Rosenfeld had discovered his own
gifts. A regular tonic structure had not been at-
tempted before in Judeo-German, and a self-styled
critic of Judeo-German literature in New York tried
to convince him that his dialect was not fit for the
ordinary versification. One of his first poems, pub-
126 YIDDISH LITERATURE
lished in the Jiidisches Vblksblatt in St. Petersburg, was
curiously enough a greeting to the poet Frug, who had
just published his first songs in Judeo-German ; how-
ever warm in sentiment, it is entirely devoid of that
imagery and word-painting which was soon to become
the chief characteristic of Rosenfeld's poetry.
Rosenfeld has read the best German and English
authors, and although he knows these languages only
superficially, he has instinctively guessed the inner
meaning contained in their works, and he has trans-
fused the art of his predecessors into his own spirit
without imitating them directly. One cannot help, in
reading his verses, discovering his obligations to Heine,
Schiller, Moore, and Shelley ; but it is equally apparent
that he owes nothing to them as regards the subject-
matter of his poems. He is original not only in Jewish
letters but in universal literature as well.
Himself in contact with the lower strata of society
and yet in spirit allied to the highest ; at once the sub-
ject of religious and race persecutions and of industrial
oppression ; tossed about among the opposition parties
or Anarchists, Socialists, Populists, without allying him-
self with any ; by education and associations a Jew, and
yet not subscribing strictly to the tenets of the Mosaic
Law, — he voices the ominous foreboding of the tidal
wave which threatens to submerge our civilization, he
utters the cry of anguish and despair that rises in dif-
ferent quarters and condemns the present order of
things. Rosenfeld does not scoff, or scorn, or hate.
He is one with the oppressor and the oppressed ; if he
sings more of the latter, it is only because he sees more
of that side of life. He is a sensitive plate that repro-
duces the pictures that arise before his mental vision,
aixd the gloom of his poems is rather that which he sees
POETRY SINCE ld81 IN AMERICA 127
than that which he feels ; for he has also written songs
of spring and happiness in the few intervals when the
sky has looked down unclouded on the Ghetto in which
he has lived so long.
We shall confine ourselves to the small volume of his
poetry, 4 The Songs from the Ghetto,' even though it
contains but one-tenth of all the verses that he has
written. Who can read his ' Songs of Labor ' without
shedding tears ? We enter with the poet, who is the
tailor himself, the murky sweat-shop where the monoto-
nous click of the sewing-machine, which kills thought
and feeling, mysteriously whispers in your ear : —
" Ich arbeit', un' arbeit', un' arbeit' ohn' Cheschben.
Es schafft sich, un' schafft sich, un' schafft sich ohn' Zahl,"
and we see the workman changed into just such an
unfeeling machine. During the short midday hour
he has but time to weep and dream of the end of his
slavery; when the whistle blows, the boss with his angry
look returns, the machine once more ticks, and the tailor
again loses his semblance of a human being. What
wonder, then, that tears should be the subject of so many
of his songs ? Even when the laborer returns home he
does not find relief from his sorrows ; his own child does
not see him from one end of the week to the other, for
it is asleep when he goes out to work or returns from
it (' My Boy'). Not only the workman, but even the
mendicant, who has no home and finds his only conso-
lation in his children, has reason to curse the present
system when he sees the judge take them away from
him to send them to an orphan asylum, — a species of
misdirected philanthropy (' The Beggar Family '). Sad
are the simple words : 4 Ich geh' vardienen ! ' uttered
by a girl before the break of day, hurrying to the fac-
128 YIDDISH LITERATURE
tory, and late at night, following a forced life of vice
('Whither'). Even death does not come to the unfor-
tunate in the calm way of Goethe's ' Uber alien Gipfeln
ist Ruh' ' ; not the birds are silenced, but the worms are
waiting for their companion ('Despair'). Nay, after
death the laborer arises from his grave to accuse the
rich neighbor of having stolen the flowers from his bar-
ren mound ('In the Garden of the Dead ').
Not less sad are his National Songs. In 'Sephirah'
he tells us that the Jew's year is but a succession
of periods for weeping. Most of his songs of that
class deal with the tragical conflict between religious
duties and actualities. Such is 'The First Bath of
Ablution,' which is one of the prettiest Jewish ballads.
The 'Measuring of the Graves,' which relates the
superstition of the Jews who study by candles with
the wicks of which graves have been measured, is
especially interesting, on account of the excellent use
of the language of the Tchines made in it. The
unanswered question of the boy in the ' Moon Prayer '
is one of many that the poet likes to propound. Per-
haps the best poem under the same heading is • On the
Bosom of the Ocean,' which is remarkable not only as a
sad portrayal of the misfortunes of the Jew who is
driven out of Russia and is sent back from America
because he has not the requisite amount of money
which would entitle him to stay here, but also on
account of the wonderful description of a storm at
sea. The same sad strain passes through the poems
classed as miscellaneous. Now it is the nightingale
that chooses the cemetery in which to sing his sweetest
songs ('The Cemetery Nightingale'). Or the flowers
in autumn do not call forth regrets, for they have not
been smiling on the poor laborer in his suffering ('To
POETRY SINCE 1881 IN AMERICA 129
the Flowers in Autumn'). Or again, the poet com-
pares himself with the bird who sings in the wilderness
where 'the dead remain dead, and the silent remain
silent ' (' In the Wilderness ').
The gloom that lies over so many of Rosenfeld's
poems is the result of his own sad experiences in the
sweat-shop and during his struggle for existence ; but
this gloom is only the accident of his themes. Behind
it lies the inexhaustible field of the poet's genius which
adorns and beautifies every subject on which he chooses
to write. The most remarkable characteristic of his
genius is to weld into one the dramatic action and the
lyrical qualities of his verse, as has probably never been
attempted before. Whether he writes of the sweat-
shop, or of the storm on the ocean, or of the Jewish
soldier who rises nightly from his grave, we in every
instance get a drama and yet a lyric, not as separate
developments, but inextricably combined into one
whole. Thus, for example, 'In the Sweat-shop' is a
lyrical poem, if Hood's • Song of the Shirt ' is one, but
in so far as the poet, or operative, is turned into a
machine and is subjected to the exterior forces which
determine his moods and his destiny, we have the
evolution of a tragedy before us. Similarly, the exact
parallel of the storm on the ocean with the storm in
the hearts of the two Jews in the steerage is no less
of a dramatic nature than an utterance of subjective
feelings.
Rosenfeld does not confine himself to pointing out
the harmony which subsists between man and the ele-
ments that control his moods and actions; he carries
this parallelism into the minutest details of the more
technical structure of his poems : the amphibrachic
measure in the 'Sweat-shop' is that of the ticking
130 YIDDISH LITERATURE
machine, which in the two lines given above reaches
the highest effect that can be produced by mere words.
In the 4 Nightingale to the Laborer,' the intricate versi-
fication with its sonnet rhymes, the repetition of the
first line in each stanza with its returning repetition in
the tenth line, the slight variations of the same burden
in each succeeding stanza which saves it from monotony,
are all artifices that the poet has learned from the bird
along his native lake in Poland. These two examples
will suffice to indicate the astonishing versatility of the
poet in that direction ; add to this the wealth of
epithets, and yet extreme simplicity of diction which
never strives for effect, the musicalness of his rhythm,
the chasteness of expression even where the cynical
situations seem to make it difficult to withstand impre-
cations and curses, and we can conceive to what mar-
vellous perfection this untutored poet of the Ghetto
has carried his dialect in which Russian, Polish, Hebrew,
and English words are jostling each other and contend-
ing their places with those from the German language.
It was left for a Russian Jew at the end of the
nineteenth century to see and paint hell in colors
not attempted by any one since the days of Dante ;
Dante spoke of the hell in the after-life, while Rosen-
feld sings of the hell on earth, the hell that he has not
only visited, but that he has lived through. Another
twenty-five years, and the language in which he has
uttered his despair will be understood in America but
by few, used for literary purposes probably by none.
But Rosenfeld's poetry will survive as a witness of
that lowermost hell which political persecutions, reli-
gious and racial hatred, industrial oppression have
created for the Jew at the end of this our enlightened
nineteenth century.
IX. PROSE WRITERS FROM 1817-1863
The beginning of this century found the Jews of the
Russian Empire living in a state bordering on Asiatic
barbarism. Ages of persecution had reduced the
masses to the lowest condition of existence, had elimi-
nated nearly all signs of civilized life in them, and had
succeeded in making them the outcasts they really
were. Incredibly dirty in their houses and uncleanly
about their persons, ignorant and superstitious even
beyond the most superstitious of their Gentile neigh-
bors, dishonest and treacherous not only to others, but
even more to their own kind, they presented a sad
spectacle of a downtrodden race. The legislators made
the effects of the maltreatment of previous lawgivers
the pretext for greater oppression until the Jews bade
fair to lose the last semblance of human beings. One
need only go at this late hour to some small town,
away from railroads and highways, where Jews live
together compactly, in order to get an idea of what the
whole of Russia was a century ago, for in those distant
places people are still living as their grandfathers did.
Only here and there an individual succeeded in tearing
himself away from the realm of darkness to become
acquainted with a better existence by means of the Men-
delssohnian Haskala. In spite of the very unfavorable
conditions of life, or rather on account of them, the
Jews, although averse to all instruction, passed the
greater part of their lives, that were not given to
the earning of a livelihood, in sharpening their wits
131
132 YIDDISH LITERATURE
over Talmudical subtleties. When they came in con-
tact with the learning in Germany, their minds had
been trained in the unprofitable but severe school of
abstruse casuistry, and they threw themselves with
avidity on the new sciences, surpassing even their
teachers in the philosophic grasp of the same. Such
a man had been Salomon Maimon, the Kantian scholar ;
such men were later those followers of the Haskala
who were active in the regeneration of a Hebrew litera-
ture, with whom we have also become acquainted in
former chapters through their efforts of enlightening
the masses ; foremost of them, however, was J. B.
Levinsohn, who wrote but little in Judeo-German.
He was to the Jews of Russia what Mendelssohn had
been half a century before to the Jews of Germany.
The light of the Haskala entered Russia in two ways :
through Galicia and through Poland. Galicia was the
natural gateway for German enlightenment, as its Jews
were instructed by means of works written in Hebrew,
which alone, outside of the native dialect, could be
understood in the interior of Russia. But this influ-
ence was only an indirect one, for soon the German
language began to be substituted and understood by
the people of Galicia, whereas that has never become
the case in the southwest of Russia, that is, in the con-
tiguous territory. The case was different in Russian
Poland and Lithuania, for there were many commercial
relations between these countries and Germany, and
there existed German colonies in that part of the
Empire. Consequently the ground was here better
prepared for the foreign culture. The seats of the
Haskala of these more northern regions were such
towns as Zamoszcz in the Government of Lublin,
and Warsaw. Roughly speaking, the geographically
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1817-1803 133
favored portion of the Jewish Pale was inhabited by
the Misnagdim, or strict ritualists, while the south-
west was the seat of that fanatical and superstitious
sect of the Khassidim against whom nearly all of the
satirical literature of the last seventy-five years has
been directed.
As early as 1824 there was published a periodical in
Warsaw in which the German language, or a corrupt
form of it, written with Hebrew characters, was
employed to serve as an intermediary of German cul-
ture. In the same year B. Lesselroth used this form of
German in writing a Polish Grammar1 for the use of
his co-religionists. As has been pointed out before, this
mixture of Judeo-German was to serve only as an inter-
mediary for the introduction of the literary German
which at that time appeared as the only possible alter-
native for the homely dialects of the Russian Jews.
This mixed language has unfortunately remained the
literary norm of the northwest up to the present time,
if one may at all speak of norm in arbitrary compounds.
In the southwest the dialects were, in the first place,
much more distant from the German than the varieties
of Lithuania, and the greater distance from German in-
fluence made the existence of that corrupt German less
possible. At about the same time two books were pub-
lished in Judeo-German, one in the south by Mendel
Lefin, the other in the north by Chaikel Hurwitz,
which became the standards of all future publications
in the two divisions of the Jewish Pale. The first, by
adhering to the spoken form of the dialect, has led to a
normal development of both the language and the liter-
1 B. Lesselroth, Polnische volkommene Orammatik in jiidisch-
deutscher Sprache, fiir solche, die diese Wissenschaft ohne Hilfe eines
Lehrers erlernen wollen, Warsaw, 1824, lOmo, 70 pp.
134 YIDDISH LITERATURE
ature. The second, being unnatural from the start,
has produced the ugliest excrescences, culminating in
the ugliest productions of Schaikewitsch and his tribe
and still in progress of manufacture.
Hurwitz l was only following the natural tendencies of
the Haskala when he chose what he called a pure Judeo-
German for his literary style. In the introduction to
his translation of Campe's 4 Discovery of America '
from his own Hebrew version of the same he says ;
" This translation of the ' Discovery of America ' I have
made from my Hebrew version. It is written in a pure
Judeo-German without the mixture of Hebrew, Polish,
and Turkish words which one generally finds in the
spoken language." It must however, be noted that
he uses German forms very sparingly, and that but for
his avoiding Slavic and Hebrew words, his language is
really pure. It is only later, beginning with the writ-
ings of Dick, that the real deterioration takes place.
This book was published in 1824 at Wilna. Its effect
on the people was very great. Previous to that year
there were no other books to be had except such as
treated on ethical questions, or story-books, which had
been borrowed from older sources two or three centuries
before. Books of instruction there were none. This
was the first ray that penetrated the Ghettos from with-
out. The people had no knowledge of America and
1 This is the name given by Gottlober in his Sichrones, in JM. Volks-
bib., Vol. I. p. 255, for the author of the ' Columbus,' but it appears
that it was Gunsburg who wrote it in Hebrew ; and as in the Judeo-
German translation the translator speaks of having translated this work
from his Hebrew form, it is likely that Gunsburg ought to be substi-
tuted for Hurwitz. There are four copies of that work in the Harvard
Library. Two of them are late remodellings ; the other two have no
title-pages and seem to have had none, so that I cannot ascertain the
dates of their printing.
PROSE WRITERS EROM 1817-1863 135
Columbus, and now they were furnished not only with a
good story of adventure, but in the introduction to the
book they found a short treatise on geography, — the
first worldly science with which they now became ac-
quainted. It is interesting to note here by way of par-
allel that a few years later the regeneration of Bulgaria
from its centuries of darkness began with a small work
on geography, a translation from an American school-
book, published at Smyrna. It is true that to the
disciples of the Haskala works on the sciences were
accessible in Hebrew translations, but these were con-
fined to a very small circle of readers, and their influ-
ence on the masses was insignificant. If the followers
of the Haskala had not accepted blindly Mendelssohn's
verdict against the Judeo-German language, which was
true only of the language spoken by the Jews of Ger-
many, but had furnished a literature of enlightenment
in the vernacular of the people instead of the language
of the select few, their efforts would have been crowned
with far greater success. By subscribing uncondition-
ally to the teachings of their leader, they retarded the
course of events by at least half a century and widened
the chasm between the learned and the people, which it
had been their desire to bridge. English missionaries
proceed much more wisely in their efforts to evangelize
a people. They always choose the everyday language
in which to speak to them, not the tongue of literature,
which is less accessible to them. Mainly by their
efforts the Modern Armenian and Bulgarian have been
raised to a literary dignity, and with it there has always
followed a regeneration of letters and a national con-
sciousness that has in some cases led to political inde-
pendence. The missionaries have not always reaped a
religious harvest, but their work has borne fruit in
136 YIDDISH LITERATURE
many other ways. In the beginning of this century
they also directed their attention to the Christianization
of the Jews of Poland. The few works that they pub-
lished in the pursuit of their aim, especially the New
Testament, are written in an excellent vernacular, far
superior to the one employed by Hurwitz and Lessel-
roth. It is a pity the Jewish writers of the succeeding
generations, particularly in the northwest of Russia, did
not learn wisdom from the English missionaries.
4 The Discovery of America ' has had edition after
edition, and has been read, at first surreptitiously, then
more openly, by all who could read, young and old, men
and women. But Hurwitz was not forgiven by the
fanatics for descending to write on worldly matters,
and after his death it became the universal belief that
the earth would not hold him for his misdeed and that
he was walking around as a ghost, in vain seeking a
resting-place.
In the south the first impulse for writing in Judeo-
German was given by the translations of the Proverbs,
the Psalms, and Ecclesiastes by Minchas Mendel Lefin.
Of these only the Psalms were published in 1817 ; Ec-
clesiastes was printed in 1873, while the Proverbs and a
novel said to be written by him have never been issued.
To write in Jargon was to the men of the Haskala a
crime against reason, and Lefin was violently attacked
by Tobias Feder and others. He found, however, a
sympathizer in Jacob Samuel Bick, who warmly de-
fended him against Feder, and by degrees some of the
best followers of the Haskala followed his good ex-
ample. Ettinger and Gottlober are known to have
received their first lessons in Judeo-German composition
through the writings of Lefin, while by inference one
may regard him also as the prototype of Aksenfeld and
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1817-1863 137
Zweifel. It was not so easy to brave the world with
the despised Jargon, and up to the sixties not one of the
works of these writers appeared in print. They passed
in manuscript form from hand to hand, until the favor-
able time had come for their publication ; and then they
were generally not printed for those who wrote them,
but for those who possessed a manuscript, so that on
the first editions of their works their names do not
appear at all.
Lefin's translations mark an era in Judeo-German
literature. He broke with the traditional language
used in story-books and ethical works of previous cen-
turies, for that was merely a continuation of the lan-
guage of the first prints, in which local differences were
obliterated in order to make the works accessible to the
German Jews of the East and the West. It was not
a spoken language, and it had no literary norm. In
the meanwhile the vernacular of the Slavic Jews had
so far departed from the book language as to make the
latter almost unintelligible to the masses. Lefin chose
to remedy that by abandoning entirely the tradition, and
by writing exactly as the people spoke. He has solved
his problem in a remarkable way ; for although he cer-
tainly knew well the German language, there is not a
trace of it in his writings. He is not at a loss for a
single word ; if it does not exist in his dialect, he forms
it in the spirit of the dialect, and does not borrow it
from German. As linguistic material for the study of
the Judeo-German in the beginning of this century the
writings of Lefin, Aksenfeld, Ettinger, Levinsohn, and
Gottlober are invaluable. But that is not the only
value of Lefin's writings. By acknowledging the peo-
ple's right to be instructed by means of an intelligible
language, he at the same time opened up avenues
138 YIDDISH LITERATURE
for the formation of a popular literature, based on an
intimate acquaintance with the mental life of the peo-
ple. In fact, he himself gave the example for that new
departure by writing a novel 'The First Khassid.' In
the northwest the masses were not so much opposed to
the new culture as in the south, hence the writers could
at once proceed to bring out books of popular instruction
clad in the form of stories. But the Khassidim of the
south would have rejected anything that in any way
reminded them of a civilization different from their
own. In order to accomplish results among them, they
had to be more cautious and to approach their readers
in such a way that they were conscious only of the
entertainment and not of the instruction which was
couched in the story. This demanded not only the use
of a pure vernacular, but also a detailed knowledge of
the mental habits of the people. As their conditions
of life in no way resembled those of any other people in
Europe, their literature had to be quite unique ; and
the works of the earlier writers are so peculiar in re-
gard to language, diction, and style as to baffle the
translator, who must remodel whole pages before he can
render the original intelligibly. Of such a character
are the dramas of Aksenfeld, Ettinger, and J. B. Levin-
sohn.
Ettinger, the first modern Judeo-German poet, has
also written a drama under the name of ' Serkele, or
the False Anniversary.' His bias for German culture
shows itself in the general structure of his play, which
is like that of Lessing's dramas. The plot is laid in
Lemberg, and represents the struggle of German civili-
zation with the mean and dishonest ways of the older
generation. Serkele has but one virtue, — that of an
egotistical love for her only daughter, the half-edu-
PKOSE WRITERS FROM 1817-1863 139
cated, silly Freude Altele. In order to get possession
of some jewels deposited with her by her brother for
his daughter Hinde, she invents the story of his death.
She is anxious to marry her daughter to Gavriel Handler,
who is represented to her as a rich speculator, but who
is in reality a common thief. He steals the casket con-
taining the jewels. When the theft is discovered she
throws the guilt on Marcus Redlich, a student of medi-
cine, her daughter's private teacher, and Hinde's lover.
Hinde, too, is accused of complicity, and both are taken
in chains through the town. They pass a hostlery where
a stranger has just arrived, to whom Handler is trying
to sell the jewels. The stranger is Hinde's father.
He recognizes his property, and seizes the thief just as
his daughter and her lover are taken by. A general
recognition follows, and all is righted. He finally for-
gives his sister, gives a dowry to Freude Altele, who
marries the innkeeper, while his daughter is united to
Marcus Redlich.
As in all the early productions of Judeo-German
literature, there are in that drama two distinct classes
of characters : the ideal persons, the uncle, Marcus
Redlich and Hinde, and the real men and women who
are taken out of actual life. On the side of the first
is all virtue, while among the others are to be found
the ugliest forms of vice. A worse shrew than Serkele
has hardly ever been depicted. Her speeches are com-
posed of a series of curses, in which the Jargon is pecul-
iarly inventive, interrupted by a stereotyped complaint
of her ever failing health. She hates her niece with the
hatred that the tyrant has for the object of his oppres-
sion, and she is quick to accuse her of improper conduct,
although herself of very lax morals. Nobody in the
house escapes the fury of her tongue, and her honest
140 YIDDISH LITERATURE
but weak husband has to yield to the inevitable. The
other characters are all well drawn, and the play is
an excellent portrayal of domestic life of seventy-five
years ago. It was written early in the twenties, but
was printed only in 1861, since when it has had several
editions.
In 1828 J. B. Levinsohn wrote his Hebrew work,
'Teudo Beisroel,' by which the Haskala took a firm
footing in Russia. About the same time there circu-
lated manuscript copies of a Judeo-German essay by
the same author, in which a sad picture of Jewish
communal affairs was painted in vigorous and idio-
matic words. This essay, called * The World Turned
Topsy-Turvy,' 1 is given in the form of a conversa-
tion by three persons, of whom one is a stranger from
a better country where the affairs of the Jews are
administered honestly. The other two in turn lay
before him an array of facts which it is painful to
regard as having existed in reality. It is interesting
to note that the stranger, who is Levinsohn himself,
advocates the formation of agricultural colonies for
the Jews, by which he hoped to better their wretched
condition and to gain for them respect among those
who accused them of being averse to work.
The most original and most prolific Judeo-German
writer of this early period was Israel Aksenfeld.2 He
was born in the last quarter of the eighteenth century,
and had passed the early days of his life in the neigh-
1 J. B. Levinsohn, Die hefker Welt, in Jiul Volksbib., Vol. I. pp.
133-147. His biography is given in the same place, by B. Natansohn,
on pp. 122-132. Both together are to be found in Natansohn's Die
papierne Brack? (q.v.).
2 For review of his works see O. Lerner, Krititeskij razbor poja-
vivsichsja nedavno na evrejsko-nemeckom zargone sotinenij I. Aksen-
felda, etc., Odessa, 1868, 8vo, 15 pp.
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1817-1863 141
borhood of the Rabbi of Braslow, a noted Khassid,
being himself a follower of that sect. Later in life,
in the fifties, he is remembered as a notary public in
Odessa. He was a man of great culture. Those who
knew him then speak in the highest terms of the kindly
old man that he was. They also like to dwell on the
remarkable qualities of his cultured wife, from whom
he is supposed to have received much inspiration.1
That is all that is known of his life. Gottlober men-
tions also in his * Recollections ' that he had written
twenty-six books, and that according to Aksenfeld's
own statements they had been written in the twenties
or thereabout. Of these only five were printed in
the sixties ; the rest are said to be stored away in a loft
in Odessa, where they are held as security for a debt
incurred by the trustee of his estate. Although this
fact is known to some of the Jews of that city, no one
has taken any steps to redeem the valuable manuscripts.
This is to be greatly regretted, as his books throw light
on a period of history for which there is no other docu-
mentary evidence except that given by the writings of
men who lived at that time.
Of the five books printed, one is a novel, the other
four are dramas. The first, under the name of ■ The Fil-
let of Pearls,' shows up the hypocrisy and rascality of the
Khassidic miracle-workers, as only one who has himself
been initiated in their doings could relate them. The
hero of the novel is Mechel Mazeewe. He is discovered
eating on a minor fast day, and the Rabbi uses this as an
1 She was very fond of Jean Paul Richter, and it is not at all im-
possible that the peculiar humor contained in her husband's books is
due to a transference of that author's style to the more primitive con-
ditions of the Judeo-German novel. His was a gifted family : one of
his sons became an artist, the other a famous professor of medicine
at Paris.
142 YIDDISH LITERATURE
excuse for extorting all the money the poor fellow had
earned by teaching little children and young women.
His engagement to one of his pupils, the daughter of the
beadle, is broken off for the same reason. Disgusted
with his town, he goes away from it in order to earn a
living elsewhere. Good fortune takes him to Breslau,
where he, for the first time, discovers that there are also
clean, honest, peaceful Jews. He is regenerated, and
returns to his native town, where in the meantime the
miracle-working Rabbi has succeeded in rooting out
the last vestige of heresy. At the house of the Rabbi,
Mechel has an occasion to prove the falseness of his pre-
tensions to the assembled people. Mechel is reunited
with his bride.
This bare skeleton of the plot is developed with great
care, and is adorned with a variety of incidents, each
forming a story within the story. The biting satire,
the sharp humor, the rapid development of situations,
are only excelled by his dramatic sense, which makes him
pass rapidly from descriptions, without elaborating them
to the form of dialogue. His mastery of the dialect is
remarkable ; for although one can here and there detect
his intimate acquaintance with German literature, there
is not a single case where he has been led under
obligations to the German language in thought or
a word : German is as foreign to him as French or
Latin. Of his dramas it will be sufficient to discuss
one to show their general structure. The most dramatic
of these is the one entitled * The First Recruit ' and
tells of the terrible time in 1827 when the Ukase
drafting Jewish young men into the army had for the
first time been promulgated. To the ignorant masses
it seemed as though the world would come to an end.
To avoid the great misfortune of having their sons
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1817-1863 143
taken away from them, they married them off before
they had reached their teens ; finding that that did
not prevent the ' catchers ' from seizing them, maimed,
halt, sickly men were preferred as husbands to their
daughters ; in short, all was done to avert the unspeak-
able calamity of serving the Czar. As in the novel,
there are plots within the plot, and didactic passages
are woven into the play without in the least disturbing
its unity.
The tragedy consists of eight scenes. The first
opens with a noisy meeting at the house of Solomon
Rascal, a Parnes-Chodesch (representative of the Jewish
community), on a Saturday afternoon. The cause of
the disturbance is the order to furnish one recruit from
their town, which had just been brought in from the
capital of the district by two soldiers. The assembled
kahal are wondering whether it is incumbent upon
them to sign the receipt of the order, while the infuri-
ated mob without is clamoring that the Ukase will be
ineffective as long as not signed by the representatives
of the Congregation. The kahal is divided on the
subject, and the women take a part in the discussion,
making matters lively. Upon the advice of one of the
men, the meeting is adjourned to the house of Aaron
Wiseman, the honored merchant of their town of No-
where, where they expect to get a satisfactory solution
in their perplexity. The second scene is the ideal scene
of the play. Here is depicted the happy and orderly
home life of the cultured merchant, — the reverse
of the picture just portrayed. Jisrolik the Ukrainian
arrives and announces the decision of the kahal to refer
the matter to him. Aaron Wiseman explains how the
Emperor had not intended to bring new misfortunes
upon the Jews by the mandate, but how by imposing
144 YIDDISH LITERATURE
on them the honorable duty of defending their country,
he was investing them with a new privilege upon which
greater liberties would follow. This he farther eluci-
dates in the next scene before the assembled representa-
tives of the Congregation. The fourth scene is laid in
the inn, where we are introduced to Nachman the Big,
the practical joker and terror of the town. In the
following scene, Aaron Wiseman advises the kahal to
use a ruse by which Nachman will voluntarily offer
himself as a soldier, thus freeing the town from the
unpleasant duty of making a more worthy family un-
happy. Wiseman explains that Nachman has been
a source of trouble to all, and that military service
would be the only thing that would keep him from a
possible life of crime. The ruse is accomplished in the
following manner : it is known that Nachman has
been casting his eyes on Frume, the good and beautiful
daughter of Risches the Red, the tax-gatherer. It is
proposed to send a schadchen to Nachman, pretending
that Friime's parents seek an alliance with him, and
that Frume loves him, and that she wants to get a
proof of his affection in his offering himself up as a
soldier. The apparent incongruity of the request is
amply accounted for in the play by the fact that he
who has lost his heart also loses his reason. In the
next two scenes the plot is carried out, and Nachman
becomes a soldier. The last scene contains the tragic
denouement. Chanzi, the go-between, comes to the
house of Frume and tells her of the fraud perpetrated
on Nachman. But, alas, Friime actually loves Nachman,
and she silently suffers at the recital of the story. The
climax is reached when her father arrives and tells of
Nachman's self-sacrifice, how he has given himself up for
the love he bears her, how they put him in chains and
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1817-1863 145
took him away. Friime bears her secret to the last,
but her heart breaks, and she dies. The sorrow of her
parents is great. During the lamentation Nachman's
blind mother arrives, led by a little girl. She has
learned of Chanzi's treachery, and breaks out in loud
curses against those who took part in the plot. As she
steps forward, she touches the dead body of her whom
Nachman had thought to be his bride. She addresses
her as though she were alive and consoles her that she
need not be ashamed of Nachman, who had been an
inoffensive, though somewhat wild, boy. While speak-
ing this, she faints over her body.
The characters are all admirably delineated, and how
true to nature the whole play is one can see from a
matter-of-fact story, by Dick,1 of the effects of the
Ukase on the city of Wilna. Except for the tragic
plot, the drama may serve as a historical document of
the event, and is a valuable material for the study of
the Jewish mind in the beginning of Nicholas's reign.
This must also be said of the other plays of Aksenfeld,
which all deal with conditions of contemporary Jewish
society.
Similar to Aksenfeld's subject in 'The Fillet of
Pearls' is the comedy 'The Marriage Veil' by Gott-
lober, which he wrote in 1838. Jossele, a young man
with modern ideas, is to be married to a one-eyed
monster, while his sweetheart, Freudele, is to be mated
on the same day with a disfigured fool. By Jossele's
machinations, in which he takes advantage of the
superstitions of the people, he is united nnder the
marriage veil to Freudele, while the two monstrosities
are married to each other. This is found out too late
to be mended. This plot is only an excuse to show
1 A. M. Dick, Der erster Nabor, etc., Wilna, 1871.
146 YIDDISH LITERATURE
up the hypocrisy and rascality of the miracle-working
Rabbi in even a more grotesque way than in 'The
Fillet of Pearls.' A much finer work is his story
4 The Transmigration,' which, however, is said to be
based on a similar story in the Hebrew, by Erter. In
this a dead soul, previous to finding its final resting-
place, relates of its many transmigrations ere reaching
its last stage. The succession of mundane existences
is strictly in keeping with the previous moral life of
the soul. It starts out with being a Khassidic singer,
who, like all the followers of the Rabbi, is represented
as an ignorant dupe. After his death he naturally
is turned into a horse, the emblem of good-natured
stupidity according to the popular Jewish idea. Then
he is in turn a Precentor, a fish, a tax-gatherer, a dog,
a critic, an ass, a doctor, a leech, a usurer, a pig, a con-
tractor. By far the most interesting and dramatic
incident is that of the doctor, who is trying to pass for
a pious Jew, but who is caught eating lobsters, which
are forbidden by the Mosaic Law, and who dies from
strangulation in his attempt to swallow a lobster to
hide his crime. The story is told in a fluent manner,
is very witty, and puts in strong relief the various char-
acters which are satirized.
Like the poetry of the same period, the prose litera-
ture of the writers previous to the sixties is of a militant
nature. It had for its aim the dispersion of ignorance
and superstition, and the introduction of the Haskala
and Western civilization among the Jews of Russia.
The main attack of all these early works was directed
against the fanaticism of the Khassidic sect, against
the hypocrisy of its miracle-working Rabbis in whose
interest it lay to oppose the light at all cost. But the
authors not only attacked the evil, they also showed
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1817-1863 147
the way for a reform : this they did by contrasting the
low, sordid instincts of the older generation with the
quiet, honest lives of the new. Of course, the new
generation is all German. The ideal characters of
Ettinger's drama, Aksenfeld's hero in 'The Fillet of
Pearls,' Gottlober's Jossele, have all received their train-
ing in Germany. At the same time, in accordance
with the Mendelssohnian School, these ideal persons
are not opposed to the tenets of Judaism ; on the con-
trary, they are represented as the advocates of a pure
religion in place of the base substitute of Khassidism.
Outside of the didactic purpose, which, however, does
not obtrude on the artistic development of the story,
the Judeo- German literature of that period owes its
impulse to the three German authors, Lessing, Schiller,
Jean Paul Richter. As regards its language, the ex-
ample set by Lefin prevails, and all the productions are
written in an idiomatic, pure dialect of the author's
nearest surroundings. There is but one exception to
that, and that is ' The Discovery of America,' which,
being mainly intended for a Lithuanian public, is
written in a language which makes approaches to the
literary German, whereby it opened wide the way to
misuses of various kinds.
X. PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881:
ABRAMOWITSCH
Zederbatjm,1 the friend and fellow-townsman of
Ettinger, began in 1863 to publish a Judeo-German
weekly under the name of Kol-mewasser, as a supple-
ment to his Hebrew weekly, the Hameliz. This was the
first organ of the kind for Russia, for the one edited in
Warsaw forty years before was not written in the dialect
of the people. Let us look for the cause of such an inno-
vation.
The advocates of the Haskala regarded it as one of
their sacred duties to spread culture wherever and
whenever they could do so. This they did through
the medium of the Hebrew and the Judeo-German.
The first was a literary language, the other was not
regarded as worthy of being such. If, therefore, there
was some cause to feel an author's pride in attaching
one's name to productions in the first tongue, there was
no inducement to subscribe it to works in the second.
It was, to a certain extent, a sacrifice that the authors
made in condescending to compose in Judeo-German,
and the only reward they could expect was the good
their books would do in disseminating the truth among
their people. The songs of M. Gordon and Gottlober,
and the works of Ettinger and Aksenfeld, were passed
anonymously throughout the whole land. The books
were not even printed, but were manifolded in manu-
script form by those who had the Haskala at heart. A
1 Short, biography in Sseefer Sikoron, p. 97.
148
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 149
few years before the issue of the Kol-mewasser, the efforts
of these men began to bear ample fruit. It was no
longer dangerous to be called a ■ German,' and many
Jewish children were being sent to the gymnasia, to
which the Government had in the meanwhile admitted
them. The Rabbinical schools at Wilna and Zhitomir,
too, were graduating sets of men who had been receiv-
ing religious instruction according to the improved
methods of the Haskala. It was then that some of the
works written decades before, for the first time saw day-
light, but more as a matter of curiosity of what had
been done long ago, than with any purpose. It would
even then have been somewhat risky to sign one's name
to them for fear of ridicule, and no native firm would
readily undertake their publication. Thus the first two
works of Aksenfeld were issued from a press at Leipsic
in 1862, while Ettinger's 'Serkele' had appeared the
year before at Johannisburg. Only the following year
Linetzki's 'Poems' were published at Kiev, and, by
degrees, the authors took courage to abandon their
anonyms and pseudonyms for their own names. The
time was ripe for a periodical to collect the scattered
forces, for there was still work to be done among those
who had not mastered the sacred language, and they
were in the majority. At that juncture, Zederbaum
began to issue his supplement to the Hameliz.
This new weekly was not only the crowning of the
work of the past generation of writers, it became also
the seminary of a new set of authors. It fostered the
talents of those who, for want of a medium of publica-
tion, might have devoted their strength entirely to
Hebrew, or would have attempted to assimilate to them-
selves the language of the country. In the second year
of the existence of the periodical, there appeared in it
150 YIDDISH LITERATURE
4 The Little Man,' the first work of Abramowitsch, who
was soon to lead Judeo-German literature to heights
never attempted before by it, and with whom a new and
more fruitful era begins.
Solomon Jacob Abramowitsch 1 was born in 1835, in
the town of Kopyl, in the Government of Minsk. He
received his Jewish instruction in a Cheeder, and later
in a Jeschiwe, a kind of Jewish academy. He conse-
quently, up to his seventeenth year, had had no other
instruction except in religious lore. His knowledge of
Hebrew was so thorough that, at the age of seventeen,
he was able to compose verses in that language. He
lost his father early, and his mother married a second
time. When he was eighteen years old, there arrived
in his native town a certain Awremel the Lame, who
had been leading a vagabond's life over the southern
part of Russia. He told so many wonderful stories
about Volhynia, where, according to his words, there
flowed milk and honey, that many of the inhabitants
of Kopyl were thinking of emigrating to the south.
Awremel also persuaded Abramowitsch 's aunt to go
with him in search of her absent husband. That she
did, taking her nephew along with her. It soon turned
out, however, that Awremel was exploiting them as
objects of charity, by collecting alms over the breadth
and length of the country. For several months he kept
zigzagging in his wagon from town to town, wherever he
expected to find charitable Jews, until at last they ar-
rived a certain distance beyond Kremenets. Here they
passed a carriage from which proceeded a voice call-
1 For fuller information on the life and works of Abramowitsch
see his autobiography in Sseefer SiJcordn, pp. 117-126 ; see also the
references in the Sistematiceskij ukazateV, p. 286, Nos. 4663-4669, of
which No. 4666 is the most important.
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 151
ing Abramowitsch by his given name. They stopped,
and Abramowitsch was astonished to discover his friend
of his childhood, who had, in the meantime, become a
chorister in Kremenets. The latter invited his youth-
ful friend to go back to town with him, promising to
take care of him. This the young wanderer was only
too glad to do, for he wished to be rid of Awremel, who
had been tantalizing him with his almsbegging. The
Precentor, who was in the carriage with the chorister,
paid off the driver, and Abramowitsch started with
them back to town, where a new period began in his
life.
His thorough acquaintance with the Talmud and the
Hebrew language soon gained him many friends, and he
was able to make a living by teaching the children of
the wealthier inhabitants. One of his friends advised
him to make the acquaintance of the poet Gottlober,
who, at that time, was teaching in one of the local
Jewish schools. The old man who was giving him that
counsel added : " Go to see him some evening when no
one will notice you, and make his acquaintance. He is
an apostate who shaves his beard, and he does not enjoy
the confidence of our community. Nor do we permit
young men to cultivate an acquaintance with him ; but
you are a learned man, and you will know how to meet
the statements of that heretic. He is a fine Hebrew
scholar, and it might do you good to meet him. Re-
member the words of Rabbi Meier: 'Eat the whole-
some fruit, and cast away the rind.' I'll tell the beadle
to show you the way to the apostate."
On the evening of the following day, Abramowitsch
betook himself, with a copy of a Hebrew drama he had
composed, to the house of Gottlober. The latter smiled
at the childish attempt of the young Talmudist, but he
152 YIDDISH LITERATURE
did not fail to recognize the talent that needed only the
fostering care of a teacher to reach its full develop-
ment, and he himself offered his services to him, and
invited him to be a frequent caller at his house. Here,
under the guidance of Gottlober's elder daughter, he
received his first instruction in European languages,
and in the rudiments of arithmetic. He swallowed with
avidity everything he could get, and soon he was able
to write a Hebrew essay on education which was printed
in the Hamagid, and which attracted much attention at
the time. His fate soon led him to Berdichev, "the
Jewish Moscow," where he married for a second time,
and settled down for many years. In 1859 his first
serious work, still in Hebrew, was published. In 1863
began his Judeo-German career, in which he still con-
tinues, and which has made him famous among all who
read in that language.
The tradition of the Haskala came down to Abramo-
witsch in an uninterrupted succession, from Mendel
Lefin through Ettinger and Gottlober. He, too, started
out with the set purpose of spreading enlightenment
among his people, and in his first two works we find a
sharp demarkation between the two kinds of character,
the ideal and the real. But he was too much of an artist
by nature to persevere in his didactic attitude, and
before long he abandoned entirely that field, to devote
his undivided energy to the production of purely artistic
works. Even his earlier books, in which he combats
some public nuisance, differ materially from those of
his predecessors in that they reflect not only conditions
of society as they actually existed at his time, but in
that his characters are true studies from nature. No
one of his contemporaries reading, for example, his
' The Little Man,' could be in doubt of who was meant
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 153
by this or that name. The portrait was so closely, and
yet so artistically, copied from some well-known denizen
of Berdichev that there could be no doubt as to the
identity. There are even more essential points in his
stories and dramas in which he widely departs from his
predecessors. While these saw in a religious reform
and in German culture a solution out of the degraded
state into which their co-religionists had fallen, he
preached that a reform from within must precede all
regeneration from without. While they directed their
attacks against the Khassidim as the enemies of light,
and their Rabbis as their spiritual guides, he cautiously
avoided all discussions of religion and culture, and
sought in local communal reforms a basis for future
improvements. To him the physical well-being of the
masses was a more important question than their spir-
itual enlightenment, and according to his ideas a moral
progress was only possible after the economical condition
had been considerably bettered. His precursors had
looked upon the Haskala as the most precious treasure,
to be-preferred to all else in life. Abramowitsch loves
his people more than wisdom and culture, and the more
oppressed and suffering those he loves, the more earnest
and the more fervent are his words in their behalf. He
is the advocate of the poor against the rich, the down-
trodden against the oppressor, the meek and long-suffer-
ing against the haughty usurper of the people's rights.
He is, consequently, worshipped by the masses, and has
been hated and persecuted by those whose meanness,
rascality, and hypocrisy he has painted in such glaring
colors. He had even once to flee for his life, so en-
raged had the representatives of the kahal become at
their lifelike pictures in one of his dramas. His love
for the people is an all-pervading passion, for man is his
154 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Godhead. There is a divine element in the lowest of
human beings, and he thinks it worth while to dis-
cover it and to bring it to light, that it may outshine
all the vices that have beclouded it. He turns beggar
with the beggar he describes, becomes insane with him
who ponders over the ills of this earth, and suffers the
criminal's punishment. He at all times identifies
himself with those of whom he speaks.
In the more external form of composition there is
again a vast progress from the writings of Lefin to the
style and diction of Abramowitsch. Lefin was the first
to show what vigor there was in the use of the everyday
vernacular. Ettinger, Aksenfeld, and Gottlober have
well adapted that simple, unadorned speech to the re-
quirements of literary productions ; but it was only
Abramowitsch who demonstrated what wealth of word-
building, what possibilities of expression, lay dormant
in the undeveloped dialects of Judeo-German. He was
peculiarly fitted to enrich the language by new forma-
tions, for having passed the first eighteen years of his
life in Lithuania and passing the greater part of his
later years in the Southwest, he was enabled to draw
equally from the source of his native Lithuanian dia-
lect and the spoken variety of his new home. He has
welded the two so well that his works can be read with
equal ease in the North and in the South, whereas the
language of Aksenfeld offers a number of difficulties
to the Lithuanians and even the Polish Jews whose dia-
lect the Southern variety resembles. In diction he dif-
fers from his masters in that he substitutes a regular
prose structure for the semi-dramatic utterances of the
older narration, without affecting the natural speeches
of the characters wherever these are introduced. In
these cases he becomes so idiomatic as to baffle the best
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 155
translator, who must be frequently satisfied with mere
circumlocutions. He also abandons the anonym of the
former generation for a pseudonym, Mendele the Book-
pedler, which is, however, but a thin disguise for his
real name, for his writings are of such an individuality
that there can be no doubt about their authorship.
Beginning with Abramowitsch style is regarded as an
important requisite of a Judeo-German work.
Now we shall turn to the discussion of his several
books. The subject of his first, • The Little Man,' is an
autobiography of a man, who, by low flattery, vile ser-
vility, and all dishonest ways, rises to high places of
emolument which he uses entirely in order to enrich
himself at the expense of the people. Such men had
been the bane of Jewish communities in the middle of
our century. In Berdichev it was, at the time of the
publication of the book, Jacob Josef Alperin, who by
similar means had come to be the right hand of the
Governor General, Bibikov ; but far more vile than he
was Hersch Meier Held, who stood in the same relation
to Alperin that the latter occupied to the Governor
General. That flunky of a flunky is personified as the
hero of the story, Isaac Abraham Takif . In this work
we still have the ideal persons of the older writers.
We are introduced there to a poor, honest, and cultured
family, in whom one cannot fail to recognize his master
and friend, Gottlober, and his daughter.
If this work made him a host of friends among those
who were the victims of Alperin and Held, the next
drama he wrote endangered his stay in Berdichev, for
the persons attacked in it, the representatives of the
kahal, would not shrink from any crime to rid them-
selves of a man who, like Abramowitsch, had come to
be a power and a stumbling-block to their incredible
156 YIDDISH LITERATURE
rascalities. The greatest curse of the Jewish commu-
nity in Russia had ever been the meat and candle tax,
which all had to pay, nominally to support communal
institutions, but the greater part of which went into the
pockets of the representatives of the kahal to whom the
tax was farmed out. No meat and no candle could be
purchased without that arbitrary imposition by the
members of the kahal, who in their fiendish craving for
money increased the original cost of meat several fold,
and who spared no means, however criminal, to silence
any opposition to their doings. It is these men that
Abramowitsch had the courage to hold up to the scorn
of the people in his 'The Meat-Tax, or the Gang of
City Benefactors.'1 He had to flee for his life, but the
drama did its work. It even attracted the attention of
the Government, which tried to remedy the evil. It
became the possession of the people, and many of its
salient sentences have become everyday proverbs. The
revolt against that Gang of City Benefactors of Ber-
dichev was so great that Moses Josef Chodrower, whom
all recognized as the prototype of the arch-rascal Spodek
in the play, and who had been a prominent and wealthy
merchant, was soon driven into bankruptcy by the in-
furiated population that refused to support him. That
was the first time that a literary production written in
Judeo-German had become a factor in social affairs.
A Russian troupe that was then playing at Berdichev
wanted to give a Russian version of the drama, but was
restrained from doing so by the machinations of the
kahal. The book had done its work thoroughly.
In the same year there appeared his story from the
life of the Jewish mendicants, 'Fischke the Lame.'2
1 Translated into Russian by Petrikovski.
2 Reviews of this work are in JM. Volksblatt, Vol. VIII. (Beilage),
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 157
This psychological study of the impulses of the lowest
dregs of society is probably unique in all literature.
It is a love story from the world of the lame and the
halt that constitute the profession of mendicants in the
Jewish part of every Russian town in the West. But it
is not merely the love of Fischke the Lame for a beggar
girl and the jealousy of his blind wife, who tyrannizes
over him in spite of her affliction, that we are made
acquainted with in that remarkable book. We are
introduced there to a class of people with entirely dif-
ferent motives, different aims in life, from those we are
accustomed to see about us. They hide from daylight
and have a morality of their own ; but yet they are
possessed of the passions that we find in beings endowed
with all the senses and enjoying the advantages of well-
organized society. One must have lived among them,
been one of them, so to reproduce their language, their
thoughts, as Abramowitsch has done in this novel ; and
one must have broad sympathies with all humankind
to be able to find the divine spark ablaze even in the
lowest men.
His next work, i The Dobbin,' * is the most perfect of
his productions. It unites into one a psychological
study of a demented man, with a delicate allegory, in
which the history of his people in Russia is delineated,
thus serving as a transition from the pure novel in his
former production to the composite allegory in his
poetical work 4 Judel ' which was published a few years
later. It combines a biting satire with a tragic story ;
it is a prophecy and a history in one. If the 'Meat
Tax' had made him the favorite of the masses who
pp. 1385-1396, by J. Levi; and Voschod, 1889, Nos. 1, 2, 4, by
M. G. Morgulis.
1 Translated into Polish by Klemens Junosza.
158 YIDDISH LITERATURE
suffered from the oppression of the members of the
kahal, 4 The Dobbin ' was calculated to endear him with
all who professed the Jewish faith ; for while the first
pointed out an internal evil which could be remedied,
the second painted in vivid colors their sufferings in the
present and the misfortunes which awaited them in the
future, which were entirely of an external nature over
which they had no control. It showed them more
graphically than anything that had been said hereto-
fore how helpless they were to meet the charges which
were continually cast against them by the Gentiles and
the Government. Abramowitsch foresaw that the turn-
ing-point in the inner life of his race was near at hand,
that the call to progress of the early writers had availed
them little in righting them with the world without, that
his own productions acquainting them with their weak
points from within were now out of place, and that
soon they would need only words of consolation such as
are uttered when a great calamity overtakes a people.
In 1873 hardly any one dreamed of the possibility of
the riots against the Jews that were to be inaugurated
eight years later, for it was just then that the highest
privileges had been granted to them, and the assimila-
tion had been going on to such an extent that Judeo-
German literature would have been a thing of the past,
had not the writers of the previous decade continued
now and then to issue a volume of their works. But
Abramowitsch saw that the reforms of Alexander II.
were not conceived in the same liberal spirit as had
been proposed by Nicholas I., and that sooner or later
they would be followed by retrenchments such as would
throw the Jews back into conditions far worse than
those they had been in half a century before ; for they
would find no avenues for their many new energies
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 159
which they had developed in the meanwhile. It is
this coming event that the author has depicted in his
fantastic story, 4The Dobbin.' Jisrolik has made up
his mind to acquire Gentile culture, and he is preparing
himself for an examination in the Gymnasium. He
falls in with a Dobbin that is pursued by everybody,
and this so affects him, together with the worry over
his examination, that he becomes demented, and he
imagines that the Dobbin is talking to him. After
that the animal is introduced as a transmigrated soul
that tells its biography. The Dobbin is the personifica-
tion of the Jewish race. The book was very popular,
and although there was a demand for new editions, the
Russian Government would not permit them, as even
this veiled allegory appeared to it as too open an accu-
sation of its acts. Only sixteen years later the censor
relaxed and allowed a second edition to appear.
In 1879 there was published by Abramowitsch a vol-
ume entitled 'The Wanderings of Benjamin the Third,'1
which is an excellent pendant to Cervantes's famous
work and which has therefore been called by its Polish
translator 'The Jewish Don Quixote.' The subject of
his caricature was a real fellow, named Tscharny, who
had been employed by some French society to under-
take a scientific journey into the Caucasus, but who was
entirely unfit for the work, as he had a very superficial
knowledge of geography. For his more immediate pur-
pose Abramowitsch copied a crazy fellow who was all
the time citing passages from a fantastic Hebrew geog-
raphy he had been poring over. Out of this Abramo-
witsch evolved the story of the Quixotic fellow who
starts out to discover the mystic river Sambation and
the tribe of the Red Jews, but who never gets any
1 Translated into Polish by Klemens Junosza.
160 YIDDISH LITERATURE
further than the town of Berdichev and its dirty river
Gnilopyat.
Of the other works x of Abramowitsch the most im-
portant is his drama l The Enlistment,' which deals with
the same subject as Aksenfeld's 4The First Recruit,'
but referring it to more modern times. After a long
silence the author has again resumed his pen, and
one may look forward for some new classics in Judeo-
German. He has also written a number of popular
scientific articles, which have been widely circulated
by means of calendars which he has edited. His popu-
larity as a writer is best illustrated by the fact that for
a series of years his income from his books and calen-
dars has amounted to three thousand roubles a year.
Considering the poverty of the reading public, for
whom cheap editions have to be issued, and the gen-
eral custom of borrowing books rather than buying
them, this will appear as a very great sum indeed.
Many of the younger authors lovingly refer to him as
the 4 Grandfather,' although no one has attempted to
imitate him either in manner or style. He forms by
himself a school, and would have been the last to
write in the dialect but for the occurrences of the
eighties that have been the cause of a new set of
writers who have no reason to follow the authors of the
period of the Haskala, but who dip their pens in the
blood that has been shed in the riots, or who from
the same cause speak to their brethren, though not of
them.
1 His shorter stories have appeared in Hausfreund, Vol. I. pp. 128-
134; Vol. III. pp. 1-9; Vol. IV. pp. 3-25; Jud.Volksbib., Vol. II.
pp. 7-93 ; Jud. Volkskalender, Vol. III. pp. 53-64.
XI. PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881:
LINETZKI, DICK
In 1867 the Kol-mewasser began publishing a serial
story by Linetzki1 under the name of 4 The Polish Boy.'
Its popularity at once became so great that to satisfy
the impatient public the editor was induced to print the
whole in book form as a supplement long before it had
been finished in the periodical. The interest in the
book lay not so much in the fact that it was written
with boundless humor as in its being practically an
autobiography in which the readers found so much to
bring back recollections of their own sad youth. They
found there a graphic description of the whole course
of a Khassid's life as no one before Linetzki had painted
it, — as only one could paint it who had himself been one
of the sect, standing in an even nearer relation to their
Rabbis than had been the case with Aksenfeld. While
the latter had been a follower of one, Linetzki had
narrowly escaped being a Rabbi himself, had suffered
all kinds of persecution for attempting to abandon the
narrow sphere of a Khassid's activity, and knew from
bitter experience all the facts related in his work. The
story of his own life, unadorned by any fiction, was
dramatic enough to be worth telling, but he has en-
riched it with so many details of everyday incidents as
to change the simple biography into a valuable cyclo-
pedia of the life and thoughts of his contemporaries, in
1 Short notice of his works in Sseefer Sikoron, pp. 59, 60 ; cf . also
notices mentioned in SistematUeskij ukazatel, p. 286, Nos. 4670-4672.
161
162 YIDDISH LITERATURE
which one may get information on the folklore, games,
education, superstitions, and habits of his people in the
middle of our century.
Linetzki was born in 1839 in Vinitsa, in the Govern-
ment of Podolsk. At the age of six he was far enough
advanced in Hebrew to begin the study of the Talmud.
At ten he had passed through all the Jewish schools,
and there was nothing left for his teachers to teach
him. He was an Ilu% an accomplished scholar, but his
father, who was a Khassidic Rabbi, was not satisfied
with his mere scholastic acquirements ; he wanted him
to be initiated in all the mysteries of the Cabbala which
would make of him a fanatical Khassid. He was put
for that purpose in the hands of a few of his blind fol-
lowers, who did not spare any means to kill the last ray
of reason in him, even if they had to resort to violent
punishments, with which they were very liberal. In-
stead of curbing his spirit, they only succeeded in
nurturing an undying hatred toward themselves and
everything connected with their doctrine. But finding
it impossible to tear himself away from their tyranny, he
finally feigned submission and openly professed adhe-
rence to his sect, while he secretly visited the few in-
telligent people that the town could muster up and
borrowed from them works that told of the Haskala or
that gave some useful instruction. These books he
would take with him to uninhabited houses, or to the
Smpty synagogues, and pore over them until their con-
tents had been appropriated by the precocious boy. His
father began to suspect that something was wrong with
his son, so at the age of fourteen he married him to a
girl who, he hoped, would take him back on the road of
Khassidism. But finding that, contrary to his expecta-
tions, she agreed in everything with her child-husband,
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 163
the father managed to divorce her from him. Linetzki's
patience had come to an end ; he threw off the thin mask
he had been wearing, and began to make open attacks
on the fanatics. He was again forced into marriage, but
with the same result as before. The Khassidim now
wanted to get rid of him at all cost, and in a dark night
he was seized by them and thrown into the river. He
was saved as if by a miracle. After that he was care-
fully guarded by the police, and his enemies did not
dare to lay hands on him again. At the age of eighteen
he escaped to Odessa, where he eked out his existence
by teaching Hebrew to children, all the time perfecting
himself in worldly sciences. He was again pursued by
the Khassidim of the city, who got away with a box full
of his manuscripts, and he decided to leave Russia, to
take a course at the Rabbinical Seminary in Breslau.
What was his surprise when, upon arriving at the
Austrian frontier, he was put in chains by the Rabbi of
the border town, who threatened to present a forged
despatch from Odessa in which Linetzki was named as
a dangerous criminal. He again pretended to repent,
and was taken back to his father, from whom the forged
despatch had emanated. The latter compelled his son
to do penance at the house of the Rabbi of Sadugora.
After that he was divorced from his second wife, as it
was hoped that it would conciliate him to free him from
the ties which had been hateful to him. Linetzki, how-
ever, took the first occasion to escape again. This time
he went to Zhitomir, where at the age of twenty-three
he entered the third class of the Rabbinical school, as
his insufficient knowledge of Russian made it impossible
for him to attend a higher class. His schoolmates were
about twelve years old, and ridiculed the man who was
sitting on the same bench with them. He left the in-
164 YIDDISH LITERATURE
stitution and went to Kiev, where in 1863 his Judeo-
German literary career began by his volume of poetry
discussed in a previous chapter. His next work was
4 The Polish Boy,' which has gained him a reputation
as a classic writer.
Were it not for the many didactic passages which the
author has interwoven in the second part of his story, it
might easily be counted among the most perfect pro-
ductions of Jewish literature. These unfortunately mar
the unity of the whole. Except for these, the book
is characterized by a truly Rabelaisian humor. Its
greatest merit is that it follows so closely actual expe-
riences as to become a photographic reproduction of
scenes. There is hardly any plot in it, and it is doubt-
ful if Linetzki would have succeeded so well had he
attempted a piece of fiction, for in his many later works
he is signally defective in this direction. The mere
photographic quality of the story, the straightforward
tone that pervades it, the grotesque, unbounded humor
which one meets at every turn, have made it acceptable
to the Khassidim themselves, who grin at their carica-
tures but must confess that it is absolutely true. The
copy of the book in my possession was sold to me by
a pious itinerant Rabbi, who had treasured it as a
precious work.
Linetzki was misled by his early success to regard
his unchecked humor as his special domain, and into
cultivating it to the exclusion of the finer qualities
of style and sound reason. The farther he proceeds,1
the less readable his works become, the coarser his wit.
Later, in the eighties, he abandons entirely original
1 Shorter stories have appeared in Familienfreund, Vol. I. pp. 84-86 ;
Hausfreund, Vol. I. pp. 121-128 ; Jv.d. Volksbib. Vol. I. pp. 62-92 ;
Vol. II. pp. 98-119 | Volksfreund, pp. 14-16.
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 165
work to devote himself to the translation of German
books. We have from his pen versions of Lessing's
4 Nathan the Wise ' and Graetz's 4 History of the Jews. '
The first is rather a free paraphrase than an artistic
translation, while the second is not as carefully done as
one might have expected. But once has he returned to
the style of his 4 The Polish Boy,' in his 4 The Maggot
in the Horseradish,' : but that is but a reflection of his
great work. Linetzki's reputation is based only on his
first novel, which will ever remain a classic.
A number of men with less talent than those hereto-
fore mentioned have attempted imitations of this or
that popular book. Among these writers the attacks
against the Khassidim still continue at a time when
they have lost their power to sting, when the best au-
thors have abandoned that field for more useful works.
However, some of the minor productions are quite cred-
itable performances. Such, for example, is the well-
told story in verse by M. Epstein, entitled 4 Lemech, the
Miracle-worker,' published in 1880. It tells of Lemech
the tailor who leaves his wife, and turns miracle-worker,
which he finds more profitable than his tailoring. He
settles in a distant town and persuades one of the
wealthy men to give him his daughter in marriage.
The miracle -worker must not be refused, and the
daughter's previous engagement with Rosenblatt, her
lover, is broken off. Just as the rings are to be ex-
changed which would unite Lemech with Rosenblatt's
former bride, Rosenblatt steps up with Lemech's wife,
who has been travelling about to find her unfaithful
husband, whom she knows only as a tailor. The story
is developed naturally, and the reflections interwoven
in it are well worth reading. An earlier one-act drama
1 Jud.Volksbib., Vol. I. pp. 62 ff.
166 YIDDISH LITERATURE
by the same author, 'The Drubbing of the Apostate
at Foolstown,' relates also in verse of the punishment
inflicted by the Rabbi on the Jew who had been found
reading one of Mendelssohn's books. Another, 'The
Conversation of the Khassidim,' by Maschil Brettmann,
gives in the form of a dialogue the best exposition of
the tenets of that sect, and shows how the various
stories of miracle- workings originate. The introduc-
tion contains a short historical sketch of this strange
aberration of miracle-working, written in an excellent
prose.
While these writers had in view the eradication of
some error and the dissemination of culture by their
works, the ancient story-telling for the mere love of
amusing still continues to attract the masses. The
better class of authors were too serious to condescend
to compete with the badchen in their efforts to enter-
tain. The lighter story was consequently left to an
inferior set of men who frequently had no other excuse
for writing their stories than the hope of earning a few
roubles by them. Of such a character are 'Doctor
Kugelmann,' 'Wigderl the Son of Wigderl.' There is,
however, a wide difference in these from similar story-
books of the previous generation. The older chap-
books were based mainly on the romantic material of
the West, generally reflecting nothing of the Jewish
life in them. The newer stories of the Southwest of
Russia have this in common with the works of the clas-
sical writers, that they reproduce scenes of contempora-
neous Jewish life. At times these tales are well told
and well worth reading. Such is the amusing quid pro
quo in 'A Jew, then not a Jew, then a Good Jew [i.e. a
Khassid], and Again a Jew,' by S. Hochbaum. Still
more interesting is the charming comedy ' The Savings
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 167
of the Women ' by Ludwig Levinsohn.1 Its plot is as
follows : Jekel, a Khassid, returns late at night to his
house, where he is awaited by his wife Selde. To
silence her torrent of invectives he invents a story that
the decree of Rabbi Gershon, by which monogamy had
been introduced among the Jews of Europe in the
eleventh century, was about to be dissolved in order
that by marrying several wives the Jews of the town
might get new dowries with which to pay the arrears
in their taxes. His wife spreads this news throughout
the community, to the great terror of the women. They
resolve to avert the calamity by offering up their sav-
ings stored away in stockings and bundles. These are
brought to the assembled brotherhood of the Khassidim,
who, of course, use the money for a jollification. There
are many amusing incidents in the play. The servant
of Selde is dreaming of the time when she shall be
married to Jekel and when she will lord it over her
former mistress ; the scene in the women's galleries
when the news of the impending misfortune is reported
is very humorous, and the attempt of the Rabbi's wife
to learn the truth of the fact from her husband who had
not been initiated in the story by Jekel is quite dra-
matic. It is one of the best, if not the best, comedy
written in Judeo-German.
A number of witty stories in a semi-dramatic form
have been produced by Ulrich Kalmus; the most of
these are disfigured by coarse jokes, but a few of them
it would well pay to rearrange for scenic representa-
tion. One of his best is a version of the Talmudical
legend of the devil and the bad wife ; it is almost pre-
1 His name does not appear on any of the editions of his comedy.
Early in the seventies he had turned his work over to Wollmann for
publication ; the latter surreptitiously published it over his own initials.
168 YIDDISH LITERATURE
cisely the same that Robert Browning has versified in
his * Doctor .' A good story, resembling Linetzki's
'The Polish Boy,' but with much less bitterness and
humor, is given in ' Jekele Kundas,' by one who signs
himself by the pseudonym Abasch. Translations from
foreign tongues are not uncommon in this period.
Some Russian stories are rendered into Judeo-German ;
also a few German dramas, such as Lessing's 'The
Jews'; from the English we have Walter Scott's
4 Ivanhoe ' and Longfellow's 4 Judas Maccabseus ' ; and
from the French we get for that time Masse's 4The
Story of a Piece of Bread,' and from the Hebrew one
of Luzzato's dramas. To other useful works of a scien-
tific character we shall return later.
There is a marked difference in the development of
Judeo-German literature in the Khassidic Southwest
and the Misnagdic North. While the first gave prom-
ise of a natural growth and a better future, the second
showed early the seeds of decay. The nearness to
Germany explains the deterioration of the literary
Judeo-German of Lithuania, but the cause for the
weaker activity in the literature itself is to be sought
in the whole mental attitude of the Misnagdim, who as
strict ritualists did not allow the promptings of the
heart to interfere with their blind adherence to the
Law. The very origin of Khassidism was due to a
protest against that cold formalism which excluded
everything imaginative. Unfortunately this protest
opened the v?&y to the Cabbala and admitted the wild-
est excesses of mysticism in the affairs of everyday
life, and this soon gave rise to that form of the new
sect with which we meet so frequently in the descrip-
tions of the early authors of the Southwest. These,
however, in tearing themselves away from their early
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1803-1881 169
associations abandoned only their degraded religious
faith, not the love for the fanciful which, if properly
directed by a controlling reason, would lead to an artis-
tic career. The Misnagdim, on the contrary, in break-
ing with their traditions were predisposed to become
rationalists with whom utilitarian motives prevailed
over the finer sentiments. Their advocates of the
Reform, who took to writing in the vernacular of the
people, set about from the very start to create a useful,
rather than an artistic, literature, to give positive in-
struction rather than to amuse. The outward form of
language and style was immaterial to them ; the infor-
mation the story carried was their only excuse for writ-
ing it. Foremost of that class of writers was Aisik
Meier Dick,1 who in the introduction to one of his
stories2 speaks as follows of his purpose in publishing
them :
" Our women have no ear and no feeling for pure
ethical instruction. They want to hear only of mira-
cles and wonderful deeds whether invented or true ;
they find delight in the story of Joseph de la Reyna, or
of Elijah's appearance in the form of an old man to be
the tenth in the Minyan on the eve of the Atonement
day ; they are even satisfied with the story of Bevys of
Hamptoun and the Greyhound, with the Horse Drend-
sel and the Sword Familie, and with the beautiful Prin-
cess Deresna, or merely with a story of a Bride and
Bridegroom.
u This sad fact, dear readers, I took deep to heart,
and I resolved to make use of this very weakness for
interesting stories for their own good by composing
1 Short mention in Sseefer Sikoron, p. 26 ; necrology in Haus-
freund, Vol. III. p. 312.
2 Der Schiwim-mahlzeit, p. 10.
170 YIDDISH LITERATURE
books of an entertaining nature, which would at the
same time carry moral lessons. Thanks to God I have
succeeded in my undertaking, for my stories are being
read diligently, and they are productive of good. Sev-
eral hundred stories of all kinds have been so far issued
by me, each having a different purpose. Even every
witty tale and mere witticism teaches something useful.
I am sure a great number of my readers do not suspect
my good intentions, and read my stories, just as they
read Bovo, for pastime only, and will accuse me, the
writer of the same, as being a mere babbler who dis-
tracts the attention from serious studies, and as writing
them for the money that there is in them. I know all
that full well, and yet I keep on doing my duty, for
even greater men than I have been treated in no better
way by our nation ; our prophets have been cursed by
us, and beaten, and pulled by the hair, and spit upon,
and some have even been killed. I am proud to be
able to say that I am not making my living from my
writings, and I should have been repaid tenfold better
if I had passed my time in some more profitable work.
But I do it only out of love for my nation, of whom the
most do not know how far they are removed from man-
kind at large, and what a miserable position we occupy
in these enlightened days among the civilized nations.
. . . We must, whether we wish or not, enter into
much closer relations with the outside world than our
parents did. We must, therefore, be better acquainted
with the world, that we may be tolerated by our fel-
low-men (the Gentiles), who surpass us in civiliza-
tion. . . . Consequently, I regard it as a great favor
to speak to you by means of my books, and as a still
greater favor that the famous firm of Romm is willing
to print them, for the publication of prayers is more
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 171
profitable than that of story-books that are only read
in circulating libraries or merely borrowed from a
friend."
This passage fully characterizes Dick's activity, which
lasted from the fifties until his death, in 1893. He was
not a man of deep learning, and did not produce any
masterpieces, such as the other writers of the time were
printing in the South. But he atoned for this by his
great earnestness and good common sense, which led
him to choose the best subjects for his stories, such as
would be of the most immediate good for his humble
readers. He translated or imitated the leading popular
books of his time, not limiting himself to such as were
taken out of Jewish life, but independently of their
religious tenor. Among his translations we find the
works of Bernstein, Campe, Beecher-Stowe; there are
imitations of Danish, French, Polish, and Russian
books ; and many subjects, not easily traceable now,
have been suggested to him by other literatures. He
has also written many stories taken from the life of
the Lithuanian Jews. He ascribes great importance to
biographies, devoting several introductions to impress
the necessity of reading these. But he treats just as
frequently geographical and historical themes ; among
the latter he has even dared to give an impartial dis-
cussion of the Reformation.
At first Dick's books were small 16mos of rarely more
than forty-eight pages, and up to the year 1871 the
abbreviation AMD, for his name, occurs but twice.
After that all his works bear the initials, or even the
name in full. The small size of the books is due to
his desire to make them accessible to the poorest of his
race ; this necessitated a retrenchmert of nearly all the
works which he translated. Only in the eighties, when
172 YIDDISH LITERATURE
reading had become universal and more expensive works
could be published, did he issue octavos of considerable
thickness, some of them being four-volumed books.
Dick had no talent as a writer, and his style is but a
weak reflection of the originals which he translated.
The language he uses is a frightful mixture of Judeo-
German with German, the latter frequently predomi-
nating over the first, so that he is often obliged to
give in parentheses the explanation of unusual words.
And so it happened that, although his purpose had
been a good one, and his influence had at first been
salutary on a very large circle of readers, he has set a
bad example to a large host of scribblers who have
taken all imaginable liberties with the language and
the subjects they treated of, and have produced a flood
of bastard literature under which the many better pro-
ductions are entirely drowned. He has destroyed all
feeling for a proper diction, and has cultivated only a
passion for reading, so that it was necessary for his fol-
lowers to write 4 ein hochst interessanter Roman ' on the
title-page, and parade the book with crumbs of German
words unintelligible to the public, in order to find a
ready sale.
One of the first to write in the style of Dick was
M. R. Schaikewitsch,1 who began his prolific career in
1876, since which time he has brought out more than
one hundred books, the most of which are of bulky pro-
portions. At first he was satisfied to tell stories from
the life of his immediate surroundings, but soon he
1 Cf. S. Rabinowitsch, Schomer's Mischpet, and Seiffert's Das Tel-
lerl vim '?n Himmel (Ein Entwer auf M. Schaikewitsch? s Taines), in
Die neue Welt, No. 5, pp. 11-21. To his detractors Schaikewitsch
an ,wered in his pamphlet Jehi Or. Other reviews in JUd. Volksblatt,
Vol. VIII. (Beilage), pp. 335-361, 455-467, 707-714, 738-743, 763-773.
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 173
aspired to higher things, and began to drag in by the
hair scenes and situations of which he did not have the
slightest conception. As long as he wrote of what he
had himself seen he produced books that, without doing
any particular good, were to a certain extent harmless.
He certainly has a better talent for telling a story than
Dick ; his language is also nearer the spoken vernacu-
lar, and in the beginning he avoided Germanisms. He
might, therefore, have developed into one of the best
Jargonists, had he chosen to study, and had he worked
less rapidly. In an adaptation of Gogol's 'The In-
spector,' he has shown what he might have been had
he had any earnest purpose in life. But he lacks en-
tirely Dick's straightforwardness, and writes only to
make money. The common people devoured his stories
with the same zeal that formerly they showed towards
the productions of Dick, and unwittingly they have im-
bibed a poison which the later authors of a nobler nature,
who have the interests of the people at heart, are trying
to eradicate. These try to point out directly by accu-
sation, and indirectly by writing better novels, how
dangerous and immoral Schaikewitsch is in his books.
They go too far in their anxiety to bias the mind of
the masses against him when they speak of his prone-
ness to immoral scenes, for in that he is not worse than
many of the better class of authors. The deleterious
effect is produced not by these, but by his introducing
a world to them that does not exist in reality, that
gives them a most perverted idea of life, without teach-
ing them any facts worth knowing. In his many his-
torical novels, for example, he uses good sources for
the fundamental facts on which he bases his tale, but
the men and women are such as could never have ex-
isted at the period described and that do not exist now :
174 YIDDISH LITERATURE
they are monstrosities of his imagination as they appear
to him in his very narrow sphere of experiences. His
treatment of these historical themes is not unlike the
one given to the stories of Alexander and other ancient
works during the Middle Ages. The resemblance is
still further increased by his extravagant, romantic
conception of love, on which he dwells with special
pleasure, to the great joy of his feminine public.
A much better attempt at transferring the method
of Dick to dramatic productions had been made as
early as 1867 and the following year by J. B. Falko-
witsch. His two dramas ' Channel the Rich ' and
4 Rochele the Singer ' were at one time very popular
in the South. The second is an adaptation of some
foreign work ; the first is probably original. They are
written in a good vernacular, but are devoid of interest,
as the didactic element outweighs the plot, and the lat-
ter is very loosely developed. Schaikewitsch has had
many imitators, all of whom try to rival him in quantity.
Among these are to be counted Blaustein, Beckermann,
Seiffert, Budson, Buchbinder ; the latter, a writer with-
out talent, has at least given some useful translations,
and has also written some articles on the popular belief
of the Jews. Outside of Dick, the Northwest has pro-
duced two important writers, one in the beginning, the
other at the end, of the period. The first is Zweifel,
whom we already know from his poetical works ; the
other is Schatzkes, the author of 'The Jewish Ante-
Passover.' Zweifel has produced several small works
of aphorisms which have been very popular and have
been frequently reprinted. Their fine moral tone, the
purity of the language used in them, the simple style
in which they are composed, place them among the best
books of Judeo-German literature. He has also written
PROSE WRITERS FROM 1863-1881 175
a story, 'The Happy Reader of the Haphtora,' which is
a discussion on piety and honesty clad in the form of a
tale. The other, M. A. Schatzkes, has written but one
book, which is not properly called a story, but an invalu-
able cyclopedia of Jewish customs, particularly such as
directly or indirectly refer to the Passover, strung to-
gether in chronological order as a consecutive action.
With the exception of Linetzki's 'The Polish Boy,'
there has been written no one work that treats so com-
prehensively of the beliefs and habits of the Jews in
Russia. Schatzkes is an indifferent story-teller, and
his work is full of repetitions, but, nevertheless, ' The
Jewish Ante-Passover' must be counted among the
classics of the period under discussion. It is a sad
picture that is portrayed in it ; in a straightforward
manner, without exaggeration, he tells of conditions
that one would hardly believe possible as existing at
the end of the nineteenth century.
Neither of these men has told stories in the manner
of the Southern writers, for neither of them cared as
much for the form as for the contents in which they
told them. They differ from Dick in that they at least
did not use a corrupt language in their works. All the
other writers have no excuse for writing at all. This
inferior literature had its rise in the seventies, when
the better forces had been alienated from the people
and had received instruction in Russian schools. The
men who had been writing for the Haskala, finding
their efforts crowned with success, had ceased to write ;
many of the older men had passed away. The newer
generation had no reason to proceed in the path of the
older men. There were only the lower classes left, who
had had no advantages in the foreign education, and
who were craving for reading matter of whatsoever
176 YIDDISH LITERATURE
kind. It was to these alone that the newer writers
spoke, and they were not animated by any high motives
in addressing them. They were left to themselves to do
as they pleased, for the seventies are characterized by
an absence of all criticism. No one cared what they
did or how they did it. All felt and hoped that the
last hour for the Jargon had come, and it was immaterial
to them what was produced in Judeo-German literature
before its final decay. But Abramowitsch's prophecy
in 'The Dobbin' was fulfilled, — the assimilation that
had been going on peacefully had not produced the
desired result, and one morning those who had had
time to forget the language their mothers had been
talking to them awoke to the bitter consciousness that
they were despised Jews, on the same level with the
most lowly of their race. Among these arose a new
school of writers who introduced the methods of the
literary languages into their native dialect. The next
period, the present, is signalized by a spirit of sound
criticism.
XII. PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881:
SPEKTOR
In the short period of two years Judeo-German lit-
erature lost four of its most prominent writers : in 1891
there passed away the veteran poet, Michel Gordon ; the
next year J. L. Gordon followed him ; and soon after
death gathered in Dick and Zederbaum. Without hav-
ing himself produced any works of a permanent value,
without having in any way accelerated or retarded the
course of its literature, Zederbaum is peculiarly identi-
fied with its development and has on two important
occasions in the history of the Jews of Russia served as
a crystallizing body for the literary forces in the ver-
nacular. He was born in 1816, and in his youth enjoyed
the intimate friendship of Ettinger and Aksenfeld. He
had fostered the budding talents of Abramowitsch and
Linetzki at a time when the efforts of the first disciples
of the Haskala were about to be crowned by a success
they had hardly dreamed would be realized so soon.
And he lived to see all his hopes crushed in the occur-
rences of 1881, when his race was threatened to be cast
back into darkness more dense than at his birth. Dur-
ing a lifetime thus rich in momentous experiences, he
has in his person reflected the succession of events as far
as they affected his race. In 1861 he founded a Hebrew
periodical, the Hameliz, as a mouthpiece of the more
advanced ideas of culture for that restricted class of the
learned and educated who still clung to the sacred lan-
guage as the only medium for the advancement of
worldly knowledge. But he felt that the time had
177
178 YIDDISH LITERATURE
come when the masses who, on the one side, could not
be reached by that ancient tongue, and who, on the
other, had not yet had an opportunity of a Russian
instruction, must be approached directly in their own
mother-tongue. So, two years later, he started the
Judeo-German supplement to his Hebrew weekly, the
Kol-mewasser, which was for ten years the rallying
ground of all who could wield a Judeo-German pen.
Then the Government interfered in the publication,
and for another decade there was no periodical pub-
lished in Russia in that language. Nor was that to
be regretted, for its usefulness had become very small.
The Russian schools were crowded with Jewish young
men and women, and there was not a science or an art
to which the Jews had not given a large contingent,
and this vanguard of the new culture, even if it had
not broken with the traditions of the past, could be
reached only by means of the Russian language. To
fall in line with these changed conditions, Zederbaum
founded two Russian periodicals for the discussion of
Jewish affairs.
After a great deal of trouble, he succeeded in October
of 1881 in getting the Government's permission to issue
a Judeo-German weekly, the Jiidisches Volhsblatt. He
felt that his duty was once more with the masses, that
they needed the advice of better-informed men in the
impending danger, and at the advanced age of sixty-five
he once more took upon his shoulders a publication in
which he had no supporters. In the first two years the
weekly was bare of literary productions. Except for
an occasional poem by J. L. Gordon, and here and there
a feuilleton, the rest was occupied by political news, for
which Zederbaum had to supply the leaders. Abramo-
witsch and Linetzki had ceased writing, and no new
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 179
generation had had time to develop literary talents.
The tone of the new novel, to do any positive good, had
to be different from those current before. Dick had
been writing for the people with little regard to the
people's familiarity with the scenes described, while
Abramowitsch wrote of the people but not necessarily
to the level of an humble audience. Now the author
had to write both of and for the people, he had to be in
touch with them not as a critic or moralizer, but as a
sympathetic friend. In 1883, two such men made their
debut in the Jiidisches Vblksblatt : Mordechai Spektor,
the calm observer of the life in the lower strata of society,
and Solomon Rabinowitsch, the impulsive painter of
scenes from the middle classes. Of these, the first
came nearest to what Zederbaum regarded as requisite
for a writer in those troublous times, and he called
Spektor to St. Petersburg to take charge of the literary
part of his weekly.
In the short time of his connection with the Vblks-
blatt, and later as editor of several periodicals of his
own, Spektor 1 has developed a great activity. He has
written a large number of short sketches and more
extended novels,2 and his talent is still in the ascendant.
1 Cf. Sseefer Sikoron, p. 80. Reviews of his works in Voschod,
Vol. VII. No. 12, pp. 18-21 ; Vol. IX. No. 7, pp. 30-37.
2 In addition to his separate works the following periodicals contain
Spektor's stories: Jud. Volksblatt, Vol. III. and following (very-
many) ; Hausfreund, Vol. I. pp. 109-121, Supplement ; Vol. II. pp.
1-5, 116-143 ; Vol. III. pp. 9-28, 38-101, 149-172, 277-294 ; Vol. IV.
pp. 81-95, 107-131 ; Vol. V. pp. 123-136 ; Familienfreund, Vol. II.
pp. 66-91 ; Spektor's Familienkalender, Vol. II. pp. 51-54 ; Vol. III.
pp. 81-85 ; Vol. IV. pp. 63-93 ; Vol. V. pp. 45-51, 52-58 ; Widerkol,
pp. 19 ff. ; Jontewblattlech, I. Series, No. 3, 4, 9 ; Kleiner Wecker, pp.
43-48 ; Literatur wn' Leben, pp. 67-89. Reviews by him, under the
pseudonym Ernes, in Hausfreund, Vol. I. pp. 143-160 ; Vol. II. pp.
170-176 ; Vol. III. pp. 251-260.
180 YIDDISH LITERATURE
All of his productions are characterized by the same
melancholy dignity and even tenor. He is never in a
hurry with his narration, and his characters are sketched
with a firm hand and clearly outlined against the back-
ground of the story. He loves his subjects with a calm,
dispassionate love, and he loves the meanest of his crea-
tions no less than his heroes. He likes to dwell with
them and to inspect them from every coign of vantage.
He fondly tells of their good qualities and suffers with
them for their natural defects. And yet, though he
loves them, he does not place a halo around them, he
does not idealize them. The situations are developed
in his stories naturally, independently of what he would
like them to be.
Although he now and then describes the life of the
middle classes, he more often treats incidents from the
life of the artisans in the small towns, who have not
been affected by the modern culture. Himself having
had few advantages in life, he has been able to keep in
closer touch with the men and women about whom and
for whom he writes. He understands them thoroughly,
and they like to listen to him. He does not sermonize
to them, he does not attack them or their enemies ; he
merely speaks to them as their friend. The Khassid and
the Anti-Khassid, the laborer and the man of culture,
Jew and Non-Jew, can read him with equal pleasure.
The student of manners finds in his faithful pictures as
rich a store of information as in Schatzkes' or Linetzki's
works, and he has the conviction that nothing is dis-
torted or thrown out of its proper proportion, as the
others sometimes have to do in order to strengthen their
arguments. Spektor is a young man, having been born
in 1859, and was a witness of the occurrences in the
seventies and the eighties from which he draws the
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 181
subjects for his stories. His style is simple, without
any attempts at adornment, and his language, based on
his native dialect of Uman in the Government of Kiev,
is chaste and pure.
One of the most puzzling problems to the Judeo-
German writers of modern times has been the treat-
ment of love in the Jewish novel. They all agree that
they have to follow Western models in that class of
literature, and they are all equally sure that that passion
does not exist among their people in any of the phases
with which one meets elsewhere. The young woman's
education in a Jewish home is such as to exclude a blind
self-abandonment, with the consequent tragic results.
Her desire to form family ties is greater than the
natural promptings of her heart ; her infatuation of
the moment is easily smothered by a cool calculation of
her future welfare, by the consideration of her duties
towards her future husband and children. Unless the
author uses the greatest caution in this matter, he is
liable to fall into exaggerations and sentimentalities
which would soon land him among the writers of the
type of Schaikewitsch. But Spektor, not departing
even in this from his usual candor, intermingles the
most romantic passages with the cold facts of stern
reality. His unrequited lovers do not commit suicide,
or pine their lives away; they get over their infatuations
in a manner prescribed by their religious convictions,
get married to others, and rear happy families. Here
is an example :
In « The Fashionable Shoemaker ' we are introduced
to the sphere of a well-to-do shoemaker with no preten-
sions to any kind of culture. Having gotten on suc-
cessfully in life, he is anxious to marry his daughter
Breindele to Schl5me, the dandyish son of Sender
182 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Liebarsohn, the rich man of the town. The latter
looks favorably on the alliance in spite of the general
disinclination of business men to enter into family
ties with artisans, as he is desirous of feathering his
son's nest before an impending bankruptcy sweeps
away his fortune. Lipsche, Breindele's mother, in
vain tries to dissuade her husband from the step,
while Hirschel, the chief apprentice in the shop, is
earnestly pleading with Breindele to marry him, for he
loves her dearly. But she is too much attracted by the
wealth of Schldme and her future social position to
listen to her father's simple-hearted, honest workman.
The marriage is consummated, and soon a complete
change takes place in the affairs of all concerned.
Liebersohn loses his possessions. Hirschel, bearing in
his heart his unrequited love, leaves his master and
establishes a shop of his own. He works with great
energy to forget his sorrow, and becomes a dangerous
competitor of Susje, the shoemaker, whose hard-earned
savings are slowly disappearing under the double obli-
gation to support his family and that of his daughter
Breindele. In vain some of the 4 modern ' girls of the
town dress themselves in their best gowns and don
fine silk stockings when Hirschel comes to take a
measure of their feet for new pairs of shoes for them.
Their machinations have no effect on Hirschel, who
lives quietly for himself. But one day he notices
Leotschke, Breindele's younger sister, in the street,
and he is struck by her resemblance to his former
love. When he left his master she was but a child,
and now she is a pretty maiden. He cultivates her
acquaintance, falls in love with her and is loved by
her. There are no love scenes in the story. Hirschel
goes to Leotschke's mother and gets her willing con-
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 183
sent to the union. After the marriage he helps sup-
port Breindele and her family, for her husband, Schlome,
who has learned no trade, finds it hard to make a
living.
One of his best sketches is the one entitled 'Two
Companions.' It is a gem among the many good
things he has written, — perfect in form and rounded
off as few of his sketches are. It tells of two girls,
Rosele and Perele, who have grown up together as dear
friends. When they reach the age of sixteen Rosele
notices that the young students of the gymnasium pay
more attention to her beautiful companion than to her.
She becomes jealous, suspects the seamstress of pur-
posely favoring her friend with more carefully worked
dresses, which enhance her natural beauty, accuses
Rosele of drawing away her gentlemen friends by
unfair means, and finally when she finds herself more
and more abandoned by her acquaintances, she com-
pletely breaks off her relations with the friend of her
childhood. They lead a separate existence. At the
age of thirty-five Perele is bowed down with sorrows :
she has buried a husband and two children, has again
married, and her days are taken up in the care of her
family and unpleasant discussions with her jealous hus-
band. Rosele has married a sickly man with whom
she has nothing in common. He married her only for
her money. Their child is as frail as its father, and
Rosele's days are passed in sordid cares and worry.
" So passed another twenty-five years. After a long
severe winter there came at last the young, fresh spring
in all his glory, with his many attendants of all kinds
who warble, whistle, chatter, and clatter, in the trees, in
the air, on the earth, and in the grass. The streets are
dry, the air is warm. . , . In an avenue of trees, on
184 YIDDISH LITERATURE
the sunlit side of it, two old women are walking to-
gether. They are dressed in old-fashioned, long bur-
nouses, and hold umbrellas in their hands against which
they lean. Their faces are wrinkled, their heads droop-
ing to one side, and they stop every few steps they
take, and speak with their toothless mouths :
" 4 My dear Perele, this has been a long winter ! '
" 4 Yes, a frightful winter ! Thanks to the Lord it is
over. To-day it is good — the sun shines so warmly !
But I have put on my burnous for all that ! You,
Rosele, have done likewise ! No, it is not yet warm
enough for us.'
" They seated themselves on the nearest bench and
continued their conversation :
" 4 1 am getting tired ; I think we had better go home.'
44 4 Yes, I am getting hungry, for I have eaten to-day
only a broth. I cannot eat anything except it be a
soft, fresh roll with milk or something like it.'
" 4 1, too . . . '
44 And thus old age has again made peace among the
two companions of long ago. They love each other
again just as before when they were children, and they
did not know that one was pretty and the other homely,
. . . for now they are again alike ! Perele and Rdsele
have both alike bent forms and wrinkled faces ; both
have no teeth in their mouths, and their heads droop
alike. Only Perele has come to it from living too
much, and Rosele from not living at all. The two
gowns, which the same tailor has made for them for
the Passover from the same piece of cloth and accord-
ing to the same fashion, have pleased them equally well,
and they need not complain of the workmanship."
Of the many other shorter sketches we might men-
tion the touching scenes in his 4 Purim and Passover,
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 185
in which ; How Grandfather's Child put on her First
Shoes' is the most pathetic. Not less pathetic is the
one named 4 The Uncle,' in which are contrasted the
open-hearted reception of the wealthy uncle in the
house of his poor nephew and the niggardly treatment
of the nephew by his relative in the large city. Through
all of Spektor's works passes the same melancholy strain,
coupled with a strict objectivity of conception. This
objectivity does not leave him even in cases where one
would certainly expect him to express an opinion of
his own. He has given us, for example, a most im-
portant series of sketches under the name of 'Three
Persons,' in which the tendencies among the Russian
Jews in the last quarter of a century are described with
remarkable clearness ; and he proceeds to point out their
various modifications under the influence of the riots.
Here, it seems, one would look for an individual con-
viction, for he must surely side with one of the parties
discussed by him so thoroughly ; and yet he does not
once betray his personal preference. This series is
indispensable to any one who wants to study the cur-
rent of opinion among the Russian Jews, previous to
the development of the Zionistic movement which now
is uppermost in their minds. We are introduced suc-
cessively to the Palestinian, the Assimilator, and the
Neither-here-nor-there. A careful psychological study
is made of all, with apparently negative results as to
their respective merits. They are all three insincere
with their fellow-sufferers and belong to their organiza-
tions only for personal advantage. The sad impression
made by the reading of these interesting chapters is
anticipated by the motto placed at the head of them :
Laughing is not always in ridicule ; laughing is some-
times a bitter weeping.
186 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Among his best longer stories is i Reb Treitel,' which
gives a good insight into the life of a small town away
from all railroads and off the highway of travel. One
of the most necessary institutions in every Jewish town
is the Mikwe, the bathhouse, not so much for sanitary
purposes as for the ritual ablutions of the women.
This mikwe is the centre of our story. Around it are
grouped the various incidents which emanate from it
like the arteries from the heart. The bathhouse is
consumed by fire, and the town is all agog with excite-
ment. There is no immediate outlook that a new one
will be built, and in the interim Reb Treitel, the
wagon-driver, who has been despairing of making both
ends meet, is doing a splendid business by taking the
women to the neighboring town for their ritual ablu-
tions. He manages to keep all competition away and
to lay a heavy tribute on the feminine population.
Spektor has also begun a historical novel dealing on the
life of the founder of the sects of the Khassidim. He
does not represent him there as an impostor, but as a
truly pious man, which he was, no doubt, in reality.
So far he has published only chapters on his youth,
but these promise a sympathetic treatment of which
Spektor is eminently capable as an unbiassed author.
In 1887 Spektor severed his connection with the
Vblksblatt and settled in Warsaw. The time now
being ripe for a purely literary periodical, he started
the first of the kind in Judeo- German literature. He
was, however, delayed for various reasons, and another
collective volume appeared in the South before he was
able to issue his own. He named it Der Hausfreund
and intended it as an annual, but the Government
having interfered on various occasions, there have
appeared only five numbers so far. The annual reflects
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 187
all of Spektor's peculiarities. Like his own writings,
all of the articles and stories contained in it are adapted
for the popular ear, and are written in a simple, com-
prehensible style. The scientific discussions are of a
rudimentary character, and the criticisms of books and
the Jewish theatre, which from now on becomes an
important factor in Judeo-German literature, are in-
tended more as guides to the reader than as correctives
to the authors. Though somewhat primitive in its
form, this periodical was calculated to advance the cause
of letters among the masses of the people. Among his
contributors we find in the first two numbers such
names as Goldfaden, Zunser, Samostschin, Buchbinder,
M. Gordon, Frug, Linetzki, Abramowitsch. Among
the other writers there are some who had before written
for the Volhsblatt but whose productions are insignifi-
cant. A few of them, however, begin to develop a
greater activity, and deserve special mention. Among
these are the novelists • Isabella,' Dienesohn, the col-
lector of legends Meisach, and the critic Frischmann.
4 Isabella ' is the pseudonym of Spektor's wife. She
has written but a few sketches,1 but some of them show
remarkable talent. She unites her husband's objectivity
with a fine discrimination of humor which is her own.
She likes to dwell on comparisons between the older
and the newer generation, and to point out the evil
effects of a superficial modern culture. In 'The Or-
phan ' she introduces us to the house of Schmuel Dawid,
who tries to keep himself occupied by teaching chil-
dren penmanship. He is too simple-minded and good-
hearted to battle with the world. The supporter of the
house is his wife, Treine, who makes a living by usury.
1 In Hausfreuna, Vol. I. p. 67 ; Vol. II. pp. 108-116 ; Jud. Biblio-
thekj Vol. I. pp. 41-74.
188 YIDDISH LITERATURE
They shower their attentions on their only descendant,
the peevish granddaughter Jentke. She is sent to the
gymnasium and later is loved by a young scholar, a lank,
consumptive-looking fellow, with whom she joins one of
those narrower circles so common among the students
of Russia, where they propose remedies for the better-
ment of the world and dream of the millennium near at
hand. Their one desire is to identify themselves with
the Russians at large. Then come the awful years 1881
and 1882. All of a sudden new ideals begin to animate
the younger generation. Jentke's lover no longer calls
himself Fyodor Sebastyanovitch, but his visiting card
bears the homely Jewish name Peessach ben Schabsi, of
which the former was only a Russified form. He be-
comes an ardent defender of his race. Later he marries
Jentke, and a new career begins for them. They forget
all their ideals of the period before the riots, to which
they so readily subscribed ; they do not persevere in
their intention to devote their energies to their people.
They live only for themselves. They begin to hoard
money, and Jentke is much more hardhearted than her
grandmother, for having abandoned the religious con-
victions of the older woman, she has not received any
new moral basis for her actions. The grandmother
dies, and the lonely, half-starved grandfather in vain
tries to find a resting-place in their house. They send
him away in a most cruel manner.
Her other sketches are of a similar character. In all
of these, she points out the dangers from a superficial
modern education, and the insincerity of the self-styled
reformers who are ever ready to suggest a remedy for
the ills that befall her people. Her characters are
drawn from that new class of half -learned men and
women who, receiving their training in the gymna-
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 189
shim, were just on the point of disappearing from the
fold of the Jewish Church, when they were violently-
cast back into it by the persecutions from without.
Of an entirely different tendency are the writings of
Jacob Dienesohn, although akin to 4 Isabella ' in the
sympathy he shows for the older generation. Diene-
sohn had begun his career in 1875, when he published
a novel 4 The Dark Young Man,' after which he grew
silent. In 1885 he took up his literary work, since
when he has produced two large novels and several
shorter sketches. His first work was very popular. He
depicted in it the machinations of an orthodox young
man of the older type, who felt it his duty to lay stum-
bling-blocks in the way of one who strove to acquire
worldly knowledge. Dienesohn occupies a peculiar
place in Judeo-German literature. He is the only one
who has attempted the lachrymose, the sentimental
novel. He began writing at a time when Dick had pre-
pared the ground for the romantic story, and Schaike-
witsch had started on his sentimental drivel. But while
these entirely failed to produce something wholesome,
Dienesohn gained with his first book an unusual suc-
cess. He drew his scenes from familiar circles, and his
men and women are all Jews, with a sphere of action
not unlike the one his readers moved in. Readers con-
sequently were more easily attracted to him, and car-
ried away a greater fund of instruction. His feminine
audiences have wept tears over his work, and the author
has received letters from orthodox young men, who
assured him that although the description of the Dark
Young Man fitted them, they would not descend to
the vile methods of the hero of the book in pursuing
differently minded men.
During his renewed activity, which began in the
190 YIDDISH LITERATUKE
Volhsblatt ten years after his first novel had been
printed, he dwelt on that period in the history of the
Russian Jews when they were just commencing to take
to the new culture, when it still meant a struggle and
a sacrifice to tear oneself away from the ties which
united one with the older generation. In the • Stone
in the Way ' he describes the many hardships which his
hero had to overcome ere he succeeded in acquiring an
education. In 4 Herschele ' (still unfinished) the same
subject is treated in the case of a young mendicant
Talmudical scholar, who is beset, not only by the usual
difficulties, but who is, in addition, trying to suppress
his earthly love for the daughter of the woman who
furnishes him with a dinner on every Wednesday.
Dienesohn treats with loving gentleness all the charac-
ters he writes about.1 Like Spektor, he attacks no one
directly, and, like him, sarcasm has no place in his
works. His most touching and, at the same time, the
most perfect of his shorter stories is the one entitled
'The Atonement Day.'2 He introduces us there to a
scene in the synagogue where an old woman is praying
fervently. Her devotion is interrupted by her thoughts
of her daughter at home whom she had enjoined to
fast on that awful day, although she had just given
birth to a son. For a long time her religious convic-
tions outweigh her maternal feelings, but, at last, her
natural sentiment is victorious, and she hurries home
to insist on her daughter's eating something. In
this way the new-born babe is saved. Thirty years
1 Other articles by him : JM. Volksblatt, Vol. V. pp. 329 ff. ; Vol.
VIII. (Beilage), pp. 33-43 ; Hausfreund, Vol. I. pp. 1-21 ; Vol. II.
pp. 75-99; JM. Volksbib., Vol. I. pp. 244-248; JM. Bibliothek, Sup-
plements.
2 Hausfreund, Vol. II. pp. 75-99.
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 191
pass. The old woman has died, and her daughter
Chane is brought before us on the same Atonement
day. She has grown old, while her son has, in the
meantime, finished at the university, and is a practising
physician. She, too, is praying fervently, and thinking
with awe of the day when young and old, the pious and
the sinner alike, come to the synagogue and invoke the
mercy of the Lord with contrition of spirit. Her eyes
search in vain for her son among the crowd congregated
below. The hours pass, and he does not appear. Faint
with hunger from the long fasting and grieving at her
son's apostasy, she falls sick and soon dies. In her last
agony she makes her son promise her that he will, at
least once a year, on the Atonement day, visit the
synagogue. After that, one can see every year, on the
awful day, the physician in deep devotion in the house
of the Lord.
The circle which has Spektor for its centre is charac-
terized by the use of Western literary forms for its pro-
ductions, which yet are all of a distinctly Jewish type.
The object of the authors is to create a sound literature
for the masses. Incidentally, the literature is also to
give positive instruction ; but primarily, it is to draw
away attention from the worthless books of the previ-
ous decade, and to create a decided taste for good works.
These authors also intend to give the people a feeling
for their racial solidarity, to acquaint them with the
thought of the best of their race in an accessible form.
This period has completely broken its connection with
the older Haskala, for the writers no longer dream of
substituting German culture for the ignorance of the
masses. Nor do they preach of assimilation and Rus-
sian education, for that has signally failed to be of any
use to the Jews in their struggle for recognition. In the
192 YIDDISH LITERATURE
nineties, the dream of Zionism was to haunt these writ-
ers, and many others who were to write then. But, in
the meanwhile, they have no other definite purpose than
to create a national consciousness, to instil in them the
idea of human dignity, to develop individual character.
While, on the one hand, they do not give them any new
cultural ideals for those of the past generations, they
have, on the other, no suggestions to make in regard to
the religious faith of the orthodox, or the absence of
religious convictions of the younger men and women.
They do not attack the old Law, they do not side with
any modern philosophy. Khassid and Misnaged, the
unenlightened and enlightened, are the same in the
scale of their judgment. It is not time, they think,
to discuss about any such matters, but to gather in all
the unfortunate ones into one brotherhood. The upper
classes who have had many advantages in life, can shift
for themselves in forming their convictions, but it is
the lower strata that need guidance, and it is the dutj
of those who are better informed to devote their ener-
gies to the deliverance of their wretched brothers and
sisters. Such is the doctrine of these writers. These
sentiments are not alone the result of the riots of 1881
They are a reflex of the Russian Narodniks, who, av
about the same time, were preaching the necessity o:
going among the people, of identifying oneself with th<
masses, of devoting all one's energies in the cause of th<
peasant, the artisan, the factory hand.
The Jargon is not represented in a contemptuou
way, nor are apologies made for its use. On the con
trary, the authors try to show the wealth of its expres
sions and to collect data for its history. Lerner write
a good essay on the folksong in a popular style ; Diene
sohn gives a review of the older writings and thei
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 193
authors ; Spektor and Bernstein publish a large number
of Judeo-German proverbs; Buchbinder collects popular
superstitions ; and Meisach writes a small book of Jew-
ish folktales. The latter has also told in Judeo-German
some of the legends from the Talmud and other sources.
He has written some stories in the style of Dick, but
like those they are disfigured by a disregard of style.
The activity of these men still continues, independently
of the new movements advocated by other writers and
unimpeded by the new faith of Zionism.
XIII. PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881:
RABINOWITSCH, PEREZ
Solomon Rablnowitsch began writing for the
Volksblatt1 at about the same time as Spektor, and "
shortly after the appearance of the Hausfreund he issued
an annual, Die Jildische VbllcsbibliotheJc, which was of
even a more pretentious character than its contempo-
rary. Both authors were animated by the same ideas
when they started on their literary careers and when
they commenced publishing their periodicals. But a
glance at the writings of the two is sufficient to con- j
vince us that there is a wide difference in the methods
pursued by them, and in the results achieved. Rabino-
witsch is impulsive, enthusiastic, quick-witted, sarcastic,
and these qualities of his character are discernible in all
his productions. He has attempted many things, poetry,
play writing, novels, criticism, and he is successful in all. j
He has been a merchant and an author, has vaulted
over from a pure realism to the illusive dream of Zion-
ism, and bids fair to follow new ideals should such .
present themselves to him. He is in every sense an
artistic nature.
While connected with the Volksblatt he wrote i
number of sketches and short stories. The first one
1 His stories, dramas, and poems have appeared in Jud. Volksblatt
Vol. III. p. 387, hence continuously up to the ninth volume of thai
periodical ; Familienfreund, Vol. I. pp. 73-84 ; Hausfreund, Vol. I
pp. 45-63 ; Vol. III. pp. 321-326 ; Vol. IV. pp. 63-81 ; Vol. V. pp. 97-
123; Jud. Volksbib., Vol. I. pp. 1-47, 241-243, 351-378; Vol. II
pp. 205-220, 304-310 ; Wecker, pp. 88-91.
194
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 195
to attract the attention of the critic in the Vbschod was
his * Child's Play,'1 after which his new books never
failed of bringing out favorable comments in that Rus-
sian periodical. He depicts scenes from his own child-
hood, or from that middle class into which his fortune,
an inheritance of his wife, brought him. His impulsive-
ness keeps him from elaborating his sketches into long
novels, such as Spektor and Dienesohn have produced.
There is rarely a complicated plot in them, but the
separate situations are painted with great clearness and
in bold relief. One may forget the story, but one will
never forget his characters. They have all of them
their sharply denned individuality, their language, their
circle of thought. We get acquainted with them
through their actions rather than through the author's
description, and we like them not for the parts they
play in the story, but for their strong personalities,
equally pronounced in their virtues as in their weak-
nesses. The men and women he describes we have met
somewhere, and we shall again recognize should we
meet them in actual life. The Russian critic, who is
naturally in touch with his own literature, unconsciously
thinks of this and that well-known character in the
writings of Gogol and Ostrovski, when he speaks of
Rabinowitsch's creations, and at times he actually gives
them their Russian names. But Rabinowitsch does not
imitate Gogol and Ostrovski, at least not purposely.
He is himself possessed of a humor which is not dissimi-
lar to that of the Russian authors, and the society which
1Voschod, Vol. VII. No. 6. Reviews of his other works are in
Voschod, Vol. VII. Nos. 7, 8 ; Vol. VIII. No. 10, and in later num-
bers ; of Sender Blank, by J. J. Lerner (unfavorable), in Jiid. Volks-
bib., Vol. VIII. (Beilage), No. 29, pp. 864-876, under the title Leben-
dige Meessim. Short mention of his works in Sseefer Sikoron, p. 105.
196 YIDDISH LITERATURE
he describes is not unlike the one Gogol knew half a
century ago, and Ostrovski found even at a later time
among the merchant class of Moscow. He is a close
observer, and knows how to separate the wheat from
the chaff, to present to the reader only the essential
characteristics, and not to burden the story with sub-
jective discussions.
Although Rabinowitsch may have started in the
literary field with no other idea than the current one
of elevating the lower classes, there is certainly nothing
in his works to show that that has long remained his
main object. He writes to entertain, and not to instruct.
Moreover, he draws his subjects from a class of society
with which the masses are not particularly well ac-
quainted. With him the last spark of the didactic
ideals of the Haskala has entirely vanished. He is
above all else a litterateur who is addressing an audience
with a decided taste for good literature. He is, there-
fore, more calculated to win the ears of the better
classes than of the lowly of his race, to exercise a cor-
rective influence on the manners of the middle class
than to educate or console the masses.
Of his longer works, 'Stempenju' is the most artis-
tically conceived and most carefully executed. In his
previous productions such as 4 Child's Play,' and ' Sen-
der Blank,' he had humorously depicted scenes from
the life of the merchant class. In the first of these,
he introduces us into the life and love of a rich man's
spoiled, half-educated son. In the second, which he
names a novel without love, we get an excellent picture
of a tyrant and miser, the terror of his family, the
merchant Sender Blank. He is on his death-bed, and
his congregated children are, each in his own way,
dreaming of the moment when they shall be free to do
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 197
as they like, when they shall no longer be kept in pov-
erty. But Sender Blank gets well again, and his
family departs, each one to his home with shattered
hopes. In ' Stempenju ' we have a more carefully laid
plot, and his first attempt at a novel in which a roman-
tic love plays a part. Stempenju is a violinist, the
leader of a band that plays at weddings. He has great
talent for music and has developed his powers entirely
by self-instruction. He is a real artist, and like many
others of his profession takes life easy, and is of amor-
ous propensities. He has frequently made love to
Jewish women, but the latter generally pay no atten-
tion to his assurances. But once he falls in with a girl
who takes his words in earnest, and in a prosaic way,
without any idea of love on her part, compels him
to marry her. She takes him in her hands and would
have him lead a settled, prosaic life also. But he
finds relief from his sordid existence every time he
journeys away with his band to play at some wedding.
Once he notices upon such an occasion a young mar-
ried woman who awakes in him the first inkling of a
real, romantic love. Rochel — that is her name — is
both beautiful in form and kind and lovable in char-
acter. After many overtures he almost succeeds in
gaining her love. It is the easier to succumb to Stem-
penju's importunities since she has a silly, worthless
man for a husband. She finally comes out victoriously
from her inner struggle, for her religious conviction of
the holiness of the marriage ties are stronger in her
than her natural inclination. Stempenju returns home,
and tries to find his consolation and relief from his
scolding wife by having more frequent recourse to his
violin. He plays even more sweetly and more sadly
than before.
198 YIDDISH LITERATURE
His other large novel, * Jossele Ssolowee,' is also a
characterization of the life of an artist, this time a
singer. Of his shorter sketches it is hard to select one
as the best, as they are all well written. We shall take
at random the one entitled 4 The Colonization of Pales-
tine.' Selig, the tailor, has read something about the
colonization scheme in Palestine. He joins a society
for the promotion of that idea, and finally abandons his
work to go to the neighboring town, where he has
heard there is a society that has a fund from which
to pay the travelling expenses of prospective settlers in
the Holy Land. After a great deal of trouble, he finds
the president of the society, who is vexed at having
applicants but no members ready as settlers to support
the scheme, for fund there is none. The tailor offers a
small coin as his contribution, the first that has been
given, and returns home a wiser man and more satis-
fied with his lot. The story is told humorously, and is
meant as a sarcasm at the readiness of the Jews to form
new schemes and support them with eloquence of
speech, but not in a substantial manner.
Rabinowitsch has also attempted a kind of poetic
prose in his 4 Nosegay,' but in this he has not been very
successful. He is at best where he can make use of
wit and sarcasm, and that he has been able to apply
better in his stories and comedies. Of the latter his
' Jaknehos ' is a good picture taken from the life of the
men who do business on 'Change. Here again the plot
is the minor part of the play, but the separate scenes
are drawn in bold strokes.
When Rabinowitsch came into his fortune, he con-
ceived the idea of devoting his energy and his money
to the creation of a periodical such as had never before
existed in Judeo-German literature. Only two volumes
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 199
appeared, when bad speculations on 'Change made him
a poor man. These two annuals show that had he been
more fortunate, he soon would have brought Judeo-
German letters to a height where they would have taken
place by the side of the best in Europe. His enthusi-
asm, his critical acumen, his talents, fitted him emi-
nently for that undertaking. Spektor's aim in issuing
the Rausfreund was the more modest one of furnish-
ing the people with wholesome reading. How difficult
his task has been can be seen from the fact that the
articles for his periodical are not paid for. They are
voluntary contributions by those who have the welfare
of the masses at heart. However good the forces may
be, it is not possible in these degenerate days to expect
a natural development of a literature when the writers
can hope to earn neither glory nor money by their
labors. No Judeo-German litterateur has ever been
able to make more than a scanty living, and that only
sporadically, out of his books. But here came Rabi-
nowitsch, who paid liberally for all the articles fur-
nished him. That was an innovation from which only
good could result. But the editor not only paid his
contributors; he demanded well-written articles, and
he accepted only the best of those. In his annual we
find departments, — Belles Lettres, Criticism, Science,
Bibliography, each being strictly defined in its proper
sphere. In the division of belles lettres we find all
the best authors of the time. Here also appeared for
the first time articles from the pen of Frischmann,
M. J. Rabinowitsch, and Perez, who belong among the
most talented of Judeo-German writers. Among the
scientific articles there are several of a historical char-
acter, such as ■ On the History of the Jews in Podolia,'
by Litinski, ; The Massacres of Gonto in Uman and the
200 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Ukraine,' by Dr. Skomarowski. There are several dis-
cussions on popular medicine, mainly from the pen of
the indefatigable worker in that direction for more
than a quarter of a century, Dr. Tscherny, and there
is one on 4 The History of Judeo-German Literature *
by A. Schulmann. The latter is the result of years
of investigation and is remarkably rich in biblio-
graphical data. It would do honor to any scientific
periodical. The part given to bibliography is of great
importance to the student of Judeo-German literature,
as that bibliography is in such a bad condition that it
is not possible for certain periods, especially the older,
to give absolutely correct data. But the most interest-
ing department in the periodical is that of criticism,
which is a new factor in Judeo-German. Heretofore a
few scattered remarks on books might be found in the
Volksblatt, but a systematic treatment of that branch of
literature was unknown to the older writers, and would
have been of no use to the readers. But here, in the
Volksbibliothek, we not only find this new departure, but
there are not less than eighty pages devoted to it in the
first volume.
Rabinowitsch had published but a short time before
a volume entitled * Schomer's Mischpet,' i.e. l The Judg-
ment of Schaikewitsch,' which marks a new era. In
this book the author passes in review the writings of
Schaikewitsch and his like who have been supplying
the people with a worthless literature. It is written
in an entertaining style, in the form of a judicial
proceeding, and has produced to a certain extent the
effect that it was intended to produce : the sale of
those books fell off rapidly, and thus the field was
again free for a new and better class of works. It
cannot be said that Rabinowitsch has always been just
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 201
to the men under judgment, but on the whole his opinion
is sound, and his verdicts will stand. In his zeal he has
sometimes been led to make sweeping statements, by
which he has left some loopholes to the opponents who
have taken him to task. However, criticism from now
on becomes an established institution, and no author can
escape a thorough inspection. The first to follow the
example of Rabinowitsch was Frischmann, who brought
out the same year a few sound reviews in the Haus-
freund. In the Vblksbibliothek that duty is attended to
by Rabnizki 1 and the editor. They not only criticise
unworthy productions, but also direct the attention to
good books, and encourage young writers if they seem to
deserve encouragement. Rabinowitsch's talent in this
direction is shown at its best in his biting sarcasm in
reviewing Perez's poetry 2 (although he is not entirely
just to him), and still better in his witty criticism of
the various dictions used in Judeo-German. Perez,
who is a genius of no mean proportions and who has
started out in new directions in literature, has some-
how aroused the displeasure of the critics, who will not
put up with his symbolism. Frischmann has taken him
to task for his alleged obscurity and other imagined
faults in a series of masterly caricatures.3 Frischmann
also does not spare others who incur his wrath, and
though one need not subscribe to his judgments, one
cannot help learning useful things by his anatomies.
By these we see, among other things, what progress
Judeo-German is making ; for individuality of style
1 Other articles by Rabnizki in Wecker, pp. 62-74, 115-122 ; Heilige
Land, pp. 13-25.
2 In his Kol-mewasser, col. 31-34.
8 LoJcschen and A Floh vun Tischebow ; see Bibliography, under
Frischmann,
202 YIDDISH LITERATURE
must be pronounced to deserve imitation and parody.
Frischmann has also written some pretty tales of a
fantastic nature, such as fairy tales, and a few from
actual life.1 His stories are all well worth reading,
particularly on account of the excellent style he culti-
vates. M. J. Rabinowitsch's stories are mainly trans-
lations of his own Russian compositions.2 They are all
pictures from the Ghetto in Russia and Roumania, not
unlike those by Bernstein and Kompert. They lack
the spontaneity of the Judeo- German writers, but are
carefully executed as to form.
By far the most original author of this latest period
is Perez,3 whose poetical works have been discussed
before. With him Judeo-German letters enter into
competition with what there is best in the world's lit-
erature, where he will some day occupy an honorable
place. Among his voluminous works there is not one
that is mediocre, not one that would lose anything of
its comprehensibleness by being translated into another
language. Although they at times deal with situations
taken from Jewish life, it is their universal human
import that interests him, not their specifically racial
1 Frischmann's stories, reviews, and poems may be found in Jud.
Volksblatt, Vol. VIII. (Beilage), pp. 92, 93 ; Vol. IX. Nos. 23, 30, 32,
61, 52 ; Familienfreund, Vol. II. pp. 47-49 ; Hausfreund, Vol. II.
pp. 22-25, 66-73, 151-170 ; Vol. III. pp. 175, 176 ; Vol. IV. pp. 167-
176; Vol. V. pp. 7-21, 159-161 ; Jud. Volksbib., Vol. I. pp. 211-224;
Handelskalender, pp. 100-104.
2 His stories appeared in Jud. Volksbib., Vol. I. pp. 183-210 ; Vol.
II. pp. 225-246 ; Jud. Volkskalender, Vol. III. pp. 70-81.
8 In addition to the very large number of stories, etc., in his own
publications, Perez has contributed to Jud. Volksbib., Vol. I. pp. 148-
158 ; Vol. II. pp. 126-129, 136-138, 142-147, 167, 168, 195-204 ; Haus-
freund, Vol. III. pp. 111-113, 179-181 ; Handelskalender, pp. 79-83,
105-113 ; Kleiner Wecker, pp. 25-29 ; Jud. Volkskalender, Vol. III.
pp. 105-111.
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 203
characteristics. It is mere inertia and the desire to
serve his people that keep him in the ranks of Judeo-
German writers. He does not belong there by any
criterions that we have applied to his confreres, who
themselves complain that his symbolism is inaccessible to
the masses for whom he pretends to write. While this
accusation is certainly just in the case of some of his
works, it cannot be brought up in many other cases,
where, in spite of the allegory, mysticism, or symbolism
underlying his tale, there is a sufficient real residue of
intelligible story for the humblest of his readers. He,
too, aims at the education of his people, but in a vastly
different sense from his predecessors. It is not the
material information of mere facts that he strives for,
nor even the broader culture of the schools that he
would substitute for the Jewish lore and religious
training, nor is he satisfied, with Spektor, to rouse the
dormant national consciousness. His sympathies are
with humanity at large, and the Jews are but one of
the units that are to be redeemed from the social slav-
ery under which the wretched of the world groan. It
is those who have become timid under oppression of
whatsoever form, who have lost the power of think-
ing, who have developed only the power of suffer-
ing, who are saints without knowing it, that Perez
loves best. To them he would restore the human
rights so long withheld from them, not by political and
social enfranchisement, but by a consciousness of their
human dignity which must precede all reform. To
those to whom belongs the Kingdom of Heaven must
also be given the Kingdom on Earth. While, never-
theless, the material things are withheld from them,
there is no reason why the spiritual things should not
be turned over to them. Perez, for one, offers gladly
204 YIDDISH LITERATURE
all he has, his genius, in the service of the lowly.
Literature, according to him, is not to be a flimsy pas-
time of the otiose, but a consolation to those who have
no other consolation, a safe and pleasurable retreat for
those who are buffeted about on the stormy sea of life.
For these reasons he writes in Judeo-German and not
in any other language with which he is conversant, and
for these same reasons he prefers to dwell with the
downtrodden and the submerged.
To these people he devotes his best energies, and he
uses the same care in filing and finishing his works that
he would use if he were writing for a public trained in
the best thoughts of the world and used to the highest
type of literature. His first prose work, though not
the first to be printed, was a small volume entitled
4 Well-known Pictures,' containing three stories : ' The
Messenger,' * What Is a Soul ? ' and 4 The Crazy Beggar-
Student.' In the first he tells of the last errand of an
aged messenger who through cold and rain and snow is
making his way on foot to a distant village where he has
to deliver an important document. He trudges along in
hunger and pain, but not a word of complaint escapes
his lips. Through his head pass old recollections of the
time when his wife was still alive, when his children
were all gathered about him. They have left him, but
he is sure they are getting on well in their new homes,
for, he consoles himself, bad news travels fast. His
strength gives out, and he seats himself on a heap of
snow to take a rest. He begins to dream of the not
distant inn where the wife of the innkeeper will pre-
pare a warm broth for him. He already sees himself
seated at the table when strange persons enter the
room. He soon recognizes them as his sons, and they
embrace him and kiss him impetuously. In vain he
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 205
begs them to desist from their choking embraces, for
he is old and feeble. He begs them to be careful with
him, for he has been intrusted with a sum of money
that must be brought to its place of destination. . . .
The old messenger was found dead, his hand upon his
coat pocket in which he carried the intrusted document.
The second sketch is of a more cheerful character.
It tells of the many troubles and doubts that a certain
boy has ere he discovers what a soul really is. When
very young his father dies, and they tell him that his
soul has flown to heaven. Ever after he imagines the
soul to be a bird. But he is ridiculed for that belief by
his teacher's monitor. The teacher himself is accus-
tomed to maltreat the boys and whip them mercilessly.
He explains to them that the punishment of the body
is good for the soul. What, then, is the soul? the
young boy asks himself again. Then the teacher tells
the children many fairy tales about the prenatal life
of the soul, when the angel of life instructs it daily in
the wisdom of the Bible and the Talmud. And that
belief is soon taken from him by his instructor of pen-
manship, who has a turn to liberal ideas. So the boy
keeps on wavering from belief to doubt and back again
until the age of seventeen or eighteen, when he is study-
ing the Talmud with a new teacher. Once, in his ab-
sence, it occurs to him to get the opinion of Giitele,
his beautiful daughter, who is known by the name of
the wise Giitele, on the question which has been puzzling
him so long, and for which he has suffered so often in
his life. With trembling he asks her :
"'They say, Giitele, that you are wise. Tell me,
then, I beg you, what is a soul ? '
u She smiled and answered :
" ' Truly, I do not know.'
206 YIDDISH LITERATURE
" Only all at once she grew sad, and tears filled her
eyes.
"'I just happened to think,' she said, 'when my
mother of blessed memory was alive, my father used
to say that she was his soul . . . they loved each
other so much! . . . '
" I do not know how it came to me, only I suddenly
took hold of her hand, and trembling, said :
" 4 Gutele, would you like to be my soul ? '
" She answered me, softly :
"'Yes.'"
From these two soulful, tender stories, we pass to
one not less pathetic and an even more profound psy-
chological study. The beggar-student, harmlessly in-
sane, has grown faint from two days' fasting and long
poring over the Talmud, and is discussing with himself
whether he is one, or two, or more, and whether he is
really himself. He has finally the same doubts of Wolf
the Merchant, who is just reading in the Talmud. He
imagines that three Wolfs are sitting there : one who
is trying to cheat God with his piety ; one who cheats
his fellow-men in his shop ; and one who beats his wife
who furnishes the beggar-student with an occasional
meal. He takes a violent dislike to the third Wolf,
and would like to kill him, but he does not wish to
injure the other two Wolfs. The monologue of this
beggar-student, told in about twenty octavo pages, is
one of the most remarkable to be found in any litera-
ture: it must be read in the original to be fully ap-
preciated.
With such a book Perez made his entrance into the
field of letters. To say that his future works show a
riper talent would be to place too low an estimate on
his first book, which, in spite of the many excellent
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 207
things he has written, still remains among the very-
best. In 1891, when Spektor's annual was temporarily-
suspended, and Rabinowitsch's periodical had ceased
appearing, Perez issued a new periodical, Die jiidische
Bibliothek, which he intended to be a semi-annual, but of
which only three volumes have so far been issued. In
the introduction to the first volume Perez makes a plea
for the education of the people, in which are the fol-
lowing significant words : " Help us educate the poor,
wretched people ; leave them not a prey to fanatics,
who will suck out the last trace of blood and the last
trace of marrow from their lean bones. Leave them
not in the hands of the visionaries, who will entice
them into wildernesses! Let not boys and school-chil-
dren lead them by the nose, — have pity on the people !
Let them not fall ! The people have in themselves a
certain amount of vital power, a fund of energy. The
people are the carriers of a civilization that the world
does not undervalue, of ideas that would be of great
use to it. The people are an ever living flower. ... In
daytime, when the sun shines, when the spirit of man
is developing, it revives and unfolds its leaves ; but no
sooner does dark night approach than it closes up
again, shrivels up, and goes back into itself. ... It is
then that it has the appearance of a common weed . . .
and when the sun once more rises, some time passes
before the sun seeks out the flower and the flower dis-
covers that the sun shines. ... At night it becomes
dusty and soiled, so that the beams of light cannot
penetrate it easily ! Help the people to recognize the
sun early in the morning ! . . . But the main thing,
means must be devised for the people to earn a liv-
ing. ..."
In conformity with this platform, Perez calls his new
208 YIDDISH LITERATURE
periodical a literary, social, and economical periodical.
Not only did the difficult task of editing this novel
magazine devolve on Perez : he had also to supply the
greater part of the literature himself, for there existed
no writers in Judeo-German who could follow him
readily in his new departure. He had to write the
greater part of the scientific department, all of the
reviews, all the editorials. In addition, he fur-
nished most of the poetry and the novels. The
few other writers who published their articles in
this magazine owed their development to the editor's
fostering care : they had nearly all been encouraged
for the first time by him. Of his scientific articles par-
ticular mention must be made of his long essay 4 On
Trades,' which is a popularization of political economy,
brought down to the level of the humblest reader. The
admirable, entertaining style, the aptness of the illustra-
tions, and the absence of doctrinarianism make it one
of the most remarkable productions in popular science.
Still more literary and perfect in form are his ' Pictures
of a Provincial Journey.' It seems that Perez had been
sent into the province for the sake of collecting statis-
tical data on the condition of the Jews resident there.
This essay is apparently a diary of his experiences on
that trip. We do not remember of having read in any
literature any journal approaching this one in literary
value. What makes it particularly interesting is that
it is written so that it will interest those very humble
people about whom he is writing. The picture of
misery which he unrolls before us, however saddening
and distressing, is made so attractive by the manner of
its telling that one cannot lay aside the book until one
has read the whole seventy quarto pages.
Perez has written more than fifty sketches, all of
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 209
them of the same sterling value as the three described
above. Every new one is an additional gem in the
crown he is making for himself. They are all charac-
terized by the same tender pathos, the same excellence
of style, the same delicacy of feeling. He generally
prefers the tragic moments in life as fit objects for his
sympathetic pen, but he has also treated in a masterly
manner the gentle sentiment of love. But it is an
entirely different kind from the romantic love, that he
deems worthy of attention. It is the marital affection
of the humblest families, which is developed under diffi-
culties, strengthened by adversity, checkered by mis-
fortune ; it is the saintliest of all loves that he tells about
as no one before him has ever told. In the same manner
he likes to dwell on all the virtues which are brought
out by suffering, which are evolved through misery and
oppression, which are more gentle, more unselfish, more
divine, the lower we descend in the scale of humanity.
Nor need one suppose that in order to show his char-
acters from that most advantageous side, the author has
to resort to disguises of idealization. They are no
better and no worse than one meets every day and all
around us ; but they are such as only he knows who is
not deterred by the shabbiness of their dress and the
squalor of their homes from making their intimate
acquaintance. They do not carry their virtues for
show, they do not give monetary contributions for
charities, they do not join societies for the promotion
of philanthropic institutions, they do not preach on
duties to God and on the future life, they are not even
given to the expression of moral indignation at the
sight of sin. But they are none the less possessed of
the finer sentiments which come to the surface only in
the narrower circle of their families, in their relations
210 YIDDISH LITERATURE
to their fellow-sufferers. Not even the eloquent advo-
cate of the people generally cares to enter that un-
familiar sphere as Perez has done. His affection for
the meanest of his race is not merely platonic. He not
only knows whereof he speaks : he feels it ; and thus we
get the saddest, the tenderest, the sweetest stories from
the life of the lowliest of the Jews that have ever been
written.
In 1894 Perez published a collective volume, ' Litera-
ture and Life,' which contains, like his periodical,
mostly productions of his own. As they were com-
posed at some later time than those spoken of above,
and as they contain some matter in which he appears
in a new role, we shall discuss the volume at some
length. In the introduction are given his general aims,
which are not different from those expressed in his
former publication. The final words of it are : " We
want the Jew to feel like a man, to take part in all
that is human, to live and strive humanly, and if he
is offended, to feel offended like a man ! " The first
sketch is entitled 'In the Basement.' It is the story
of the incipient marital love of a young couple who
are so poor that they live in a dark basement, in a room
that serves as a dwelling for several families whose
separate ' rooms ' are divided off from each other only
by thin, low partitions. The second is ' Bontsie Silent,'
which is given in our Chrestomathy. It belongs to the
same category of sketches as his 'The Messenger.' It
presents, probably better than any other, the author's
conception of the character of the virtues of the long-
suffering masses. Who can read it without being
moved to the depth of his heart ? There is no exag-
geration in it, no melodrama, nothing but the bitter
reality. It expresses, in a more direct way than any-
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 211
thing else he has written, his faith that the Kingdom
of Heaven belongs to the lowly.
The sketch named ■ The Fur-Cap ' is one of the very
few that he has written as an attack on the Khassidic
Rabbi. There is here, however, a vast difference in
the manner of Perez and of Linetzki. While the
latter goes at it in a direct way, with club in hand, and
bluntly lets it fall on the head of the fanatic, Perez
has above all in mind the literary form in which he
clothes his attack, and we get from him an artistic story
which must please even if the thrusts be not relished.
The Rabbi never appears in public without his enormous
fur-cap, which is really the insignia of his office. In
this story we find the furrier engaged in a monologue,
in which he tells of his delight in making the Rabbi's
cap. He feels that it is he who gives all importance to
that dignitary, for it is the cap that makes the Rabbi.
He relates of the transformation of a common mortal
into an awe-inspiring interpreter of God's will on earth.
No important occurrence in life, no birth, marriage, or
death, can take place without the approval of him who
wears that fur-cap. It is the cap, not the man, and his
wisdom, that sanctions and legalizes his various acts.
Were it not for the cap, it would not be possible to tell
right from wrong. This fine bit of sarcasm is not a
mere attack at the sect of the Khassidim ; it is also
meant as an accusation of our whole social system, with
its conventional lies. Perez does not show by his
writings to what particular party he belongs, but he
is certainly not with the conservatives. He is with
those who advocate progress in its most advanced form.
He is opposed to everything that means the enslave-
ment of any class of people. In Russia, where one
may not express freely views which are not in accord
212 YIDDISH LITERATURE
with the sentiments of the governing class, authors
have to resort frequently to the form of allegory,
fable, or distant allusion, instead of the more direct
way of writers in constitutional countries. For these
reasons pure literature is generally something more
to the Russians than mere artistic productions. The
novel takes frequently the place of a political pamphlet,
of an essay on social questions. The stories of the
Judeo-German authors share naturally the same fate
with those of the Russians, and, consequently, can-
not be free of 4 tendencies ' whenever the writers have
in mind the treatment of subjects which would be dealt
with severely by the censor. Much of the alleged
obscurity of Perez's writings is just due to the desire
of avoiding the censor's blue pencil, and the more
dangerous a more direct approach becomes, . the more
delicate must be the allegory*. The best of that class
of literature is contained in this volume in a series
entitled 'Little Stories for Big Men.'
The first of these is called ' The Stagnant Pool.' We
are introduced here to the world of worms who live in
the pool, who regard the green scum as their heaven,
and pieces of eggshells that have fallen into it as
the stars and the moon upon it. A number of cows
stepping into the pool tear their heaven and kill all
who are not hidden away in the slime. Only one
worm survives to tell the story of the catastrophe, and
he suggests to his fellows that that was not the heaven
that was destroyed, that there is another heaven which
exists eternally. For this the narrator was thought to
be insane and was sent to an insane asylum. The
second sketch, 'The Sermon of the Lamps,' in which
the hanging lamp instructs a small table lamp to
send its flame heavenwards and not to flicker in anar-
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 213
chistic fashion, is a fine allegory in which the social
order of things is criticised. There are altogether ten
such excellent allegories, or fables, in the collection, all
of the same value. The last of Perez's articles in the
book is a popular discussion of what constitutes prop-
erty; it is written in the same style as his scientific
works spoken of before.
From 1894 to 1896 Perez has been issuing small
pamphlets of about thirty octavo pages at irregular
intervals. They are called ' Holiday Leaves,' and bear
each a special name appropriate for each particular
occasion. A certain part of these pamphlets has stories
and discussions to suit the occasions for which they are
written, but on the whole their contents do not differ
from those of his periodicals. Here again Perez has
furnished most of the matter. The other writers are
David Pinski, J. Goido, Solomon Grossgliick, M. J.
Freid, who also contributed to his earlier magazines.
It is evident that they follow their master in the
general manner of composition, though at a respectable
distance. Of these, Freid1 has written some good
sketches of animal life. His 4 Mursa ' is the story of a
bitch who has given birth to some puppies : — her love
for her offspring, her madness when she finds her young
ones drowned and gone, and her death by strangulation.
4 Red Caroline, a Novel of Animal Life,' is a similar
story from the life of a cow. They are well told and
display talent in the author. Of the others, Pinski2
deserves to be mentioned specially, both on account of
1 In Hausfreund, Vol. V. pp. 136-145 ; Spektor's Familienkalender,
Vol. V. pp. 45-51 j Widerkol, pp. 5-18 ; Jud. Bibliothek, Vol. III. pp.
89-94 ; Literatur wn' Leben, pp. 89-95 ; Jontew-blattlech, No. 16.
2 In Hausfreund, Vol. III. pp. 231-241, 265-277 ; Jud. Bibliothek,
Vol. III. pp. 84-89 ; Literatur uiV Leben, pp. 23-47, 163. Jontew-
blattlech, Nos. 1, 3, 20, 22, 24, 29 ; 2d Series, Nos. 1, 2, 5.
214 YIDDISH LITERATURE
the quantity and the quality of his work. Most of
his sketches do not rise above the mediocre, but there
are several that are as good as those of Spektor. The
best of his are those that are entitled ' The Oppressed,'
the first of which appeared in i Literature and Life.' In
this he tells of the tyranny exercised by a shopkeeper
on his clerk, and of the timidity of his wretched subor-
dinate, who merely ekes out an existence by working
for him from daybreak until late at night from one end
of the year to the other. The brutal master, the cow-
ardly, downtrodden clerk, his courageous daughter
who urges her father to leave the store in spite of the
shopkeeper's protest, the scene at home, where his wife
has just given birth to a child, where there is no money
for a fire or for medicine, — all this is drawn dramati-
cally and naturally. Goido 1 began to issue a series of
stories in Wilna, in the manner of Perez's 4 Holiday
Leaves,' and they attracted Perez's attention, who en-
couraged him in his literary career. Regarding his
career in America, we shall find him more especially
mentioned in the next chapter.
After the financial failure of the different magazines
started since 1887, only Spektor's Hausfreund has been
able to survive with some degree of regularity. The last
of this series appeared in 1896, after which Judeo-Ger-
man letters seem to have been checked entirely. There
still appear publications by societies, but they are all of
a Zionistic nature. It is hard to foretell what the future
of this literature will be. But having worked out such a
variety of styles in the last fifteen years, it can hardly fail
of presenting the same interesting features with which
1 In addition to his own publications see Hausfreund, Vol. III. pp.
294-304 ; Jud. Bibliothek, Vol. I. pp. 90-98 ; Jontew-blattlech, Nos.
7, 8, 18.
PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881 215
we have just become acquainted, unless, indeed, the in-
telligent classes abandon this field for other European
languages and turn it over to the class of writers who
have in view the filling of their pockets and not the
good of the people. Then it will revert to the chaos into
which it was led by Schaikewitsch and the like. In any
case it will reflect the conditions from without ; it will
flourish in proportion as the Jews are oppressed by the
government and public opinion ; it will disappear when
full rights shall have been accorded them. The latter
are not to be hoped for in any appreciably near time,
hence Judeo-German letters will continue to be an
anomaly in Russia, in Galicia, and in Roumania for
some time to come.
Although this literature has assumed such great pro-
portions and has produced a score or more of good writ-
ers, it has still remained an unknown quantity to a large
number of the better classes who have not yet broken
entirely with their mother-tongue. They continue
looking with disdain at the popular language and thus
make it hard for those who devote themselves to the
service of the people to produce the desired effect ; for,
failing to get the support of those whose opinion might
weigh with the masses, the latter are somewhat indif-
ferent themselves. Another unfortunate factor in the
development of this literature is the petty jealousies
of many of the writers, which have again and again kept
them from uniting for concerted action. If in spite of
all this it has been able to hold its own and to evolve
to such perfection, it is due to the untiring, self-sacrific-
ing, noble efforts of Zederbaum, Spektor, Rabinowitsch,
and Perez. All honor to these men !
XIV. PROSE WRITERS SINCE 1881: IN
AMERICA
Many years before the great immigration of the Jews
had begun, there was a sufficiently large community of
Russian Jews resident in New York to support a news-
paper. In the seventies there existed there a weekly,
The Jewish G-azette, and there was at least one book
store, that of the firm of Kantrowitz, that furnished
the colony with Judeo-German reading matter. The
centre of that Jewish quarter was then as now on
Canal Street, where there was also the Jewish printing
office of M. Topolowsky, from which, in 1877, was issued
a small volume of Judeo-German poetry by Jacob Zwi
Sobel, probably the first of the kind in America. His
few songs are all in the style of Goldfaden. One,
entitled 4 The Polish Scholar in America,' is especially
interesting, not from a literary standpoint, but from the
light it throws on the condition of the Jews before the
eighties. Whether they wished so or not, they were
rapidly being amalgamated, on the one side by the Ger-
man Jews, on the other by the American people at
large. Many tried to hide their nationality, and even
their religion, since the Russian Jews did not stand in
good repute then. The vernacular was only used as
the last resort by those who had not succeeded in
acquiring a ready use of the English language, and
its approach to the literary German was even greater
than that attempted by Dick at about the same time in
Russia. However, English words had begun to creep
216
PROSE WRITERS IN AMERICA 217
in freely and to modify the Germanized dialect. It is
evident that the seeds of the American Judeo-German,
as it may now be found in the majority of works printed
in New York, had been sown even then. The proneness
to use a large number of German words is derived from
the time when the smaller community had been labor-
ing to pass into American Judaism by means of the
German Jewish congregations.
Suddenly, in 1881, began the great forced emigration
of the Jews from Russia, and in the same year the main
stream of the unfortunate wanderers commenced to
flood the city of New York, and from there to spread
over the breadth and the length of the United States.
At present there are, probably, not less than three hun-
dred thousand Russian Jews to be found in New York
alone. The aspect of the Jewish colony was at once
changed. It was thrown back into conditions resem-
bling those in congested Russian cities. There came
misery, poverty, and squalor. The struggle for exist-
ence was even harder than it had been at home. They
had exchanged the tyranny of the autocracy for the
liberty of the republic, but they did not at the same
time better their material well-being. It was then that
the sweat-shop with all its horrors had its beginning, or
at least found its most objectionable development. And
they were not all laborers who were forced to tread the
sewing-machine, or roll cigars and fill cigarettes. Many
of them had seen better days at home, some had even
been students at gymnasia and at universities. With-
out any previous training in their particular occupa-
tions, forced to do ten and twelve hours' work of the
hardest labor, they had no time to think of any but the
most sordid, more immediate physical needs. Some
indeed succeeded in establishing themselves perma-
218 YIDDISH LITERATURE
nently, but the majority groaned under a heavy yoke.
Only by degrees did more and more of them issue from
the sweat-shops, to take up other occupations ; but few
of them ever forgot the horrors of their first years in
America. The whole course of the Judeo-German
literature is a reflex, on the one side, of their sufferings,
on the other, of the greater liberty, the slowly increas-
ing well-being.
With the large immigration came also some of the
literary men : Zunser, Schaikewitsch, Seiffert, Gold-
faden. They at once set about to produce books with
the same vim that they had developed at home. But
the field was not so profitable, and they had to turn to
other work. Schaikewitsch and Zunser have become
printers instead of writers of books, and Goldfaden
gave up his attempt in despair and returned finally
to Europe. However, in the short time that they
have been active in America, they have succeeded in
doing immeasurable harm not only to Judeo-German
literature, but to the people for whom they wrote as
well. They have corrupted the language in accord
with the forms which they found in vogue among the
Jews who had been here before them, and they started
out to minister to the sensational tastes of the masses
who received their nourishment from the lower English
press of New York. The amount of many-volumed so-
called novels that they have produced is simply appall-
ing. These are mainly adaptations of the most sensa-
tional novels in whatsoever language they could lay their
hands on. Goldfaden also started TJie New York Illus-
trated Gazette, the first of the kind in Judeo-German,
but it lived only a short time. In spite of the mass of
printed matter in the vernacular, literature did not pay
in America, and Goldfaden left the country in disgust.-
PROSE WRITERS IN AMERICA 219
But the eighties were not by any means devoid of
interest and far-reaching importance to Jewish letters.
During that time Judeo-German journalism received its
fullest development. In Russia a daily press could not
exist at all, and the few weeklies that had been issued
from time to time had to move in such closely circum-
scribed limits that journalism ever remained there in its
infancy. But on the other side of the Atlantic, the
first thing the Jews learned to value and to make free
use of was the newspaper. A large number of these
were started in the first ten years of the great immi-
gration, but most of them have been of short duration.
In the struggle for existence the oldest newspaper, that
had had its beginning in* 1874, came out victorious.
It bought out and consolidated twenty Jewish dailies
and weeklies and now appears in the form of The
Jewish Gazette, as the representative of the more con-
servative faction of the Russian Jews of America. But
the most active in that field of literature were those
who at the end of the eighties clustered around the
newspapers that were published in the interest of the
Jewish laborers. Of these Die Arbeiterzeitung was
the most prominent.
A number of causes united in making the socialistic
propaganda strongest among the Russian Jews. They
had come from a country where all the elements of oppo-
sition naturally gathered around the political parties
that stood in secret conflict with the Government and
also the social order of things. In America, they came
at once in contact with the sweat-shop and similar
industrial oppressions, which only sharpened their dis-
like of the social structure. Intellectually they stood
higher than those of their brethren who persevered with
the conservatives, for they had at least come to think
220 YIDDISH LITERATURE
about their condition and the affairs of the world, while
the others clung to old superstitions and did nothing
to drag themselves out from the slough of ignorance into
which they had fallen in Russia. At the same time the
many intelligent men who had been driven to the United
States nearly all had belonged to the opposition parties
at home, and it was from them alone that the masses
could be saved from the clutches of the sensational
novelists. This struggle between Schaikewitsch and his
tribe on the one side and the intelligent writers on the
other began towards the end of the last decade, and the
older men are being as surely driven to the wall here
as they have been in Russia by Rabinowitsch and the
newer school of writers. These younger men have,
with but one exception, been driven to Judeo-German
letters as their last resort. Some of them had never
before published anything in any language, and none of
them had ever practised writing in their vernacular.
They all belonged to that class of Jewish young men
who had received their instruction in Russian schools,
or who had in any way identified themselves completely
with their Gentile comrades. They had all reached
their school age in the seventies, when everybody was as
eager to become Russianized as two decades before their
parents had been to oppose the new culture. Either
as belonging to the Jewish race, or because of their
sympathies with the Nihilists, they had to flee from the
country. These form to a great extent the basis for
the Russian intelligence in the United States.
They brought with them the idea of the Narodniks,
which was that their energies ought to be devoted to
the uplifting of the masses. They could not hope to
become in any way influential among the native popu-
lation in the American cities. They, consequently,
PROSE WRITERS IN AMERICA 221
directed their attention to their own race. One of the
first to arrive in America with the great immigra-
tion, was Abraham Cahan. He was born in the year
1860 in Podberezhe, in the government of Wilna. His
early years had been passed in a Jewish school perfect-
ing himself in Jewish lore. At the age of fourteen he
entered the Hebrew Teachers' Institute at Wilna, from
which he graduated in 1881. He was appointed a
teacher in a government school in a small town in the
province of Witebsk, but he had soon to flee, having
been discovered by the police as a participant in the
nihilistic movement. The next year he arrived in
New York penniless. He had a hard struggle for three
or four years. Since that time he has been active as
the founder of several excellent Judeo-German periodi-
cals, as a writer in the dialect himself, as a contrib-
utor to the English press, and, finally, as a writer of
English books. Of the latter, i Yekl ' was published a
short time ago by Appleton & Co., and 'The Imported
Bridegroom and Other Stories,' by Houghton, Mifflin
& Co. He has also contributed to the Cosmopolitan,
Short Stories, and the Atlantic Monthly.
His Judeo-German activity began with the founda-
tion of the Arheiterzeitung, devoted to the interest of
socialism and enlightenment among the Jewish masses.
To this gazette he contributed largely. Most of his
articles are popularizations of sciences, but he has also
written several books of stories, mostly from the life of
the New York Ghetto. Like his English stories, they
are composed in a good literary style, and present vivid
pictures of Jewish life as it is modified under American
conditions. It may be safely asserted that his English
sketches are conceived by him first in the Judeo-Ger-
man, after which they are adapted for an American
222 YIDDISH LITERATURE
public. While showing great merit, it cannot be said
of his novels that they equal those of the writers in
Russia. In fact, there has not arisen in America any
author who has shown the same degree of originality
as those of the mother-country, even though they fre-
quently surpass them in regularity of structure, and in
the fund of information they possess. Among the large
number of writers in New York who have contributed
to the literature, it can hardly be said that any indi-
vidual style has been developed. They resemble each
other very much, both in the manner of their composi-
tions, and the subjects they treat. Nor could it be
otherwise. They nearly all are busy popularizing sci-
ence in one way or other, or they write novels from the
life of the Jewish community, which, in the less than
two decades of its existence, has not developed, as
yet, many new characteristics. They imitate Russian
models for their stories and novels, mainly Chekhov.
They are all of them realists, and some have carried
their realism to the utmost extent.
One of the most fruitful popularizers of science has
been Abner Tannenbaum. His works have all the
merit of being based on real facts, though these are
presented in the attractive form of novels, whether
original or translated. He is now exerting an influ-
ence also on the Jews of Russia, where his works are
much valued. He was born in 1847, and, up to the
year 1889, was a wholesale druggist. In that year he
arrived in America, and, for the first time, began writ-
ing in the vernacular. At first, he translated novels
from German and French, especially the works of Jules
Verne. Later, he wrote some novels after the fashion
of the German pedagogue, J. H. Campe, in his works
4 Robinson the Younger ' and ' The Discovery of Amer-
PROSE WRITERS IN AMERICA 223
ica.' Since 1893, he has been a permanent contributor
to The Jewish Gazette, where he has been writing and
popularizing encyclopedic items.
The early history of J. Rombro, who is writing under
the pseudonym of Philip Krantz, does not differ much
from that of Abraham Cahan, with whom he has been
active in the publication of the same periodicals. He
had to flee from Russia about the same time. He went
to London and Paris, from which place he contributed
to various Russian magazines. In London he met Win-
chevsky, who, at that time, had been editing a Judeo-
German newspaper, The Polish Jew. He was asked by
him to write a description of the riots against the Jews.
" It was a hard job for me," so writes the author, " and
it took me a long time to do it. I never thought of
writing in the Jewish Jargon, but fate ordered other-
wise, and, contrary to all my aspirations, I am now
nothing more than a poor Jargon journalist." The
author's evil plight has, however, been the people's
gain, for to his untiring activity is due no small amount
of the enlightenment that they have received in the
last ten years. In 1885 he was invited by a group of
Hebrew workingmen, rather anarchistic than social-
democratic, to edit a socialistic monthly, The Workers'1
Friend. Against his will, for he was a social-democrat,
he accepted the offer. This monthly became the next
year a weekly. Later, he translated Lassale's ' Work-
ingmen's Program' into Judeo-German. About that
time, in 1890, he was invited by the Jewish socialists
of New York to come to the United States and edit a
strictly social-democratic paper. He gladly accepted
this invitation, and March 6, 1890, the first number of
the Arbeiterzeitung was issued ; since 1894 it has been
appearing under the name of the Abend-Blatt as a daily,
224 YIDDISH LITERATURE
and it is now the official Jewish organ of the socialist
labor party. He was also the first editor of the Zukunft,
started by the Jewish socialist sections of the United
States in 1892. Now he is contributing to the month-
lies Neuer Geist and Neue Zeit. His articles are all
characterized by great earnestness, and by a good flow-
ing style. He is far from being a blind partisan, and
he knows how to treat impartially questions of a general
import.
The nineties have passed in the United States in the
often -repeated attempt to establish permanent Judeo-
German magazines. There have been a large number of
them in existence, and one after the other has met with
financial failure. Now, however, there are several that
promise to last a longer time. Never before has the
periodical press in Judeo-German been brought to such
a perfection as regards its outward form and the vari-
ety of subjects that it has incorporated in its pages.
The first of the kind was the Zukunft just men-
tioned. It lasted until the year 1897, when it gave
way to the Neue Zeit, which is practically a contin-
uation of the first. It differs little from similar popu-
lar science magazines in other languages. We find in
it such articles as, What is Socialism? Philosophy
and Revolution; A Dog's Brain, by John Lubbock ;
Shakespeare, his Life and his Works ; Pasteur and his
Discoveries; and similar scientific articles. To these
must be added many literary articles, stories, poems,
reviews, and the like. Among the several good con-
tributors of the latter class of literature we shall dwell
at a greater length on B. Gorin and Leon Kobrin.
B. Gorin is the pseudonym of J. Goido, of whose
activity in Russia we have spoken before. After the
failure of his undertaking in Wilna, mainly through the
PROSE WRITERS IN AMERICA 225
interference of the censor, who delayed his publication
in every possible way, he went to Berlin to attend lec-
tures at the University. He soon went to America,
where shortly after, in 1895, he became the editor of a
Philadelphia Judeo-German newspaper. From there
he went to New York, where he published the 'Jew-
ish American Popular Library,' a collection of short
stories in the manner of his Wilna edition; but its life
was cut short after the seventh number. He has since
been the editor of the Neuer Geist. The most of his
sketches were published in the Arbeiterzeitung and in
the Abend-Blatt, when it was still edited by A. Cahan.
At first he confined himself exclusively to short sketches
in the style of the Russian writer, Shchedrin, but soon
he followed the example of all of those who have writ-
ten in America, and has translated foreign authors, has
written reviews, and popularized science. In Russia he
had begun the translation of * David Copperfield.' In
America he has translated Chekhov, and has in one way
or other introduced the Russian Jews to the works of
Daudet, Maupassant, Sienkiewicz, Korolenko, Dosto-
yevski, Bourget, Garshin, Potapenko, and many German
and English novelists.
One of the most original writers of the realistic
school in the manner of the Russian Chekhov is Leon
Kobrin. He has lately started the publication of a
'Realistic Library,' of which the first number so far
issued contains several sketches that have been written
by him in the last two years. One of the best in that
volume is the first, ' Jankel Boile,' a story from the life
of Jewish fishermen. One is rather inclined to doubt
that his Jewish characters really exist as he has de-
picted them ; it almost seems as if they were a transfer-
ence of Russian men to Jewish surroundings, for they
226 YIDDISH LITERATURE
seem to do things that are not met with as peculiarities
of the Jews in the many novels by Judeo-German writ-
ers. But it may be that he speaks from intimate
acquaintance with a class of people that is not generally
accessible to the average writer. Barring this, the
story is very vividly told. It is a sketch of a Jewish
boy who has grown up with the village boys, and who
has but the faintest idea of his Jewish faith. He falls
in love with one of the peasant girls of his acquaintance,
whom he courts, and for whom he is about to give up
the faith of his fathers. In the last moment, when out
in the night on a fishing tour on the stormy lake, he is
caught with remorse at his impending apostasy, and he
commits suicide by jumping in the lake. This is but a
bare outline of a most excellently developed story, in
which realism has been carried to a ne plus ultra. His
portrayal of the lower classes with their indomitable
passions reminds one very much of the remarkable
sketches of the Russian Gorki.
At this juncture mention must be made of the many
short sketches by Gurewitsch, who writes under the
pseudonym of Z. Libin. They belong among the best
Ghetto stories that have been written in New York,
and they display undoubted talent. Cahan, Goido,
Kobrin, and Libin are all young men yet, and from
them alone a regeneration of the Jewish novel may be
expected.
In 1893 Krantz and Sharkansky started a monthly
magazine, The City Guide, but only two numbers of
it appeared. Two years later Winchevsky began issu-
ing in Boston The Emeth, a weekly family paper for
literature and culture. It is a pity it was stopped
before the year was out, for of all the magazines that
have seen daylight in America, it was by far the most
PROSE WRITERS IN AMERICA 227
ably edited. Among his contributors of belles lettres
we find the names of the authors just mentioned, and
also several others. Nearly everything else is from the
pen of the editor. While in many of the leaders his
socialistic bias is pronounced, yet most of his articles
deal with subjects of a general interest. Of his poetry
we have spoken before. His prose style is even better.
It is smooth, idiomatic, and carefully balanced. He is
one of the few authors who bestow great care on a good
Judeo-German style, and file and finish it. Most inter-
esting are his epigrams and philosophical reflections,
and his satirical sketches, which he generally ascribes
to the 'Insane Philosopher.' Winchevsky has been
very productive. Outside of his many original stories
and sketches, his poetry, and sociological articles, he
has translated a number of works, among others the
Russian Korolenko and Victor Hugo's c Les Miserables.'
His translations are the very best in the Judeo-Ger-
man language. Few have equalled him in the art of
translation. The distinguishing characteristics of all
his productions are dignity and refinement. Although
he frequently depicts Jewish life, the Jew is but an
accident of his themes, for he has ever in mind the
social questions at large, as they affect the whole world.
The year before Schaikewitsch began the publication
of the Hebrew Puck in imitation of the English
Puck. Being of a humorous nature, that magazine
does not show the glaring defects of his other works
to any great extent. In the same year Alexander
Harkavy started The American People's Calendar,
which in addition to the matter that more strictly
belongs to an almanac contains also several useful arti-
cles of a literary value. Harkavy has developed an
untiring activity in the publication of books by which
228 YIDDISH LITERATURE
his countrymen should be introduced to the English
language and to a right understanding of American
citizenship. He has written all kinds of text-books, has
translated the Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence, and published The Hebrew American,
an English weekly with footnotes in Judeo-German.
He has also written a large number of popular articles
on linguistic subjects. Many of these contain valuable
matter, but it is often difficult to disentangle the facts
from his personal speculations, which are not always
based on scientific truths. He lacks training, and his
style is otherwise colorless. But for all that, his deserts
in the education of the Russian Jews of New York
must not be undervalued. Of his translations we might
also mention the 'Don Quixote,' of which so far only
the first part has appeared in Judeo-German. Among
the writers of historical essays, the most promising is
the Roumanian, D. M. Hermalin, whose ' Mohammed '
and 4 Jesus the Nazarene ' are not only fair and unbiassed
statements of the foreign religious teachings, but also
belong among the very few books in Judeo-German that
are supplied with a critical apparatus.
The best magazine now in existence is the Neuer
G-eist, of which the first seven numbers were edited by
Harkavy, but which now appears under the editorship of
Gorin. It is a periodical of science, literature, and art,
and has no special political bias. We find here the
same contributors as in former monthlies. To those
mentioned before may be added the names of Budianov,
Feigenbaum, and Solotkov, who have written many good
articles on sociological and philosophical matters, and
Katz, who is an astute critic. Here has also appeared
the best translation in verse of one of Shakespeare's
dramas, 'The Merchant of Venice,' from the pen of
PROSE WRITERS IN AMERICA 229
the poet Bovchover. Another, smaller magazine, Die
Zeit,1 is published by the Hebrew poet M. M. Dolizki.
Another well-conducted monthly is the JVeue Zeit, issued
by the Jewish-speaking sections of the Socialist Labor
Party of the United States. There is no material dif-
ference in the composition of the contributors' staff.
A few more names might be added to the list of men
who have been active in spreading information among
the Russian Jews, such as Feigenbaum, Wiernik, Bu-
kanski. Seiffert has written some interesting accounts
of the Jewish stage in America, but his language is of
the order of Dick or even worse ; Rosenfeld and Shar-
kansky have at various times produced some sketches
and even dramas, but they are more strictly poets, as
which alone they will survive.
The time is not far away when there will not be a
Judeo-German press in America. The younger gen-
eration never looks inside of a Jewish paper now, and
the next following generation will no longer speak the
dialect, unless something unforeseen happens by which
the existence of that anomaly shall be made possible.
Already The Jewish Gazette, taking time by the fore-
lock, has begun issuing an English supplement to its
Judeo-German weekly. It wants to secure its lease of
life by passing over by successive steps to a periodical
published entirely in English, without a violent loss of
its subscribers. Several of the intelligent writers in
the vernacular are at the same time contributing to the
English press, while some have entirely abandoned their
Judeo-German. In the meanwhile that literature is
developing a feverish activity. From its ashes will
rise new forces in the English literature of America
1 Since writing this, both the Neuer Geist and Die Zeit have
appearing.
230 YIDDISH LITERATURE
that will add no small mite to its pages. In the short
time of the existence of the Judeo-German in America,
it has passed through three distinct stages : the first
was the era of the sensational novel ; then followed the
socialistic propaganda, coupled with the evolution of
the press, but particularly the magazine. Now, without
abandoning entirely the social and political ideals, the
writers are combining to popularize science and to pro-
duce a pure literature. The latter is more or less under
the sway of the Russian writers Chekhov, Korolenko,
and Garshin. What Russia has done for the Jews in
the seventies is reaped by the masses in the nineties
in America.
XV. THE JEWISH THEATRE
In the beginning of the eighteenth century two plays
written in Judeo-German appeared in print, 4 The Sale
of Joseph' and the ' Ahasuerus-play . ' 1 They were in-
tended for scenic representation on the feast of Purim,
which even before that time had been given to mimic
performances. These mysteries, together with another
written at about the same time, 'David and Goliath,'
have held uninterrupted sway up to our own time wher-
ever the Jargon has been spoken. Schudt has left us in
his ' Judische Merkwiirdigkeiten ' 2 a detailed account
of the popularity of one of these plays from the start,
of the manner of its performance at the house of the
Rabbi of Mannheim, of the formation of the first trav-
elling company for the execution of the drama at other
towns, and many other interesting facts connected with
it. These mysteries differ little from the coarse come-
dies and burlesques current at the time among the Gen-
tiles, from whom, no doubt, many of the details were
borrowed. Soon many imitations of the original ' Ahas-
uerus-play ' 3 and i The Sale of Joseph ' came to rival
1 For the bibliography of the older plays see Steinschneider, in the
Serapeum (1848, '49, '64, '66, '69): Ahasuerus, Nos. 11 a, 387 ; Purim-
play, No. 417 ; Acta Esther (Ahas.), No. 17 (cf. Litteraturblatt des
Orients, 1843, p. 59, and J'ud. Litteratur, in Ersch und Gruber, § XX.
Anmerkung 36); Action von Konig David und Goliath dem Philister,
No. 18 ; Mechiras Josef, No. 146. On the ancient theatre, see Abra-
hams, Jewish Life, pp. 260-272.
2 pp. 36 ff.
8 Part of the Ahasuerus-play, as given at present on the day of
Purim, may be found in Abramowitsch's Prizyw, pp. 62-65.
231
232 YIDDISH LITERATURE
the older plays in popularity. Of the first a form is
known to me in which the Leckerlaufer is substituted
for the original Pickleherring, the grotesque harlequin,
while of the second I possess at least two widely differ-
ent versions, not to speak of Zunser's large drama of the
same subject. Altogether, this matter has not, as far
as I know, been properly investigated, so that little can
be said with certainty about the relations that they
bear to each other. l The Sale of Joseph,' or 4 The
Greatness of Joseph,' as it is frequently called, was
translated at the end of the last or the beginning of
this century into Judeo- German by Elieser Pawier from
the original Hebrew under the title ' Milchomo be-Scho-
lom.' It is a much more serious production than the
older work, and this, rather than the one printed in
1710, has lain at the foundation of future adaptations.
At least one, the versified drama under the name of
4 Geschichte vun Mechiras Jossef u-Gdulas Jdssef,'
published in 1876 in Jusefov, distinctly claims to be a
translation from the same Hebrew source. How many
such plays have been actually performed it is not possi-
ble to determine now without a more careful inquiry
among older men in various parts of Russia. There
have just come to light a number of mysteries once
popular in the Government of Kowno, while some have
been printed within our own days. Such, for example,
is 'The Book of the Wisdom of Solomon,' which is
based on the Biblical story of Solomon's life, but which
contains also Talmudical commentaries on certain facts
connected with his reign. The latest, and by far the
best, drama on the c Sale of Joseph ' comes from the
pen of Zunser, who not only has given it a literary finish,
but has perused all the sources that throw any light on
several difficult points connected with the play, and has
THE JEWISH THEATRE 233
furnished in some perplexing problems solutions of his
own, so as to make the whole uniform and historically
correct. In his introduction he mentions a few im-
portant facts about the popularity of the subject, and
the manner of its performance, or recitation. He
says : " No other story from our Holy Scripture has
made such an impression or has become so known to
the masses of the Jews as the 'Sale of Joseph.' . . .
As far back as we can remember it has been played
among us by beggar-students, or by the old-fashioned
badchens at weddings."
It is not uncommon to see a performance of this
play given at the present time in some small town.
The actors are generally the beggar-students who
have to play both the male and female parts, as no
women are allowed to perform together with the men.
Some large unoccupied room is furnished with benches
on which the sexes are generally seated separately.
The stage is of the most primitive character, without
decorations of any kind ; and the actors like to parade
in fantastic clothes which have nothing in common with
the historical truth. Either the whole of the play, or
at least certain passages are sung according to tradi-
tional tunes. In the * Sale of Joseph ' it is always the
monologue of Joseph before his mother's grave upon
which the greatest care is bestowed, as it is the most
pathetic part of the drama. It is probably the proto-
type of M. Gordon's ballad of 'The Stepmother' and
similar popular versions, for in them, as in Gordon's
version, Joseph's mother sends up her consoling words
to her son from her grave. An excellent description
of such a performance is given in Dienesohn's 'Her-
schele,' l where the hero of the novel plays the part of
Joseph.
r 1 Cf. Dienesohn, Herschele, pp. 47 ff.
234 YIDDISH LITERATURE
These mysteries are not the only form of histrionic
art. On the Purim, many masqueraders may be seen
passing from house to house, followed by a curious
crowd of children, anxious to catch a glimpse of the
strange mummery of men and impossible animals.
In some places the children and even grown persons
manage to enter the house either by sheer force,
or under the proverbial pretext that they are the
"bear's brother." The actors begin in a chanting
way : " Good evening, my good people, do you know
what Purim means?" after which they proceed with
the explanation and the performance of some grotesque
scene. Each group has its own Purim play, which is
generally some unrecognizable fragment of the 4 Ahasue-
rus-play,' but frequently also some original production
which is jealously guarded from being imitated by
rival boy performers. There is no merit in them, but
an investigation even of this form of the Purim play
might bring out some interesting points or bits of
antiquity. The length of the burlesque is graded
according to the expectation of the final monetary
reward, to which they allude with the stereotyped
phrase : " The play is out, give us a coin, and throw
us out of doors ! " 1
The possibility is not excluded that in addition to
this semi-religious form of the drama, there may also
have been given performances of profane plays at an
early date in Russia. It is not known whether any of
the dramas written by Aksenfeld, Gottlober, or Ettin-
ger have been played by amateur actors, but we have
at least one well-attested case of a performance of that
kind in 1855, — twenty years before the establish-
1 Cf. Abramowitsch, Prizyw, p. 64 : " Heunt is' Purim un' morgen
is' aus, Gi't mir a Groschen un' stupt mien araus 1 "
THE JEWISH THEATRE 235
ment of the Judeo-German theatre by Goldfaden. In
that year the students of the Zhitomir Rabbinical
school celebrated the coronation of Emperor Alexander
II. by a play in which the life of the Jewish soldier and
the kahal were depicted. This drama is said to have
been written by one Kamrasch, but never to have been
printed. It is also asserted that it served as the first
impulse to Goldfaden to create a Jewish theatre, which,
however, he realized only much later.
There existed a dramatic literature long before Gold-
faden. We have had occasion to mention the works of
Ettinger, Aksenfeld, Gottlober, Abramowitsch, Falko-
witsch, Levinsohn, Epstein. After the popular poetry a
semi-dramatic style was better calculated to impress the
people with the new culture than simple prose, which
at that time had not been well worked out. Nearly all
of the prose style of the early days is more or less
affected by the drama, and even Abramowitsch has not
entirely got away from it. Nearly all of his stories are
introduced by the stereotyped words : " Says Mendele
Mocher Sforim," and there are other similar dramatic
effects scattered through them. This, which is an imi-
tation of Hebrew originals, has also been the usual way
of introduction with other Judeo-German writers of the
early days. The drama of Ettinger is entirely con-
structed after the manner of a German play, has five
acts, and the laws of dramaturgy are carefully carried
out. It really looks as though he had intended it for
the stage. In Aksenfeld the adaptation to the stage is
less apparent, while the others do not seem to have had
the performance of their plays in mind at all. What is
surprising is that Aksenfeld and Gottlober should have
introduced in their dramas a number of couplets and
songs which have no meaning unless they were meant
236 YIDDISH LITERATURE
to be sung by the actors. Possibly they followed the
precedent of familiar German plays even in this particu-
lar, without any other purpose before them ; or it may
be that they foresaw the possibility of their future repre-
sentation and thought it best to imitate the Purim plays,
which had always some songs intermingled with the
spoken dialogue of the actors.
In 1872 Goldfaden published two of his comedies.1
The first, 4 The Two Neighbors,' is a splendid farce,
in which two women are discussing the prospective
marriage of their two babies playing on the floor.
The children get to fighting, and one of them is hurt.
This changes the tone of their mothers, and they heap
curses on each other in the vilest manner. The other,
1 Aunt Sosie,' is the best he has ever written. We do
not find in it the rant of his later dramas, and the
subject is taken strictly from Jewish life. Aunt Sosie
is a woman of the type of Serkele. She is anxious to
get her sister married, and maltreats her husband's
niece. Her husband is under her thumb. By the aid
of his friend Ispanski he manages to cheat his wife and
to get his niece married to his wife's brother. Sosie is
about to marry her sister to a Lithuanian Jew, a cloak-
maker, who is already married to another woman. His
lawful wife comes in time to prevent the bigamy of her
husband. It is easy to see that the whole is a close
imitation of Ettinger's comedy.
During the Turco-Russian War, in 1876 and 1877,
the city of Bukarest in Roumania presented a lively
spectacle. It was the seat of the Russian staff, and all
the news from the field of war was carried there, and
all the contracts for the commissariat were let there.
The city swarmed with Jews from Russia and Galicia,
1 In Die Judene, q.v.
THE JEWISH THEATRE 237
who had come there to find, in one way or another,
some means to earn a fortune. Bukarest became a
Mecca of all those who did not succeed at home. And,
indeed, as long as the war lasted most of them managed
to fill their pockets. With the easily gotten gains
there came also a desire to be amused, and coffee-houses
were crowded by Jews who came to them to listen to
the songs of some local ballad singer. It was also not
uncommon for such singers to give performances of their
art in private houses to assembled guests. Goldfaden
had also come there in the hope of bettering his condi-
tion. It occurred to him that he might widen the
activity of the balladists by uniting several of them
into a company for the sake of theatrical performances.
This he did at once. Bearing in mind the fact that
Jews had not been used to the regular drama, but that
they were fond of music, he wrote hurriedly half a
dozen light burlesques, mostly imitations of French
originals, in which the songs written and set to music
by him were the most important thing. There is no
other merit whatsoever in the plays, as their Jewish
setting is merely such in name, and as otherwise the
plot is too trivial.1 But the songs have survived in the
form of popular ballads. It is interesting to note that
this first Roumanian troupe consisted exclusively of
men, who had also to take the women's parts.
After the conclusion of the war, in 1878, Goldfaden
returned to Odessa, where he established a regular
Jewish theatre.2 Women were added to the personnel,
1 Cf. Abramsky, Bomas Jischok, which gives an account of that
period.
2 See Die JMische Buhne. (The Jewish Stage.) Herausgegeben
zum SO jahrigen Jubilaum vun dem judischen Theater. Publisher,
J. Katzenellenbogen, New York, 1897 ; about 800 pages, irregularly
marked. In this volume the most important contribution, though
238 YIDDISH LITERATURE
and a number of writers began to write plays spe-
cially adapted for the stage. Katzenellenbogen, Lerner,
Schaikewitsch, Lilienblum, and the founder of the
theatre were busy increasing the repertoire. Of these,
Katzenellenbogen was the most original and most lit-
erary. It does not appear that his dramas have been
printed, but the songs taken out of several of them
and issued by him in a volume of his poetry attest a
high merit in them. Lerner was satisfied with repro-
ducing some of the best German plays in a Jewish
garb. Of these he later published, * Uncle Moses Men-
delssohn,' a one-act drama ; a translation of Gutzkow's
'Uriel Acosta'; a rearrangement of Scribe's 'The
Jewess ' ; and a historical drama, ( Chanuka,' of which
the original is not mentioned by him. The dramas of
the other two are quite weak, but they do not yet indi-
cate that degree of platitude which they have reached
later in America. The success of the theatre was com-
plete. The original company divided in two, and one
part began to play independently under the leadership
of Lerner, while the other started on a tour through
the Jewish cities of Russia, visiting Kharkov, Minsk,
and even Moscow and St. Petersburg. In many towns
far from exhaustive, is by M. Seiffert, Die Geschichte vun judischen
Theater, In drei Zeit-perioden, 47 pp. For the condition of the theatre
at its beginning, in Roumania, see Abramsky, Bomas Jischok. For
its later development cf. J. Lifschitz, Das judische Theater un* die
judische Schauspieler, Bezensie uber das judische Theater in War-
schau, in Jud. Volksblatt, Vol. VIII. (Beilage), pp. 773-784 (No. 20);
Meisach, Das judische Theater, in Hausfreund, Vol. I. pp. 160-165 ;
TJnser Theater, in Jud. Volkskalender, Vol. III. pp. 81-86 ; Rombro,
Der jiidischer Theater in America, in Stadt-anzeiger, No. I. pp. 5-9 ;
No. II. pp. 8-13 ; J. Jaffa, Der judischer Theater wie er is\ in Jud-
Amer. Volkskalender, 1895-96, pp. 60-63. See also the bibliography
in Sistematiceskij ukazateV, p. 211 (Nos. 3137-3149), and pp. 286, 287
(Nos. 4675 and 4676).
THE JEWISH THEATRE * 239
they were received with open hands, in others the in-
telligent classes saw in the formation of a specifically
Jewish theatre a menace to the higher intelligence
which was trying to emancipate itself from the Judeo-
German language and all its traditions. They went so
far as to get the police's prohibition against the per-
formances of Goldfaden's troupe.
This procedure was only just in so far as it affected
the character of the plays, for there was nothing in
them to recommend them as means of elevating or
educating the masses. They had had their origin at a
time when amusement was the only watchword, and
they had had no time to evolve new phases. Seeing
that in order to succeed he would have to furnish
something more substantial than his farces, Goldfaden
produced in succession three historical dramas : 4 Doctor
Almosado,' 4 Sulamith,' and ' Bar-Koehba,' to which at
a later time were added ' Rabbi Joselmann, or the Per-
secution in Alsace,' ' King Ahasuerus, or Queen Esther,'
and 4 The Sacrifice of Isaac,' and a fantastic opera, 4 The
Tenth Commandment.' None of these are, properly
speaking, dramas, but operas or melodramas. They
have at least the merit of being placed on a historical
or Biblical basis and of following good German models.
Their popularity has been very great, and the many
songs which they contain, especially those from • Sula-
mith ' and ■ Bar-Kochba,' rank among the author's best
and most widely known. The latter two operas were
translated into Polish, and given in a theatre in Warsaw.
Just as the Jewish theatre was entering on its new
course of the historical drama, the Government, by a
rescript of September, 1883, closed them in Russia, and
this was followed later by another prohibition of Jewish
performances at Warsaw, where the first law had been
240 YIDDISH LITERATURE
obviated by giving them in the so-called German
theatre.
About that time two young men, Tomaschewski and
Golubok, of New York, started a theatre in New York.
The troupe consisted of actors who had just arrived
from London, where they found it too difficult to estab-
lish themselves. The first performance was given in
the Fourth Street Turner Hall. As formerly in Russia,
the Reformed Jews of the city used their utmost efforts
to prevent the playing of a Jewish comedy, but in
vain. It was given in spite of all remonstrances and
threats. After that the theatre was permanently estab-
lished in the Bowery Garden, under the name of the
Oriental Theatre, which soon passed under the direc-
torship of J. Lateiner. In 1886 another theatre, The
Roumania Opera House, was opened in the old Na-
tional Theatre, at 104-106 Bowery. It would not be
profitable to enter into the further vicissitudes of the
companies, their jealousies and ridiculous pretensions
at equalling the best American troupes. Unfortu-
nately, the authors upon whom they had to depend
for their repertoires were Lateiner, Hurwitz, and other
worthy followers of Schaikewitsch, who by rapid steps
brought the Jewish stage down to the lowest degrees
of insipidity. Not satisfied with producing dramas
from a sphere they knew something about, they began
to imitate, or rather corrupt, existing foreign plays,
to give foolish versions of 4 Mary Stuart,' ' Don Carlos,'
'Trilby,' and similar popular dramas. There were, in-
deed, some men who might have saved the stage from
its frightful degeneration, but the theatre managers
would not listen to them, preferring to pander to the
low taste of the masses by giving them worthless
productions that bore some distant resemblance to
THE JEWISH THEATRE 241
the performances in the lower grades of American
theatres.
Only during a short period of time, early in the
nineties, it looked as though things were going to be
improved, for the managers accepted a number of adap-
tations and original plays by J. Gordin. Gordin be-
longed to that class of educated men who, though they
had been carried across the ocean with one of the waves
that bore the Jewish masses from Russia to the shores
of the United States, had never stood in any relation
whatsoever to their fellow-emigrants. He had been a
Russian journalist, and in America he was confronted
with the alternative of devoting himself to Judeo-Ger-
man literature or starving. He naturally chose the first.
Although he had had a good literary training, he had
never before written a word in the vernacular of his
people. At first he tried himself in the composition of
short sketches from the life of the Russian Jews, and
finding that his articles found a ready acceptance with
the Judeo-German press, he attempted dramatic compo-
sitions. He has translated, adapted, or composed in all
more than thirty plays, of which, however, only one has
been printed. As his large variety of dramas give a good
idea of the condition of the stage during its best period,
they will be shortly mentioned here. Among the trans-
lations we find Ibsen's 4 Nora ' ; among the adaptations we
have Victor Hugo's 4 Ruy Bias,' ■ Hernani ' ; Lessing's
'Nathan the Wise' ; Schiller's * Kabale und Liebe,' under
the name of ' Rosele ' ; s The Parnes-chodesch,' from Go-
gol's 4 The Inspector ' ; 4 Elischewa ' and « Dworele,' imi-
tations of two of Ostrovski's comedies; Grillparzer's
4 Medea ' ; and ' Meir Esofowitsch,' on a subject taken
from Mrs. Orzeszko's novel of the same name. Several of
his plays display more original creative power. Of these
242 YIDDISH LITERATURE
it will suffice to mention : ' The Wild Man,' treating of
the degeneration among the Jews ; 'The Jewish Priest,'
illustrating the struggle between the progressive Jews
and the old orthodox factions; 4 The Russian Jew in
America,' dealing with the condition of the Russian
Jews in New York ; 4 The Pogrom,' in which the late
riots against the Jews in Russia are depicted.
Gordin and a few other men, such as Rosenfeld,
Korbin, Winchevsky, might have introduced new blood
and life into the Jewish drama, but the managers and
the silly actors who in their pride permit their names
to go down on the billboards as second Salvinis and
Booths have willed otherwise. But then they are
following in this the common course pursued by all
dying literatures, and they are not, after all, to be
blamed more than the public that permits such things,
and the public in its turn is merely succumbing rapidly
to the influence of American institutions, which before
long will overwhelm peaceably, but none the less surely,
the Jewish theatre and the Judeo-German language.
Before the inevitable shall happen, they have attempted
to cling to their old traditions; but it is only a very faint
glimpse of their old life they are getting now, and in
the very weak performances that one may still see on
the Jewish stage there is already a great deal more of
the reflex of their new home than the glow of their old.
It is very doubtful whether the Jewish theatre can
subsist in America another ten years.
Of late the theatre has been revived in Galicia and
Roumania ; if I am not mistaken, there exists also a
Jewish theatre in Warsaw. The plays performed there
are mainly the productions of Goldfaden, Lerner, and
a few other writers of the older period. Occasionally
a play is given there that has previously been played
THE JEWISH THEATRE 243
in New York. If the theatre is to survive in Europe,
it will naturally develop quite independently from the
American stage. It must remain more national if it is
at all to be Jewish. And such we really find it to be.
In addition to the several dramas mentioned through-
out the book there might be added David Sahik's 'A
Rose between Thorns ' and Sanwill Frumkis's ■ A Faith-
ful Love,' which are among the best comedies produced
in Judeo-German.
Excepting the peculiar development of the theatre in
America, the Judeo-German drama has remained more
or less a popular form of poetry. In the form of Gold-
faden's farces we may see an evolution of the farcical
Purim plays, while his historical dramas stand in very
much the same relation to our time that the mysteries
occupied two centuries ago. Similarly the theatre, even
at its best, has remained of a primitive nature.
XVI. OTHER ASPECTS OF LITERATURE
In spite of the brilliant evolution of Judeo-German
literature in the last fifty years, the older ethical works
of the preceding period continue in power and are
reprinted from time to time, mostly in the printing
offices at Warsaw and Lublin. Among these we find
a large number of biographies of famous Rabbis, testa-
mentary instructions of wise men, essays on charity,
faith, and other virtues, and an endless mass of com-
mentaries on the Bible and other religious books.
Most of these are translations from the Hebrew. Of
late there have also begun to appear treatises on
moral subjects written specially in the vernacular. We
have had occasion to mention the works of Zweifel.
There have also been written sermons of a more pre-
tentious character in Judeo-German, and even the
missionaries have used the dialect for the purpose of
making propaganda among them : the first to attempt
this were the English missionaries, the last have been
emissaries from the Greek Church. Of course these
have had no influence of any kind on the minds of
the people. One of the most fruitful branches of the
liturgical literature has been the Tchines, or Prayers.
They are intended for women, and there is a vast
variety of them for every occasion in life. Some of
the older ones are quite poetical, being translations or
imitations of good models. But many of the newer
ones have been manufactured without rhyme or rea-
son by young scholars in the Rabbinical seminaries of
244
OTHER ASPECTS OF LITERATURE 245
Wilna and Zhitomir. These were frequently in sore
straits for a living, and knowing the proneness of
women to purchase new, tearful prayers, have com-
posed them to their tastes. They have hardly any
merit, except as they form a sad chapter in the sad lives
of Russian Jewish women. The old story-books and
the prayers have been almost the only consolation they
have had in their lives fraught with woe.
In one of Abramowitsch's novels a woman, purchas-
ing a prayer from an itinerant bookseller, gives the fol-
lowing reason for being so addicted to them : u For us
poor women, the Tchines are the only remedy for hearts
full of sores and wounds ; they furnish us with the
only means of weeping to our hearts' content, and of
finding relief for our saddened spirits in a warm stream
of tears. ... It is truly aggravating and painful to
see men who do not understand and who do not
wish to understand our hearts make light of women's
Tchines and begrudge us the only consolation we have.
Let them take a seat in the women's synagogue on a
Saturday or some holiday, and let them watch the
many poor, unfortunate women who have come away
from their homes under difficulties : — one suffering
an evil fate from her husband, another a forlorn
widow ; one heavy with child, another downhearted
and exhausted from watching long nights at the bed
of her sick, suckling babe ; one with swollen, blistered
hands from standing at the stove, and another with
her face careworn, and pale from heavy slave's work,
from walking eternally under a yoke ; — let them watch
all these sad, downtrodden women standing around the
Reader, let them hear them wail and lament with eyes
uplifted to their merciful, all-kind Father in heaven,
bathing in tears and ready to tear their hearts out of
246 YIDDISH LITERATURE
their bosoms. If the men could see such a scene with
their own eyes, they would, I am sure, never open their
mouths again to ridicule the prayers of women."
Outside of these prayers and ethical treatises the most
popular books since the middle of our century have been
two elementary works, — one on arithmetic, teaching
the rudiments of the art, the other a letterwriter. It is
probably no exaggeration to say that a hundred editions
of the latter book have appeared in print. It was com-
posed by Lewin Abraham Liondor, and was intended
as a guide for Judeo-German spelling and letter-writ-
ing by children and women. This has been almost
the only text-book written in and for the vernacular.
Liondor knew how to make it entertaining by having a
series of connected stories in the form of letters and
an occasional song interspersed in them. The book
begins with an interesting dialogue in the form of
letters between the letterwriter and the author, and
ends with a number of letters from and to a schadchen,
the go-between in marriage affairs. From the dialogue
one can see what great popularity this humble work
has had in its time. There have been issued in the
last ten years a number of similar letterwriters, more
in accord with the demands of the time, but the naivete
of Liondor's book has all disappeared in them, and they
present no interest to the reader.
It has never occurred to Judeo-German writers to
treat their language grammatically. They all started
out with the idea that it was not a language, but merely
a corrupted dialect which could not be brought under
any grammatical rules. In this opinion they have per-
severed up to the present. Where they felt it, never-
theless, their duty to establish some kind of system,
they have dealt only with orthography, and thus of late
OTHER ASPECTS OF LITERATURE 247
a few pamphlets on that subject, but of no scientific
value, have been produced by them. Much greater
has been the attempt of Judeo-German authors to fur-
nish their people with text-books for the study of
foreign tongues. As early as 1824 a Polish grammar
appeared in Warsaw. Wherever the conditions have
been favorable for it, the Jews have tried to learn the
languages of their Gentile fellow-citizens. If they
have so long persevered in the use of their dialect
in Russia and Poland, the fault is with the Govern-
ment and not with them, as we shall soon see. In
the seventies Jewish youths were admitted liberally
to the gymnasia and universities, and they eagerly
availed themselves of the privilege and threw them-
selves with ardor upon the study of the Russian lan-
guage. The most encouraging time for them was from
the year 1874 to 1875, when all seemed to presage
better days for them. The schools were crowded with
ambitious children, and there were many left at home
who had to get their Russian education privately or
through self -instruction. To help these, a number of
excellent text-books were written. Such were the
books of Skurchowitsch, Lifschitz, Zazkin, Chadak,
Feigensohn. All these appeared within the short
period of two years. Later a number of other simi-
lar productions followed. Lifschitz also published at
the same time a Russian-Judeo-German and Judeo-
German-Russian dictionary, which is one of the most
valuable stores of Judeo-German that we possess.
Everything was preparing the way for the extermina-
tion of the native dialect in favor of the literary
language of the country, when the short-sightedness
of the Government drove them once more back into
their separate existence.
248 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Previous to the seventies there could be found only
grammars for the study of German, French, and even
English, but no works to make the study of Russian
easy. Since the year 1881, when the forced emigra-
tion began, new interests have taken hold of the minds
of the Jews. They have been scattered to the four
winds, have formed colonies in Germany and France, but
more especially in England, South Africa, and the United
States. Most of those who have gone to their new
homes, and who still intend going there, hardly know
any other language than Judeo-German. But they must
learn the tongues of their adopted countries, and we
find a large number of text-books of all descriptions
prepared for them. They have been driven also to
Spanish America, and we find Spanish word-books and
grammars written for them. Sadder still, they have
begun to dream of returning to their former home in
Palestine, and Arabic word-books have become their
latest necessity. It must not be forgotten that this
class of publications has no claim to scientific recog-
nition ; though they are sometimes written by educated
men, they are meant to serve only for the immedi-
ate needs of the wandering Jew. They consequently
reflect, like the belles lettres, the conditions under which
the Jews are laboring.
At the dawn of the new era, in the first half of this
century, few thought of the study of foreign languages.
The ifiasses were too ignorant in more essential things
to be ready for that kind of instruction. It was more
important that they be made acquainted with the most
obvious facts around them. We saw how one of the
most popular books of those days was 4 The Discovery
of America,' which also gave some facts in regard to
physical geography. In the sixties, when books of
OTHER ASPECTS OF LITERATURE 249
instruction for the first time were being printed, his-
tory and geography were the first to receive the atten-
tion of those who wished to further popular instruction.
Almost one of the very first to be issued then was
Resser's 4 Universal History,' and this was followed not
long after by a primer on geography. Only after the
riots, a more direct attempt was begun at the education
of the people from the standpoint of their vernacular,
and since then geographies and histories of the best
foreign authors have been adapted to their humble
needs. We find then, among others, a translation of
Graetz's c Popular History of the Jews. '
When we reach the nineties, we get a whole litera-
ture of popular science. We have Bernstein's 4 Natu-
ral Science,' Brehm's • Essays on Animals,' and a large
number of other similar adaptations for this period.
The most systematic distribution of such books was
carried on by A. Kotik and Bressler, who published a
series of text-books on the useful sciences. Among
these are several on anthropology, on political econ-
omy, and even on Darwinism. But none of these can
compare in literary value with the excellent essays of
Perez, or even with some of the articles in the various
periodicals. Within the last few years the popular
stories of Tannenbaum in New York" have become
very popular in Russia, where nearly all of his works
are being reprinted as soon as they have appeared
in America. One of the most persistent kinds of
this class of literature has been the one that gives
instruction in popular medicine. We find such infor-
mation teaching what to do in case of cholera in the
first half of the century, and later for nearly forty
years many such useful essays have been written by
Dr. Tscherny. This exhausts the scanty collection
250 YIDDISH LITERATURE
of a scientific nature that has been produced for the
masses.
Conditions have not been favorable in Russia for the
development of a periodical literature such as the lead-
ers of the people have always had in mind, and such as
the writers now would like to see inaugurated. The
Government has put so many obstacles in the way of
their publications that they have nearly all been of an
ephemeral nature, and have had successively to give
place to new and just as short-lived periodicals. The
earliest use of Judeo-German, at least of German written
with Hebrew letters, we find in a gazette published in
Prague in the beginning of the century ; the next was
a similar paper that was published in Warsaw in 1824.
After that there ensued a long silence until the year 1848,
when a constitution and the freedom of the press were
announced in Austria. The happy news was brought
to the Jews of Galicia by a Judeo-German procla-
mation issued by Jizchok Jehuda Ben Awraham in
Lemberg. In a simple language the author tells his
co-religionists of the change that has come over them,
of the formation of a National Guard, of the Freedom
of the Press, and of the Constitution. It proceeds to
give the late occurrences in Lemberg, and expresses the
hope of a close union with the Gentile population.
" And to-day when the Gentiles cast away their hatred
against us, we Jews who have always had good hearts
shall certainly be one body and one soul with the Chris-
tians." A month later A. M. Mohr started a political
gazette under the name of Zeitung, in which a cor-
rupt German, rather than Judeo-German, was employed.
This paper has subsisted, with some interruptions
and various changes of form, up to the present time.
The following year there was issued a rival paper, Die
OTHER ASPECTS OF LITERATURE 251
jiidische Post, which added a commercial column to
the political news.
In Russia no periodical appeared until Zederbaum
issued his supplement, Kol-mewasser, to the Hameliz
in 1863. This weekly was not only a gazette of
political news, but also a literary magazine which, as
we have seen, has fostered the Judeo-German litera-
ture and has made it possible for Abramowitsch and
Linetzki to develop themselves. In 1871 its life was
cut short. In 1867 a short-lived attempt was made
in Warsaw to issue a weekly, Die War schemer- jiidische
Zeitung, which followed closely the precedent set by
the Kol-mewasser. Many of the contributors to the
older magazine have written articles for the same. For
some reason, emanating mainly from the censor, no
periodical in Judeo-German was published in Russia
during the seventies. The Jews were, however, not
entirely without reading matter of that class, for at
different times magazines and gazettes were issued for
them abroad. The first of the kind was the Jisrulik,
which appeared in Lemberg in 1875 under the joint
editorship of Linetzki and Goldfaden. This differed
from its predecessors in so far as it made the literary
part the most important division in its columns. Most
of the matter was furnished by the editors themselves,
or rather by Linetzki alone, for Goldfaden's name does
uot figure upon it after the first few numbers. In less
than half a year, the Jisrulik was discontinued. From
1877 up to 1881 Brull issued in Mainz a weekly, Ha-
jisroeli, devoted to the interests of the Russian Jews.
Upon its pages one may now and then find the names
of some of the older writers, but on the whole it seems
to have been only in distant contact with its country-
men at home. Another weekly of the same character
252 YIDDISH LITERATURE
was started in 1880 under the name of Kol-leom in
Konigsberg. Only the next year Zederbaum succeeded
in obtaining the Government's permission for his Volks-
blatt, which appeared uninterruptedly until 1889, some
time after its chief contributors, Spektor and Rabino-
witsch had discontinued their connection with it and
had started annuals of their own. Since then, several
new ones, all of them of very short duration, have seen
daylight. At the moment of writing this, permission
has been granted by the Russian government to a Zion-
istic society, in Warsaw, to publish a magazine under
the name of Bas-kol.
There has been a steady progress in the periodical
press, such as could be expected under the tantalizing
restrictions attendant on a Judeo-German press in
Russia. The Volksblatt is both quantitatively and
qualitatively an improvement over the Kol-mewasser,
which in its turn is far superior to the gazettes preced-
ing it. The Hausfreund and the Volksbibliothek, Das
heilige Land, and Die jiidische Bibliothek are all more
systematic, more in accord with the modern form of
periodicals, than the Volksblatt.
There has been and still is another potent factor
in the dissemination of useful knowledge and even
of good literature, that is furnished by the almanacs,
of which a large number have been issued at various
times. The best of these were started in the seventies,
just at the time when the periodical press was discon-
tinued. One of the earliest of the kind was The Use-
ful Calendar, the first of which was issued in Wilna
in 1875 by Abramowitsch. In addition to the usual
information given in publications of this sort, there are
in it tabular data on geography, history, statistics, and
similar sciences, all gotten together from the best and
OTHER ASPECTS OF LITERATURE 253
most reliable sources. It is a close reproduction of
similar almanacs in the Russian language. Soon after
a similar series was begun by Linetzki, who added a
column of anecdotes to those of a more serious nature.
In the nineties, when there was again a lull in the
publication of the annuals and magazines, the almanac
was revived, but in a still more improved form than
before. In fact, it now differs little from the annuals,
for the calendar is the minor part in it, while the
literary division is worked out with great care. The
first of this new kind was edited by J. Bernas under
the name of The Jewish Commercial Calendar for the
years 1891-1896. Among the contributors to the lit-
erary department we find the familiar names of Pe-
rez, Dienesohn, Goldfaden, Frischmann. Since 1893
Spektor has been issuing an annual almanac, The
Warsaw Jewish Family Calendar, which is constructed
after the manner of Bernas's publication. Another
similar series is that issued by Eppelberg of Warsaw.
The most perfect of the almanacs is the one which was
started in 1894 by G. Bader in Lemberg under the
name of the Jewish Popular Calendar, of which not
less than two-thirds is occupied by literature. As
contributing editors are mentioned Abramowitsch,
Frug, Perez, J. M. Rabinowitsch, and a few others
who have not appeared before in Judeo-German litera-
ture. These almanacs are calculated to do a great deal
of good among the masses, as they are circulated in
much larger editions than any other books, and as they
generally escape destruction at least for the period of
one year, whereas the people have not learned to pre-
serve printed works longer than during the time they
are perusing them. The rapidity with which books
disappear from the market and from the possession
254 YIDDISH LITERATURE
of private individuals is something astounding. Of
books printed in the sixties one need hardly hope to be
able to find more than one in ten asked for, while even
those that have been printed comparatively late, in
the eighties, have frequently become a rarity. This
is partly due to their being sold in uncut, unstitched
sheets which easily fall to pieces. But much more
often it is the result of indifference to the printed word
which, to a certain extent, is also shared by the corre-
sponding classes of their Gentile countrymen. The
works that have been published in the last twenty
years stand a better chance of being preserved, as they
are well stitched and not seldom even bound. They
are also printed on much better paper than the majority
of books of the older time.
What few Judeo- German books were issued in Russia
before the sixties were printed mostly in the printing
offices of Wilna and Warsaw. Up to the forties, the
books that proceeded from the first place bear the
names of the printers Manes and Simel, after which
begins the activity of the firm Romm, which is still in
existence ; but Romm is not the only firm there now
as it has been for nearly fifty years. In Warsaw we
find in the beginning of our century the office of Levin-
sohn ; in the forties many works were also printed at
Orgelbrand's. In the sixties and the seventies, most
of the better works were published in the South. The
firms of Nitsche, and Beilinsohn in Odessa and of Scha-
dow, and Bakst in Zhitomir printed nearly all the Judeo-
German books of the Southern group of writers. The
books of the Odessa firms are particularly well printed,
and put together in an attractive form. In the last
twenty years Berdichev, Kiev, Wilna, Warsaw, have
been the leading cities to print such books, while
OTHER ASPECTS OF LITERATURE 255
Lublin in Poland, and Lemberg in Galicia, have brought
out a mass of religious and legendary literature. The
Lemberg chapbooks can hardly be equalled for the
miserable way in which they are gotten up and printed.
Anciently Jewish bookstores could be found only
in the largest cities. In the towns and villages the
books were disseminated by the itinerant bookseller
who carried with him a variety of things which did not
have anything in common with the book trade, such as
candlesticks, show-threads, prayer shawls, and other
things necessary in the observance of the Mosaic Law.
Even now this wandering bookseller has not gone out
of existence. All the stories of Abramo witch are
told in the person of Mendele Mocher Sforim, i.e.
Mendel the Bookseller, of whose part played in the
distribution of literature and as a newsmonger many
interesting details will be found in his works. It
is interesting to note that a few years ago several Rus-
sians who had undertaken to spread good books among
the people resorted to the same means that for a hun-
dred years, if not longer, had been in vogue among the
Jews. The books were hawked about in a wagon from
village to village, and to attract the peasants, many
other useful things were sold by these itinerant book-
stores.
Since the dispersion of the Russian Jews in Europe
and America, there has arisen in the diaspora a large
number of periodical publications which serve as the
medium for the dissemination of all kinds of knowl-
edge. In England there were issued in the eighties
the weeklies The Future and The Polish Jew, and in
the nineties a monthly The Free World. Some good
essays on sociological questions, mostly of a socialistic
nature, were issued by the 'Socialistic Library' and
256 YIDDISH LITERATURE
' The People's Library ' in London. In Paris there has
appeared since 1896 a weekly, The Hatikwoh, under
the editorship of Bernas, the former compiler of a
calendar. In that city Zuckermann is publishing also
a ' Library of Novels,' in which one may find transla-
tions of many of the popular French works. Roumania
has had a gazette, the Hajoez, ever since the seventies,
which has published a number of novels in book form.
The most of these are translations; the few original
ones that have appeared in that collection are of little
value. A few other papers may be found in J assy
and other places. In 1896 H. L. Gottlieb started a
monthly in M.-Sziget in Hungary, but it lived only
two months. Most of the articles in prose and poetry
are by the editor himself, whose style resembles that
of Linetzki and Goldfaden. There have also been pub-
lished a dozen books, mostly farces or parodies, in
Judeo-German, but with German letters. Nearly all
of these appeared in Austria and Hungary. They add
nothing to the store of the Judeo-German literature.
CHEESTOMATHY
As the main intention of the present Chrestoniathy is to give a
conception of the literary value of Judeo-German literature, and not
of its linguistic development, the texts have all been normalized to the
Lithuanian variety of speech. The translations make no pretence to
literary form : they are as literal as is consistent with the spirit of the
English language ; only in the case of Abramowitsch's writings it was
necessary frequently to depart considerably from the text, in order to
give an adequate idea of the original meaning which, in the Judeo-
German, on account of the allusions, is not always clear to the reader.
The choice of the extracts has been such as to illustrate the various
styles, and only incidentally to reproduce the story ; hence their frag-
mentariness. Should the present work rouse any interest in the hum-
ble literature of the Kussian Jews, the author will undertake a more
complete Chrestomathy which will do justice to the linguistic require-
ments as well.
267
258 YIDDISH LITERATURE
I. SSEEFER KOHELES
(Chap. I. 1-11)
1. Das senen die Worter Koheles, Dawids Suhn,
Melech in Jeruscholaim.
2. Hawel Hawolim, flegt Koheles zu sagen, Hawel
Hawolim, AlFsding is Howel.
3. Was kummt dem Menschen draus mit all' sein
Horewanie, was er derhorewet sich nor unter der Sunn'.
4. Ein Dor geht varbei un' ein anderer Dor kummt
wieder auf, nor die Erd' bleibt aso ebig stehn.
5. Geht wieder auf die Sunn', vargeht wieder die
Sunn', all's wieder in ihr Ruh' arein, sie scheint, sie
schnappt nor ahin.
6. Er geht kein Dorem un' dreht sich aus kein
Zoffen, arum un' arum dreht sich aus der Wind, un'
aso kummt aber a Mai araus der eigener Wind.
7. Alle Teichen gehn in Jam arein un' der Jam
geht noch all's nischt tiber ; wuhin die Teichen gehn,
varsteh', dorten araus gehn see take wieder zuriick.
8. Alle Sachen mutschen sich, nor es kann kein
Mensch gar nischt all's ausreden, kein Aug kann sich
dran nit satt ankucken, kein Oher kann sich nit genug
vull anhoren.
9. Was a Mai is gewesen, das Eigene wet take
wieder a Mai sein, un' was es flegt sich zu thun, das
wet sich wieder alle Mai thun : es is' gar all's kein
Neues nischt unter der Sunn'.
10. Oftmals wet sich a Sach mit geben, was me sagt :
" Owa, o das is' schon ja spogel neu, es is 16 hojo ! " Es
is' schon a Mai aso auch gewe'n, far Zeiten, as mir senen
noch efscher auf der Welt nischt gewe'n.
CHRESTOMATHY 259
I. ECCLESIASTES
(Chap. I. 1-11)
1. The words of the Preacher, the son of David,
king in Jerusalem.
2. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of
vanities ; all is vanity.
3. What profit has a man of all his labour which he
taketh under the sun ?
4. One generation passeth away, and another gen-
eration cometh : but the earth abideth forever.
5. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down,
and hasteth to his place where he arose.
6. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth
about unto the north; it whirleth about continually,
and the wind re turneth again according to his circuits.
7. All the rivers run into the sea ; yet the sea is
not full ; unto the place from whence the rivers come,
thither they return again.
8. All things are full of labour ; man cannot utter
it ; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled
with hearing.
9. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall
be ; and that which is done is that which shall be done ;
and there is no new thing under the sun.
10. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See,
this is new ? it hath been already of old time, which
was before us.
260 YIDDISH LITERATURE
11. Es gedenkt sich schon azund nischt in dem, was
a Mai friiher is gewe'n, aber in die spatere Sachen, was
wollen sich erst thun, wet man noch spater auch in see
™rgessen. M. M. Leeik.
n. DIE MALPE
('Mescholim,' etc., p. 106)
" Weis' mir chotsch eine zwischen die Chajes,
" Ich soil nischt nachmachen ihre Hawajes ! "
Aso thut sich a Malpele beriihmen
Var a Fuchs, was is' zu ihr gekiimmen.
Das Fiichsel entwert teekef zuruck :
M Sag' nor du, parschiwe Marschelik !
" Wemen wet aber das ein fallen a ganz Jahr,
" Er soil wollen dir nachmachen auf a Haar ? "
7f» ^jc ?(& if; 1%;
Das Moschel mag, chleben, ohn' a Nimschel bleiben,
Itlicher weisst es allein, wemen zuzuschreiben.
S. Ettinger.
III. DAIGES NACH DEM TGDT
('Mescholim,' etc., p. 225)
Der karger Chaim liegt begraben oto da !
Kein Aremen flegt er zu geben a Dreier ;
Er hat noch Daiges bis der itztiger Scho,
Was sein Mazeewe hat gekost' ihm teuer.
S. Ettingek.
IV. DER ELENDER SUCHT DIE RUHE
('Makel Noam,' Vol. I. pp. 71-75)
Sag' mir, ich bett' dich, du Wind,
Du schwebst dich auf der ganzer Welt,
Weisst nischt, wu der Elender sich gefindt
Zu ruhen ein Gezelt,
CHRESTOMATHY 26l
11. There is no remembrance of former things ;
neither shall there be any remembrance of things that
are to come with those that shall come after.
King James Bible.
II. THE MONKEY
"Show me but one among all the animals whose
grimaces I cannot imitate ! " Thus a little monkey
boasted to a fox that came to visit him. The fox
bluntly replied to him : " Tell me, you nasty marshe-
lik ! To whom would it ever occur in a year to want to
imitate you a whit ? "
The parable, I am sure, may remain without a moral,
for each one knows himself to whom to ascribe it.
m. WORRY AFTER DEATH
Stingy Chaim lies buried in this place ! He never
gave a penny to a poor man ; he is worried even at the
present hour because his tombstone has cost him so
much.
IV. THE FORLORN MAN LOOKING FOR REST
Tell me, I pray you, O Wind, you who hover over
the whole world, do you not know where the forlorn
man may find a tent in which to rest, — where injustice
has ceased, where there is never a complaint, where no
262 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Wu Reziches hat aufgehort,
Me hat keinmal nischt geklagt,
Wu kein Aug' hat nischt getrahrt,
Der Gerechter werd nischt geplagt?
Der Wind schweigt un' bleibt still stehn,
Siifzt un' entwert : "Nein, nein ! "
Sag' mir, du tiefes, du gr5sses Meer,
Du stromst as5 weit
Bei deine Inslen hin un' her,
Weisst nischt ergez in a Seit',
Wu der Frummer gefindt a Trost,
Zu ruhen a sicher Ort ?
Weisst nischt, wie die Stadt heisst ?
Sag' das gute Wort !
Der Jam stromt un' brummt : " Nein !
"Ich hab' so ein Ort nischt gesehn."
Du schoene Lewone mit dein Pracht,
Du kuckst doch iiberall
Wenn es is' still bei der Nacht,
Verdeckt mit der schwarzer Schal.
Du gehst doch aus die ganze Welt
Tomid durch die Nacht', —
Weisst nischt ergez ein Gezelt,
Wu dem Guten is' nischt schlecht ?
Me seht sie in a Wolken bald vergehn,
Siifzt un' entwert : " Nein, nein ! "
Sag' ze du mir, mem Seele, fort,
Liebe un' Hoffnung derneben,
Wu die Sunn' geht auf jeden Ort,
Wu gefindt man a ruhig Leben,
Wu kein Schlechts is' nischt derbei,
Me lebt nor in Freuden,
CHRESTOMATHY 263
eye has ever been in tears, and the just man is not
vexed? — The Wind remains mute and arrests its
course, sighs and answers : " No, no ! "
Tell me, you deep, you large Sea, you flow so far
around your islands here and there, — know you not
somewhere in some corner, where the godly man may
find his consolation and a safe place of rest? Know
you not the name of that city ? Tell the good word ! —
The Ocean flows onward and murmurs : " No ! I have
not seen such a place."
You beautiful Moon, in your glory ! You look
everywhere when all is still at night and covered with
a black shroud. You pass over the whole world ever
through the nights, — know you not somewhere a tent,
where the good have no sorrow? — You may see the
Moon disappear behind a cloud, and sigh and answer :
"No, no!"
Tell me, then, my Soul, and Love and Hope also, —
wherever the Sun passes is there not to be found a
quiet life, where no evil goes with it, where one may
live but in joy, where one may be free of sins and sor-
rows, of troubles and of sufferings ? — They all give the
one answer : " They live quietly up there in heaven ! "
264 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Vun Siind' un' Sorgen is' man frei,
Vun Zores un' vun Leiden ?
See geben Alle ein Antwort :
" Ruhig lebt man in Himmel dort ! "
B. W. Ehrenkranz-Zbabzeb.
V. DIWREE CHOCHMO
(* Sseefer Musser Haskel,' pp. 22, 23)
Der Mensch darf sein gut, un' klug, un' frumm. Gut
allein kann a Scharlatan auch sein ; klug allein kann
an Apikores auch sein ; un' frumm allein kann a Narr
auch sein.
Die grosste Reichkeit is' as man is' gesund ; das
grosste Vergeniigen is' as man hat a ruhig Harz ; das
grosste Gliick is' as man is' frumm, wie man darf zu
sein.
A grosser Mensch is' wie a Feuer : sein mit ihm vun
weiten, leucht' er un' waremt ; vun nahnten, brennt er.
Der Narr bei an Ungluck beschuldigt dem Anderen ;
der Frummer beschuldigt sich allein ; der Kluger Kei-
nem nit.
Vun zu viel Ahawo kann man auch viel leiden, wie
vun zu viel Ssino : Jossef hat zwei Mai gelitten, beide
Mai vun zu viel Ahawo, ein Mai vun Vater's, das andere
Mai vun Potifar's Weib.
Nit alle Mai kann man glauben Trahren : Jossef's
Briider haben auch geweint, beschas see haben gebracht
Jainkefn das varblutigte Hemdel. E z ZwBIFBU
VI. DIE STIEFMUTTER
(' JMische Lieder,' pp. 40-43)
Auf'n Bess-hakwores, unter a Mazeewe,
Hort sich bitter a Kol vun a Nekeewe ;
CHRESTOMATHY 265
V. WORDS OF WISDOM
Man must be good, and wise, and pious. Even a
charlatan can be good alone ; an apostate can be wise
alone ; a fool can be pious alone.
The greatest riches is to be well ; the greatest pleas-
ure is to have a peaceful heart ; the greatest happiness
is to be pious as one ought to be.
A great man is like fire : approach it from a distance,
and it shines and warms you ; come close to it, and it
burns you.
The fool, in misfortune, accuses another of it ; the
pious man accuses himself ; the wise man no one.
One may suffer from too much love even as from too
much hatred : Joseph had suffered twice, both times
from too much love, once from his father's love, a
second time from that of Potiphar's wife.
You cannot always believe tears : even Joseph's broth-
ers wept as they brought to Jacob the bloodstained
shirt.
VI. THE STEPMOTHER
In the cemetery, under a tombstone the bitter words
of a woman are heard ; it is a mother that cries : " Oh,
266 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Das schreit a Mutter : " Oi weh mir, oi wiind !
Was thut a Stiefmutter mein teueren Kind ?
" Mein ganzes Leben, was ich hab' verbracht,
Is' das nor gewe'n a finstere Nacht ;
Mein Kind is' mir gewe'n mein Licht, mein Schein, —
Itzt leidet es nebech gross Zores un' Pein.
" Mit Blut vun Harzen hab' ich ihm erzogen,
'Ch hab' ihm gewaschen mit Trahren vun meine
Augen ; —
Itzt zappt man sein Blut, man brecht seine Beiner ;
Er schreit, er weint, — es helft ihm nit Keiner.
u Es stehen Menschen vun arum un' arum ;
Was schweigt ihr Alle ? Zu seid ihr stumm ?
Wenn euer Harz is' vun Eisen un' Stein,
Vun Kind's heisse Trahren darf es zugehn.
" Ot seht ! Die Stiefmutter schlagt ihm in Kopp,
Sie drapet sein Ponim, — Blut rinnt arab ;
Sie schlagt ihm, warft ihm auf die Erd' anieder ;
Sie beisst ihm, reisst ihm, brecht seine Glieder.
"Er schreit : — O Mutter, O Mutter, helf mir!
Wenn kannst nit helf en, to nemm mich zu dir! —
Stent auf, alle Tote, stent auf geschwind!
Stent auf, alle Tote, ratewet mein Kind!
" Alle Tote liegen ruhig in sejer Ruh' ;
Zu Gott's Kisse-kowed flieh' ich bald zu.
Vun Gott's Kisse-kowed well ich nit abtreten,
Bis Er wet derhoren mein Schreien, mein Beten."
$fc $|£ *fc tw tf
" Ribone-schel-olem, wu senen Deine Rachmones ?
Der Vater bist Du vun Jess5mim un' Almones,
Wie kannst Du sehen, wie die Marschas
Giesst aus auf mein Jossem ihr gif tigen Kas ?
CHRESTOMATHY 267
woe to me ! What does the stepmother do to my be-
loved child ?
" My whole life that I have passed was nothing but a
dark night ; my child had been my light, my lustre, —
and now he suffers both sorrow and pain.
" With the blood of my heart I have reared him, I
have washed him with the tears of my eyes ; — now
they tap his blood, they break his bones ; he weeps, he
cries, — but no one helps him.
" People stand all round about ; why are you silent ?
Are you dumb? Even if your heart is of iron and
stone, it ought to melt from the child's hot tears.
" Now look ! The stepmother strikes him upon his
head, she scratches his face, — blood trickles down ; she
beats him, throws him down on the ground ; she bites
him, tears him, breaks his limbs.
u He cries : — O mother, O mother, help me ! If you
cannot help me take me to you ! — Arise, all you dead,
arise quickly ! Arise, all you dead, and save my child !
" All the dead lie quietly in their rest ; to God's own
throne I shall soon fly. From God's own throne I shall
not depart, ere He will hear my cries, my entreaty."
" Lord of the World, where are Your mercies ? You
are the father of orphans and widows, — how can You
look at the evil woman pouring forth her venomous
anger upon my orphan ?
268 YIDDISH LITERATURE
u Meine junge Jahren hast Du mir abgeschnitten,
Bist Du mechujew mein Jossem zu hiiten ;
Vun dein Welt hab' ich nit geha't Vergenugen,
To las mich chotsch ruhig in Keewer einliegen !
" Wie kann ich in Keewer einliegen beruht,
Wenn 's rinnt mir arein mein Jossem's Blut ?
Wie kann ich zum Grub zuriick sich umkehren,
Wenn mein Grub is' vull mit mein Jossem's Trahren ? "
"Nu, schweig schon, mein Kind, sei ruhig mein Ne-
schome !
Ich hab' schon gehort vun Gott a Nechome :
Gott sagt, 's wet sein zu deine Zores an End',
Er wet ausloesen dich vun der Stiefmutter's Hand'.
" Die Reschas, die Stief mutter wet Gott bestrafen,
Un' du, mein Kind, schweig ! Zu Gott sollst nor hoffen !
Far alle deine Zores, far alle deine Leid,
Wet Gott dir bezahlen mit Nechomes un' Freud'.
" Nu, schweig schon, mein Kind, wisch' ab deine Trah-
ren !
Du sollst mich nit mehr vun mein Ruh' storen !
Gott wet erfullen sein heiliges Wort ;
Nu kann ich schon liegen ruhig in mein Ort."
M. Gordon.
VII. DIE MUME SOSJE
(' Die Jiidene,' pp. 65-67)
Vierte Scene
(Chanzi-Grinendel kummt arein; Sosje uri* Silberseid
heben sich auf vun die Plaze.)
Sosje. Awade, awade ! Seht ihr ? O das is' mein
Schwesterl !
Silberseid. QNemmt bei ihr die Hand unJ ne'igt sich
hoeflich.} Es freut mich Ihre Kanntschaft.
CHRESTOMATHY 269
"You have cut off my young years, You ought at
least to watch over my child ; I have not enjoyed much
pleasure in Your world, — at least let me lie in peace in
my grave !
"How can I lie in peace in my grave, when my
orphan's blood flows into it ? How can I return to my
grave, when my grave is full of the tears of my orphaned
child?"
3fc *!* ™ tJv tj^
" Now, be silent, my child, be quiet, my own soul !
I have had good news from the Lord ! God says there
will be an end to your troubles, He will save you from
your stepmother's hands.
" God will punish the evil woman, and you, my child,
be quiet and hope in God ! For all your sorrows, for
all your suffering, God will pay you with pleasures and
joys.
" Now, be silent, my child, wipe off your tears ! You
must not disturb me in my rest ! God will fulfil His
holy word ; and now I may lie quietly in my place ! "
Vn. AUNT SOSIE
Fourth Scene
(Ohanzi-Grinendel enters; Sosie and Silberseid rise
from their seats.')
Sosie. Certainly, certainly ! Do you see ? Here is
my sister !
Silberseid. (Takes her hand and greets her politely.)
I am glad to make your acquaintance.
270 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Sosje. No, meine liebe Kinderlech ! Sitzt euch da
a Bissele ! Plaudert euch a Bissel ! Un' ich mus gehn —
ihr sent junge Leut', un' mir senen schon, chleben, altere.
Uns is' schon der Kopp verschlagen mit andere Sachen.
Man darf balebosten in Stub'. Sitzt euch da ! Ich kumm'
bald. (Sie last sicht aweggehn uri leben der Thiir' thut
sie a Ruf.) Chanzi-Ginendenju, mein Leben! Auf
ein Minut ! (Ohanzi-Ginendel geht zu zu-n ihr.')
Sosje. (Ihr in Oher.) Vergess' nor nit, wu du bist
in der Welt ! Weiss nor mit ihm wie aso zu reden, —
der Iker, was weniger reden ! (Sie geht araus un' Jcuckt
sich unter durch der Thiir\)
Funfte Scene
(Silberseid un* Chanzi-G-inendel nehmen Stuhlen un1
setzen sich Eins leben' s Andere.)
Silberseid. (Auf der Seit.) Ichweiss? Soil mich
aso wissen Boes\ wie ich weiss, vun was-er a Sprache
mit ihr anzuheben reden ! Ta, la-niir priiwen ! (Zu
Chanzi-G-inendeln, hoch.) Et comment vous portez-
vous, mademoiselle ?
Chanzi-Ginendel. (Thut a Schme'iehel.) Hm!
Hm! Ihr fragt, zi bin ich noch a Mamzell! Ja!
Glaubt mir, me hat mir schon iibergeredt Schiduchim
ohn' an Eck. Die Schadchonim schlagen ab die Thiiren
bei mein Schwester. Einer hat mich gewollt nehmen,
aso wie ich steh' un' geh'. Er hat mich gewollt
bekleiden vun Kopp bis Fuss, waren er allein is' sehr
reich, un' bei mir will er nit ein Pitak; abi die
Schwester soil nor araussagen 4 Ja.' -Nor ich hab' sich
betracht, was hab' ich sich da zu eilen, zi ich bin da
schon asa-n-alte Maid ? Erst heuntigen Summer is' mir
gewor'en fufzehn Jahr. (Sie traeht.) Sieben un' neun
un' neun is fufzehn.
CHRESTOMATHY 271
Sosie. Well, my dear children! Sit here a little
while ! Talk to each other ! I must go away ! You
are young people, but we have grown to be old. Our
head is filled with worries of all kind. I must look
after the household. Sit down ! I shall be back after
a while. (She starts away, but calls back from the door.)
Darling Chanzi-Ginendel, my dear ! Just for a minute !
(Chanzi-G-inendel goes to her. )
Sosie. (In a whisper.) Do not lose your head and
do not forget where you are in the world. Be sure you
say the right thing to him, — above all, don't talk too
much. (She goes out, but peeps in through the door.)
Fifth Scene
(Silberseid and Chanzi-Ginendel take their chairs and
seat themselves near each other.)
Silberseid. (Aside.) I declare ! May I know of
something evil if ever I know in what language to begin
to speak to her! Well, let us try. (To Chanzi-G-inendel,
loud.) Et comment vous portez-vous, mademoiselle?
Chanzi-Ginendel. (Smiling.) Hm! Hm! You
want to know if I am still a Miss ! Yes, believe me,
they have been making matches for me without end.
The go-betweens have been tearing down the doors of
my sister's house. There was one who wanted to take
me just as I am. He wanted to dress me up from head
to foot, for he is himself very rich, and he does not ask
for a nickel of mine ; he is only waiting for my sister
to give her consent. But I have thought over the
matter ; I thought there was no hurry yet, that I was
not yet an old maid. I am fifteen years this summer.
(She thinks.) Seven and nine and nine is fifteen.
272 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Silberseid. (Die gauze Zeit verwundert, bei der Seif)
No, no ! A gut Min Franzoesisch ! La-mir priiwen
weiter! (Hoch.} Haben Sie nicht ein Bandchen Sa-
phir?
Chanzi-Ginendel. Was taug' euch a safirn Ban-
dele ? Awade auf a Halstiichel ! Weiss ich, heunt is'
der Kolir schon araus vun der Mode. Heunt tragt
man Havana oder Bismarck. Ich nab' erst nit lang
a Jungermann geschenkt asons ! Willt ihr ? Kann ich
euch schenken. . n
A. GOLDFADEN.
VIII. SEMER LE-SSIMCHAS TORE
(' Ssichas Chulin,' pp. 30-34)
1
Lechajim, Briider, lechajim, lechajim !
Heunt senen mir die Tore messajim,
Heunt heben mir sie an noch a Mai wieder ; —
Drum lechajim ulescholem, liebe Briider !
Seid froehlich un' dankt dem Gott dem lieben
Far die heilige Tore, auf Parmet geschrieben !
2
Die heilige Tore, geschrieben auf Parmet,
Is' doch unser Trost in unser Armut !
All's auf der Welt haben mir verloren :
Der Bees-hamikdesch is' chorew gewor'en,
Chorew das Land, wu mir senen gesessen,
Afile unser Loschen haben mir vergessen ;
Nit da unser Meluche, nit da unser Kehune,
Nor uns is' geblieben unser Emune.
Gott in Harzen, die Tore in der Hand,
Senen mir gegangen vun Land zu Land,
Viel Zores gelitten, doch leben geblieben,
Durch die heilige Tore, auf Parmet geschrieben.
CHRESTOMATHY 273
Silberseid. (Wondering all the time, aside,) Well,
well ! That's a fine kind of French ! Let us try again !
(Loud.) Haben Sie nicht ein Bandchen Saphir?
Chanzi-Ginendel. What do you want with a sap-
phire ribbon ? Oh, I suppose for a tie ! I declare, that
color has now gone out of fashion. Now they wear
Havana or Bismarck. I just lately gave a young man
such a ribbon. If you want, I will give you one.
Vm. SONG OF THE REJOICING OF THE LAW
1
Your health, brethren, your health ! Your health !
To-day we finish the Law, to-day we begin to read it
anew; hence, may you prosper in peace, dear brethren!
Be merry and thank the kind Lord for the holy Law
written upon parchment !
2
The holy Law written upon parchment has been our
consolation in our poverty ! All in the world we have
lost : the Temple has been laid in ruins, in ruins the
land which we have inhabited; even our tongue we
have forgotten, — we have lost our kingdom and our
priesthood, only our faith is left to us. God in our
hearts, the Law in our hands, we went from land to
land, suffered many tribulations, yet have lived through
it all by means of the Law written upon parchment.
274 YIDDISH LITERATURE
3
Kummt, liebe Briider, kummt aher gicher !
Kummt, la' mir offenen die historische Biicher !
Was derzaehlt die Geschichte? Was schreiben die
Chronikes ?
Nor Raiibergeschichten, Maisses vun Rasbojnikes !
Unser Geschichte, aso gross wie die Erd',
Is' nit mit a Feder, nor mit a Schwert,
Nit mit Tint' geschrieben, nor mit Blut un' Trahren,
Nit in Leipzig gedruckt, nor in Goles dem schweren,
Nit in Goldschnitt gebunden, nor in Ketten un' Eisen.
Las mir chotsch Einer kummen un' weisen,
Wu hat men uns nit verfolgt un' vertrieben
Far die heilige Tore, auf Parmet geschrieben?
4
Noch gar in Anheb, var ganz langer Zeit,
As mir senen gewesen noch Stucklech Leut,
Wie Balebatim in der Heim nor gesessen
Un' in fremde Haiiser kein Tag' nit gegessen,
Densmal noch, ach ! soil das nit treffen Keinem
Was mir haben ausgelitten vun unsere Schcheenim !
Wer red't schon dernach, weh unsere Jahren !
As die Schcheenim seinen Balebatim gewor'en. ...
Un' mir haben gemust nit geren, beones,
Areinziehen wohnen bei see in Schcheenes
Wie haben mir gelebt, wie senen mir gelegen?
Ach, ihr wollt't schon besser gar nit fragen !
Wie Kopplech Kraut, wie a Haufen Ruben,
Mit der heiliger Tore, auf Parmet geschrieben.
5
Zweitausend Jahr, a Kleinigkeit zu sagen !
Zweitausend Jahr gemattert, geschlagen !
CHRESTOMATHY 275
3
Come, dear brethren, come quickly ! Come, let us
open the historical books ! What does history tell ?
What do the chronicles write ? Nothing but tales of
robbers, stories of highwaymen ! Our history, as large
as earth, has been written, not with a pen, but with a
sword ; not with ink, but with blood and tears ; has
been printed, not in Leipsic, but in heavy exile ; is
bound, not in gold carving, but in chains and iron.
Let a man come and show me where they have not
persecuted us and expelled us for the holy Law written
upon parchment!
4
In the very beginning, a long time ago, when we still
were of some importance, when we were sitting at home
and did not lodge in strangers' homes — alas, may that
not befall any one, what we have suffered from our
neighbors ! Not to mention later — woe unto our
years ! — when our neighbors became our masters.
. . . And we were compelled against our will to
take lodgings in their homes. How did we live, how
did we rest ? Oh, you had better not ask at all !
Like cabbage heads, like turnip heaps, with our holy
Law written upon parchment.
5
Two thousand years, no small matter that ! Two
thousand years of torture and vexation ! Seventy-
276 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Sieben un' siebezig finstere Dores
Gestoppt mit Zores, gefiillt mit Gseeres !
As ich wollt' nehmen derzaehlen jede Gseere,
Wollt' heunt nit gewe'n Ssimchas-Tore ;
Nor das darf ich gar nit, es is' sehr gut
Bei Jedem eingeschrieben in sein March, in sein Blut.
Mir haben All's ausgehalten, All's aweggegeben,
Unser Geld, unser Kowed, unser Gesund, un' Leben,
Wie a Mai Chane ihre Kinder, die sieben, —
Far die heilige Tore, auf Parmet geschrieben.
6
Un' itzt ? Is' schon besser ? Last man uns zuf rieden ?
Hat man schon a Mai derkennt, as mir Juden
Senen auch Menschen as5 wie die Andern ?
Wellen mir nit mehr in der Welt arumwandern ?
Wet man sich auf uns mehr nit beklagen ?
Das weiss ich nit, das kann ich euch nit sagen.
Eins weiss ich, es lebt noch der alter Gott oben,
Die alte Tore unten un' der alter Glauben ;
Drum sorgt nit un' hofft auf Gott dem lieben
Un' auf die heilige Tore, auf Parmet geschrieben !
7
Lechajim, Briider, lechajim, lechajim !
Heunt senen mir die Tore messajim,
Heunt heben mir sie an noch a Mai wieder : —
Drum lechajim, lescholem, liebe Briider !
Sorgt nit un' hofft auf Gott dem lieben
Un' auf die heilige Tore, auf Parmet geschrieben !
J. L. Gordon.
IX. DIE KLATSCHE
('Die Klatsche,' Odessa, 1889, pp. 17-20)
Auf dem Feld, seh' ich, fiittern sich panske Zapes,
Eslen, ganze Tabunes Ferd, was haben a Jiches-brief,
CHRESTOMATHY 277
seven gloomy generations surfeited with sorrows, filled
with misfortunes ! Were I to begin to tell all the
persecutions, we should not have the Rejoicing of the
Law to-day ; but I need not do that, it is too well
written in each man's marrow, in his blood. We have
suffered all, given away all, our money, our honor,
our health, our lives, as Hannah once her seven chil-
dren, — for the holy Law written upon parchment.
6
And now? Is it better? Do they leave us in
peace ? Have they come to recognize that we Jews are
also men like all others ? Shall we no longer wander
about in the world ? Will they no longer complain of
us? That I do not know, that I cannot tell you.
Thus much I know, there still lives the old God above,
the old Law below, and the old faith ; therefore do not
worry, and hope in the kind Lord and in the holy Law
written upon parchment !
7
Your health, brethren, your health ! To-day we fin-
ish the Law, to-day we begin to read it anew ; hence,
may you prosper in peace, dear brethren ! Do not
worry, and hope in the kind Lord and in the Law
written upon parchment !
IX. THE DOBBIN
In the field I see feeding noble goats, asses, whole
herds of horses who have genealogies that prove their
278 YIDDISH LITERATURE
as see stammen araus vun edle Eltern. Einems Seede
is' an englischer Oger, was hat varzeitens, durchfah-
rendig durch dem Land Kenoan, Chassene geha't mit
an arabischer Schkape. Dem Anderens Babe wachst
vun a beruhmter Mischpoche, was hat in Leben genug
Pulwer geschrneckt, un' Jenems Alter-babe hat genos-
sen a gute Erziehung, a Edukazje, ergez in a beruhm-
ten Sawod, is' gewesen a Melumedes un' hat in ihr
Zeit gegeben Konzert in Tanzen un' Springen in-eineni
mit noch assach gebildete, gelernte Ferd. Denn ihr
musst wissen, as bei Ferd spielt Jiches a grosse Rolje,
bei see kuckt man stark auf edel Blut, un' die was
fun a guten Sawod heissen edel oder wohlgeborene.
Die dasige edele Ferd haben sich gefiittert frank un'
frei, senen auch gegangen in Schaden, kalje gemacht
die Twues, welche areme Pauern haben gesaet mit
Schweiss nebech, un' man hat sich nischt wissendig
gemacht, see nischt gesagt kein umtarbisch Wort. Die
Ferd haben gesprungen, gehirset, gedriget mit die
Fuss'. Sejer K5ach, sejer Starkkeit, un' sejer Wild-
keit is' gewe'n " schelo kederech hatewa " ! Plutzlim
hor' ich vun der weitens a schrecklich Geschrei, a Rasch
vun Menschen un' a Billen vun Hiind'. Ich hab' tchilas
gemeint, das haben die Pauern sich zunaufgenummen
un' laufen mit a Geschrei, arauszutreiben die panske
Zapes, die Ferd vun sejere Twues ; nor aber nein.
Die Koles haben sich alls derweitert un' sich vartragen
gar in ein ander Seit'. Ich bin gewe'n zikawe un'
gegangen nach dem Kol, gegangen bis ich bin gekum-
men zu a ganz grossen Platz varwachsen mit Gras.
Dort hat var meine Augen sich viirgestellt a schreck-
liche Scene. Junglech, Kundeessim, haben vun alle
Seiten sich gejagt nach a darer, a magerer Klatsche,
geworfen Steiner un' anger eizt auf ihr a ganze Tschate
CHRESTOMATHY 279
descent from aristocratic parents. The grandfather of
one had been an English steed who once, during a jour-
ney through the country of Canaan, had been married
to an Arabian mare. Again, the grandmother of an-
other was descended from a famous family, and had
smelled much powder in her lifetime, while the great-
grandmother of still another had been well educated in
some famous stud, and had, in her time, given perform-
ances in dancing and jumping in company with many
other educated, well-trained horses. For you must
know that with horses breed is of great importance ;
much attention is paid to noble blood, and those who
come from a good stud are called noble or well born.
These noble horses were grazing at their will ; now and
then they did some damage by ruining the standing
grain which poor peasants had sown in the sweat of their
brows, and no one noticed that, or said a harsh word
to them. The horses jumped about, neighed, kicked.
Their strength, their power, and their wildness were out
of the common. Suddenly I heard from afar a terrible
noise, a hollowing of men and barking of dogs. At
first, I thought that the peasants had come together and
were starting on a run with a noise, in order to drive
out the noble goats and the horses from their corn ; but
no ! . . . The voice grew more distant, and could be
heard from an entirely different direction. I became
curious, and followed the noise until I came to a very
large place overgrown with grass. There a frightful
scene presented itself to my eyes. Street urchins were
pursuing from all sides a thin, lean dobbin ; they threw
stones at her, and urged on against her a whole pack of
dogs of all kinds. Some of these dogs were whining,
barking, gnashing their teeth ; others again were biting
her as best they could. I could not stand there looking
280 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Hund' vun allerlei Minim. A Theil Hund' haben gar
geheult, gebillt, gekrizt die Zaehn', a Theil aber haben
auch take gebissen, wie nor see haben gekannt. Ich
hab' nischt gekannt stehn un' zusehn asa Majsse-ra vun
der weitens. Einmal is' doch glatt a Rachmones, das
Menschlichkeit derlast nischt zuzusehn asa Achsorjes,
un' zweitens, awekgenummen schon Rachmones, hat
doch die Schkape auf mir take a grdss Recht geha't,
ich soil ihr helfen, machmas ich bin eingekauft in der
Chewre " Zar-bal-hachaim," was ihr is' nischt niche,
man soil peinigen, anthon Leid lebedige Beschaffenisch,
warim see senen auch Bossor-wedom, Fleisch un' Blut,
un' haben auch das Recht zu leben auf Gotts Welt wie
mir. Ich will mich da nischt areinlasen in dem alten
un' sehr tiefen Schmues mikoach dem Menschen un'
die Beheemes. Las sich sein chotsche wie Jene sagen,
as ich, Mensch, bin der Tachles, der Zimmes, der Antik
vun alle Beschaffenisch ; nor zu lieb mir, Tachschit, zu
lieb mein Bederfenisch un' mein Vergeniigen leben see
alle auf der Welt ; las sich sein chotsch, as ich, Tach-
schit, bin der Meelach, der Oberharr liber alle Beheemes,
was musen mir dienen, was musen gehn in Joch un'
makriw sein far mir sejer Leben, — vun destwegen,
dacht sich mir, wie bald afile a Klatsche, asa proste
Podane, hat auf mir eppes a Recht, mus ich al-pi
Din, wenn nischt al-pi Menschlichkeit, akegen ihr joze
sein. . . .
" Kundeessim ! " sag' ich, zugehendig zu die weisse
Chewre, " Was ha't ihr, ich bett' euch, zu der Schkape
nebech ? "
A Theil vun die Kundeessim haben mich garnischt
gohort, andere haben ja eppes wie gehort un' gelacht
mit Ases. A Theil Hiind' haben mich eppes varwun-
dert angekuckt, etliche haben gebillt vun der weitens,
CHRESTOMATHY 281
quietly at such misdeeds. In the first place it is a ques-
tion of pity — humanity does not permit to look un-
moved at such wrong-doing. Secondly, leaving pity
out, the mare had a great right to my protection, for
I am a member of the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, which is opposed to vexing and
torturing any living being, for they, too, are flesh and
blood, and have the same right to live in God's world
that we have. ... I shall not enter here into the old
and profound discussion in regard to man and beast.
Let it be as they say that I, man, am the highest aim,
the perfection of all creation, that only for me and for
my wants and pleasures they all live upon this world.
Let it be that I, man, am the king, the supreme lord of
all the animals who must serve me, must walk under
the yoke and sacrifice their lives for me, nevertheless,
it seems to me that even to that dobbin, who is my low-
est subject, I have certain duties, and I must, in accord-
ance with the law if not with humanity, do what is
right by her. . . .
" Urchins ! " I said, as I approached the crowd of wild
boys, " what have you, I pray, against that mare ? "
Some of the urchins paid no attention at all to me ;
others did hear me, but they laughed at me with brazen
faces. Some of the dogs looked at me somewhat aston-
ished; others barked at me from afar, while others
282 YIDDISH LITERATURE
noch etliche haben ausgeschtschiret die Augen, gekuckt
schrecklich boes, senen gewe'n bereit anzufallen auf mir
vun hinten un' zureissen mich auf Stiicker.
" Kundeessim ! " ruf ' icli mich noch a Mai an. " Was
jagt ihr un' peinigt Gotts Beschaffenisch, die Klatsche
nebech?"
"A schoener Nebech ! " haben see mit Gespott geent-
wert. " Far was f utter t sie sich da ? Far was futtert
sich die schoene Klatsche da ? "
" Steutsch ! " thu' ich a Sag, " da is' doch a Pasche,
da fiitteren sich doch alle Stadt-beheemes vun ebige
Jahren ! "
" Die Stadt-beheemes," haben see geentwert, " senen
eppes andersch, see mogen un' sie tor nischt."
M Far was nischt sie?" ruf ich mich an, " sie hat denn
nischt kein Neschome wie alle Stadt-beheemes?"
" Ef scher take nischt ! " haben see a Sag gethan.
" Schkozim ! " sag' ich zu see, " aber sie hat doch
sicher a Balebos, was zahlt in der Stadt Zinsch un'
alle andere Abgaben. Sie is' doch auch a Stadt-
beheeme ! "
" Ot das take weissen mir nischt ! " entwern see mir
mit a Gespott. " Ob sie is' auch a Stadt-beheeme, das
is' erscht a Schaile ! "
"Es mag sein, wie es will sich," hab' ich gesagt,
" aber die Klatsche is' doch derweil hungerig, sie will
doch nebech essen ! "
" Las sie essen Werem, Krank', Makes ! " sagen see
zuriick. "Was hat sie zu uns? Far was soil a solche
auffressen un' zunehmen bei die Stadt-beheemes?"
" Gaslonim ! " hab' ich schon mehr nischt gekonnt
mich einhalten un' a Geschrei gethan mit Kas. M Far
CHRESTOMATHY 283
again opened their eyes wide open, scanned me in great
anger, and were ready to fall upon me from behind, and
to tear me to pieces.
" Urchins ! " I cried out again. " Why do you pur-
sue and torture one of God's creatures — the miserable
dobbin?"
" Miserable indeed ! " they cried out scoffingly . " Why
does she graze here ? Why does that fine-looking mare
graze here ? "
"How is that?" I exclaimed, "is this not a pasture,
and have not all the animals of the town grazed here
from time immemorial ! "
"The animals of the town," they answered, "are
an entirely different matter; they may, but she may
not."
" Why not she ? " I called out, " has she not a soul
like all the animals of the town ? "
" Maybe she has not ! " they retorted.
" Urchins ! " I said to them, " but she certainly has
a master who pays all the taxes of the town and other
duties. She is a town animal like all the others ! "
" That's exactly what we do not know ! " they an-
swered in scorn. "Whether she is a town animal,
that's the question ! "
"Let it be as it may," I said, "but in the mean-
while the mare is hungry and wants to eat ! "
" Let her eat worms, get sick and die ! " they replied.
"What does she want of us? Why should such a
creature eat up that which belongs to the town ani-
mals ? "
"Murderers!" I could no longer hold myself and
cried out in anger. " Why do you not pay any attention
284 YIDDISH LITERATURE
was kuckt ihr nischt, was dort gehen arum panske
Zapes, ganze Tabunes Ferd zwischen die Twues un'
fressen auf arem Blut, arem Schweiss nebech? Da
vargiinnt ihr nischt a bidner Schkape a Haufen Gras
un' es art euch klal nischt, as dort thuen Ferd an a
Jam Heskejes un' machen umgliicklich viel Menschen.
Das nor allein, was see zutreten, was see machen kalje
glatt aso, wollt' genug gewe'n der Klatsche bis Kinds-
kinds-kinds-kinder ! Kundeessim, ihr ha't nischt kein
Joscher afile auf a Haar, ihr sent Keinem nischt getreu
un' ihr hat noch a Hose sich arauszustellen klomerscht
far die Stadt-beheemes ! "
M He, he ! " haben die Kundeessim sich angerufen, " er
is' gar in Kas, er fragt gar eppes Kasches ! Kummt
Chewre ! Was taug' uns die Taines? Las er sich
schreien ! Wer hort ihm? Kummt, Chewre, kummt ! "
Ein Kundas hat a Feif gethan un' bald haben die
weisse Chewre mit sejere Hiind' sich gelast nach der
Klatsche un' auf ihr wieder angefallen. A lange Zeit
hat man sie getrieben, gerissen un' gebissen, bis man
hat sie zum Ssof vartrieben in a tief er Grub un' dort hat
sie sich eingegrisnet in Blote.
S. J. Abramowitsch.
X. TUNEJADEWKE
('Binjamin ha-Schlischi,' pp. 6-9)
Tunejadewke, das kleine Stadtel, is' a varworfen
Winkel, an der Seit' vun dem potschtowen Trakt,
kimat abgerissen vun der Welt aso, as wenn a Mai
macht sich, Einer kummt ahin zufahren, offent man
die Fenster, die Thuren, un' man kuckt varwundert an
dem frischen Parschon ; Schcheenim fragen Einer beim
Andern, arauskuckendig vun die offene Fenster, assach
mehr wie vier Kasches : Ha, wer soil es asons sein ?
CHKESTOMATHY 285
to the noblemen's goats, the whole herds of horses who
run around in the grain and eat up the blood and the
sweat of the poor ? Here you begrudge the poor dob-
bin a handful of hay, and do not at all care that there
the horses are doing no end of damage and making
many people unhappy. That alone which they trod
under foot, which they simply destroy, would be enough
for the mare and her future generations ! You, urchins,
have no sense of justice, not a hair's-breadth of it, you
are not true to anybody, and yet you take it upon your-
self to take the part of the town animals ! "
" Ho, ho ! " the urchins exclaimed, " he is getting
angry, and he asks questions of us ! Come, boys !
What is the use of discussing ? Let him cry ! Pay
no attention to him ! Come, boys, come ! "
An urchin blew his whistle, and the rude company
started with their dogs to attack once more the dobbin.
They drove her for a long time ; she was bitten and
torn until at last she was driven into a deep ditch
where she sank down in the mud.
X. PARASITE VILLE
The small town of Parasiteville is a forgotten corner
of the earth, to one side of the highway, almost torn
away from the world. When by accident some one
visits it, the windows and doors are opened and people
look in astonishment at the stranger ; neighbors ask of
each other, as they look out of the open windows, more
than the usual four questions : I wonder who he may
be ? How did he all of a sudden get here ? What may
286 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Vun wannen hat er plutzlim vun der heller Haut aher
sich genummen ? Was kann asolcher bedarf en ? Eppes
aso glatt kann es nit sein, glatt aso denn nemmt man
un' man kummt? Mistome liegt doch da eppes, was
man mus es dergehn. . . . Derbei will Itlicher araus-
weisen sein Chochme, sein Genitschaft, un' Bauch-
swores fallen wie Mist. Alte Leut' derzaehlen Maisses
un' brengen Mescholim vun Orchim, was senen in dem
un' dem Jahr gekummen aher zufahren, Balamzojes
sagen mikoach dem Wortlich, a Bissel eppes nischt
kein schoene ; Mannsbill' halten sich bei die Bardlich
un' schmeichlen ; alte Weiber siedlen ab die Balamzojes
auf Katowes, mit a Boeser i mit a Lachen in einem ;
junge Weiblich derlangen vun die arabgelasene Augen
a geb5genem Kuck vun unten arauf, halten die Hand'
auf'n Maul un' sticken sich lachendig in Kulak. Der
Schmues mikoach dem dasigen Injen kaukelt sich vun
Stub' zu Stub' wie a Kaul vun Schnee un' werd kau-
klendig sich all's grosser, grosser, bis er kaukelt sich
arein in Bessmedresch ssame unter'n Owen, in dem Ort,
was ahin varkauklen sich alle Schmuessen vun allerlei
Injonim, hen S5des vun Stubsachen, hen Politike mi-
koach Stambul, mikoach dem Toger u-mikdach Kiren,
hen Geldgeschaften mikoach Rothschild's Varmogen in
Vargleich mit die grosse Prizim un' die andere gewisse
Negidim, we-hen Potschten mikoach die Gseeres u-mi-
k5ach die rothe Judlich uchdome, un' was dort rasbi-
rajet see kesseeder a besunder Komitat vun schoene
betagte Jiiden, was sitzen standig a ganzen Tag bis
spat in der Nacht, senen mafker Weib i Kinder un'
giben sich mit die alle Geschaften take ernes getreu
ab, thuen sejer Sach' bischleemes, glatt aso le-Schem-«
schomajim, nischt zu nehmen far sejer Muh', far sejer
Praze, afile a zubrochenem Heller.
CHRESTOMATHY 287
such a one want here ? There is something wrong, for
without good reason no one would come to this place !
There is some secret in it which I must find out. . . .
And each one wants to show his wisdom, his skill, and
all kinds of speculations come as fast as hail. All tell
stories and make allusions to strangers who had visited
them in such and such a year ; jesters relate anecdotes
about it, and they are not always within the bounds
of propriety ; men twirl their beards and smile ; old
women jokingly scold the jesters, angered and laughing
at the same time ; young married women stealthily look
upwards with their drooping eyes, hold their hands
before their mouths and choke with laughter. The
conversation in regard to that matter rolls on from
house to house like a snowball and rolling grows larger,
larger, until it rolls into the synagogue near the stove,
the very place where find their final abode gossips of
all kinds, whether domestic secrets, or politics in re-
gard to Stamboul, in regard to the Mogul and Cyrus,
or money matters regarding the wealth of Rothschild
as compared with that of great lords and the other well-
known millionnaires, or reports of persecutions and the
tribe of the Red Jews, and so forth. And there these
matters are discussed one after the other by a special
committee of pious Jews advanced in years, who sit
there whole days until late into the night, who abandon
their wives and children and earnestly devote them-
selves to those affairs, doing their business in peace,
just for the glory of God, without receiving a broken
penny for their labor and their work.
288 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Vun dem dasigen Komitat gehen oft die Injonim
aweg in Bad auf der oberster Bank, un' in a polner
Ssobranje vun Stadt-balebatim wer'en see dort utwer-
det, " wehakol schorir wekajom," as dernach sollen afile
kummen kol Malchej Misrach un' Majrew, sich stellen
niit dem Kopp arab un' mit die Fuss' arauf, wellen see
gar nischt poeln. Der Toger is' schier ein Mai nischt
umglucklich gewor'en in asa Ssobranje auf der ober-
ster Bank, wenn etliche juste Balebatini sollen nischt
gewe'n halten mit ihm Blatt, wer weisst, wu er wollt'
itzt angesparrt. Rothschild nebech hat schier nit var-
loren dort eppes a zehn, fufzehn Milljon; derfar hat
ihm Gott geholfen in a Paar Wochen arum : der Olem
is' gewe'n, wie man sagt, begelufin ; auf der oberster
Bank is' grad' gewe'n a Bissel leblich ; die Besemlich
haben sich gehoben, — un' man hat ihm mit a Mai
zugelast rein Vardienst akegen akan Milljon Karblich!
Die Einwohner allein in Tunejadewke senen nebech
kimat alle, 16-aleechem, grosse Ewjonim, starke Dal-
fonim. Nor dem Ernes mus man sagen, see senen
froehliche Ewjonim, lusti^ Kabzonim, wilde Bal-bito-
chens. As man soil, a Steiger, plutzlim a Frag geben
a Tunejadewker Juden, vun wannen un' wie as5 er is
sich mefarnes, bleibt er tchilas stehn wie zumischt,
weisst nebech nischt, was zu entwern, nor spater a
Bissel aber kummt er zu sich un' entwert bitmimes :
Ich, wie arum ich leb', ich? Et, 's is' da a Gott, sag'
ich euch, ot-o, was varlast nischt alle seine Beschaffe-
nisch, Er schickt zu un' wet mistome weiter zuschicken,
sag' ich euch, ot-o ! — Fort, was thut ihr asdns ? Ha't
ihr chotsch eppes was 's is' far a Meloche oder a Par-
nosse in der Hand? — Gelobt is' ha-Schem-jisborach!
Ich hab', borchaschem, as5 wie ihr kuckt mich an, ot-o,
a Matone vun sein lieben Namen, a Keele, a Kol-negine,
CHKESTOMATHY 289
From this committee the affairs are frequently trans-
ferred to the upper bench in the bathhouse, and in a
plenary assembly of householders they are confirmed,
" resolved and decreed." If after that even all the kings
of the East and the West were to come and walk with
their heads downwards and their feet in the air, they
could not move them to change their decrees. The
Mogul came once very near falling into misfortune in
such an assembly of the higher bench; if some of the
householders had not taken his part, who knows where
he would now be resting his head. Rothschild very
nearly lost there ten or fifteen millions ; but God came
to his rescue a few weeks later : the people felt, as they
say, in high spirits; all was alive upon the highest
bench; the bathing brooms were dancing over their
backs, and they all at once gave him a clean gain of one
hundred and fifty million roubles.
Nearly all the inhabitants of Parasiteville are, may it
be no evil omen to you, nothing but poor people and
quite destitute. But the truth must be told, they are
merry beggars, joyful mendicants, possessed of un-
bounded hope. If one, for example, suddenly asks a
Parasiteville Jew where and how he manages to make
a living, he stops at first bewildered, and does not know
what to answer, but after a while he collects himself
and answers in good spirits : I, how I make a living, I ?
Well, there is a God, I tell you, you see, who does not
abandon His creatures ; He sends us a living and will
no doubt continue to send us, I tell you ! — After all,
what is your occupation? Have you some kind of
trade that you ply, or have you some kind of in-
come ? — Praised be the Lord ! I have, thanks to the
Lord, as you see me, a gift from Him, a good voice, and
I lead the prayers of the Mussafim on the great holidays
290 YIDDISH LITERATURE
un' dawen' Mussofim Jomim-norojim in der Swiwe ; ich
bin a Mohel un' a Maze-radler, Einer in der Welt ; ich
fiihr' a Mai aus a Schidech, fiihr' ich aus. Ich hab' a
Staat, wie ihr kuckt mich an, ot-o, in der Schul' ;
heunt halt' ich auch, zwischen uns soil es bleiben, a
Schenkel, was melkt sich zu bisslich ; ich hab' a Zieg',
was melkt sich ohn' Anore sehr gut, un' hab' nischt
weit vun dannen a reichen Korew, ot-o, was last sich
unter a schlechter Zeit auch a Bissel melken. Heunt,
chuz die alle Sachen, sag' ich euch ot-o, is' Gott a Tate
un' die Jisroejel senen Rachinonim-bnee-rachmonim, sag'
ich euch ot-o, nischt zu varsiindigen! . . .
Auch mus man die Tunejadewker Einw5hner dem
Schwach nachsagen, as see senen zufrieden mit was
Gott gi't un' klauben cholile in der Halbosche un' in
dem Essen stark nischt liber. As die schabesdige
Kapote, a Steiger, is' zuhackt, zufallen, zurissen, a Bis-
sel varschlumpert un' eppes nischt aso rein, macht auch
nit aus, abi sie is' fort vun Atlas un' glanzt. Ai orter-
weis kuckt wie vun a Reschete araus das hohle Leib,
meele was art es wemen? Wer wet sich da as5 stellen
zukucken? Lemai Pjates, mit was is' das arger vun
ausgerissene Pjates? Pjates is' denn nischt kein Leib,
kein Menschenfleisch ? . . .
A Stiickel Brot mit a Kolisch, abi 's is' nor da, is'
sehr a guter Mittag. Wer schmuest a Bulke mit a
Rosselfleisch Freitag, wer es hat nor, — das is' take
a Maichel-Mecholim, kein Besseres dervun is' schon,
dacht sich, auf der Welt nischt da. Las man see der-
zaehlen, a Steiger, vun andere Minee Potrawes chuz
Fischjauch, Gebraten's un' a Mahren- oder Posternak-
zimmes, kummt see das aus eppes meschune wild un'
sagen darauf ab varschiedene Wortlich mit dem gross-
ten Gelachter, gleich wie der, was sagt es, is' narrisch,
CHRESTOMATHY 291
in the towns hereabout ; I am a Mohel and a roller of
matzoth, an expert in my work; I sometimes make a
match and get people married. I have a pew in the
synagogue, although you may not think it of me ; be-
sides I have a grog-shop, between us be it said, that
brings me in a little income ; I have a goat that gives
a great deal of milk, and not far from here I have a
rich relative who in bad times lets himself be milked a
little too. Besides all these things, I tell you, God is
a father and the Jews are the recipients of His mercy, I
tell you, and may we not sin against Him ! . . .
We must give the inhabitants of Parasiteville their
due, — they are contented with anything God may
give them, and they are not by any means dainty in
their garments and their food. If, for example, the
Sabbath coat is all crushed, threadbare, and torn, a
little bedraggled and of questionable cleanliness, that
does not trouble them much, provided it is of satin
and has a sheen. You will say that in places the bare
body looks out of it as from a sieve ! What of that ?
Whose concern is it? Who will stop to look at it
inquisitively? Is that at all worse than bare heels?
Are heels no body, no human flesh ? . . .
A piece of bread with a buckwheat cake, if only
it can be procured, is a very good dinner indeed.
And just think of a white roll with some braized meat
on a Friday ! Whoever can get that, regards it as the
finest dainty, better than which, it seems, nothing can
be found in the world. Let anybody tell of any other
kinds of choice dishes than fish juice, roast meat, and
carrot or parsnip scallop, he will be looked upon as a
madman, and they will make all kinds of jests about
him and burst out in loud laughter, as if he who had
292 YIDDISH LITERATURE
meschuge un' will see auch machen meschuge, einreden
see a Kind in Bauch, a Kuh is' geflogen iiber'n Dach
un' gelegt an Ei. A Stuckel Bockser in Chamischo
ossor das is' asa Peere, was is' mechaje Nefosches;
kuckendig derauf dermahnt man sich in Erzesrojel,
nischt ein Mai varglotzt man derbei die Augen mit a
Krachz: Ach, " wessolicheenu kommius," sollst uns,
harzediger Vater, fiihren kommius, take was kommius
heisst, "learzeenu" — zu unser Land, was Ziegen essen
dort Boeksern ! . . . Al-pi Mikre hat Einer a Mai in
dem Stadtel gebracht a Teitel, ha't ihr bedarft sehn,
wie aso man is' das gelaufen ankucken auf Chidesch !
Man hat aufgemischt a Chumesch un' gewiesen, as
" Tomer " der Teitel stent in Chumesch ! Steutsch, der
Teitel, ot der Teitel wachst doch vun Erzesrojel ! . . .
Kuckendig auf'n Teitel, hat sich ausgedacht, Erzesrojel
is var die Augen, ot geht man liber dem Jarden, ot is'
die Meoras-hamachpeelo, der Mutter Rochel's Keewer,
das Kossel-maarowi, ot badt man sich in Chamee-te-
warjo, man kriecht arauf auf'n Har-haseessim, man esst
sich an mit Boeksern, mit Teitlen, un' man legt an
fulle Keschenjes mit Erzesrojel-erd'. Ach, hat man ge-
krachzt, un' in die Augen haben Itlichen sich gestellt
Trahren. "Jene Zeit," aso sagt Binjamin, "is' ganz
Tunejadewke, wie gross sie is', gewe'n in Erzesrojel.
Man hat geschmack geredt vun Moschiach'n, ot, ot,
is' schon Gott's Freitag noch halben Tag. . . . Der
neuer Pristaw, was is' nischt lang angekummen, hat
grad be-jod-romo denstmal gefuhrt das Stadtel. Bei a
Paar Jiiden hat er arabgerissen die Jarmelkes, Einem
abgeschnitten a Peje, Etliche nebech gechappt spat bei
der Nacht in a Gassel ohn' Pasporten, bei noch Einem
varnummen a Zieg', was hat aufgegessen a neuem
CHRESTOMATHY 293
told that had actually become crazy and wanted to
drive them crazy too by making them believe of a
child in the stomach,1 of a cow that has flown over
the roof and has laid an egg. A piece of buck's-horn
on the fifteenth day in the month of Shebat is regarded
as a fruit that delights the heart. Looking at it they
are reminded of Palestine, and they frequently raise
their eyes in ecstasy and say with a sigh : " Oh, wessoli-
cheenu kommius," lead us, O merciful Father, upwards,
yes, upwards indeed, "learzeenu," into our land where
goats feed on buck's-horn. . . . By chance some one
brought a date to town. You ought to have seen how
people rushed up to see the wonder ! They opened
the Pentateuch and pointed out that " Tomer," the date,
was mentioned in the Bible ! Just think of it ! The
date, that very date grows in Palestine ! . . . Look-
ing at the date it appeared to them that Palestine was
before their very eyes, that, behold, they were crossing
the Jordan; right there was the cave of Machpelah,
Rachel's grave, the western wall ; that now they were
bathing in the Pool of Tiberias, they were climbing the
Olive Mount, they were eating their fill of bucks'-horn
and dates, and swelling their pockets with earth of Pal-
estine. Ah, they sighed, and tears filled the eyes of all.
" In those days," says Benjamin, " all of Parasiteville,
as large as it is, was in Palestine. They talked with
zest of Moses ; and behold, it is already past noon on
God's Friday. . . . The new police captain who had
only lately arrived in town ruled it with a firm hand.
He had torn off the skullcaps from the heads of a few
Jews, he had lopped off an earlock, had bagged a few
men late at night in a side street without passports,
had confiscated another man's goat that had eaten up a
1 This is a common saying for an impossible thing.
294 YIDDISH LITERATURE
strohenem Dach ; un' er is' dermit auch gewe'n die
Ssibe dervun, was der Komitat unter'n Owen hat sich
stark geduret mit'n Toger, ad-mossaj wet der Schar-
schel-jischmoel aso scholet sein? Man hat aufgemischt
dem gewoehntlichen Schmues mikoach die Ascheres-
haschwotim, wie glucklich see leben dort in jene weite
Mekomes, in Gdule-oscher un' Kowed ; man hat aviir-
genummen die rothe Jiidlech, die Bneemosche, mit
Gusmes Maisses vun sejere Gwures uchd5me ; Eldad
ha-Dani, es varsteht sich, hat auch getanzt in dermit.
Jene Zeit, zum Meisten, nab' ich zu vardanken die Nes*
sie meine, was ich hab' dernach gemacht."
XI. A HARTER BISSEN
{Hausfreund, Vol. II. pp. 22-25)
Beim Breg vun dem Wasser, vun Jaflo bis Tarschisch,
Dort hort sich a Zummen un' Brummen —
Beim Breg vun dem Wasser, vun Jaffo bis Tarschisch,
Is' finster die Nacht angekummen.
Un' tief aus dem Wasser dort hort sich das Brummen,
A Kol vun a Wallfisch gar, dacht sich :
" Rabossai ! Heunt hat mich der Teuwel genummen,
Ich starb' heunt, ich spur' schon, es macht sich !
" Ich eck' bald ! Mein Bauch, oi, mein Bauch mus mir
platzen —
Heunt hab' ich a Nowi verschlungen !
Da helft mehr kein Glatten, kein Reiben, kein Kratzen —
Bald is' schon der Bauch mir zusprungen !
u A Nowi, das is' gar a zu harter Bissen,
Es kann ihm gar Keiner vertragen ;
Zu f ett is' sein Frummkeit — es soil schon nit wissen
Vun ihm kein schum ehrlicher Magen !
CHRESTOMATHY 295
newly laid strawthatch. And it was he that was the
cause of the committee's preoccupation with the Mogul,
and their discussion of how much longer the Prince of
the Ishmaelites would be reigning. They returned to
the usual conversation of the Ten Tribes, how happy
they lived in those distant lands, enjoying wealth and
honor ; they recalled the Red Jews, the Sons of Moses,
and told a mass of stories of their bravery, etc. ; Eldad
the Danite was naturally also dished up. I owe it
mainly to those times that I later undertook my jour-
ney."
XI. A TOUGH MORSEL
On the shore of the waters, from Jaffa to Tarshish,
one may hear a grumbling and growling ; — on the
shore of the waters, from Jaffa to Tarshish, the night
descended in darkness.
And deep out of the water one may hear a growling,
— it seems, the voice of a whale. " My lords ! To-day
the devil has taken me, I am going to die to-day, I feel
it, I am sure !
" My end has come ! My belly, O my belly will burst ;
— I have swallowed this day a prophet ! No massag-
ing, no rubbing, no scratching will help me ; — ere long
my belly will certainly burst !
" A prophet is entirely too tough a morsel, and no
one can digest him ; his piety is too fat, — may no
honest stomach ever know the like.
296 YIDDISH LITERATURE
" A Nowi, derzu noch gar einer, a kleiner !
(Punkt zwolf auf a Tutz gar in Ganzen)
Gar hart is' sein Nef esch, gar hart seine Beiner —
Er lochert mir 's Harz mit sein Tanzen !
" Un' Steiner, un' Beiner, un' kolerlei Sachen,
See hat schon mein Magen zurieben ;
Un' nor mit Newiim kann gar ich nit machen —
A Make, was stent nit geschrieben !
" A Nowi is' gar nit varhanden a weicher —
Nit kann man ihm essen, nit nagen :
Es wollt' sein a Mizwe, nit lasen kein Seecher
Vun Frumme, was grablen beim Magen !
" A Frummer is' gar nit varhanden kein weicher —
Mir kennen die dasige Helden !
Es wollt' sein a Mizwe, nit lasen a Seecher
Vun see — mit Respekt das zu melden !
" Rabossai ! Ich spur' jetzt, er grabelt in Bauch mir —
Gewalt ! 's is' die Tewa vun Frumme
Rak grablen in Jenems Gedarem — nu, auch mir
A Nowi, — nor, ach, vun die Krumme !
" Rabossai ! Mir dacht sich, er murmelt jetzt eppes
Un' krummt sich, un' beugt sich gar plutzim —
Du darschenst umsiist gar, du darschenst in Steppes
Un' wartst gar umsiist auf Tiruzim !
" Rabossai ! Ich spur' jetzt sein Grablen, sein Zapplen,
Es dacht sich, er dawent a Bissel !
Un' halt' ich's noch langer jetzt aus, mus ich mapplen —
Gewald ! Gi't mir Brechwein a Schussel !
CHRESTOMATHY 297
"A prophet, and one of the smaller kind at that!
— Just twelve of them to the dozen. Too tough is his
body, too tough are his bones, he pierces my heart with
his dancing !
" And stones, and bones, and all other kinds of things
my stomach has digested ; but I am powerless with
prophets, — they are a plague not mentioned in the
Scriptures.
" There does not exist a tender prophet, — you can
never eat them or gnaw them. It would be meritorious
not to leave a trace of pious men who rummage in your
stomachs !
" There does not exist a pious man who is tender, —
we know that class of heroes ! It would be meritorious
not to leave a trace of them — with all due respect per-
mit me to say that !
"My lords! I feel he is now rummaging in my
stomach, oh, help me ! It has ever been the business
of pious people to rummage in other people's entrails,
— that's the kind of a prophet he is, only, alas, he is
crooked !
" My lords ! meseems, he is now mumbling something,
and he is writhing and bending up all of a sudden, —
you preach in vain, you preach in the wilderness, and
you are waiting in vain for an answer !
" My lords ! I now feel his crawling, his sprawling,
it seems, he is praying now a bit! And if I am to
endure it much longer, I shall have to abort. Help !
Give me a dish full of emetic !
298 YIDDISH LITERATURE
" Ich kann nit derhalten sein Dawnen, sein Singen, —
Das Tanzen arum, wie die Rinder,
Die falsche, verwilderte Tnues, das Springen. . . .
Gewald ! Gi't mir Brechwein geschwinder !
" Gewald ! Gi't mir Brechwein, gi't Zeitungsmaimorim,
Gi't Nechbi-ben-Wofsi's Artiklen ;
Gi't gich Feuilletonen, gi't judische Sforim —
Un' thut mir das All's zunaufwicklen,
" Un' macht mir a Mittel zum Brechen, zum Brechen !
Gi't Sforim vun spatere Dores !
Gi't Schomer's Romanen, see senen, ich rechen'
Zum Brechen vorzugliche S-chores —
" Gi't Sforim vun neunzehnten klugen Jahrhundert,
Gi't kluge ■ Kritiken ' — vun wemen
Ihr willt sich allein nor ; gi't gicher — mich wundert,
Wie brech' ich schon nit bei die Namen ! " —
Beim Breg vun dem Wasser, vun Jaffo bis Tarschisch,
Dort hort sich a Zummen un' Brummen —
A Mittel zu Brechen, vun Jaffo bis Tarschisch,
Hat dorten a Fisch eingenummen.
Un' still is' un' ruhig ; es kraiiselt die Nacht sich
Un' flecht ihre tunkele Locken ;
In Himmel die Steren, — see flammen, es dacht sich,
Wie gelbliche, goldene Pocken.
Un' still is' un' ruhig, es flecht gar die Nacht sich
Un' kraiiselt die finstere Locken ;
Es wandelt gar still die Natur, un' es dacht sich,
Sie geht wie auf seidene Socken.
CHRESTOMATHY 299
" I cannot stand his praying, his chanting, — his
dancing, like a calf, his false, barbaric doings, — his
leaping. . . . Help ! Give me quickly some emetic !
" Help ! Give me some emetic, give me newspaper
discussions, give me Nechbi-ben-Wofsi's articles. Give
me f euilletons, give me Jewish books, — and put them
all in a bundle,
" And make me a medicine to vomit, to vomit ! Give
me books of later generations! Give me the novels
of Schaikewitsch, — I think they are excellent stuff for
vomiting.
" Give me books of the wise nineteenth century ; give
me criticisms, whosesoever you wish yourself ; only give
them quickly, — I am surprised I am not vomiting at
mentioning these names ! "
On the shore of the waters, from Jaffa to Tarshish,
one may hear a grumbling and growling ; — an emetic,
from Jaffa to Tarshish, a fish has swallowed there.
And all is still and quiet ; night is curling and braid-
ing her sable locks ; the stars in the sky, — they flame,
it seems, like yellow, golden pustules.
And all is still and quiet, and night is braiding and
curling her dusky locks ; nature wanders in silence,
and it seems she walks on silken stockings.
300 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Un' plutzling derhort sich a Kol in der Finster,
Gar fiirchterlich hat er geschriegen ;
Es hat dort a Wallfisch, vun alle der diinster,
A groben Frummak ausgespiegen.
Un' nach dem Ausspeien, un' g'rad zu Oleenu,
Da thut er noch philosophiren ;
Er sagt : " Zu Newiim, iiberhaupt zu die kleine,
Da tor man sich gar nit zuruhren ! M
D. Frischmann.
Xn. STEMPENJU'S FIEDELE
(* Stempenju,' pp. 8-10)
Aeh, ich fuhl', as mein Feder is' schwach zu beschrei-
ben, wie Stempenju hat besetzt a Kale ! Das is' nit
gewe'n glatt gespielt, geriimpelt : das is' gewe'n a Min
Aweede, a Gott's Dienst mit eppes sehr a hochen
Gefiihl, mit eppes sehr an edlen Geist. Stempenju hat
sich gestellt akegen der Kale un' hat ihr Drosche
^gehalten auf 'n Fiedel, — a schoene, a lange Drosche, a
riihrende Drosche liber dem frei un' gliicklich Leben
vun der Kale bis aher, vun ihr Maedelstand, un' iiber
dem finsteren, bitteren Leben, was erwartet sie spater,
spater : Aus Maedel ! ubergedeckt dem Kopp, var-
stellt die schoene, lange Haar auf ebig ... nit da das
Froehlichkeit ! Sei gesund, Jugend, ot werst du a
Judene ! . . . Eppes sehr nischt froehlich, Gott soil
nischt strafen far die Red' ! . . .
Ot asolche Worter horen sich kimat araus vun Stem-
penju's Fiedele ; alle Weiber varstehen gut dem Pschat
vun der dasiger stummer Drosche, alle Weiber fiihlen
es; see fiihlen das, un' weinen derauf mit bittere
Trahren.
— Wie lang bin ich as5 gesessen, — klahrt sich a
CHRESTOMATHY 301
And suddenly a voice is heard in the darkness ; ter-
ribly he did cry ; a whale, the thinnest of them all, has
there spit out a bigot.
And after his spitting up, just at the last prayer of
Oleenu, he still continues to philosophize ; he says :
u With prophets, particularly the little ones, you must
have nothing to do ! "
XH. STEMPENJU'S VIOLIN
Oh, I feel that my pen is too weak to describe the
manner of Stempenju's playing at the Enthronement of
the Bride. That was not mere playing, mere fingering
of the strings : that was a kind of religious service,
devotion to the Lord, with a very elevated feeling,
with such a noble spirit ! Stempenju took his stand in
front of the bride and began to address her with a ser-
mon on his violin, a beautiful, a long sermon, a touch-
ing sermon, on the free and happy life she had led
heretofore, on her girlish state, and the gloomy, bitter
life that awaited her later, later. No longer a girl !
the head covered, the beautiful long hair disguised for-
ever . . . gone all merriment ! Farewell, youth, you
are now turned into a married Jewess ! . . . 'Tis some-
how very sad ! May God not visit us with punishment
for such words ! . . .
Almost these words are heard on Stempenju's violin.
The women all understand well the purport of that
silent sermon, all the women feel it ; they feel it, and
weep thereupon bitter tears.
" How long have I been sitting," meditates a young
302 YIDDISH LITERATURE
jung Weibel, schlingendig die Trahren, — wie lang bin
ich aso gesessen nrit zulaste, zuflochtene Zopp' un' hab'
nor gemeint, as Malochim spielen sich gar mit mir, as
ich bin Eine, a gluckliche ? Zum Ssof . . . ach, zum
Ssof . . .
— Bescher' ihr Gott, — thnt beten an altere Jiidene,
a Mutter vun derwachsene Tochter, — bescher' ihr
Gott, mein alter er Tochter, ihr Siweg in Gichen, nor
mit mehr Masel wie mir, nor mit a schonere Dolje, wie
ich hab' bei mein Mann, Gott soil nit strafen far die
Red'!
Ot in asolche Machschowes fallen arein die Weiber
un' Stempenju thut sich sein's: Er arbeit't mit alle
Keelim, un' das Fiedele redt. Das spielt Stempenju a
Weinendig's, un' die Kapelje halt't ihm unter, es werd
still, aus-Ljarem, aus-Gepilder ! Alle, alle willen horen
Stempenjun. Jiiden wer'en vartracht, Weiber weren
anschwiegen ; Junglech, Maedlech kletteren arauf auf
Bank' un' auf Tischen, — Jeder will horen Stempenjun !
— Sch — scha ! Stiller ! Olem, las sein still ! !
Un Stempenju zugiesst sich auf'n Fiedele un' zugeht
sich wie a Wachs : Tjoch, tjoch, tjoch, — mehr hort man
nischt. A Hand flieht auf un' ab, — mehr seht man
nit, un' es horen sich allerlei Koles, un' es giessen sich
verschiedene Minee Gesangen, un' alls umetige, traue-
rige, as es nemmt an beim Harzen, es zieht die Neschome,
es nemmt araus das Chijes ; Der Olem geht aus mit
alle Koches, der Olem starbt, starbt mit alle Eewrim,
das Harz werd eppes aso vull, un' es stellen sich Trah-
ren in die Augen ; Jiiden siifzen, Jiiden krachzen,
Jiiden weinen . . . un' Stempenju ? Wer Stempenju ?
Me seht ihm gar nit, me seht kein Fiedele, me hort nor
die susse Koles, die gottliche Gesangen, was fiillen an
CHRESTOMATHY 303
woman, swallowing her tears, "how long have I been
sitting with flowing, unbraided hair, and thinking that
angels are playing with me, that I am the happiest
creature ! And yet ... ah, and yet ..."
"God grant her," so begins her prayer an elderly
woman, a mother of grown-up daughters, " God grant
her, my oldest daughter, to be soon united in wedlock,
but with more happiness than I have had, with a better
lot than I have had with my husband, — may God not
visit me with punishment for my words ! "
Such are the thoughts that fall upon the women, and
Stempenju keeps on playing his way : he directs the
whole band, and his violin talks eloquently. Stem-
penju is now playing a sad tune, and his musicians
support him. All is quiet, there is no noise, not a
sound ! All, all want to hear Stempenju. Men fall to
musing, women are grown silent. Boys and girls have
climbed on benches and tables, — all want to hear Stem-
penju !
" Hush ! Keep still ! People, let there be quiet ! "
And Stempenju dissolves on his violin and melts like
wax ; pitapat is all you may hear. An arm flies up and
down, — that's all you may see, and you hear all kinds
of voices, and all kinds of tunes are poured forth, all
melancholy, sad, so that it tears out your heart, draws
out your soul, takes away your life. The people grow
faint, the people grow weak in all their limbs ; the
heart is full to overflowing, and tears appear in the
eyes. Men sigh, men groan, women weep . . . and
Stempenju? But who pays attention to him? No one
sees him, no one sees his violin ; they only hear his
sweet tones, the divine music which fills the whole
room. . . . And Rochele the beautiful who had never
304 YIDDISH LITERATURE
die ganze Stub' . . . Un' Rochele die schoene, was
hat noch bis aher nischt gehort Stempenju's Spielen,
Rochele, was hat gehort, as 's is' da a Stempenju, nor
sie hat noch nischt gehort asa Min Spielen, stent un'
hort sich zu zu die kischefdige Gesangen, zu die seltene
Koles, un' versteht nit, was das is'. Eppes zieht das
ihr das Harz, eppes glatt't das sie, — nor was das is'
versteht sie nit. Sie hobt auf die Augen ahin, vun
wannen es giessen sich die siisse Koles un' derseht a Paar
wunderschoene, schwarze Augen, feuerdige Augen, was
kucken gleich auf ihr un' nehmen sie durch, wie
Spiesen, wie scharfe Spiesen. Die wunderschoene,
schwarze, feuerdige Augen kucken auf ihr un' winken
zu ihr un' reden mit ihr ; Rochele will arablasen ihre
Augen arab, — un' kann nit.
— Ot das is' Stempenju ?
Aso klahrt sich Rochele die schoene, wenn das Be-
setzen hat sich schon geendigt un' die Mechutonim
hoben schdn an zu trachten mikoach Fiihren zu der
Chupe.
— Wu senen ergez die Licht ? fragt Chossen's Zad.
— Die Licht wu senen? entfert Kale's Zad.
Un' aso werd wieder der eigener Gepilder, was
friiher; Alle laufen un' me weisst nit wuhin. Me
kwetscht sich, me stuppt sich, me tret't an auf Masolim,
me reisst Kleidlech, me schwitzt, me siedelt die Ssarwers
mit die Schamossim, un' see siedlen zuriick die Mechu-
tonim, un' die Mechutonim amperen sich zwischen sich,
— es is' borchaschem ganz lebedig !
S. Rabinowitsch.
CHRESTOMATHY 305
before heard Stempenju's playing, Rocliele who had
heard before of Stempenju, but who had never before
heard such playing, stands and listens to the enticing
music, the rare sounds, and does not understand what
that all means. Something has touched her heart, a
soft feeling has passed over her, but she does not under-
stand what that is. She lifts her eyes to the place from
which the sweet sounds proceed, and notices a pair of
very beautiful black eyes, fiery eyes that are looking
straight at her, and that transfix her like spears, like
sharp spears. The beautiful, black, fiery eyes look at
her and beckon to her and speak to her ; Rochele wants
to lower her eyes, and she cannot.
" Oh, that is Stempenju ! "
So meditates Rochele the beautiful, as the Enthrone-
ment is ended, and the parents of the contracting parties
are getting ready to lead them under the Baldachin.
" Where are the candles?" comes the question from
the bridegroom's side.
"The candles, where are they?" comes the reply
from the bride's side.
And thus the same noise begins as before. All are
running, not knowing whither. There is a jam, and
they push each other, and step on people's toes, and tear
dresses ; they perspire, they scold the ushers and the
beadles, and these again scold the parents of the marry-
ing couple, and the parents wrangle among themselves,
— praised be the Lord, all is lively !
306 YIDDISH LITERATURE
XHI. DER TALMUD
(Jiidische Volksbibliothek, Vol. II. pp. 195-197)
Alte Blatter vun'm Talmud,
Alte Sagen un' Legenden !
In mein trauerigen Leben
Oft thu' ich zu euch mich wenden.
Bei der Nacht, wenn in der Finster
Lauft der Schlaf vun meine Augen,
Un' ich sitz' allein un' elend,
Zu der Brust dem Kopp gebogen,
In die trauerige Stunden,
Wie a Steren in der blauer
Suminernacht, hebt an zu scheinen
Der Sikoren in mein Trauer.
Ich dermahn sich auf die Liebe,
Auf die susse Kindheitsjahren,
Wenn ich bin noch frei gewesen
Vun mein Kummer, Leid un' Zoren ;
Ich dermahn' sich auf die Zeiten,
Wenn ich fleg' dem ersten, siissen,
Besten Koss vun Leben, Freiheit,
Freud' un' Lustigkeit geniessen.
Ich dermahn' sich auf die alte,
Auf die susse, liebe Jahren,
Un' die Blatter vun'm Talmud
Stehen auf in mein Sikoren.
Ach, die alte, alte Blatter !
Wie viel Licht un' wie viel Steren
Brennen, scheinen un' see konnen
Ebig nit verloschen wer'en.
CHRESTOMATHY 307
XIII. THE TALMUD
Old leaves of the Talmud, old stories and legends !
In my saddened life I frequently turn to you.
At night, when in the darkness sleep evades my
eyes, and I sit alone and deserted, my head bowed to
my breast,
In those sad hours, like a star in the azure summer
night, there begin to shine memories in my sadness.
I recall my love, my sweet years of childhood, when
I was still free from sorrow, pain and anger ;
I recall those times when I quaffed the first, sweet,
the best chalice of life, freedom, joy and merriness.
I recall the old, the sweet, delightful years, and the
leaves of the Talmud arise in my memory.
Oh, the old, old leaves! As many lights and as
many stars there burn and shine, they can never be
extinguished.
308 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Tausend Stromen, tausend Teichen
Haben see gethun verfliessen,
Samd hat sich auf see geschotten,
Sturems haben see gerissen,
Un' die alte, alte Blatter
Leben noch ... see senen take
Gell, verchoschecht, abgerissen,
Dort a Loch un' da a Make ;
Da a Stiickel abgesmalet,
Dort a Schure taug' auf Zores,
Un' in Ganzen hat a Ponim
Vun an alten Bess-hakwores . . .
Meele was ? Nu, is' das take
A Bessalinen, wu begraben
Liegt in Keewer All's, was ebig
Wollen mir schon mehr nit haben. . . .
Un' ich, alter, kranker Jossem,
Vull mit Leid, mit Eemas-mowes,
Steh', mein grauen Kopp gebogen,
Steh' un' wein' auf Keewer-owes. • . .
S. Frug.
XTV. DlS JUDISCHE KIND
(Hausfreund, p. 44)
Tief begraben in der Finster,
Weit vun Luf t un' Licht, —
Sehst du dort dem blinden Worem,
Wie er kriecht ?
In der Erd' is' er geboren,
Un' beschert
Is' ihm, ebig, ebig kriechen
In der Erd'. . . .
CHRESTOMATHY 309
Thousands of streams, thousands of rivers have
passed over them, sand has covered them, storms have
torn them,
Yet the old, old leaves live on . . . though they be
yellow, darkened, torn, — a hole here, a spot there ;
Here a bit charred, there a line obliterated, and the
whole has the appearance of an old cemetery. . . .
What of that? Yes, indeed, that is a burial-ground
where lies buried in the grave all that which we shall
never have again. . . .
And I, old, sick orphan, full of sorrow, of the awe
of death, stand with bent head, stand and weep at the
grave of our fathers. . . .
XIV. THE JEWISH CHILD
Deeply buried in darkness, far from air and light,
do you see yonder the blind worm, as he creeps?
In the ground he was born, and it is decreed that
forever, yes forever, he shall creep upon the earth. ♦ . .
310 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Wie a Worem in der Finster,
Schwach un' stumm un' blind, —
Lebst du ab die Kindheit's Jahren,
Jiidisch Kind !
Auf dein Wiegel singt die Mame
Nit kein Lied
Vun a ruhig stillen Leben,
Freiheit, Fried,
Vun die Gartner, vun die Felder,
Wu das frische Kind
Spielt un' freut sich frei un' lustig,
Wie der Wind.
Nein ! A Quail vun tiefen Jammer
Rauscht un' klingt. . . .
Oi, wie bitter is' das Liedel,
Was sie singt !
Tiefe Sufzen, heisse Trahren
Mit a starke Macht
Klingen, rauschen in dem Liedel
Tag un' Nacht.
Tiefe Sufzen, heisse Trahren,
Hunger, Kalt
Schleppen sich mit dir zusammen
Auf der Welt.
Un' vun Wiegel bis zum Keewer,
Auf dem langen Weg,
Wachsen ganze Walder Zores
Ohn' a Breg. . . .
S. Frug.
CHRESTOMATHY 311
Like a worm in the darkness, weak and mute and
blind, — you live through the years of childhood, Jew-
ish child !
At your cradle your mother sings not a song of a
quiet, peaceful life, of freedom, peace,
Of the gardens, of the fields, where the blooming
child plays and gladdens free and merry like the wind.
No, a spring of deep sorrow bubbles and resounds.
. . Oh, how bitter is the song that she sings !
Deep sobs, hot tears with a mighty power resound,
bubble in the song day and night.
Deep sobs, hot tears, hunger, cold, drag along with
you in the world.
And from your cradle to your grave, upon the long
journey, there grow whole forests of sorrows without
end. ...
312 YIDDISH LITERATURE
XV. DER ADELIGER KlTER
(Emeth, Vol. I. p. 62)
A Fuchs, a chitrer Kerl un' a Lez
Hat in an Unterhaltung mit a Kater
Gemacht aso viel Chosek vun die Katz\
As Jener is' in Kas gewor'en.
" Du weisst nit, Fiichsel-chazuf " — hat er
Zu ihm gesagt mit Zorn, —
44 As ich gehor' zum allerhochsten Adel
" Vun Chajes, weil ich kumm' vun a Mischpoche
44 Vun Helden ohne Furcht un' Tadel,
44 Was seinen keinmal nit gegangen in Gespann,
44 Nit in a Fuhr', nit in a Ssoche,
44 Zum Fuhren Heu, zum Ackern a Feld,
44 Zum Thon, was passt nit far a Thieren-held ;
44 Nor lebendig in Woltag, Jederer a Pan,
44 Durch ehrenhafte Raub.
44 Ich stamm' bekizer ab vun flinken Tiger,
44 Was kiinn verzucken jeden Rind ;
44 Ich bin dem Lempert's Schwesterkind,
44 Sogar vun seine Majestat, dem Loeb
44 A Korew nit kein weiter.
44 Obgleich ich bin allein vielleicht,
44 Kein Held nit, nit kein grdsser Krieger,
44 Un' nit kein morediger Streiter."
— u As du bist nit kein Held, is' leicht
44 Zu sehn " — hat ihm geentwert unser Fuchs —
44 1 vun dein schwache Lapke,
44 1 vun dein Blick, i vun dein Wuchs.
44 Wer weiss nit, as dem klensten Hiintel's Eck
44 (Schon gar nit redendig vun seine Zaehner)
44Verjagt dich, wie die schwachste Zabke,
44 In Thom arein var hole Schreck ?
CHRESTOMATHY 313
XV. THE NOBLE TOM-CAT
A Fox, a cunning fellow and a jester, conversing
once with a Tom-cat, made light of all the cats, so that
he made him angry. " You know not, arrant Fox," said
he to him, growing angry, "that I belong to the noblest
tribe of beasts, for I am descended from a family of
heroes without fear and reproach, who never have
walked under a yoke of wain, nor plough, to gather in
the hay, to till the field, to do what is not meet for a
beast-hero, — nay, living aye in plenty, each his own
master, by honorable robbery. In short, I am de-
scended from the swift Tiger, who knows how to slay
the kine ; I am cousin to the Leopard, and even of his
Majesty, the Lion, a not distant relative, although I
myself, perhaps, be not a hero, nor great warrior, nor
awful champion.
"That you are not a hero is easily discerned," our
Fox retorted, "both by your weak paw, and by your
looks, and by your size. Who does not know that the
tail of the smallest dog — not to speak of his teeth —
will chase you away like the weakest frog into some
hole, agog with fear? You, my friend, are bold only
with bones, in a corner of the room, making war on a
quiet, hungry mouse. I know of the high deeds of
314 YIDDISH LITERATURE
" Du bist nor, Freund, a Chwat mit Beiner
"In Winkele, in Haus,
" Bekampfendig a stille, hungerige Maus.
" Ich weiss nit vun die Maissim-towim,
M Vun deine adelige Krowim,
" Nor du lebst nit vun ehrenhaften Raub allein,
" Du, Bruder, schamst sich nit zu ganwenen,
" Zu bettlen un' zu chanfenen,
" Afile naschen is' far dir nit zu gemein."
Das sagendig hat er sein angepelzten Eck
Mit Spott a Hob gethan un' is' aweg.
*****
Die alte Welt
Is vull mit tausende asolche Katers,
Jachsonim puste, adelige Pimpernatters,
Mit Wonzes lange, bliszendige Augen,
Ohn' Macht, ohn' Sinn, ohn' Geld,
Nefosches, welche taugen
Zum Klettern mit Planer in der Hoch,
Vun welche jeder endigt sich in Rauch ;
Was lecken Teller bei dem Reichen
Un' mjauken sich mit sejersgleichen
Aristokratisch fein zusammen,
Un' Alles, was see weissen,
Is' mehr nit, wie see heissen,
Un' dann, vun welche Tigerkatz' see stammen.
M. WlNCHEVSKY.
XVI. JONKIPER
(Hausfreund, Vol. II. pp. 88-91)
. . . Es is' wieder Jonkiper, nor dreissig Jahr senen
vun jener Zeit aruber.
Wieder is' die Schul vull mit Tales un' Kittel einge-
wickelte Jiiden ; der Pol is' mit Heu ausgebett' itzt
CHRESTOMATHY 315
your noble relatives, — but you do not live by honor-
able prey alone ; you, my friend, are not ashamed to
steal, to beg, and to flatter ; you do not think it beneath
you to nibble secretly at dainties." Saying that, he
raised his furry tail in scorn and went away.
The Old World is full of thousands of such Tom-
cats, empty-headed braggarts, noble dragons, with long
mustaches and glittering eyes, without power, without
sense, or money, souls that are good only to crawl on
high with plans that all end in smoke ; who lick the
plates of the rich, and miaul together with their kind
in aristocratic fashion, and all they know is only their
own names, and then from what Tiger they are de-
scended.
XVI. THE ATONEMENT DAY
... It is again the day of Atonement, but since that
time thirty years have passed.
Again the synagogue is full of men wrapped in
taliths and shrouds ! The floor is strewn with hay now
316 YIDDISH LITERATURE
wie demalt ; in zwei grosse Kastens vull mit Samd vun
beide Seiten Bime brennen heunt die wachsene Ne-
schome-licht wie mit dreissig Jahr zuriick, chotsch nach
andere, f rische Neschomes, was senen erst in die dreissig
Jahr Neschomes gewor'en. Un' see brennen manche
still un' ruhig un' manche flackerndig un' schmelzendig,
un' Junglech Kundeessim chappen die Stucklech ab-
geschmolzene Wachs auch heunt wie a Mai.
Chotsch die Stimme vun dem Chasen is' itzt andersch,
aber die Worter, was er sagt, un' der Nigen, was er
singt, senen dieselbe, gar dieselbe, nit geandert auf ein
Haar.
Dieselbe senen auch die Trahren, was giessen sich
heunt teichenweis dort hinter die varhangene Fen-
sterlech in der weiberscher Schul, chotsch vun andere
Augen, vun andere gepeinigte Herzer fliessen see. . . .
Auf dem Ort, wu mit dreissig Jahr fruher is' die
ungluckliche Mutter gestan'en un' beweint ihr liebe
Tochter, was is' aso jung vun der Welt aweg, stent
heunt auch a Mutter un' zugiesst ihr schwer Harz in
heisse Trahren. Sie weint un' klagt liber ihr schoene
Tochter, was sie hat sich a Mai gebentscht mit ihr,
a Maedel, schoen wie Gold, was is' pluzling wie vun a
Kischef varfuhrt gewor'en, un' was mit ihr thut sich
itzt, is' schwer un' bitter selbst auszureden; un' die
standig getreue Mutter bet' itzt mit Trahren, heiss wie
Feuer, nit Gesund, nit lange Jahren far ihr Kind, aber
a Todt a gichen, was wet gleicher sein far dem Kind
noch mehr wie far der Mutter.
Sie hat noch ihr mutterliche Treuheit in ihr Harzen,
v>de noch ehder das Ungluck is' geschehn. . . . Nor take
derfar bett' sie bei Gott aso heiss ot dem T5dt auf ihr
Kind. Kein bessere Sach seht sie nit in der Welt un'
kein ander Sach kann sie bei Gott dem lebedigen heunt
CHBESTOMATHY 317
as then ; in two large boxes filled with sand on both
sides of the altar there are burning to-day the waxen
soul-lights just as thirty years ago, though for other,
fresh souls that have become souls only within the last
thirty years. And they burn, some quietly and softly,
and some flickering and melting, and urchins are now
as then picking up the pieces of molten wax.
Although the voice of the Precentor is now different,
yet the words which he says, and the tune which he
sings, are the same, precisely the same, not a bit
changed.
And the tears are the same that flow to-day in
streams there behind the curtained windows in the
woman's gallery, though from other eyes they flow,
from other tortured hearts. . . .
On the same spot where thirty years ago the unfortu-
nate mother had been standing and mourning her be-
loved daughter who had departed so young from this
world, there is to-day also standing a mother and dis-
solving her heart in hot tears. She is bewailing and
lamenting her beautiful daughter who had once been
her blessing, a girl, as pure as gold, who had been mis-
led as if by witchery, and of whom it would be hard
and bitter to say what she is doing now ; and the ever-
true mother prays now with tears, as hot as fire, not for
health, not for long years for her child, but for quick
death, which would be better for the child even than
for the mother.
She still harbors her mother's truth in her heart, even
as before the calamity had happened. . . . For that very
reason she prays to God so fervently to grant death to
her child. She sees no better thing in the world, and
she can ask for no better thing to-day of the living God.
318 YIDDISH LITERATURE
nit betten. Un' es giessen sich ihre Trahren still un'
fallen liber die Worter vun ihre Tchines ; sie halt dem
Kopp in Ssider eingegraben un' schamt sich ihre Augen
arauszunehmen, tomer begegnen see sich mit Augen,
was wollen ihr Schand' dersehn, was is' wie a Fleck
auf ihr Ponim gewor'en. . . .
Un' punkt dort, wu die areme Aim one is' gestan'en
mit dreissig Jahr zuriick un' hat minutenweis gekuckt,
ihre Jessomim in Schul zu sehn, 6b see dawnen, 6b see
nehmen a jiidisch Wort in Maul arein, un' hat gechlipet
weinendig, as ihre Augen haben nit gefun'en, was see
haben gesucht, stent heunt a judische Tochter un' kuckt
durch das Vorhangel, un' sie weiss allein nit, auf wemen
sie kuckt mehr, zi auf ihr Mann, was macht wilde Be-
wegungen mit beide Hand' un' mit sein ganzen Korper,
oder auf dem jungen Menschen, was sitzt auch in
Misrach-wand nit weit vun ihm un' da went wie a Jiid'
un' sitzt ruhig wie a Mensch.
Welche Gedanken laufen ihr durch ihr Kopp itzund!
Wieviel Trahren hat sie vargossen vun jenem Tag an,
as der junger Mann is' gewor'en aus Chossen ihrer un'
der wilder Chossen is' ihr Mann, ihr Brotgeber gewor'en!
Wieviel Wunden tragt sie seitdem still un' tief var-
schlossen in ihr judischen Harzen un' peinigt sich vun
ihre eigene Gedanken, was tracht sich ihr nit wollendig,
nor sie hat kein Koach nit, nit zu trachten. Un' wie bett'
sie itzt Gott, er soil ausloschen das siindige Feuer vun
ihr siindig Harz, ausloschen All's, was brennt un' kocht
in ihr, sie soil vargessen, was is' gewesen, nit wissen,
wie es darf zu sein, nor ein Sach soil sie wissen, wie lieb
zu haben ihr Mann, welcher wet un' mus ihr Mann
bleiben bis ihr Todt ! Sie soil ihm lieben bei alle seine
Unmenschlichkeit, bei sein Wildkeit, un' selbst wenn
CHRESTOMATHY 319
And her tears flow quietly and fall on the words of
her Prayer ; she holds her head buried on the Prayer-
book and is ashamed to lift her eyes, lest they meet
some eyes that may recognize her shame which has
become as a spot upon her face. . . .
And precisely. there where the poor widow had been
standing thirty years before and had looked every min-
ute to catch a glimpse of her orphans, to see whether
they were praying, whether they were reciting the
Hebrew words, and had burst out in sobs when her
eyes did not find that which she had been looking for,
there is standing to-day a young Jewess, and she peeps
through the curtain, and she does not know herself at
whom she is looking more, whether at her husband who
is wildly gesticulating with both his arms and his whole
body, or at the young man who is also seated at the
Eastern wall not far from him and is praying as be-
hooves a Jew and is sitting quietly as behooves a man.
What thoughts are now rushing through her head !
How many tears she has shed since that day when the
young man broke off his relations with her, and the
uncouth man had become her husband, her breadgiver !
How many wounds she has been carrying since then
quietly and deeply buried in her Jewish heart, and has
been tortured by her own thoughts which crowd upon
her against her will, and which she has no strength to
repel ! And how she now implores God that He may
extinguish the sinful fire from her sinful heart, that He
may extinguish all that burns and boils within her, that
she should forget all that had been, that she should not
know how it ought to have been, that she should know
but one thing, how to love her husband, who is and
must remain her husband until her death ! To love
320 YIDDISH LITERATURE
er schlagt sie, soil sie nor allein wissen, Ssonim sollen
nit derfreut wer'en un' sie soil alle ihre Pein far Gut
konnen annehmen, wie Der, was theilt dem Gorel ein
jeder Ischo, hat a judischer Frau geboten. . . .
Un' es fliessen ihre Trahren auf dem eigenem Ort,
wu es haben asolche Trahren gegossen mit dreissig
Jahr zuriick vun a ganz ander Grund un' Quelle. Un'
see fallen auf dieselbe Worter vun Machser, was jede
jiidische Frau varsteht see andersch als die andere.
Nor dort in Mairew-seit, nit weit vun Thur', weinen
die areme jiidische Frauen auch heunt mit dem eigenem
Nigen, mit dem eigenem betriibten Harzen wie mit
dreissig Jahr zuriick.
Aremkeit, Hunger, Not un' Mangel haben alle Mai
ein Ponhn, ein Tarn un' ein Ort bei der Thur. As5
sauer un' bitter das Gewein, was kummt vun Nieder-
geschlagene, is' a Mai gewesen, wet auch ebig sein.
Alle Wunsche un' Geliiste vun Menschen wollen sich
uberbeiten un' beiten sich, nor der Wunsch vun dem
Hungerigen wet ebig bleiben das Stiickele Brot; die
Geliiste vun dem Notbedurftigen wet auch ebig heis-
sen : Vun der Not befreit zu wer'en un' nit mehr zu
wissen vun dem Tam, was es hat ! . . .
Un' dort bei der Thur stehn itzt auch nit weniger
Finstere, Ausgetruckente un Schofele, nebech, horen
oder horen nit die Sagerke un' weinen, wie see zum
Harzen is', — es is' Jonkiper.
Nor in rechten mitten Misrach-wand, auf dem eige-
nem Ort, wu die frumme Giitele hat mit dreissig Jahr
zuriick gedawent, seht man itzt auch a choschewe Frau,
korew zu fufzig Jahr, sitzt still un'trauerig, wie a Der-
hargete, ihre Lippen varschlossen. Die Augen kucken
in off enem Korben-minche, nor see sehn die Worter nit.
CHRESTOMATHY 321
him with all his inhumanity, with all his uncouthness,
and even when he beats her, she alone to know it, lest
her enemies be not rejoiced, and that she may accept all
her troubles in good spirits, just as He who gives each
woman her lot, has bidden a Jewish woman to do. . . .
And her tears flow on the same spot where just such
tears have flowed thirty years before for another reason
and from another source. And they fall on the same
words of the Prayer-book, which every Jewish woman
interprets in her own way.
Only at the Western wall, not far from the door, the
poor women are weeping to-day with the same intona-
tion, with the same burdened heart as thirty years ago.
Poverty, hunger, misery, and want have always the
same face, the same appearance, and the same place at
the door. Just as oppressive and as bitter as the weep-
ing that issues from the downtrodden has been before,
it will eternally be. All desires and longings will
change and are actually changing, but the want of the
hungry will eternally remain a piece of bread ; the long-
ings of the needy will eternally be : To be freed from
want and not to know the feeling thereof ! . . .
And there at the door there now stand just such
gloomy, emaciated, and dispirited women, who listen
or do not listen to the Reader and weep out of the
fulness of their hearts, — it is the Atonement day.
In the very centre of the Eastern wall, in the same
spot where the pious Giitele had been praying thirty
years before, one may even now discern a woman, nigh
unto fifty years, sitting quietly and sadly, like one struck
dead, with closely pressed lips. Her eyes look into the
open Prayer-book, but they do not see the words.
322 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Farwas weint sie nit?
Is' ihr aso gut zu Muth, as selbst Jonkiper kann sie
ihr Harz nit zuthun, zu dermahnen, as kein Gut's is'
nit ebig mi' der lebediger Mensch weiss nit, was morgen
kann sein?
Oder is' sie nit a judische Frau, a Frau vun a Mann
un' Kinder, un' welche judische Frau hat nit ergez eine
oder mehrere Ursachen, wegen was Jonkiper zu betten
un' a heissen Trahr lasen fallen?
Is' sie efscher aso hart un' aso schlecht, as5 stolz un'
vornehm bei sich, as ihr passt nit zu weinen, Leut'
sollen ihre Trahren nit sehn un' nit klahren, sie is
gleich zu Allemen?
Nein ! Chanele, " die Gute, die Kluge " is' ihr Namen,
— ihre jetzt truckene Augen sagen noch Eedes, as see
haben in sejer Zeit viel, viel ge weint ; sie is' nit stolz
un' schamt sich nit zu weinen, bifrat Jonkiper, was
weint sich memeele !
Farwas-ze weint sie nit?
Es kucken auf ihr viel Augen un' wundern sich :
Was is' heunt mit ihr der Mahr mehr als alle Jahr?
Nor sie kuckt trucken, wie varsteinert, in ihr Ssider ;
nit sie weint, nit sie dawent. A Paar Mai hat sie das
Vorhangel varbogen, a Kuck gethun in mannerscher
Schul, sich bald zuriick aweggesetzt un' jeder Mai alls
traueriger un' beklemmter wie fruher.
As der Chasen hat angehoben dawnen Mussaf, hat
sie noch a Mai a Kuck gethun durch das Fensterl, die
Augen senen unruhig umgeloffen uber der ganzer
Schul, — sie hat sich zuriick aweggesetzt.
" Er is' noch alls nitda ! " hat ihr Harz geredt inner-
lich, "Zu Mussaf afile hat er nit gekonnt kummen?
CHRESTOMATHY 323
Why does she not weep?
Is she so happy that even on the day of Atonement
she cannot prevail over her heart to consider that no
good is eternal, and mortal man does not know what
to-morrow may be?
Or is she not a Jewish woman, a woman having
husband and children? and where is there a Jewish
woman that has not some one or more reasons for
weeping on the Atonement day, and shedding hot
tears ?
Is she, perhaps, so hard of heart and so bad, so
haughty and conceited, that she does not think it
proper to weep, lest people should see her tears and
deem her equal with the others?
No ! Chanele, — they call her the good, the wise Cha-
nele, — her very dry eyes are witness that she has wept
much, very much in her time ; she is not proud and is
not ashamed to weep, especially on the Atonement day,
when tears come of their own accord !
Why, then, does she not weep?
Many eyes are looking at her and wondering why
she is so different from other years, why she looks stol-
idly, like one turned to stone, into the Prayer-book,
why she is neither weeping nor praying. A few times
she pushed aside the curtain, looked down into the
men's division, seated herself again in her place and
looked each time sadder and more oppressed than
before.
When the Precentor began to read the Mussaf -prayer,
she once more peeped through the window, her eyes ran
restlessly over the whole synagogue, and she went back
to her seat.
" He has not come yet ! " her heart spoke to her
inwardly. "Even to the Mussaf he could not come?
324 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Och, un' das is' mein Kind, mein Bchor ! Vim ihm
hab' ich das aso viel Jessurim un' Schmerzen aruber-
getragen, bis ich hab' ihm auf die Fuss' gestellt !
u Ja, mein Kind, mein Wund' ! Ein ander Mutter
wollt' ihm sein Gebein varscholten, sie wollt' gesagt :
Nit du bist mein Suhn, nit ich bin dein Mutter, — ich
kann es aber nit, — sei mir mochel, Gott in Himmel,
was ich ruf ' ihm noch " mein Kind, mein Suhn ! " . . .
O, ich kann bei Dir auf sich betten a Todt, aber nit
auf mein Kind ! — Straf mich, Rib5ne-schel-61em, mich,
sein siindige Mutter, efscher bin ich schuldig in dem,
was er is' vun rechten Weg arab un' hat Dich, lebediger
Gott, vargessen un' hat dein Tore varlasen un' thut
dein Gebot nit? Ja, ich bin schuldig, ich hab' ihm zu
viel lieb geha't ; was er hat gebeten, hab' ich gethun ;
ich hab' sich mit sein frummen Vater standig arumge-
kriegt, as er flegt ihm bestrafen wollen. Ich hab' ihm
ausgehodewet, wie er is', un' mich straf far ihm! "...
J. DlENESOHN.
XVII. AUF'N BUSEN VUN JAM
(' Songs from the Ghetto,' J pp. 70-76)
Der schrecklicher Wind, der gefahrlicher Sturem,
Er rangelt sich dort mit a Schiff auf 'n Meer ;
Er will sie zubrechen, un' sie mit Jessurim
Schneid't durch alle Tiefeniss, krachzendig schwer.
Es treschtschet der Mastbaum, der Segel, er zittert,
Der rauschender Wasser is' m5redig tief ; —
Es kampfen mit Zoren, es streiten varbittert
Auf Todt un' auf Leben der Wind mit der Schiff.
1 Published by Copeland and Day; with permission of the publishers.
CHRESTOMATHY 325
Oh, and that is my child, my first-born ! For his sake
I have borne so many privations and pains, that I
might be able to place him on his feet !
" Yes, my child, my sore vexation ! Another mother
would have cursed his bones; she would have said: 'You
are not my son, I am not your mother,' — But I cannot
do that, — forgive me, O Lord, that I still call him ' my
child, my son ' ! . . . Oh, I can ask for my death of
You, but not for the death of my child ! Punish me,
Lord of the Universe, me, his sinful mother ! Maybe
I am to be blamed that he has departed from the road
of righteousness, and has forgotten You, O living God,
and has abandoned Your Law and does not do Your
commandments ! Yes, I am to be blamed for it, I have
loved him too much ; I always did what he wanted me
to do ; I have always quarrelled with his pious father
when he wanted to punish him. I have raised him
such as he is, and do punish me for him ! " . . .
XvTI. ON THE BOSOM OF THE OCEAN
The terrible wind, the dangerous storm, is wrestling
with a ship on the ocean ; it is trying to break her, but
she in distress cuts through the deep, groaning heavily.
The mast cracks, the sail trembles, frightful is the
depth of the roaring waters ; the wind struggles des-
perately with the ship in a life and death combat.
326 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Ot mus sie sich legen, ot mus sie sich stellen,
Ot treibt es zuriick ihr, ot treibt es varaus, —
A Spielchel is' itzter die Schiff bei die Wellen,
See schlingen sie ein un' see speien sie aus.
Es laremt der Jam, un' es heben sich Chwales ;
Es huzet, es pildert mit Schreck un' mit Graul ; —
Der Sturem, der Gaslen, will umbrengen Alles,
Der Thoni offent auf sein varschlossene Maul.
Es horen sich Siifzen, es hort sich ein Beten,
's is' gross die Ssakone, 's is' schrecklich die Not,
Un' Jederer bet't bei sein Gott, er soil retten,
Befreien die Menschen vun sicheren Todt.
Das weinen die Kinder, es klagen die Weiber,
Man schreit un' man is' sich miswade aziind :
Es flatteren Seelen, es zitteren Leiber
Var Schreck var dem boesen, varnichtenden Wind.
Doch unten, in Zwischendeck, sitzen zwei Manner
Ganz ruhig, see riihrt nit der mindester Weh ;
See suchen kein Rettung, see klaren kein Planer,
Wie Alls wollt' sein sicher un' still arum see.
Es laremt das Wasser, die Wellen, see schaumen,
Es wojet, es mojet meschune der Wind ;
Es ssappet der Kessel, es huzet der K5men ;
Doch unten die Zwei, seht, see schweigen aziind.
See kucken mit Kaltkeit dem Todt in die Augen,
See riihrt nit dem Sturem's gefahrliche Macht ;
Es scheint, as der Tddt hat allein nor erzogen
See Beiden, in Schreck un' in linsterer Nacht.
CHRESTOMATHY 327
Now she must lie down, now again she must rise,
now she is driven back, now forward; — the ship is a
plaything of the waves that swallow her up and spit
her out again.
The ocean roars, the billows rise, and lash, and
thunder in awful terror, the murderous storm wants
to destroy everything, — the abyss opens up its closed
jaws.
There are heard sighs and prayers. Great is the
danger and dreadful the calamity, — and everybody
prays to his God that He may save and liberate the
people from sure death.
Children weep, women wail ; the people cry and
confess their sins ; souls flutter, bodies tremble in
terror of the angry, destructive wind.
But below, in the steerage, two men sit quietly ; no
pain assails them; they seek no salvation, they make
no plans, just as if all were safe and calm about them.
The water roars, the billows foam ; the wind whines
and howls insanely ; the boiler gasps, the chimney
buzzes, — but the men below, behold, they are silent
now!
They look coolly into the eyes of Death ; the dan-
gerous might of the storm touches them not ; it seems
as though Death had reared the two in terror and dark
night.
328 YIDDISH LITERATURE
" Wer seid ihr, Ungliickliche, — lasst es doch horen, —
Was konnen varschweigen die gwaldigste Not,
Was haben kein Siifzen, un' haben kein Trahren,
Afile bei'm schrecklichen Thoer vim Todt ?
" Sagt, haben euch take nor Kworim geboren ?
Ihr lasst gar kein Elteren, Weib oder Kind,
Zu weinen auf euch, wenn ihr werd't da varloren
In tief en, in schrecklichen Abgrund azund ?
" Wie ? Lasst ihr nit Keinem, was ihm soil vardriessen,
Was er soil wenn baenken, zu lasen a Trahr,
Wenn euch wet der nasser Bessolem vargiessen,
Wenn ihr wet da kein Mai zuruckkehren mehr?
M Wie ? Ha't ihr kein Vaterland gar, kein Medine,
Kein Heim, wu zu kummen, kein freundliche Stub',
Was ihr ha't behalten in sich asa Ssine
Zum Leben un' wart't auf der finsterer Grub' ?
" Ihr ha't gar nit Keinem in Himmel dort oben,
Zu wemen zu schreien, wenn ihr seid in Zar?
Ihr ha't gar kein Volk nit, ihr ha't gar kein Glauben ?
Varlorene, was is' mit euch far a Gsar ? "
Es ganezt der Abgrund, es brausen die Inden,
Es krachen die Leiters vun Schiff, un' es tragt,
Es hulet der Sturem, es pfeifen die Winden,
Un' Einer hat endlich mit Trahren gesagt :
" Der schwarzer Bess5lem is' nit unser Mutter,
Nit is' unser Wiegel der Keewer gewe'n ; —
Es hat uns geboren a Malach a guter,
A teuere Mutter, mit Liebe varsehn.
CHRESTOMATHY 329
" Who are you, wretched ones, tell me, that you can
suppress the most terrible sufferings, that you have no
sighs and no tears even at the awful gates of Death?
" Say, have, indeed, graves brought you forth ? Do
you leave behind you no parents, no wife, no child who
will lament you when you are lost here in the deep and
dreadful abyss ?
"How? Have you no one to be sorry for you, to
long for you, or shed a tear, when the wet cemetery will
cover you, when you will no more return to this earth ?
" How ? Have you no fatherland, no country, no
home where to go to, no friendly house, that you bear
such a contempt for life, and are waiting for the dark
grave ?
" Have you no one in heaven above to whom to cry
when you are in trouble ? Have you no nation, have
you no faith ? Miserable ones, what is your fate ? "
The abyss yawns, the waves bellow, the shipladders
crack, the storm rages madly, the winds whistle, — and
finally one says in tears :
"The black cemetery is not our mother, the grave
has not been our cradle ; a good angel has borne us, a
dear mother, endowed with love.
330 YIDDISH LITERATURE
" Es hat uns gepjestet a Mame, erzogen
A zartliche, wareme, freundliche Brust ;
Gekichelt un' standig gekuckt in die Augen
Hat uns auch a Vater, un' lieblich gekusst.
" Mir haben a Haus, nor man hat sie zubrochen,
Un' unsere heiligste Sachen varbrennt,
Die Liebste un' Beste varwandelt in Knochen,
Die Letzte varjagt mit gebundene Hand'.
" Man kenn' unser Land, o, sie lasst sich derkennen :
Durch Jagen, durch Schlagen nit werendig mud',
Durch wilde Pogromen, durch Brechen, durch Brennen,
Durch Suchen dem Todt far dem elenden Jiid.
" Un' mir seinen Jiiden, varwogelte Jiiden,
Ohn' Freund un' ohn' Freuden, ohn' Hoffnung auf
Gliick. —
Nit fragt mehr, o, fragt nit, o, seht, lasst zufrieden !
Amerika treibt uns nach Russland zuruck,
M Nach Russland, vun wannen mir seinen antloffen,
Nach Russland derfar, was mir haben kein Geld;
Auf was bleibt uns itzter zu warten, zu hoffen ?
Was taug' uns das Leben, die finstere Welt ?
" Ihr ha't was zu weinen, ihr ha't was zu brummen,
Ihr ha't was zu schrecken sich itzt far dem Todt,
Ihr ha't gewiss Alle a Heim, wu zu kummen,
Un' fahrt vun Amerika auch nit aus Not.
uDoch mir seinen Elende, gleich zu die Steiner:
Die Erd' is' zu schlecht, uns zu schenken an Ort —
Mir fahren, doch leider, es wart't auf uns Keiner,
Erklart mir, ich bet' euch, wu reisen mir fort !
CHRESTOMATHY 331
" A mother has fondled us, a tender, warm, friendly
breast has nurtured us ; a father, too, has stroked us
and looked into our eyes, and kissed us tenderly.
" We have a house, but it has been destroyed, and
our holy things have been burned ; our dearest and best
have been turned into bones, and those who survive
have been driven away with fettered hands.
" You know our country ; it is easily recognized by
its unceasing baiting and beating, by its cruel riots, its
ruthless destruction, and dealing death to the wretched
Jew.
" Yes, we are Jews, miserable Jews, without friends
or joys, without hopes or happiness. Oh, ask us no
more, ask no more, oh, leave us in peace ! America
drives us back to Russia,
"To Russia, whence we have run away, to Russia,
because we have no money. What is there left for us
to expect, to hope for ? Of what good is life, and the
gloomy world to us ?
"You have something to weep for; you have reason
to murmur and to be afraid of Death! You have, no
doubt, a home where to go to, and you have left America
not from necessity.
" But we are forlorn and alone like a rock. Earth is
too mean to give us a resting-place; we are voyaging,
but, unfortunately, no one waits for us. Explain to me,
pray, whither we are bound!
332 YIDDISH LITERATURE
" Soil sturmen der Wind, soil er brummen mit Zoren,
Soil sieden, soil kochen, soil rauschen der Grund !
Denn 's sei wie 's sei seinen mir Juden varloren,
Der Jam nor varloscht unser brennende Wund'. ..."
M. ROSEXFELD.
XVIII. BONZJE SCHWEIG'
(Literatur wn' Leben, pp. 11-22)
Da, auf der Welt, hat Bonzje Sehweig's Todt gar kein
Roschem nischt gemacht ! Fragt Emizen becheerem,
wer Bonzje is' gewesen, wie as5 er hat gelebt, auf was
er is' gestorben ! Zu hat in ihm das Harz geplatzt, zu
die Koches senen ihm ausgegangen, oder der March-
bein hat sich ubergebrochen unter a schwerer Last . . .
wer weisst ? Ef scher is' er gar var Hunger gestorben !
A Ferd in Tramwaj soil fallen, wollt' man sich mehr
interessirt, es wollten Zeitungen geschrieben, hunderter
Menschen wollten vun alle Gassen geloffen un' die
Neweele bekuckt, betracht't afile dem Ort, wu die
Mapole is' gewe'n. . . .
Nor das Ferd in Tramwaj wollt' auch die S-chie
nischt geha't, es soil sein tausend Milljon Ferd' wie
Menschen!
Bonzje hat still gelebt un' is' still gestorben; wie a
Schatten is' er durch durch unser Welt. .
Auf Bonzje's Bris hat man kein Wein nischt getrun-
ken, es haben kein Kosses geklungen. Zu Barmizwe
hat er kein klingendige Drosche nischt gesagt . . .
gelebt hat er wie a gro, klein Kerndel Samd beim Breg
vun'm Jam, zwischen Milljonen seins Gleichen; un' as
der Wind hat ihm aufgehoben un' auf der anderer Seit
Jam ariiber gejagt, hat es Keiner nischt bemerkt.
Beim Leben hat die nasse Blote kein Schlad vun sein
CHRESTOMATHY 333
" Let storm the wind, let it howl in anger : let the
deep seethe, and boil, and roar ! However it be, we
Jews are lost, the ocean alone can allay our burning
wound. ..."
XVni. BONTSIE SILENT
Here, in this world, the death of Bontsie Silent pro-
duced no impression. You will ask in vain who Bont-
sie was, how he lived, and what caused his death. Did
his heart burst, did his strength give out, or were his
bones crushed under a heavy load . . . who knows?
Maybe, after all, he died of starvation !
There would have been displayed more interest if it
had been a street-car horse that had fallen dead. News-
papers would have reported about it, hundreds of people
would have congregated from all the streets to look at
the carcass and even to survey the spot where the acci-
dent had occurred !
But even the street-car horse would not be honored
in such a distinguished way if there were as many
millions of them in existence as there are men.
Bontsie had lived quietly, and he died quietly. He
passed through the world like a shadow.
No wine was drunk on the day of Bontsie's circum-
cision ; no cups were clinked. At his confirmation he
made no flowery speech ... he lived like a small,
yellow grain of sand on the seashore, among millions
of its kind, and no one noticed how the wind lifted
it up and carried it on the other side of the Ocean.
In his lifetime the wet mud kept no impression of his
334 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Fuss nischt behalten ; nach'n Todt hat der Wind das
kleine Brettel vun sein Keewer umgeworfen, un' dem
Kabren's Weib hat es gefun'en weit vun Keewer un'
derbei a Toppel Kartoffles abgekocht. . . . Es is' drei
Tag' nach Bonzje's Todt, fragt dem Kabren becheerem,
wu er hat ihm gelegt !
* Wollt' Bonzje chotsch a Mazeewe geha't, wollt' efscher
titer' hundert Jahr sie an Alterthumsforscher gefun'en
un' Bonzje Schweig wollt' noch a Mai ubergeklungen in
unser Luft.
A Schatten, sein Photographje is' nischt geblieben
bei Keinem in Harz ; es is' vun ihm kein Seecher in
Keinem's Moach nischt geblieben !
^^Kein Kind, kein Rind," — elend gelebt, elend ge-
^torben !
Wenn nischt das menschliche Geruder, wollt' efscher
Emizer a Mai gehort, wie Bonzje's Marchbein hat unter
der Masse geknackt : wollt' die Welt mehr Zeit geha't,
wollt' Emizer efscher a Mai bemerkt, as Bonzje (auch
a Mensch) hat lebedigerheit zwei ausgeloschene Augen
un' schrecklich eingef allene Backen ; as afile wenn er
hat gar schon kein Masse nit auf die Pleezes, is' ihm
auch der Kopp zu der Erd' gebogen, gleich er wollt'
lebedigerheit sein Keewer gesucht ! Wollten aso wenig
Menschen wie Ferd in Tramwaj gewesen, wollt' efscher
a Mai Emizer gef ragt : Wu is' Bonzje ahin gekummen ?
Wenn man hat Bonzjen in Spital areingefuhrt, is'
sein Winkel in Suterine nischt ledig geblieben, — es
haben derauf zehn Seins-gleichen gewart't, un' zwischen
sich dem Winkel " In-pljum " lizitirt ; wenn man hat'n
vun Spitalbett in Totenstubel arein getragen, haben
auf'n Bett zwanzig areme Chaluim gewart't. . . .
Wenn er is' araus vun Totenstubel, hat man zwanzig
Harugim vun unter ein eingefallen Haus gebrengt, —
CHRESTOMATHY 335
footsteps ; after his death the wind threw down the
small board over his grave, and the grave-digger's wife
found it far away from the mound and made a fire with
it over which she boiled a pot of potatoes. ... It is
but three days since Bontsie's death, but you will ask in
vain of the grave-digger where he has laid him at rest !
If Bontsie had had a tombstone, an archaeologist
might have found it a hundred years later, and Bont-
sie's name would have resounded again in our atmos-
phere.
He was but a shadow : his picture does not live in
anybody's heart; his memory does not exist in any-
body's mind !
He left no child, no possessions ! He had lived in
misery, and he died in misery.
Had it not been for the noise of the crowd, some one
might have heard the snapping of Bontsie's bones under
a heavy burden ; if the world had had more time, some
one might have noticed that Bontsie's eyes were dim
and his eyes frightfully sunken for one alive ; that
even when he carried no load on his shoulders, his head
was bent to the ground as if he were looking for the
grave ! If there were as few people as there are horses
in the street cars, some one might, perhaps, have asked :
What has become of Bontsie ?
When Bontsie was taken to the hospital, his corner
in the basement was not left unoccupied; ten people
of his sort had been waiting for it, and it was auctioned
off to the highest bidder ; when they carried him from
the hospital bed to the morgue, twenty poor people
were waiting for his bed. When he left the morgue,
they brought in twenty people who had been killed by
a falling wall. . . . Who knows how long he will rest
(hi
336 YIDDISH LITERATURE
wer weisst, wie lang er wet ruhig wohnen in Keewer ?
Wer weisst, wieviel es warten schon auf dein Stiickel
Platz. . . .
Still geboren, still gelebt, still gestorben un' noch
stiller begraben.
Nor nischt aso is' gewesen auf jener Welt ! Dorten
hat Bonzje's Todt a grossen Roschem. gemacht !
Der grosser Schofer vun Moscliiach's Zeiten hat ge-
klungen in alle sieben Himmlen : Bonzje Schweig is'
nifter gewor'en ! Die grosste Malochim mit die breit'ste _
Fliigel senen geflogen un' Einer dem Anderen iiberge-
geben : Bonzje is? " nischbakesch " gewor'en M bischiwo
, schel niajlo " ! In Ganeeden is' a Rasch, a Ssiinehe, a Ge-
ruder : " Bonzje Schweig ! A Spass Bonzje Schweig ! ! ! "
Junge Malochimlech mit brilljantene Aeugelech,
goldene draht-arbeitene Fliigelech un' silberene Pan-
toffelech senen Bonzjen ankegen geloffen mit Ssimche !
Der Gerasch vun die Fliigel, das Klappen vun die
Pantoffelech un' das froehliche Lachen vun die junge,
frische, rosige Maulechlech hat verfiillt alle Himmlen
un' is' zugekummen bis zum Kisse-ha-kowed, un' Gott
allein hat auch schon gewusst, as Bonzje Schweig
kummt !
Awrohom Owinu hat sich in Thoer vun Himmel
gestellt, die rechte Hand ausgestellt zum breiten
" Scholem-aleechem ! " un' a susser Schmeichel scheint
aso hell auf sein alten Ponim !
"\ Was radelt aso in Himmel?
Das haben zwei Malochim in Ganeeden arein far
Bonzje's wegen a gingoldene Vaterstuhl auf Radlech
gefuhrt !
Was hat aso hell geblitzt?
Das hat man durchgefuhrt a goldene Kron', mit die
theuerste Steiner gesetzt ! All's far Bonzjen !
CHRESTOMATHY 337
quietly in his grave? Who knows how many are
already waiting for his place?
Born quietly, lived quietly, died quietly, and still
more quietly buried !
But matters went differently in the other world!
There Bontsie's death produced a sensation !
The sound of Moses' ram's horn was heard in all the
seven heavens : Bontsie Silent has died ! The greatest
angels, with the broadest wings, were flying about and
announcing the news to each other : Bontsie has been
summoned before the Judgment Seat ! There is a
noise, an excitement, a joy in Heaven : Bontsie Silent !
Just think of it, — Bontsie Silent ! ! !
Young little angels with sparkling eyes, gold-worked
wings, and silver slippers rushed out to receive Bontsie
with joy ! The buzzing of their wings, the clatter of
their slippers, and the merry laughter of the young,
fresh, and rosy little mouths filled the heavens and
reached the Seat of Honor, and God himself knew
that Bontsie Silent was coming !
Father Abraham placed himself at the gate of Heaven,
and he stretched out his right hand for a friendly
" Peace be with you ! " and a sweet smile lit up his
old face !
What are they rolling there in Heaven ?
Two angels are rolling into Paradise an armchair of
pure gold on wheels for Bontsie !
What caused that lightning?
They are carrying a golden crown, all set in the most
precious stones ! All for Bontsie !
838 YIDDISH LITERATURE
— Noch var'n Psak vun Bess-din-schel-majle ? fragen
die Zadikim verwundert un' nischt gar ohn' Kine.
— Oh ! entwern die Malochiin, das wet sein a proste,
puste Forme ! Gegen Bonzje Schweig wet afile der
Kategor kein Wort in Maul nischt gefin'en ! Die Djele
wet dauern funf Minut !
Ihr spielt sich mit Bonzje Schweig?
*****
As die Malochimlech haben Bonzjen gechappt in der
Luft un' abgespielt ihm a Semer ; as Awrohom Owinu
hat ihm wie an alten Kamrat die Hand geschockelt;
as er hat gehort, as sein Stuhl is' greit in Ganeeden ;
as auf sein Kopp wart't a Kron', as in Bess-din-schel-
majle wet man iiber ihm kein iibrig Wort nischt reden,
— hat Bonzje, gleich wie auf jener Welt, geschwiegen
var Schreck ! Es is' ihm das Harz entgangen. Er is'
sicher, as das mus sein a Cholem, oder a proster Toes !
Er is' Beide gewohnt ! Nischt ein Mai hat sich ihm
auf jener Welt gecholemt, as er klaubt Geld auf der
Podloge, ganze Ozres liegen . . . un' hat sich auf-
gechappt noch a grosserer Kabzen wie nachten. . . .
Nischt ein Mai hat man in'm a Toes gehat, es hat ihm
Emiz zugeschmeichelt, a gut Wort gesagt un' bald sich
ubergedreht un' ausgespiegen. . . .
— Mein Masel, tracht er, is' schon aso !
Un' er hat More, die Augen aufzuheben, der Cholem
soil nischt verschwunden wer'en; er soil sich nischt
aufchappen ergez in a Hoehl' zwischen Schlangen un'
Egdissen ! Er hat More vun Maul a Klang arauszu-
lasen, a Tnue mit an Eewer zu machen, — man soil
ihm nischt derkennen un' nischt awegschleudern auf
Kaf-hakal. . . .
Er zittert un' hort nit die Malochim's Komplimenten,
CHRESTOMATHY 339
" What ? Even before the sentence of the Supreme
Court has been passed?" the saints ask not without
envy.
" Oh ! " answer the angels, " that will be a mere for-
mality. The Prosecuting Attorney himself will find
no words against Bontsie ! The case will last but five
minutes ! "
Bontsie Silent — that's no trifling matter !
*****
As the angels carried Bontsie through the air and
played sweet tunes to him ; as Father Abraham shook
his hand like that of an old comrade ; as he heard that
his chair was ready for him in Paradise, that a crown
was waiting for his head, that no trifling words would
be spoken against him before the Supreme Court, —
Bontsie was frightened into silence just as in the other
world ! His heart failed him. He was sure that this
was but a dream, or a mere mistake !
He had been used to both. Many a time he had
dreamed in the other world of picking up money from
the floor where fortunes were lying. . . . More than
once they had mistaken him for some one else ; they
had smiled at him, had said a good word, and then
had turned aside, and spit out. . . .
" That's just my luck ! " thought he.
And he is afraid to raise his eyes for fear that the
dream would disappear, that he should not awaken
somewhere in a cave full of serpents and lizards.
He is afraid to utter a sound, to move a limb, lest he
be recognized and hurled to perdition.
He trembles and does not hear the compliments of
340 YIDDISH LITERATURE
seht nischt sejer Arumtanzen arum ihm, er entwert
nischt Awrohom Owinu auf'n herzlichen Scholem-
aleechem, un' — gefuhrt zum Bess-din-schel-majle, sagt
er ihm kein " Gut Morgen " nischt. . . .
Bonzje is' ausser sich var Schreck !
Un' sein schreckliche Schreck is' noch grosser ge-
wor'en as er hat, nischt willendig, unter seine Fuss'
dersehn die Podloge vun Bess-din-schel-majle. Ssame
Alabaster mit Brilljanten ! " Auf asa Podloge stehen
meine Fiiss' ! " Er wert in Ganzen verstarrt. " Wer
weisst, welchen Gwir, welchen Row, welchen Zadik
man meint . . . er wet kummen, wet sein mein finsterer
Ssof!"
Var Schreck hat er afile nit gehort, wie der Prases
hat befeeresch ausgerufen : " Die Djele vun Bonzje
Schweig ! " un', derlangendig dem Meeliz-joscher die
Akten, gesagt : " Les', nor bekizer ! "
Mit Bonzjen dreht sich der ganzer Salon, es rauscht
ihm in die Oheren, nor in'm Gerausch hort er alle Mai
scharfer un' scharfer dem Malech-meeliz's suss Kol wie
a Fiedel :
— Sein Namen, hort er, hat ihm gepasst, wie zum
schlank Leib a Kleid vun an Artist a Schneider's Hand."
— Was redt er? fragt sich Bonzje, un' er hort, wie
an umgeduldig Kol hackt ihm liber un' sagt :
— Nor ohn' Mescholim !
— Er hat kein Mai, hebt waiter an der Meeliz-joscher,
auf Keinem nischt geklagt, nischt auf Gott, nischt auf
Leut' ; in sein Aug' hat kein Mai nischt aufgeflammt
kein Funk' Ssine, er hat es kein Mai nischt aufgehoben
mit a Pretensje zum Himmel.
Bonzje versteht weiter nischt a Wort, un' das harte
Kol schlagt weiter iiber :
CHRESTOMATHY 341
the angels, does not see their dancing around him,
does not reply to Father Abraham's hearty "Peace
be with you ! " and being led before the Supreme
Court he does not say "Good morning" to them.
Bontsie is beside himself with terror.
And his terrible fear is still increased when by ac-
cident he notices the floor of the Court Hall under his
feet. Pure alabaster and brilliants ! M On such a floor
do my feet tread ! " He grows stiff with fright. " Who
knows what rich man, what Rabbi, what saint they
mean ! . . . I shall fare ill when he will come ! "
In his terror he did not even hear the Presiding
Officer's call : " The case of Bontsie Silent ! " and his
saying to the Advocate, as he handed him the docu-
ments : " Read, but be short ! "
The whole hall is turning around with Bontsie, there
is a din in his ears, and through it he can distinguish
more sharply and more sharply the voice of the Advo-
cate as sweet as a violin :
" His name," he hears him saying, " has fit him like
an artist-tailor's gown on a graceful body."
" What is he talking about?" Bontsie asks himself.
And he hears an impatient voice interrupting him, and
saying :
" Pray, without similes ! "
"He has never, proceeds the Advocate, complained
against any one, neither against God nor against man !
There has never flamed up a spark of hatred in his
eyes ; he has never uplifted them with any pretensions
to Heaven."
Bontsie again does not understand a word, and the
harsh voice interrupts him :
342 YIDDISH LITERATURE
— Ohn' Retorik !
— low hat nischt ausgehalten, er is' urngliicklicher
gewesen —
— Fakten, truckene Fakten ! ruft noch umgeduldiger
der Prases.
— Zu acht Tag' hat men ihm male gewesen —
— Nor ohn' Realism !
— A Mohel, a Fuscher hat das Blut nit verhalten —
— Weiter !
I — Er hat alls geschwiegen, f iihrt weiter der Meeliz-
| joscher, afile wenn die Mutter is' ihm gestorben un' er
I hat zu dreizehn Jahr a Stiefmame bekummen ... a
Stiefmame — a Schlang, a Marschaas. . . .
— Meint man doch efscher fort mich ? tracht Bonzje.
— Ohn' Insinuazjes auf dritte Personen, boesert sich
der Prases. ,o^0, _
/!— Sie flegt ihm zalewen dem Bissen . . . eher-nachtig
verschimmelt Brot ... Haar-flachs far Fleisch . . . un'
sie hat Kawe mit Schmetten getrunken —
— Zu der Sach' — schreit der Prases.
— Sie hat ihm far das kein Nagel nischt gekargt un'
sein blo-un'-blo Leib flegt arauskucken vun alle Locher
vun seine verschimmelt-zurissene Kleider. . . . Winter,
in die grosste Frost', hat er ihr barwess auf'n Hof
Holz gehackt, un' die Hand' senen zu jung un' schwach
gewesen, die Klotzlech zu dick, die Hack zu stumpig
. . . nischt ein Mai hat er sich die Hand' vun die
Stawes ausgelenkt, nischt ein Mai hat er sich die Fuss'
abgefroren, nor geschwiegen hat er afile sich var'n
Vater —
— Var'n Schiker ! lacht arein der Kategor, un'
Bonzje werd kalt in alle Eewrim —
CHRESTOMATHY 343
44 Please, without rhetoric ! "
" Job did not endure, but he has been more unfor-
tunate — "
44 Facts ! Dry facts ! " the President calls out more
impatiently.
44 On the eighth day he was circumcised — "
44 Pray, without realism ! "
" The surgeon was a quack, and he did not stanch
the blood."
" Go on ! "
"He was always silent," the Advocate proceeds,
"even when his mother died, and he got upon his
thirteenth year a stepmother ... a stepmother — a
snake, a witch."
44 Maybe he really means me ? " Bontsie thinks to him-
self.
44 Leave out insinuations against third persons ! " says
the President, angrily.
44 She begrudged him every morsel. . . . Musty bread,
three days old . . . tendons for meat . . . and she drank
coffee with cream. ..."
44 Let's come to business ! " cries the President.
44 And she did not spare him her finger nails, and his
blue-and-black body peeped through all the holes of
his musty clothes. ... In winter, in the severest
frosts, he chopped wood for her in his bare feet, and
his hands were too young and too weak, the blocks too
large, the axe too dull. . . . More than once he had
sprained his wrists, more than once he had frozen his
feet, but he was silent, and even to his father — "
44 The drunkard ! " the Prosecuting Attorney laughs
out loud, and a shiver passes over Bontsie's body.
(
(
844 YIDDISH LITERATURE
— Nischt geklagt, — endigt der Meeliz-joseher dem
Satz.
/^Un' standig elend, fiihrt er weiter, kein Chawer,
kein Talmud-tore, kein Cheeder, kein Schkole . . .
kein ganz Beged . . . kein f reie Minut —
— Fakten ! ruf t weiter der Prases.
— Er hat geschwiegen afile spater, wenn der Vater
hat'n schikerheit a Mai angechappt bei die Haar un'
in Mitten a schneewindiger Winternacht arausgeworf en
vun Stub' ! Er hat sich still aufgehoben vun Schnee un'
is' entloffen, wu die Augen haben ihm getragen. . . .
Auf n ganzen Weg hat er geschwiegen . . . beim
grossten Hunger hat er nor mit die Augen gebettelt.
Erscht in a schwindeldige, nasse Wjosne-nacht is'
er in a grosse Stadt areingekummen ; er is' arein wie
a Troppen in a Jam un' doch hat er die eigene Nacht
in Kose genachtigt. ... Er hat geschwiegen, nischt
gefragt far was, far wenn? Er is' araus un' die
schwerste Arbeit gesucht ! Nor er hat geschwiegen !
•**"Noch schwerer far der Arbeit is' gewesen sie zu
(^gefin'en, — er hat geschwiegen !
Badendig sich in kalten Schweiss, zusammengedruckt
unter der schwerster Last, beim grossten Krampf vun'm
ledigen Magen, hat er geschwiegen !
Bespritzt vun f remder Blote, bespiegen vun fremde
Mauler, gejagt vun Trotuaren mit der schwerster Last
arab in Gassen zwischen Droschkes, Kareten un' Tram-
wajs, kuckendig jede Minut dem Todt in die Augen
arein, — hat er geschwiegen !
Er hat kein Mai nischt iibergerechent, wieviel vun
Masse es kummt aus auf a Groschen, wieviel Mai er is'
gefallen bei jeden Gang far a Dreier, wieviel Mai er hat
schier nischt die Neschome ausgespiegen, mahnendig
sein Verdienst, er hat nischt gerechent, nischt sein,
nischt Jenem's Masel, nor geschwiegen !
CHRESTOMATHY 345
" He did not complain ! " the Advocate concludes
his sentence.
"And eternally alone, he proceeds, — no friend, no
religious instruction, no school . . . not a whole garb
. . . not a free minute ! "
" Stick to facts ! " calls out the President.
"He was silent even later, when his father, in a
drunken fit, once grabbed him by his hair and kicked
him out of the house into a stormy winter night. He
quietly picked himself up and ran whither his eyes
carried him.
"He was silent on his whole journey ... in the
greatest frost he begged only with his eyes.
" In a nasty, wet spring night he arrived in a large
city ; he fell in like a drop in the Ocean, and yet he
passed that very night in the police jail. . . . He was
silent, did not ask why. He came out of it, and looked
for the hardest work ! And he was all the time silent.
" Much harder than the work was the finding of the
same, — and he was silent.
"Bathing in cold sweat, bent under the heaviest
burdens, during the severest cramps of his empty
stomach, — he was silent !
" Besmutted by strangers' mud, bespit by strangers'
mouths, driven with his heavy load from the sidewalks
into the streets among buggies, coaches, and street cars,
looking every moment into the eyes of death, — he was
silent !
" He never calculated how many pounds of load came
to every penny, how many times he stumbled on every
three kopeks' errand, how many times he almost exhaled
his soul collecting his pay ; he did not beseech or curse,
— he only was silent !
346 YIDDISH LITERATURE
Sein eigen Verdienst hat er nischt hoch gemahnt.
Wie a Bettler hat er sich bei der Thiir gestellt, un' in
die Augen hat sich a hiintische Bakosche gemalt !
" Kumm' spater ! " un' er is' wie a Schatten still ver-
schwunden gewor'en, kedee spater noch stiller aus-
zubettlen sein Verdienst !
Er hat afile geschwiegen, wenn man flegt ihm abreissen
vun sein Verdienst, oder ihm areinzuwarfen a falsche
Matbeje . . . er hat alls geschwiegen. . . .
— Meint man doch take mich ! troest't sich Bonzje.
— Ein Mai, fiihrt weiter der Meeliz-joscher noch a
Trunk Wasser, is' in sein Leben a Schinui gewor'en
. . . es is' durchgeflogen a Kotsch mit gummene Rader
mit zuploschete Ferd' . . . der Schmeisser is' schon
lang vun weitens gelegen mit a zuspaltenem Kopp auf 'n
Bruk . . . vun die derschrockene Ferd's Mauler spritzt
der Schaum, vun unter die Podkowes jagen sich Funken,
wie vun Lokomotiw, die Augen blischtschen wie bren-
nendige Sturkatzen in a finsterer Nacht, — un' in Kotsch
sitzt nischt tot, nischt lebedig, a Mensch.
Bonzje hat die Ferd' verhalten !
Der Gerateweter is' gewesen a Jud, a Balzdoke, un'
hat Bonzjen die Towe nischt vergessen.
Er hat ihm dem Gehargenten's Kelnje ubergege-
ben ; Bonzje is' a Schmeisser gewor'en ! Noch mehr,
— er hat ihm Chassene gemacht, noch mehr, — er hat
ihm afile mit a Kind versorgt, — un' Bonzje hat alls
geschwiegen !
— Mich meint man, mich ! befestigt sich Bonzje in
deT Deje, un' hat sich die Hose nischt, an Aug' zu
warfen auf'n Bess-din-schel-majle. . . .
Er hort sich weiter ein zum Malech-meeliz :
CHRESTOMATHY 347
" He did not ask loud for his pay. Like a mendicant
he stood at the door with a doglike prayer in his eyes.
4 Come later ! ' and he disappeared quietly like a shadow,
in order to ask later still more quietly for his dues !
" He was silent even when they knocked off some-
thing from his pay, or paid him in a counterfeit coin
. . . he was silent. . . ."
" It seems they really mean me ! " Bontsie consoles
himself.
*****
" Once," proceeds the Advocate, after taking a drink
of water, " there came a change in his life ... a coach
with rubber wheels and frightened horses rushed by
. . . the driver lay way back on the pavement with
his head split open . . . foam spurted from the mouths
of the frightened horses, and sparks flew from under
their feet, as from a locomotive; their eyes sparkled
like glowing coals in a dark night, — and in the coach
there was sitting, more dead than alive, a man !
" Bontsie stopped the runaway.
" The person thus saved was a Jew, a charitable man,
and he did not forget Bontsie's kindness.
" He transferred to him the seat of the killed man ;
Bontsie became a driver! More than that, — he got
him married ; still more, he provided him with a child
. . . and Bontsie kept silent all the time ! "
" They mean me, they mean me ! " Bontsie strength-
ens himself in his belief, and he has no courage to raise
his eyes on the Supreme Judge.
He listens again to the Advocate.
348 YIDDISH LITEKATURE
— Er hat geschwiegen afile, wenn sein Baltowe hat
in Kurzen bankrottirt un' ihm sein S-chires auch. . . .
Er hat geschwiegen afile, wenn das Weib is' ihm entlof-
fen un' iibergelast ihm a Kind vun der Brust. . . .
Er hat geschwiegen afile mit fufzehn Jahr spater,
wenn das Kind is' aufgewachsen un' genug stark gewe-
sen, — Bonzjen arauszuwarfen vun Stub'. . . .
^ — Mich meint man, mich ! freut sich Bonzje.
*****
— Er hat afile geschwiegen, hebt an weicher un*
traueriger der Malech-meeliz, wenn der eigener Bal-
towe hat sich mit Alle ausgegleicht, nor ihm kein
Groschen S-chires nischt zuruckgegeben, — un' afile
demelt, wenn er is' Bonzjen (weiter fahrendig auf a
Kotsch mit gummene Rader un' Ferd' wie Loeben)
ubergefahren. . . .
— Er hat alls geschwiegen ! Er hat afile der Polizei
nischt gesagt, wer es hat ihm zurecht gemacht. . . .
*****
X^-Er hat geschwiegen afile in Spital, wu man mag
schon schreien !
Er hat geschwiegen afile, wenn der Doktor hat ohn'
fufzehn Kop. nischt gewollt zu'n ihm zugehn, un' der
Wachter ohn' fiinf Kop. — tauschen die Wasch' !
Er hat geschwiegen beim Gossen, er hat geschwiegen
in der letzter Rege, beim Starben. . . .
Kein Wort gegen Gott, kein Wort gegen Leut' !
Dixi!
Bonzje hebt an weiter zu zittern auf'n ganzen Leib.
Er weisst, as nach'n Meeliz-joscher geht der Kategor.
Wer weisst, was der wet sagen? Er allein hat sein
ganz Leben nischt gedenkt, noch auf jener Welt hat er
jede Minut die friiherdige vergessen . . . der Meeliz-
CHRESTOMATHY 349
"He was silent even when his benefactor became
bankrupt and did not pay him his wages. . . . He
was silent even when his wife ran away and left him
with a nursing babe. . . .
"He was silent even fifteen years later when the
child grew up, and was strong enough to throw Bontsie
out of doors. . . ."
" They mean me, they mean me ! " Bontsie says joy-
fully.
" He was silent," the Advocate begins again with a
softer and sadder voice, " when his benefactor resumed
business, but did not pay him a cent, and even then,
when he ran over him, again riding in a carriage with
rubber tires, and horses like lions.
" He was all that time silent ! He did not even tell
the police who had maimed him so.
" He was silent even in the hospital, where one may
cry!
" He was silent even when the doctor would not come
to him unless he was paid fifteen kopeks, and the janitor
would not change his shirt without five kopeks !
" He was silent during the last moments of his life,
he was silent in his death agony. . . .
" Not a word against God, not a word against man !
Dixi ! "
*****
Bontsie begins again to tremble in his whole body.
He knows that after the Advocate comes the Prosecut-
ing Attorney. Who knows what he will say? He
himself had never, during his whole life, preserved the
memory of anything ... in the other world, he forgot
350 YIDDISH LITERATURE
/ joscher hat ihm All's derniahnt . . . wer weisst, was
\ der Kategor wet ihm dermahnen !
/"* — Rabossai ! hebt an a scharf-stichedig, bruhendig
I Ko1— juam <i
Nor er haekt ab — w
— Rabossai ! hebt er noch a Mai an, nor weicher un'
hackt weiter ab.
Endlich hort sich, vnn dem eigenem Hals araus, a
weich Kol, wie a Putter :
— Rabossai ! Er hat geschwiegen ! Ich will auch
schweigen !
Es werd still, un' vun vorent hort sich a neue weiche,
zitterdige Stimme :
— Bonzje, mein Kind Bonzje ! raft es wie a Harfe. . . .
Mein harzig Kind Bonzje ! In Bonzjen zuweint sich
das Harz . . . er wollt' schon die Augen geoffent,
nor see senen verfinstert vun Trahren. ... Es is'
ihm aso siiss-weinendig kein Mai nischt gewesen. . . .
"Mein Kind," "Mein Bonzje," — seit die Mutter is'
gestorben, hat er asa Kol un' asone Worter nischt
gehort —
— Mein Kind ! fuhrt weiter der Ow-bess-din, — du
hast alls gelitten un' geschwiegen ! Es is' nischt da
kein ganz Eewer, kein ganz Beindel in dein Leib ohn'
a Rane, ohn' a blutig Ort, es is' nischt da kein ein be-
halten Ort in dein Neschome, wu es soil nischt bluten
. . . unJ du hast alls geschwiegen. . . .
Dort hat man sich nischt verstan'en derauf ! Du
allein hast gar efscher nischt gewusst, as du kannst
schreien un' vun dein Geschrei konnen Jereecho's
Mauern zittern un' einf alien ! Du allein hast vun
dein verschlafenem Koach nischt gewusst. . . .
Auf jener Welt hat man dein Schweigen nischt be-
CHRESTOMATHY 851
every moment the previous . . . the Advocate brought
back so many recollections . . . who knows what the
Prosecuting Attorney will remind him of?
" Judges ! " he begins with a sharp, stinging voice —
But he stops short.
" Judges ! " he begins once more, but more softly, and
he interrupts himself again.
At last there issues from the same throat a voice as
soft as butter :
" Judges ! He has been silent ! I shall be silent
too!"
All is still, and in front a new soft, trembling voice
is heard :
" Bontsie, my child Bontsie ! " Bontsie's heart is dis-
solved in tears ... he would have opened his eyes,
but they are covered with tears ... he has never
wept such sweet tears before. ... " My child," " My
Bontsie! " — ever since his mother had died, he had not
heard such a voice and such words.
" My child! " the Highest Judge proceeds, " you have
suffered all, and you were silent ! There is not a mem-
ber, not a bone in your body without wounds, without
a spot of blood. There is not a hidden place in your
soul where it does not bleed, and yet you were always
silent. . . .
" There they did not understand such things ! It
may be you yourself did not know that you can cry
and that from your cries the walls of Jericho could
tremble and fall ! You yourself did not know of your
hidden power. . . .
"They did not reward your silence in the other
352 YIDDISH LITERATURE
lohnt, nor dort is' der Olem-hascheker, da auf'n Olem-
emes west du dein Lob bekummen !
Dich wet das Bess-din-schel-majle nischt mischpe-
ten, dir wet es nischt paskenen, dir wet es kein Cheelek
nischt aus- un' nischt ab-theilen ! Nemm dir, was du
willst ! Alles is' dein !
Bonzje hebt das erste Mai die Augen auf ! Er werd
wie verblend't vun der Licht vun alle Seiten; Alles
blankt, Alles blischtschet, vun Alles jagen Strahlen:
vun die Wand', vun die Keelim, vun die Malochim, vun
die Dajonim ! Ssame Sunnen !
Er last die miide Augen arab.
— Take ? f ragt er messupek un' verschamt.
— Sicher ! entfert fest der Ow-bess-din ! Sicher, sag'
ich dir, as Alles is' dein, Alles in Himmel gehor' zu
dir ! Klaub' un' nemm, was du willst, du nemmst nor
bei dir allein !
— Take? fragt Bonzje noch a Mai, nor schon mit a
sicheren Kol.
— Take ! Take ! Take ! entfert man ihm auf sicher
vun alle Seiten.
— Nu, ob aso, schmeichelt Bonzje, will ich take alle
Tag' in der Fruh' a heisse Bulke mit frischer Putter !
Dajonim un' Malochim haben arabgelast die Kopp'
verschamt. Der Kategor hat sich zulacht.
<— "' J. L. Perez.
CHRESTOMATHY 353
world, but that was the World of Delusion ; here, in
the World of Truth, you will receive your reward !
" The Supreme Court shall not pass sentence against
you ! It will not weigh and dole out your part to you.
Take what you wish, — all is yours ! "
Bontsie lifts his eyes for the first time ! He is dazed
by the light on all sides: everything sparkles, every-
thing flashes, beams issue everywhere : from the walls,
from the vessels, from the angels, from the judges !
Nothing but suns around him !
He wearily droops his eyes.
" Really ? " he asks doubtfully and abashed.
" Indeed ! " answers the Highest Judge. " Indeed, I
tell you — all is yours ! All in Heaven belongs to you !
Choose and take what you wish ! You take your own."
"Really?" asks Bontsie once more, but in a firmer
voice.
" Really, really, really ! " they answer him on all
sides.
" Well, if so," Bontsie smiles, " I should like to have
every morning a hot roll with fresh butter ! "
Judges and angels drooped their heads abashed. The
Prosecuting Attorney laughed out loud.
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY
(This Bibliography is a partial list of the works consulted in the
preparation of the present book. Those marked with an asterisk are
not in the Harvard Library ; the others were formerly in my private
possession, together with a large number (1800 titles in all) not given
here. They now form in the Harvard Library the nucleus of a Judeo-
German collection, the largest in America. For an additional list of
newspapers, see Ch. D. Lippe, Bibliographisches Lexicon der ge-
sammten jildischen Literatur der Gegenwart, Vienna, 1881, pp. 666,
667.)
355
I. APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PERIODICALS AND ALMANACS
*Monatschrift, Jiidisch-deutsche. Prague and Briinn, 1802. 8vo.
* Beobachter, Der, an der Weichsel. Dostrzegacz nadwislanski.
Warsaw, 1824. 4to.
Zeitung. Redacteur : A. M. Mohr ; Verleger : A. I. Madfis. Lem-
berg. (First number appeared in April, 1848.) 4to.
Post, Die judische. Das is' a politische un' komerzische Zeitung.
Verantwortlicher Redakteur, A. N. Bliicher? Lemberg,
1849. (First number appeared Nov. 2, 1849.) 8vo.
* Kol-me wasser. In jiidisch-deutscher Sprache von A. Zederbaum
un' A. I. Goldenblum. Odessa, 1863-1871. Fol.
* Zeitung, Warschauer judische. Erscheint jeden Freitag.
Warsaw, 1867. Fol.
Jisrulik. Zeitungsblatt far kol Jisroel. Erscheint Freitag vun
die Herausgeber J. J. Linetzki and A. Goldfaden. Lemberg,
July 23, 1875-Feb. 2, 1876. Fol.
Kalender, Der niitzlicher. Far die russische Jiiden. Vun S.
Abramowitsch. Wilna, 1876-. 8vo.
Volkskalender, Fraktischer. Vun J. J. Linetzki. Lemberg,
1876- ; Warsaw, 1883-. 8vo. 64 pp.
Volksblatt, Judisches. A politisch-literarische Zeitung. Er-
scheint in St. Petersburg ein Mai in der Woch', Donnerstag.
St. Petersburg, Oct. 1/13, 1881-1889. Fol., except for 1888,
which consists of the newspaper in large fol., and the Beilage,
4to. Editors, A. Zederbaum, -1887, Dr. L. O. Cantor, 1888-1889.
*P61ischer Judel, Der. The Polish Yidel. Editor, M. Win-
chevsky. London, 1884. 4to. Weekly. Only sixteen numbers
appeared, after which it was named
* Zukunft, Die. The Future. First three numbers of 4 pp. each,
later of 8 pp. each. London, 1884- August, 1885. 4to.
357
358 APPENDIX
* Arbeiterfreund, Der. The Worker's Friend. Published by
the International Workingmen's Educational Club. London,
1886-1891. Folio, of 8 pp. each. Started as monthly, then
weekly of 4 pp., then 8, then again 4 pp.
Wecker, Der judischer. Redaktirt vun M. L. Lilienblum,
herausgegeben vun J. H. Rabnizki un' Z. S. Frankfeld.
Odessa, 1887. 8vo.
Familienfreund, Der. Herausgegeben vun M. Spektor. 2 vols.
Warsaw, 1887-1888. 8vo.
Hausfreund, Der. A historisch-literarisches Buch. Herausgegeben
vun M. Spektor. Warsaw, 1888-. 8vo. Vol. I. 1888, 2d ed.,
1894; Vol. II. 1889; Vol. III., 2 eds., 1894; Vol. IV. 1895;
Vol. V. 1896.
Kalender, Warschawer jiidischer, Eppelberg's. A historisch-
literarisch-wissenschaftliches Buch, mit Annoncen. Warsaw,
1888. 8vo.
Volksbibliothek, Die jiidische. A Buch fur Literatur, Kritik
un' Wissenschaft. Herausgegeben vun Scholem Aleechem
(S. Rabinowitsch). 2 vols. Kiev, 1888-1889. 8vo.
Bibliothek, Die kleine jiidische. A Sammlung vun Gedichte,
Feuilletons, Erzaehlungen un' Jedies vun die jiidische Kolonies
in Erzisroel. Herausgegeben vun der judischer Bibliothek in
Odessa, 1888. 4to.
Volksfreund. The Volksfreund. The only Jewish Weekly
Journal of America. Editor, J. S. Glick. New York, 1889.
8vo.
Menschenfreund. Der. Belletristische Wochenschrif t fur Neues,
Literatur, Kunst un' Unterhaltung, von N. M. Schaikewitsch.
New York, 1889-1891. 4to.
Wecker, Der kleiner. A Sammlung vun verschiedene Artikel
un' Gedichte. Herausgegeben vun Odessar gute Freund' vun'm
jiidischen Loschen. 1890. 4to.
Bibliothek, Die jiidische. A Zurnal fiir Literatur, Gesellschaft
un' Oekonomie. Erscheint zwei Mai jahrlich. Redaktirt un'
herausgegeben durch J. L. Perez. Warsaw, 1891- (Only three
numbers have so far been issued.) 8vo.
*Freie Welt, Die. The Free World. A monatlicher sozialisti-
scher Zurnal, arausgegeben vun der Gruppe 'Freie Welt.'
London, 1891-1892. 4to. Only ten numbers of 24 pp. each
have appeared.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 359
Handelskalender, Der jiidischer. Auf fiinf Jahr, 1891-1896. A
historisch-literarisch wissenschaftliches Buch mit Annoncen.
Redaktor un' Flerausgeber J. Bernas. Warsaw, 1891. 8vo.
Heilige Land, Das. Verschiedene Artiklen, Lieder un' Erzaeh-
lungen wegen Jischuw Erez Jisroel. Herausgegeben vun
Berthe Flekser un' Jisroel Narodizki. Zhitomir, 1891. 8vo.
Zukunft, Die. The Future. A wissenschaftlich-sozialistische
Monatschrift. Arausgegeben vun die jiidisch-sprechende Sek-
zionen, S. A. P. vun Nord-Amerika. New York, 1892-1897. 4to.
Pamilienkalender, Warschawer jiidischer. A Buch vun Li-
teratur un' Gesellschaft. Herausgegeben vun M. Spektor.
Warsaw, 1893-. 8vo.
Stadtanzeiger, Der. Wissenschaftlicher Zurnal fiir Literatur,
Kunst, Wissenschaf t un' Kommerz. Arausgegeben vun Philip
Krantz un' A. M. Sharkansky. New York, 1893. 8vo.
Volksfreund, Der. A literarisch-wissenschaftliche Sammlung
herausgegeben vun N. Rosenblum. Odessa, 1894. (One num-
ber only.) 8vo.
Literatur un' Leben. A Sammelbuch fiir Literatur un' Gesell-
schaft. Herausgegeben durch J. L. Perez. Warsaw, 1894. 8vo.
Jontew-blattlech. J. L. Perez's Ausgaben. Warsaw, 1894-1896.
8vo. Vun Peessach bis Peessach. Erste Serie. 10 Jontew-
blattlech (1894-1895). 32 columns each. 1) Lekowed Pees-
sach. 2) Feilenbogen. 3) Griines. 4) Tones. 5) Trost.
6) Schofer. 7) Hoschane. 8) Lichtel. 9) Schabes-obs. 10)
Hamen-tasch'.
Zweite Serie, 1895-1896. 1) Kol Chamiro. 2) Der Omer. 3)
Bikurim. 4) Tamus. 5) Le-Schono-t5wo. 6) Chamischo
Osser. 7) Oneg Schabes. The first five of 64 columns each,
the last two of 32 columns.
Widerkol, Das. Spektor's Verlag. A Blattel auf wochendige
Tag'. Warsaw, 1894. 8vo, 32 col.
Lamteren, Der. Spektor's Verlag. A Blattel auf wochendige
Tag'. Warsaw, 1894. 8vo, 32 col.
Volkskalender, Der amerikanischer. The American People's
Calendar. A Yearly Literary Review. By Alexander Hark-
avy. New York, 1894-. 8vo.
Neue "Welt, Die. The New "World. Ein wochentlicher Zurnal
vun S. J. Silberstein. Published weekly in Jewish-German
language. New York, 1894. (Only two numbers were issued.)
8vo.
360 APPENDIX
Puck, Der judischer. The Hebrew 'Puck.' Weekly, editor
M. R. Schaikewitsch. New York, 1894-1896. Fol.
Freie Gesellschaft, Die. A monatlicher Zurnal fiir die fortge-
schrittene Ideen, arausgegeben vun die 'Freie Gesellschaft
Publ. Association.' Editors, M. Leontiev and M. Katz. New
York, Vol. I. No. 1, October, 1895. 4to, 32 pp.
Ernes, Der. The Emeth (Truth). A wochentliches Familien-
blatt fiir Literatur un' Aufklarung. Editor, M. Winchevsky.
Boston, 1895. Fol.
Volkskalender, Judischer. Redigirt vun Gerschom Bader.
Lemberg, 1895. 8vo.
Wahrheit, Die. Monatschrift zur Unterhaltung und Belehrung,
von Hirsch Loeb Gottlieb. M.-Sziget. 1896 (2 numbers only).
8vo.
Hatikwoh, Die Hoffnung. Journal Hebdomadaire pour les
Israelites. Erscheint jeden Freitag. Organ fiir Politik, Lite-
ratur, Wissenschaft und hauptsachlich jiidisch-nationale Inter-
essen. Redaktor un' Herausgeber J. Bernas. Paris, 1897-. Fol.
Neuer Geist, Der. The New Spirit. Monatschrift fiir Wissen-
schaft, Literatur un' Kunst. Erscheint jeden Monat. Pub-
lisher, Sigmund Kantrowitz. New York, 1897-1898. 4to.
Neue Welt, Die. The New World. Erscheint monatlich.
Arausgegeben vun A. M. Sharkansky. New York, 1897. 8vo.
Arbeiter, Der judischer. Organ fiir die Interessen der jiidischen
Arbeiter in Russland, herausgegeben vun der " Gruppe ju-
discher Sozial-demokraten in Russland," 1897. 4to.
Zeit, Die. The Time. Monatlicher Zurnal far Literatur, Unter-
haltung un' jiidische Interessen. Redaktirt un' arausgegeben
vun M. M. Dolitzky. New York, 1898. 4to.
Neue Zeit, Die. The New Time. Wissenschaftliche Monat-
schrift. Arausgegeben vun die jiidisch-sprechende Sekzion
vun der sozialist. Arbeiterpartei vun Nord-Amerika. New
York, 1898-. 4to.
SONG-BOOKS
Lieder-magasin. Magazine of Songs. Published by J. Katzen-
ellenbogen. New York, 1898. Folio. Pt. I. 10 pp.; Pt. II.
10 pp. ; Pt. III. 10 pp. ; Pt. IV. 11 pp.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 361
Neuer Singer, Der. In 3 Theilen. 1. Theil. Die neueste
Theaterlieder vun die beste Verfasser. II. Theil. Sehr
schoene Witzen mit Pictures zum Lachen. III. Theil. Der
Album. Verschiedene Bilder vun judische Verfasser. New
York, s. a. 16mo, 29 and (30) pp. and adv.
Liederalbum, Der. A Sammlung vun alle jadische Theater-
lieder, Konzertlieder, Kupleten un' Volkslieder. Erster
Buch. Alle Theaterlieder, mehr wie 200 Lieder vun alle
judische Theaterstucke, gesammelt un' zusammengestellt in
Ordnung vun Rosenbaum un' Werbelowski. The Song-
Album. New York, s. a. 16mo, 240 pp.
Kupleten un' judische Theaterlieder, Alle Kupleten, komische
un' humoristische, fur der jiidischer Biihne verfasst vun Sig-
mund Mogulesco, un' alle Theaterlieder vun Kaprisne Tochter
vun A. Goldfaden, Katorznik, un' Der Jiidischer Prinz vun
Schomer. New York, 1888. lOmo, 36 pp.
Judische Theaterlieder. 25. Auflage. In 4 Theilen, etc. Die
alle Lieder vun dem Buch seinen verfasst vun die beste Ver-
fassers un' Dichters so wie A. Goldfaden, A. Zunser, Ben Nez,
A. Harkavy, Professor Selikowitsch, Edelstadt, D. Apotheker,
M. Rosenfeld, u. s. w. New York, 1894. 16mo, 74 pp. and
adv.
Judische Theater un' Volkslieder. Ausgewahlte Lieder vun
die beste judische Dichter. Erster Theil. Das Fiedele.
New York, s. a. 16mo, 56 and (5) pp. and adv.
AUTHORS
A. R. S. Reb Tanchum der Mekabel. Einige neue judische
Volkslieder aus dem Panorama des russisch-polnischen jii-
dischen Lebens. Jassy, 1883. 16mo, 16 pp.
Abasch. Jekele Kundas. Sehr a schoene Maisse, was hat sich
nit lang verloffen in a klein Stadtel in Polen. Geschrieben
vun dem Korewer Bocher. Warsaw, 1879. 8vo, 95 pp.
Abramowitsch, Ch. E. Die Jiiden. Ein Lustspiel in drei un'
zwanzig Vorstellungen von dem weltberiihmten Verfasser in
der deutschescher Sprache, A. W. Lessing. Wilna, 1879. 16mo,
68 pp.
362 APPENDIX
Abramowitsch, S. J. *Das kleine Menschele, oder A Lebensbe-
schreibung vim Jizchok Awrohom Takif. Gedruckt be-Hisch-
tadlus Mendele Mocher Sforim. . . . Begun in Kol-mewasser,
Vol. II. No. 45. (Odessa, 1864.)
The same. (Gar in ganzen auf das Neu iibergemacht.) Wilna,
1879. 8vo, 132 pp.
* Das Wiinschfingerl, was mit dem k'ann itlicher Mensch dergrei-
chen allsding, was sein Harz wiinscht un' begehrt, un' durch-
dem niitzlich sein sich un' der Welt. Warsaw, 1865. (?)
The same, greatly increased, but unfinished, in Die judische
Volksbibliothek, Vols. I. and II.
* Die Takse, oder Die Bande Stadt-bal-towes. Zhitomir, 1869.
8vo.
The same. Wilna, 1872. 8vo, 88 pp.
*Fischke der Krummer, a Maisse vun judische areme Leut'.
Zhitomir, 1869.
The same. (In Alle Ksowim vun Mendele Mocher Sforim, Vol.
I.) Odessa, 1888. (Second edition, written entirely anew.)
8vo, 158 pp.
* Der Luf tballon. (Written in conjunction with L. Bienstock.)
Zhitomir, 1869.
Der Fisch, was hat eingeschlungen Jone Hanowi. Vun die
Mechabrim vun'm Luf tballon A. B. (Herausgegeben vun
der Redakzje vun'm Kol-mewasser.) (In conjunction with
L. Bienstock.) Odessa, 1870. 16mo, 21 pp.
Die Klatsche, oder Zar-bale-chaim. A Maisse, was hat sich
varwalgert zwischen die Ksowim vun Jisrolik dem Meschu-
genem. Wilna, 1873. 8vo, 119 pp.
The same. (In Alle Ksowim vun M. M. S., Vol. II.) Odessa,
1889. 8vo, 128 pp.
The same. (In Jewish Classics Issued Quarterly, Vol. I. No. I.)
New York, 1898. 8vo, 121 pp.
The same. Polish translation : Szkapa (" Die Klatsche ") Z ory-
ginafu napisanego w zargonie zydowskim przez S. Abramo-
wicza, przeJozyf i objasnieniami opatrzyf Klemens Junosza.
Warszawa. NakJadem ksie,garni A. Gruszeckiego, 1886.
16mo, 197 pp.
Der Ustaw iiber woinski Powinnost, wissotschaische utwerdet
dem ersten Januar in Jahr 1874. ttbersetzt vun S. Abramo-
witsch un' L. Bienstock. Zhitomir, 1874. 8vo, 135 pp.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 363
Jiidel. A Ssipur-ha-Maisse in Schirim. In two parts. Warsaw,
1875. 16mo, 105 + 117 pp.
The same. (In Jewish Classics Issued Quarterly, Vol. I. No. 2.)
New York, 1898. 8vo, 123 pp.
Smires Jisroel. Schabesdige Smires, vardeutscht in Schirim un'
gut derklart, Bichdej itlicher Jiid' besunder Soil varstehn
sejer teuern Wert, Wie schoen see senen a Gott's Wunder.
Zhitomir, 187.5. 16mo, 82 pp.
Perek Schiro. Zhitomir, 1875. 8vo, 124 pp.
Kizur Maisses Binjamin ha-Schlischi, das heisst Die Nessie, oder
a Reisebeschreibung vun Binjamin dem Dritten, was er is auf
seine Nessies vergangen het weit az unter die Horee Choschech
un' hat sich genug angesehn un' angehort Chiduschim schoene
Sachen, was see senen arausgegeben gewor'en in alle schiwim
Leschones un' heunt auch in unser Loschen. Sseefer rischon.
Wilna, 1878. 8vo, 96 pp.
*The same. Polish translation: Donkiszot zydowski, szkic z
literatury zargonowej zydowskiej. Przez K. Junoszy. War-
szawa. 8vo, 156 pp.
Der Prizyw. A Drame in fiinf Akten. St. Petersburg, 1884.
8vo, 87 pp.
Abramsky, G. Bomas Jischok, etc. s. 1. e. a. 8vo, 30 pp.
Aksenfeld, I. Der erste jiidische Rekrut in Russland im Jahre
5587 (1827) am Tage der Publicirung des betreffenden Ukases.
Ein komisch-tragischer Roman in j iidisch-deutschem Jargon.
(Leipsic, 1862.) 8vo, 58 pp.
Das Stemtiichel, oder Schabes Chanuke in Mesibis. (Leipsic,
K. W. Vollrath, 1862?.) 8vo, 140 pp.
Mann un' Weib. Schwester un' Bruder. Ein emesse Maisse,
bearbet in a Theaterstiick, in zwei Akten. Odessa, M. Bei-
linsohn, 1867. 8vo, 68 pp.
Sammtliche Werke. *Das vierte Biichel. Die genarrte Welt.
Odessa, 1870. 16mo.
The same. Das fiinf te Biichel. Kabzen-Oscher-Spiel. A Drama
in zwei Akten. Odessa, 1870. 16mo, 72 pp.
Apotheker, D. Hanewel. Die Leier. Czernowitz, 1881. 8vo,
79 pp.
Beilinsohn, M. A. Gwures Jehudo Michabi oder Nes-Chanuko
(Chanuke-spiel). A Drama in fiinf Akten. Verfasst in
Englisch vun dem beriihmten amerikanischen Dichter (Poet)
364 APPENDIX
Longfellow unter'n Namen "Judas Maccabaeus"; iibergesetzt
kimat in alle europ'aische Sprachen, un' auf Russisch in Evrej-
skaja Biblioteka (Vol. 5, 1875); jetzt in Judisch-deutsch .
Odessa, 1$82. 4to, 20 pp.
Golus Schpania. A historischer Roman aus der judischen Ge-
schichte, etc. Ubersetzt (from the German of Philippsohn)
im Judischen. Odessa, 1894. 8vo, 158 and (2) pp.
Berenstein, S. Magasin vun jiidische Lieder far dem judischen
Volk. Zhitomir, 1869. 16mo, 84 pp.
The same. Warsaw, 1880. 8vo, 73 pp.
Bernstein, S. Reb Jochze Dalgeje. A Komodie mit a Roman
in 5 Akten. Erster Theil. Kishinev, 1884. 8vo, 32 pp.
Blaustein, E. Die finstere Welt. Ein Bild der vergangenen Zei-
ten. Ein Roman in vier Theilen. Wilna, 1881. 8vo, 269 pp.
Die Weisse mit die Schwarze, oder Die Liebe vun a Wilden.
Frei ubersetzt aus dem Franzoesischen, verbreitet un' bearbei-
tet. (2 parts.) Wilna, 1894. 8vo, 80 and 78 pp.
Wichne Dwosche fahrt zunick vun Amerika. Ein humoristische
Erzaehlung. (2 parts.) Wilna, 1894. 8vo, 40 and 50 pp.
Wichne Dwosche fahrt nach Amerika. Eine humoristische Er-
zaehlung. Wilna, 1895. 16mo, 32 pp.
Brettmann, M. Der chsidischer Unterhalt. Ein emesse Maisse.
Odessa, 1868. 8vo, 42 pp.
Brjanski, I. Die erste Aweere. Erinnerungen vun die kin-
dersche Jahren. St. Petersburg, 1887. 16mo, 23 pp.
Brodawski, Ch. Die Assife in der Stadt Ezjon Gower. Berdi-
chev, 1889. 16mo, 100 pp.
Broder, Berel. Schiree Simro. Zhitomir, 1876. 16mo, 95 pp.
The same. Warsaw, 1882. 16mo, 96 pp.
Buchbinder, A. I. Der Blumengarten. Satirische scharf kritische
erenste Maimorim ; Anekdoten, Schailes u-Tschuwes, Mischlee
Mussor, Schirim, kurze interessante Erzaehlungen un' wissen-
schaftliche Artiklen. Wilna, 1885. 8vo, 76 pp.
Der judischer Minister. A historischer Roman vun der letzter
Zeit, ehder man hat die Jiiden arausge trie ben vun Spanien.
Frei ubersetzt. Odessa, 1890. 8vo, 48 pp.
Das jiidische Aschires in Palestina. Material zu der Historie
vun Jischuw Erez Isroel. Wilna, 1891. 8vo, 40 pp.
Die blutige Inquisizie. A historischer Roman, ubersetzt. Wilna,
1895. 8vo, 104 pp.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 365
Cahan, Ab. Wie as5 Refoeel Naarizoch is' gewor'en a Sozialist.
New York, 1896. 8vo, 80 pp.
Chaschkes, M. Lieder vom Herzen. Cracow, 1888. 16mo, 48 pp.
Dick, A. M. (Anonymous.) Der Goel. Wilna, 1866. 16mo,
88 pp.
(Anonymous.) Der Miljonar. Wilna, 1868. 16mo, 48 pp.
(Anonymous.) Die freundliche Briider Elieser un' Naftali.
Wilna, 1868. 16mo, 56 pp.
(Anonymous.) Der todte Gast. Wilna, 1869. 16mo, 64 pp.
(Anonymous.) Der Litwak in Wolinien. Wilna, 1870. 16mo,
40 pp.
(Anonymous.) Die Bluthochzeit in Paris und ein Etwas vun
der Reformazion in Teutschland. Wilna, 1870. 16mo, 48 pp.
(A. M. D.) Feigele der Magid. (Translation from A. Bern-
stein.) Wilna, 1868. 16mo, 44 pp.
(A. M. D.) Reb Schlomele der Pair vun der Khile N., oder der
Depo (Magasin) vun Bakalejen (Bsomim). (Translation from
the Russian of Lewanda.) Wilna, 1870. 16mo, 144 pp.
(A. M. D.) Der erster Nabor, was war in dem Jahr ThKPCh
(1828). Wilna, 1871. 16mo, 36 pp.
(A. M. D.) Der ungebetene Gast. Wilna, 1871. 16mo, 47 pp.
(A. M. D.) Der Hauslehrer. Wilna, 1872. 16mo, 48 pp.
(A. M. D.) Der jiidischer Student Josef Kamenicki. (From
the Polish.) Wilna, 1872. 16mo, 46 pp.
(A. M. D.) Witzen un' Spitzen, oder Anekdoten. Wilna, 1873.
16mo, 44 pp.
(A. M. D.) Eine Reise in Afrika. (Translation.) Wilna, 1873.
16mo, 48 pp.
(A. M. D.) Die edele Rache, oder Die Nekome. Wilna, 1875.
16mo, 44 pp.
(A. M. D.) Ssipuree Mussor, oder Moralische Erzaehlungen.
Wilna, 1875. 16mo, 42 pp.
(A. M. D.) Alte jiidische Sagen oder Ssipurim. Wilna, 1876.
16mo, 43 pp.
(A. M. D.) Die alte Liebe rostet nicht. Wilna, 1876. 16mo,
79 pp.
(A. M. D.) Der Schiwim-mahlzeit. WTilna, 1877. 16mo, 90 pp.
(A. M. D.) Die Grisetke, oder Die Naehterke un' Putzmacherin.
Wilna, 1877. 16mo, 50 pp.
(A. M. D.) Der Fortepianist. Wilna, 1878. 18mo, 88 pp.
366 APPENDIX
(A. M. D.) Der jiidische Poslanik un' Die Nacht var der
Chupe. Wilna, 1880. 8vo, 64 and 36 pp.
(A. M. D.) Die Lebensgeschichte vun Note Ganew. Wilna,
1887. 8vo, 76 pp.
(A. M. D.) Das grosse Geheimniss. Eine sehr interessante
Erzaehlung. Wilna, 1887. 8vo, 63 pp.
(A. M. D.) Ewgenie oder die Geheimnisse vun dem franzoe-
sischen Hof. (From the French of F. Born.) Wilna, 1889.
8vo, 102 and 122 and 112 and 96 pp.
(A. M. D.) Der Sultan oder Die Geheimnisse vun dem tiir-
kischen Hof. (From the French of F. Born.) Wilna, 1895.
8vo, Vol. I. 80 and 80 pp. ; Vol. II. 80 and 84 pp. ; Vol. III. 76
and 88 pp. ; Vol. IV. 80 and 74 pp.
Dienesohn. J. * Himmel un' Erd', Dunner un' Blitz. Wilna.
Ha-Neehowim weha-Nimim, oder Der schwarzer junger Manzik.
Roman. Wilna, 1875. 8vo, in four parts; 64 and 102, and?
The same. Vierte Auflage. Wilna, 1889. 8vo, 53 and 72 and
57 and 76 pp.
Zwei Brief zu a Mechaber. (Reprint from the Volksblatt.) St.
Petersburg, 1885. 8vo, 42 pp.
Ewen Negef, oder A Stein in Weg. Roman. (Two parts.) War-
saw, 1890. 8vo, 358 pp.
Herschele. A Roman vun kleinst'adteldigen Leben. (Reprint
from Jiidische Bibliothek.) Warsaw, 1895. 4to, 179 pp.
Dlugatsch, M. Der Schlimmasel. A verschleppte, kritische,
humoristische Kr'ank. Pankiwet nit Keinem un' sagt Jeden
aus dem Emes. Lemberg, 1883. 8vo, 30 pp.
Die Welt-messore. Zusammengeklieben, zunaufgezebert, zu-
naufgeklapotschet vun alte, verschimmelte, verzwjetete Jii-
den. . . . Warsaw, 1895. 8vo, 68 pp.
Edelatadt, D. Volksgedichte. Popular poems. New York,
1895. 16mo, 124 pp.
Ehrenkranz-Zbarzer. B. W. Makel Noam. Volkslieder in pol-
nisch jiidischer Mundart mit hebraischer Uebersetzung. Lem-
berg, Erstes Heft (second edition), 1969 (sic ! ), 8vo, 164 pp ;
(second part), 1868. 8vo, 200 pp. ; Drittes Heft, 1873. 8vo,
125 + (3) pp. ; Viertes Heft, 1878. 8vo, 127 pp.
Makal Chowlim. Przemysl, 1869. 8vo, 39 pp.
Eiserkes, M. M. Der Privatlehrer. Bilder aus dem galizischen
Leben. Drohobycz, 1897-1898. 8vo, 4 vols. 124 and 153
and 131 and 138 pp.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 367
Eppelberg, H. Esterke. Drama in 5 Akten, nach verschiedene
Quellen bearbeitet. Warsaw, 1890. 8vo, 76 pp.
Epstein, M. Der geschmissener Apikores, oder A Cholere in
Duranowke. A Theater-spiel. Warsaw, 1879. 16mo, 37 pp.
Lemech der Balschem, oder Zwei Chassanim unter ein Chupe.
A Maisse in Schirim geschrieben. Odessa, 1880. 16mo,
64 pp.
Ettinger, S. Serkele, oder Die falsche Jahrzeit. Komodie in
fiinf Akten, geschehn in Lemberg. (New edition from the
Johannisburg edition of 1861.) Warsaw, 1875. 8vo, 80 pp.
Mescholim, Liedelech, kleine Maisselech un' Katoweslech, eigene
un' nachgemachte, vun Dr. Schlome Ettinger. Herausgegeben
durch W. Ettinger. St. Petersburg, 1889. 8vo, 254 pp.
The same. Zweite Ausgabe. St. Petersburg, 1890.
P., A. Der Varblondziter, oder Das Lebensbeschreibung vun
Wigderil ben Wigderil. Warsaw, 1870. 8vo, 64 pp.
Falkowitsch, J. B. Reb Chaimel der Kozen. Ein Theater in 4
Akten. Bearbeitet nach K. Geschrieben in St. Petersburg in
1864. Odessa, 1866. 8vo, 166 pp.
Rochele die Singerin. Ein Theater in 4 Akten, bearbeitet nach
S. und R. K. Zhitomir, 1868. 8vo, 125 pp.
Feder, S. S. Schiro Chadoscho. Ganz neue unterhaltliche Er-
zaehlungen. Vorstellungen mit grossartige Volkslieder. Lem-
berg, 1891. 16mo, 78 and 78 pp.
Fischsohn, A. Der neuer Singer. Kiev, 1890. 16mo, 24 pp.
Frischmann, D. Jiidische Volksbibliothek. I. Kleinigkeiten.
(Tarnow, 1894.) 16mo, 32 pp.
Lokschen, a Bl'attel zur Unterhaltung. Verfasst durch A. Gold-
berg. Warsaw, 1894. 8vo, 26 col.
A Floh vun Tische-bow, verfasst vun Awrohom Goldberg. A
schwarz, springendig, lebedig, beissendig Blattel. Warsaw,
1894. 8vo, 30 col.
Frug, S. Lieder un' Gedanken. Odessa, 1896. 8vo, 160 pp.
Frumkis, S. Die treue Liebe. Ein Roman der neuer Zeit als
Lustspiel (Komodie) in 4 Akten. Wilna, 1891. 8vo, 103 pp.
Gildenblatt, Ch. D. Bei'n Saten in Hand, oder Der verk'aufter
Chossen. A Roman in zwei Theil. Wilna, 1895. 8vo,
112 pp.
Awremele Bal-agole. Ein kleine Erzaehlung. Wilna, 1895.
16mo, 32 pp.
368 APPENDIX
Aisikel Lez, oder Zuriick auf'n gleichen Weg. Ein emesse
Maisse, was hat sich getroffen in zwei Stadtlach "Naiwke"
un' « Duniowiz." Wilna, 1895. 16mo, 32 pp.
Ein lebedige Mazeewe. A Bild vun a jiidische Tochter. Wilna,
1895. 16mo, 32 pp.
Goido, J. Der neuer Prozentnik. A Maisse. Wilna, 1893. 16mo,
62 pp. (Two parts.)
Vun Sawod in Bad. A Bild. (Vun A. Lebensohn.) Wilna,
1893. 16mo, 32 pp.
Der Ssowest is' verf alien. Nach Schtschedrin. Wilna, 1894.
16mo, 32 pp.
Dawid ben Dawid (Copperfield). A Roman. Frei ubersetzt
vun Englisch. (4 parts, only half of the novel published.)
Wilna, 1894. 8vo, 104 and 116 and 127 and 83 pp.
Die judisch-amerikanische Volksbibliothek. Erscheint perio-
disch, ein Mai in zwei Wochen. Brooklyn, N.Y., 1897. 8vo,
16 pp. each.
No. 1. Die Geschmissene. A Bild vun A. Lebensohn.
Erster Theil.
No. 2. The same. Zweiter Theil.
No. 3. Die Agune. Vun B. Gorin. Erster Theil.
No. 4. Schalach Mones. Vun B. Gorin.
No. 5. Die Agune. Zweiter Theil.
No. 6. Lekowed Peessach.
No. 7. WemesKorben? Erster Theil.
Goldf aden, A. Das Jiidele. Jiidische Lieder auf prost jiidischer
Sprach'. Herausgegeben vun J. Bernas un' N. A. Jakobi.
Warsaw, 1892. 16mo, 108 pp.
Die Jiidene. Verscheidene Gedichte un' Theater in Prost-
judischen. Odessa, 1872. 8vo, 92 pp.
Schabssiel. Poema in zehn Kapitel. (Gedanken nach dem
Pogrom in Russland.) Cracow, 1896. 8vo, 44 pp.
Hozmach's Kr'amel vun verschiedene Antiken, 25 jiidische Volks-
lieder, was senen gesungen gewor'en in Goldfaden's judischen
Theater, zusammengeklieben vun Awrohom Jizchok Tanz-
mann. Warsaw, 1891. 16mo, 88 pp.
Schmendrig, oder Die komische Chassene. A Komodie in drei
Akten. Warsaw, 1890. 8vo, 40 pp.
Die Kischefmacherin (Zauberin). Operette in 5 Akten un' in
8 Bilder. New York, 1893. 8vo, 66 pp.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 369
Die kaprisne Kale-maid, oder Kabzensohn et Hungermann.
Melodrama in 4 Akten un' in 5 Bilder. Warsaw, 1887. 8vo,
46 pp.
Der Fanatik, oder Die beide Knni-Lemel. Operette in 4 Akten
un' in 8 Bilder. Warsaw, 1887. Svo, 62 pp.
Die Bobe mit dem Enikel, oder Bonzje die Knotlechlegerin.
Melodrama in 3 Akten mit Gesang. Warsaw, 1891. 8vo,
40 pp.
Doktor Almosado, oder Die Jiiden in Palermo. Historische
Operette in 5 Akten un' in 11 Bilder, bearbeitet vun einem
deutschen Roman. Warsaw, 1887. 8vo, 62 pp.
Bar Kochba (Der Suhn vun dem Stern), oder Die letzte Tag'
vun Jeruscholaim. Eine musikalische Melodrama in Reimen,
in 4 Akten un' ein Prolog mit vierzehn Bilder. Warsaw, 1887.
8vo, 84 pp.
Schulamis, oder Bas Jeruscholaim. Eine musikalische Melo-
drama in Reimen un' in 4 Akten un' 15 Bilder. Warsaw,
1891. 8vo, 64 pp.
Rabbi Joselmann, oder Die Gseeres vun Elsass. Historische
Oper in fiinf Akten, in 23 Bilder. Lemberg, 1892. 8vo,
68 pp.
Theater vun Koenig Achaschwerusch, oder Koenigin Esther.
Biblische Operetten in 5 Akten und 15 Bildern. Lemberg,
1890. 8vo, 56 pp.
Das X. Gebot. Komische Operetten (Zauber-marchen) in 5
Acten, 10 Verwandlungen u. 28 Bildern. Cracow, 1896. 8vo,
76 pp.
Die Opferung Isaak oder Die Zerstbrung von Sodom und Go-
mora. Biblische Operette in 4 Acten und 40 Bildern. Cracow,
1897. Svo, 70 pp.
Golomb, E. Chad Gadjo un' ein Schreckenes vun hundert
Randlich. Zwei wunderbare Legenden. Vun Peessach zum
Sseeder. Wilna, 1893. 16mo, 32 pp.
Gordin, J. Medea, a historische Tragodie in 4 Akten. Bearbei-
tet fur der jiidischer Biihne fur die grosse tragische Schau-
spielerin Madam K. Lipziu. New York, 1897. 8vo, 47 pp.
Gordon, M. Schiree M. Gordon. Jiidische Lieder. Warsaw,
1889. 8vo, 111 pp.
Gordon, J. L. Ssichas Chulin. Lieder in der Volkssprache.
Warsaw, 1886. 16mo, 92 pp.
370 APPENDIX
Gottlober, A. B. Der Decktuch, oder Zwei Chupes in ein Nacht.
A Komodie in drei Akten. Arausgegeben vun Josef Werblein-
ski. Warsaw, 1876. 16mo, 72 pp.
*Das Lied vun'm Kugel. Parodie auf Schillers Lied von der
Glocke. Odessa, 1863. 8vo, 24 pp.
Der Sseim, oder Die grosse Assife in Wald, wenn die Chajes
haben ausgeklieben dem Loeb far a Meelech, vun A. B. G.
Zhitomir, 1869. 16mo, 47 pp.
Der Gilgel, ein humoristische Erzaehlung. Herausgegeben vun
dem Gabes Enekel. Warsaw, 1896. 8vo, 74 pp.
Harkavy, A. Washington, der erster President vun die Vereinigte
Staaten. Mit Beilage : Die Unabhangigkeitserklahrung in
Englisch un' Judisch. New York, 1892. 8vo, 32 pp.
Columbus, oder Die Entdeckung vun Amerika. 2te Auflage.
New York, 1897. 8vo, 32 pp.
Geschichte vun Don Quixote vun Miguel Cervantes, ubersetzt
vun Spanisch mi' verglichen mit der englischer un deutscher
Ubersetzung. (In The Classical Library, 37 numbers.) New
York, 1897-98. 8vo, 590 pp.
Hermalin, D. M. Der terkischer Moschiach. A historisch-
romantische Schilderung iiber dem Leben un' Wirken vun
Schabsi Zwi. New York, 1898. 8vo, 64 pp.
Jdschua ha-Nozri. Sein Erscheinen, Leben un' Todt. Allgemeiner
Uberblick wegen der Entstehung vun Christenthum. Entwick-
lung un' Eindruck vun dieser Religion auf der Menschheit.
Geschildert vun a historischen Standpunkt. New York, 1898.
8vo, 64 pp.
Hoclibaura, S. Ein Familien-unterhalt vun drei Geschichten.
Odessa, 1869. 16mo, 48 pp.
Hornstein, G. O. Slidniewker lebende Photographie, oder A
Cholem in Cholem. Eine kritisch-phantastische Erzaehlung.
Berdichev, 1891. 8vo, iv and 56 pp.
Kinor Hazwi (Die Harfe). Verschiedene tonisch-metrische
Gedichte. Berdichev, 1891. 8vo, 68 pp.
Isabella. Der reicher Vetter. Erzaehlung. Warsaw, 1895. 16mo,
27 pp.
Vun Gliick zum Keewer. Erzaehlung. Warsaw, 1895. 16mo,
28 pp.
Kalmus, U. Der Kommission'ar Welwele Tareramtschik. Thea-
ter in 5 Akten. Warsaw, 1880. 16mo, 112 pp.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 371
Schmerele Trostinezer. Theater in drei Akten. Warsaw, 1883.
16mo, 50 pp.
A Weib' an Arure un' a Mann a Malach. Ein sehr interessante
Begebenheit. St. Petersburg, 1887. 16mo, 24 pp.
Katzenellenbogen, Raschi. Judische Melodien oder Volks-
lieder. Wilna, 1887. 16mo, 86 pp.
Kobrin, L. Jankel Boile. Vun dem jiidischen Fischerleben in
Russland un' andere Erzaehlangen. Realistic Library. Issued
quarterly. Vol. I. No. 1. New York, 1898. 8vo, 111 pp.
Lefin, M. M. Sseefer Koheles. Odessa, 1873. 8vo, 77 and (3) pp.
Lerner, J. J. Der Vetter Mosche Mendelssohn. A dramatisches
Bild in ein Akt, nach dem Deutschen far der jiidischer Biihne
bearbeitet. Warsaw, 1889. 8vo, 26 pp.
Uriel Akosta. A Tragodie in fiinf Akten vun Karl Gutzkow.
Far der jiidischer Szene iibersetzt un' arrangirt. Zweite
Auflage. Warsaw, 1889. 8vo, 80 pp.
2idowka, Die Jiidin. A Tragodie in fiinf Akten. Nach ver-
schiedene Quellen bearbeitet. Warsaw, 1889. 8vo, 68 pp.
Chanuke. A historische Drama in vier Akten in sieben Bilder.
Warsaw, 1889. 8vo, 54 pp.
Rothschild. A Beschreibung . . . Odessa, 1869. 8vo, 34 pp.
Levinsohn, L. Die weibersche Kniipplach, ein Theaterspiel in
fiinf Akten geschrieben, herausgegeben vun MIWM. Wilna,
1881 (from ed. of 1874). 16mo, 44 pp.
Lew, M. A. Hudel. A Poema in Gedichte. Kishinev, 1888.
8vo, 64 pp.
Lilienblum, M. L. Serubowel, oder Schiwas Sion. A Drama in
fiinf Akten. Odessa, 1887. 8vo, 55 pp.
Linetzki, J. J. *Das polische Jiingel, oder A Biographie vun
sich allein. Drinnen is' geschildert akurat der polischer Chos-
sid vun Geborenheit an, sein Erziehung, sein Bocher-leben,
sein Chassene un' sein Parnosse mit alle Khols-sachen un'
Gemeinde-leben. Odessa, 1875. 132 pp.
Das chsidische Jiingel. Die Lebensbeschreibung vun a polischen
Jiiden, vun sein Geboren bis sein Verloren. Zu der Zeit
vun'm Anfang des jetzigen Jahrhundert, vun Eli Kozin Haz-
chakueli. Die zweite, vollkommen ubergearbeitete Ausgabe,
vun mein (Polischen Jiingel). Wilna, 1897. 8vo, 230 pp.
Der boeser Marschelik. Satirische Volkslieder. Odessa, 1869.
8vo, 96 pp.
372 APPENDIX
The same. (First part.) Warsaw, 1889. 8vo, 48 pp.
*Das Meschulachas. Kartines vun'm jiidischen Leben. Odessa,
1874. 94 pp.
Der Welt-luach vun'm Jahr Ein Kessef, oder Die allgemeine
Panorame, vun Eli Kozin Hazchakueli, Mechaber vun'm Po-
lischen Jiingel. Odessa, 1875. 8vo, 94 pp.
The same. (Zweite verbesserte Ausgabe.) Odessa, 1883. 8vo,
86 pp.
Linetzki's Ksowim. Das erste Heft : Die Pritschepe. Das zweite
Heft: Der Statek. Kritische, satirische un' humoristische
Maimorim un' Kartines. Odessa, 1876. 16mo, 127 pp.
Die blutige Nekome, oder Jakow Tirada. In gesauberten jiidi-
schen Zlargon. Warsaw, 1883. 8vo, 100 pp.
The same. Warsaw, 1893. 8vo, 100 pp.
Nassan ha-Chochem. Eine dramatische Unterhandlung iiber
Emune un' Religion, verfasst in Deutschen vun G. E. Lessing.
Odessa, 1884. 8vo, 80 pp.
Linetzki's Ksowim. Odessa, 1888. Fol. Der Flederwisch, Der
Schofer, Der Schnorrer, Der Plappler, Der Wicher, Das Dreh-
del, Der Weiser, Der Milgram, Der Grager, Der Afikomen,
Das Vogele, each of 8 pp.
Chag ha-Jowel. Die Jubilee-feierung am siebzehnten Novem-
ber 1890, welche man hat gefeiert in Odessa dem beriihmten
Volksschreiber Jizchok Joel Linetzki zur Ende 25 Jahr vun
seiner literarischer Thatigkeit. Odessa, 1891. 8vo, 48 pp.
Meisach, J. Eesches Chail. Eine historische Erzaehlung in 4
Akten un' 6 Bilder. Warsaw, 1890. 16mo, 80 pp.
Die eifersiichtige Frau, oder Die erste Kochin. A Szene vun a
Familienleben. Warsaw, 1893. 16mo, 31 pp.
Der Spiegel fur Alle. Ein literarisches Buch. Enthalt ver-
schiedene musterhafte Bilder aus dem jiidischen Leben in
Reimen. Warsaw, 1893. 8vo, 32 pp.
Nissim we-Nifloes. (Wunderliche Ssipurim), was die Babe oleho
ha-Scholem hat erzaehlt. Warsaw, 1893. 16mo, 86 pp.
Perl vun Jam ha-Talmud. Warsaw, 1893. 16mo, 32 pp.
Ssipuree ha-Talmud. Warsaw, 1894. 8vo, 48 pp.
Ssipuree Jeruscholaim. (Dritte Auflage.) Wilna, 1895. 16mo,
72 pp.
A Spazier-schiffel auf dem Jam ha-Talmud. Warsaw, 1895.
16mo, 64 pp.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 373
Die zwei Wassertr'ager. A Maisse noro, was die Bobe hat der-
z'ahlt ihr Enikel. Auch a schoene Maisse : A Spei in Ponim.
Wilna, 1897. 16mo, 31 pp.
Reb Lemel, oder Der Pariser Bankir. Wilna, 1897. 16mo, 32 pp.
Mordechai ha-Zadik. A Ssipur aso gut wie a Roman, auch a
Maisse-noro mit dem Kazew in Ganeeden. Wilna, 1897.
16mo, 32 pp.
Der Aschmedai, A schreckliche Maisse, was hat amal getroffen in
die Zeiten vun Schlome ha-Melech. Wilna, 1898. 16mo, 31 pp.
Natansohn, B. Papierene Briick', oder Die hefker Welt. RIBL's
Lebensbeschreibung ; der Ssod vun Magnetism, auch was es
thut sich auf jener Welt, etc. . . . Warsaw, 1894. 8vo, 78 pp.
Ostrowski, S. M. Der Maskeradenball. A satirische Poeme in
Versen. Warsaw, 1884. 16mo, 135 pp.
Perez, J. L. Poesie. Warsaw, 1892. 16mo, 34 pp.
Poesie. Zweites Heft. Monisch. Ballada. Warsaw, 1892,
16mo, 40 pp.
Bekannte Bilder. Verfroren gewor'en ! (Zweite Auflage.) War-
saw, 1894. 8vo, 22 and 26 and 22 pp.
Kleine Erzaehlungen. Zwei Bilder. Jossel Jeschiwe-bocher un'
Das areme Jiingel. (Ausgabe vun J. Goido.) Wilna, 1894.
16mo, 32 pp.
Perel, M. Die Nacht vun Churban Jeruscholaim. Warsaw, 1892.
8vo, 32 pp.
Pinski, D. Brehm. Die Alien. Bearbeitet vun D. Puis. (J. L.
Perez's Ausgaben.) Warsaw, 1894. 12mo, 52 pp.
Reb Schlome. Erzaehlung. (J. L. Perez's Ausgaben.) Warsaw,
1894. 12mo, 43 pp.
Der grosser Menschenfreund un' Arab der Joch. Zwei Bilder.
(Goido's Ausgaben.) Wilna, 1894. 16mo, 32 pp.
A Verfallener. Drei Erzaehlungen. (Ausgaben " Zeitgeist.")
Warsaw, 1896. 16mo, 65 pp.
Rabinowitsch, S. Supplements of Volksblatt :
1884, * No. 32-35. Natascha.
* No. 39-40. Hocher un' Niedriger.
1886, * No. 1- 6. Die Weltreise.
* No. 19-22. Kinderspiel.
1887, No. 20. Kinderspiel. A merkwiirdige Liebe vun
a gepesteten, a gebaleweten, a reichen
jiidischen Benjochid. 4to, 89 pp.
374 APPENDIX
1887, No. 26. A Chossen a Doktor (A Stubsach).
16mo, 18 pp.
No. 27. Lagbomer (A froehliche Geschichte mit
a traurigen Ende. 16mo, 12 pp.
1888, No. 23. Reb Sender Blank un' sein vullgeschatzte
Familie. A Roman ohn' a Liebe.
8vo, 104 pp.
* Schomer's Mischpet.
Das Messerl. (A narrische, nor a traurige Geschichte vun mein
Kindheit.) St. Petersburg, 1887. 16rno, 26 pp.
A Biintel Blumen oder Poesje ohn' Gramen. Berdichev, 1888.
16mo, 45 pp.
Supplements to the Volksbibliothek :
Stempenju. A jiidischer Roman. 1888. 8vo, viii and 94 pp.
Jossele Ssolowee. 1889. 8vo, (4) and 180 pp.
Auf Jischuw Erzisroel. A Ssipur ha-Maisse. Kiev, 1890.
16mo, 44 pp.
Kol-mewasser zu der jiidischer Volksbibliothek. Odessa, 1892.
4to, 40 pp. (80 columns.)
Jaknehos, oder Das grosse Borsenspiel. A Komodie in vier
Akten. Kiev, 1894. 32mo, 172 pp., but p. 32 is repeated
13 times.
Der jiidischer Kongress in Basel. Vorgelesen in alle Kiewer
Botee-midroschim nach dem Ref erat vun Dr. M. Mandelstamm,
bearbeitet in Zargon. Warsaw, 1897. 8vo, 30 pp. (Published
by the Zionistic Society Achiassaf.)
Auf was bedarfen Jiiden a Land? Etliche erenste Worter far'n
Volk. Warsaw, 1898. 8vo, 20 pp. (Achiassaf).
Moschiach's Zeiten. A zionistischer Roman. (Verlag Esra.)
Berdichev, 1898. 16mo, 51 pp. (unfinished).
Reichersohn, Z. H. Basni Krilow, oder Krilows Fabeln (Mes-
cholim) in neun Abtheilungen, iibersetzt vun Russisch in
Jiidisch-deutsch. (2 parts.) Wilna, 1879. 16mo, 156 and
166 pp.
Reingold, I. A Biintel Blumen. Volksgedichte. Chicago, 1895.
16mo, 32 pp.
Der Weltsinger. Prachtige Volkslieder. Chicago, 1894. 8vo,
40 pp.
Rombro, J. Die eiserne Maske, oder der unglucklicher Prinz. Ein
historischer Roman aus dem Leben vun dem Koeniglichen Hof
BIBLIOGRAPHY 375
in der Zeit vun Ludwig dem 13ten in Frankreich. Frei iiber-
setzt vim Ph. Krantz. Wilna, 1894. 8vo, 114 pp.
Rosenfeld, M. Poesien un' Lieder. Erster Theil. Nazionale
Lieder. Gedichte un' Lieder. New York, 1893. 8vo, 46 pp.
Liederbuch. Erster Theil. New York, 1897. 8vo, 88 pp.
Songs from the Ghetto. With Prose Translation, Glossary, and
Introduction, by Leo Wiener. Boston, Copeland and Day,
1898. 16mo, 115 pp.
Sahik, D. Die Rose zwischen Darner. Ein Theater in 4 Akten.
Petrokow, 1884. 8vo, 80 pp.
Schafir, B. B. Schire-Bas-Ichuda. Lieder iiber die Verfolgung
der Juden in Russland und den Antisemitismus in anderen
Landern, in der Mundart der Juden Galiziens mit hebraischer
Uebersetzung, gesungen von Bajrach Benedikt Schafir aus
Przemysl [1883]. 16mo, 65 pp.
Freudele die Maine. Lemberg, 1882. Long 16mo, 21 pp.
Melodien aus der Gegend am San. Gedichte und Lieder in
galizisch-judischem Dialekte. (2 parts.) Cracow, 1886.
16mo, 75 and 85 pp.
Schaikewitsch, N. M. Der Bal-tschuwe, oder Der falscher
Chossen. Ein hochst interessanter Roman. Wilna. 1880.
8vo, 170 pp.
Der Rewisor. A Komodie in 4 Akten. Umgearbeitet frei vun
der beruhmter russischer Komodie " Rewisor." Odessa, 1883.
8vo, 56 pp.
A Patsch vun sein lieben Namen. A kleiner Roman. Warsaw,
1889. 8vo, 33 pp.
Schapiro, W. Der Zwuak, oder Der maskirter Reb Zodek. A Ro-
man. (Nach Mapu's Ait Zowua.) Odessa, 1896. 8vo, 235 pp.
Schatzkes, M. A. Der judischer Var-Peessach, oder Minhag Jis-
roel. A Ssipur Nino vun defn Art Leben vun unsere Juden,
un' bejosser in der Lito, etc. Warsaw, 1881. 8vo, 180 pp.
Many editions.
Seiffert, M. Bei'm Thiir fun Ganeeden, oder A puster Cholem
mit a grossen Ernes. A phantastischer Roman. New York,
1898. 8vo, 64 pp.
Itele un' Giitele. Roman aus dem jiidischen Leben in Lito.
Wilna, 1891. 8vo, 219 pp.
Sharkansky, A. M. Judische Nigunim. Poetical Works. New
York, 1895. 8vo, 62 pp.
376 APPENDIX
Sobel, J. Z. Schir Sohow lekowed Jisroel ha-Soken. Ubersetzt
in Jiidisch-deutsch, Jisroel der Alte. New York, 1877. 16mo,
36 pp.
Sobel, S. Siwugim, oder Die Wikuchim. Zum lustigen Zeit-
vertreiben. Warsaw, 1874. 16mo, 86 pp.
Spektor, M. * A Roman ohn' a Namen. Ein Erzaehlung vun dem
jiidischen Leben. Zweite Auflage mit viel neue Kapitlich un'
Verbesserungen. St. Petersburg, 1884. 8vo, 110 pp.
Supplements to the Volksblatt :
1884, *No. 1-31. Der judischer Muzik.
♦No. 41-51. Reb Treitel.
1885, *No. 1- 9. Reb Treitel.
No. 9-17. A stummer guter Jud\ 8vo, 68 pp.
*No. 18-50. Aniim we-Ewjonim.
♦No. 50-51. Die Kramer in Aleksandria.
1886, *No. 7-16. Judisch.
*No. 24-42. A Welt mit kleine Weltelech.
Der stummer Guter-Jiid'. Ein Erzaehlung vun der letzter rus-
sisch-tiirkischer Krieg. Wilna, 1889. 8vo, 76 pp.
Scholem Faiwischke die Kramerke. Zwei Maisses. Warsaw,
1890. 16mo, 26 pp.
The same, under the title: Weiberscher Erewjontew. 1892.
16mo, 26 pp.
Der modner Schuster. Roman. Berdichev, 1891. 16mo, 32 pp.
The same. Warsaw, 1894. 16mo, 32 pp.
A weibersche Neschome. Roman. Berdichev, 1891. 16mo, 32 pp.
The same. Warsaw, 1894. 16mo, 32 pp.
The same, under the title : Schoen un' Mies, oder Zwei Chawertes.
Erzaehlung vun balebatischen Leben. Warsaw, 1895. 16mo.
23 pp.
The same. Russian translation, by M. Chaschkes. Dve podrugi.
Psichologiceskij razskaz. (Reprint of Vilenskij Vestnik.)
Wilna, 1895. 16mo, 21 pp.
Chaim Jentes. Erzaehlung. Berdichev, 1892. 16mo, 32 pp.
Der heuntiger judischer Muzik. Roman. Berdichev, 1892. 16mo,
32 pp.
Jiidische Studenten un' jiidische Tochter. Roman. 1892. 8vo,
124 pp.
Pnrim un' Peessach. Bilder un' Erzaehlungen. Berdichev, 1893.
16mo, 36 pp.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 377
Gut gelebt un' schoen gestorben. Erzaehlung. Warsaw, 1894.
16mo, 28 pp.
Supplements to the Hausfreund :
1895. Reb Treitel. 8vo, 148 pp.
1896. Drei Parschon. Erzaehlung vun die siebziger un'
achziger Jahren. 8vo, 71 pp.
Terr, J. Natur un' Leben. Romanen, Erzaehlungen, Dramen,
Skizzen, Anekdoten, Poesie un' Witzen, gesammelte un' ori-
ginelle. New- York, 1898. 8vo.
Winchevsky, M. Lieder un' Gedichte. Poetical Works. Pub-
lished by the Group " Yehi-Or." New York, 1894. 16mo,
128 pp. (unfinished).
Jehi Or. Eine Unterhaltung iiber die verkehrte Welt. Heraus-
gegeben vun der Newarker Gruppe "Ritter der Freiheit."
2te Herausgabe. Newark, N.J., 1890. 8vo, 24 pp.
Zederbaum, A. Die Geheimnisse von Berdiczew. Eine Charac-
terschilderung der dortigen jiidischen Gemeinde, als Muster
der jiidischen Sitten. Warsaw, 1870. 8vo, 84 and (2) pp.
Zuckermann, M. Der Meschugener in siebeten Himmel, oder
A Reise auf dem Luftballon, von Jules Verne. Warsaw,
1896. 8vo, 38 pp.
Zunser, B. Kolrina. Neue acht Lieder. Wilna, 1870. 32mo, 64 pp.
Schirim Chadoschim. Acht neue, grosse, feine Lieder. Wilna,
1871. 32mo, 64 pp.
Der Ssandek. Eydkuhnen, 1872. 32mo, 64 pp.
Hamnageen. Vier neue, herrliche Lieder mit Melodien. Wilna,
1876. 32mo, 31 pp.
Schiree Om. Volkslieder. Drei neue Lieder zu singen mit Melo-
dien. Wilna, 1876. 32mo, 32 pp.
Hamsamer. Neue vier Lieder. Wilna, 1890. 32mo, 31 pp.
Die Eisenbahn mit noch zwei teuere Lieder. Wilna, 1890.
32mo, 28 pp.
Zunser's verschiedene Volkslieder, welche wer'en gesungen vun'm
Volk mit sejere Melodien. Text mit Musik verfasst un' kom-
ponirt vun'm Volksdichter Eliokum Zunser, herausgegeben
durch David Davidoif . New York, 1891. 8vo, 80 pp.
Zehn jiidische Volkslieder, verfasst mit die Harmonie vun Mu-
sikbegleitung. Vierte Auflage. Wilna, 1891. 16mo, 95 pp.
Higojon Bchinor. Neue vier Lieder, was see seinen gesungen ge-
wor'en mit Begleitung vun Fiedel. Wilna, 1897. 16mo, 60 pp.
378 APPENDIX
Zweifel, E. Z. Tochachas Chaim. Strafred'. Wilna, 1865. 32mo,
96 pp.
Sseefer Musser Haskel, herausgegeben vun Esriel Epl Weiz.
Wilna, 1884. 32mo, 52 pp.
Der glucklicher Maftir. A schoene Maisse, was hat getroffen
zuriick mit einige Jahren ; wie a Schneider] iingel is' durch a
Maftir hbchst glucklich gewor'en. . . . Warsaw, 1886. 8vo,
46 pp.
FOLKLORE
Sseefer Ssipuree Maisses. Warsaw, 1874. 8vo, 170 pp. There
are several editions of it.
Maisse Rambam we-Reb Jossef dela Reyna. Wilna, 1879. 16mo,
32 pp.
Dem Rambam's Zawoe. Da werd beschrieben die Lebensgeschichte
vun dem grossen heiligen Mann Rabeenu Mosche ben Maimon,
sehr schoene interessante Ssipurim, 'auch die heilige Zawoe,
was er hat geschrieben fur seine Kinder, etc. Wilna, 1885.
16mo, 32 pp.
Maisse vun Maharscho, herausgenummen vun Ostrer Pinkes, un'
vun Rambam, un' vun Noda bi-Jehudo. Warsaw, 1879. 16mo,
16 pp.
Maisse Gur Arje. Da werd derzaehlt a wunderliche Maisse vun
dem gbttlichen Mann ha-Raw ha-Goen . . . was er werd geru-
fen Gur Arje, etc. Warsaw, 1890. 16mo, 43 pp.
Ssipurim. Erzaehlungen vun Rabi Jizchok Aschkenasi Luria.
Versammelt vun Jisroel Bemuhrim ZL. Vol. I. Wilna, 1895.
8vo, 114 pp.
Sseefer Ewen Schlom. Die Beschreibung vun dem Wilner Goen.
Sehr wunderliche Ssipurim vun sein Grosskeit in der Tore un'
in alle Chochmes un' Wissenschaften. Auch sehr wunderliche
Maisses vun seine beruhmte Talmidim. Wilna, 1895. 16mo,
112 pp.
Eine schoene Geschichte vun ha-Raw ha-Goen Haschach und seine
Tochter, was hat sich passiert in die Gseeres vun Schnas
BIBLIOGRAPHY 379
ThCh. Un' 'auch eine schoene Geschichte vun einem polischen
Koenig, welcher eine grosse Gseere auf Jiiden gegeben hat, un'
wie HSchI seinem Volk geholfen durch einen vun die LW
Zadikim. Die Maisse is' verschrieben in ein Maisse-buch in
Krakau. Vienna, 1863. 32mo, 16 pp.
Sseefer Ssipuree Maisses. (K'hal Chsidim.) In diesen Sseefer
werd derzaehlt sehr viel wunderliche Maisses vun ha-Raw ha-
Kodesch Jisroel Balschemtow, etc. Warsaw, 1881. 4to, 84 pp.
Sseefer Maisse Zadikim. Hier is' wunderliche Maisses vun Kdo-
schim, vun dem heiligen Bescht un' vun Boruch vun Mesibos
un' vun die zwei Briider Reb Alimelech un' Reb Susse vun
Hanipole un' vun ha-Kodesch Reb Pinches vun Korez un' vun
ha-Kodesch Reb Mosche Loeb vun Ssassuw un' vun ha-Kodesch
Reb Jizchok vun Lublin. Cracow, 1889. 16mo, 64 pp.
Sseefer Rosin Kadischin. In dem Sseefer werd gebrengt sehr
schoene un' wunderliche Geschichtes vun sehr grosse Leut'
Zadikim Jessodee Olom. Warsaw, 1890. 8vo, 32 pp.
Ssipurim me-Rabeenu Nissim. Warsaw, 1892. 16mo, 59 pp.
Eine ganz neue Maisse vun dem heiligen Zadik Reb Schmelke.
Lemberg, 1893. 16mo, 16 pp.
Eine ganz neue Maisse vun ha-Raw ha-Zadik Reb Pinches me-
Korez. Lemberg, 1893. 16mo, 16 pp.
Eine ganz neue Maisse vun ha-Raw ha-Zadik Reb Jisroel, der Rusi-
ner Rebe. Lemberg, 1893. 16mo, 16 pp.
Mefanejach Nelomim . . . Jechiel Michel mi-Slatschuw. Warsaw,
1879. 16mo, 22 pp. 9
Eine ganz neue Geschichte vun dem Saten, wie er hat sich verstellt
far ein jungen Mann un' hat gesagt, as er is' a Row un' hat
gewollt iiberreden ein Jud', a Baltschuwe, er soil essen Chomez
um Erew Peessach, etc. Lemberg, 1892. 16mo, 16 pp.
Die Gan-eeden-bachurim. Da werd derzaehlt zwei schoene Maisses
vun zwei Bochurim Baltschuwes, wie aso see haben soche
gewe'n zu kummen in lichtigen Gan-eeden, aso ein teuer Ort,
was die grosste Zadikim konnen nit ahin kummen. Warsaw,
1885. 16mo, 27 pp.
Die Ssuke in Wald. In diese Geschichte werd derzaehlt, wie Gott
helft Alle, was versichern sich auf ihm. Auch is' da zugegeben
380 APPENDIX
a Maisse vun a Row mit a Ssar un' ein Geschichte vun Ram-
bam. Wilna, 1891. 16mo, 32 pp.
Maisse me-G- Achim. Eine sehr schoene wunderliche Geschichte
vun drei Briider, grosse Leut', hanikro Maisse Plies. Warsaw,
1870. 16mo. Large number of editions.
Maisse schnee Chaweerim. A wunderliche Ausschmues mit 22
Maisses. Zhitomir, 1877. 16mo, 76 pp.
Mizwas Mlawe Malke u Maisses Plies mischnee Schutfim. Sehr a
schoene, wunderliche Geschichte vun zwei Schutfim, was haben
sehr ehrlich gehalten un' gehiit' die verte Ssude Mizwas Mlawe
Malke. Warsaw, 1881. 16mo, 28 pp.
Reb Esriel mit dem Bar. A zweite Geschichte vun Reb Chaim
Baltschuwe un' a dritte vun Reb Sundel Chossid. Wilna,
1896. 16mo, 32 pp.
Die Geschichte vun Bovo. Ein schoen Derzaehlung vun Bovo mit
Dresni. Das is' gemacht auf dem Art vun Tausend un' Ein
Nacht. Warsaw, 1878. 16mo, 72 pp.
There are many editions of the same. In the Harvard Library
are the following : Wilna, 1895, and Warsaw, 1889. The latter
has for a title : Der Ben Meelach. Da werd derzaehlt vun a
Chossen-kale, viel see haben gelitten, un' der Ben-meelach,
viel Milchomes er hat eingenummen, bis es hat ihm gegliickt,
as er is' gewor'en der grosster Keisser un' sie Keisserin vun
drei Mediues.
Eine schoene Geschichte vun Zenture Venture. Da werd derzaehlt
vun ein grossen Ssocher, was er is' gewe'n vielmal in Angst
un' Not auf dem Jam un' is' gewe'n in die Hand' vun vrilde
Menschen un' is' nizel gewqr'en vun die alle Sachen un' is'
gekummen zu sein Haus le-Scholem mit viel Aschires. Wilna,
1895. 16mo, 40 pp. There are many editions of this story.
Ssipuree Haploes, oder Geriihmte Geschichte. Das Sseefer is'
gedruckt gewor'en bischnas ThSH wenikro be-Scheem Maisse-
buch, etc. Lublin, 1882. 8vo, 68 pp. Very many editions of
this book.
A schoene Geschichte, wie a Loeb' hat ausgehodewet a kleinem
Prinz, was der Loeb' hat ihm aweggechapt vun sein Mutter, der
Koenigin, boees er hat gesogen un' hat ihm as5 lang gehalten,
bis er is' gross gewor'en. Vun A. M. Warsaw, 1878. 32mo,
31pp.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 881
Der lichtiger Gan-eeden. Ein schoene Geschichte vun Reb Schme-
rel Machnis Orach, wie er is' gewe'n in lichtigen Ganeeden,
nor er hat dort kein ssach nit gew'altigt ; man hat ihm bald
arausgeworfen. Warsaw, 1878. 16mo, 18 pp.
Ein schoene Geschichte vun ein Bas-malke, wie sie hat sich ver-
liebt in ein Suhn vun ein Gartner. Warsaw, 1889. 16rao,
72 pp. There are many editions of this story.
Ein wunderliche Maisse vun dem Bocher Jossenke. Lemberg, 1887.
16mo, 16 pp.
Anekdoten-buch. Zwei hundert schoene Witzen, sehr satirisch
zum Lachen, vun M. Kukelstein. Wilna, 1893. 16mo, 96 pp.
Many editions.
Reb Herschele Ostrepoler. Beschrieben alle seine siisse Chochmes
un' alle seine Wortlech, was er hat ubergelast, etc. Warsaw,
1884. 16mo, 24 pp. Many editions. Second part. Wilna,
1895. 16mo, 24 pp.
Der beriihmter Herschel Ostropoler. Zunaufgesammelt vun A. I.
Buchbinder. Wilna, 1895. 8vo, 32 pp.
Das froehliche Herschel Ostropoler oder Der wolweler Theater-
stiick. Warsaw, 1890. 8vo, 52 pp. Many editions.
Motke Chabad oder Witze iiber Witze. Herausgegeben vun M.
I. Lewitan. Wilna, 1892. 16mo, 32 pp. Many editions.
Schaike Feifer, oder Der weltberiihmter Witzling. New York,
s. d. 8vo, 32 pp.
Jossef Loksch vun Drazne (in Polen) . . . un' vun sein Gabe Akiwe
Bias. Wilna, 1895. 16mo, 23 pp.
Der Chelmer Chochem. Das is' a Gerathenisch vun a Chelmer,
was er hat gemeint, as er is' a Chochem, un' man mus lachen,
as man lejent die kluge Einfalle vun a Chelmer Chochem.
Verfasst vun Hirs Bik. Lemberg, 1887. 16mo, 16 pp.
JUDEO-GERMAN BOOKS WITH GERMAN
CHARACTERS
Gnib, I. D. H. Das Chanuke Trenderl, ein antiques Familienstiick
von Unsere Leut'. In 2 Aufziigen, renovirt. Vienna, 1884.
16mo, 30 pp.
382 APPENDIX
Der Schadchen von Unsere Leut'. Eiri rewmatisches Zugstiick in
drei Aufziigen, zusammengeschlempert. Vienna, 1887. 16mo,
56 pp.
Der Johrmark zu A . . . z. Eine Charakterschilderung von
unsere Marktleut'. In 3 Skizzen, aufgenommen. Vienna,
1871. 16mo, 32 pp.
Mendelssohn, L. Intimes aus der Liliengass'. Ein Buchdrama
in I. Akt. Berlin, s. a. 16mo, 62 pp.
Rose*e, A. Esther und Haman ! Ein Purimspiel in einem Auf-
zuge. Vienna, 1884. 16mo, 24 pp.
S(chwarz) A. Aus l'angstvergangenen Tagen. Drei alte Gold-
stiickchen nebst einem Anhang. Budapest, s. a. 16mo, 31 pp.
Schwarz, P. lleb Simmel Andrichau. Ein Purimspiel in vier
Aufziigen. Vienna, 1878. 16mo, 55 pp.
*Reb Moire Nachrendl. Charaktergem'alde in 5 Aufziigen.
Eine humoristische Brochure in jiidisch-deutschem Jargon,
zur Unterhaltung und Belehrung.
* Reb Jone. Lustspiel zur Unterhaltung und Erheiterung. In
fiinf Aufziigen.
Wolfsohn. Reb Chanoch der betrogene Bigott, oder Der entlarvte
Scheinheilige. Lustspiel in 3 Aufziigen. Pest, s. a. 16mo,
43 pp.
Anonymous. *Der Giitsteher. Travestie nach Schillers Bal-
lade, ' Die Biirgschaft.'
(Reb Leser Scholetsetzer.) Das Lied vom Scholet. Travestie
von Schillers 'Lied von der Glocke.' 'n Chosens Kloles. Tra-
vestie nach Uhlands ■ Des Sangers Fluch.' Vienna, s. a. 16mo,
20 pp.
II. APPENDIX
NAMES OF AUTHORS AND THEIR PSEUDONYMS
The italicized names are those that are better known than the real names
of the authors.
Authors
Abramowitsch, S. J.
Baranow, M.
Bukanski.
Cahan, Ab.
Cantor.
Dawidowitsch.
Feigenbaum, B.
Freid, M.
Frischmann, D.
Goido, J.
Goldberg, I. Ch.
Gurewitsch.
Katzenellenbogen.
Kobrin, L.
Lerner, J. J.
lie win, I.
Lewner, J. B.
Linetzki, J. J.
Meisach, J.
Perez, J. L.
Pseudonyms
Mendele Mocker Sforim.
Ben Efraim.
Ben Pores.
Bernstein Dawid, Proletarischker Magid.
Mosche Gl'azel, Graf M. I. Kweetl, Welwel
Zopzerik.
Ben Dawid.
Magid vun Ewjenischok, Raiiberjiidel,
Scha Pesches.
Fremder, Ssimchessossen.
Goldberg A.
Hoido J., Gorin, Lebensohn A.
Jaknehuz.
Libin, Z.
Buki Ben Jogli.
Rafaelowitsch Sch., Genosse Cervera,
Witeblanin, L.
Herdner.
Jehalel.
Nachmen Ben Wowsi.
Eli Kozin Hazchakueli.
Ssar-schel-Jam.
Ben-tomar, Gam-su, Ha-jossem mi-Nimi-
row, Finkel L., Lampenputzer, Lez vun
der Redakzie, Luziper, Paloi, Dr. Stizer.
383
384
APPENDIX
Pinski, D.
Rabinowitsch, M. J.
Rabinowitsch, S.
Rabnizki.
Rombro, J.
Samostschin, P.
Samostschin. Mrs.
Schaikewitsch, N. M,
Schapiro, E. I.
Schatzkes, M. A.
Seliko wit sch.
Spektor, M.
Spektor, Mrs.
Wechsler, M.
Winchevsky, M.
Dofek, Dawid, Puis D.
Ben-Omi.
Biicherfresser, Essbiicher, Esther, Sche-
lumiel, Scholem Aleechem, Schulamis.
Rebi Kozin.
Krantz Ph., Jainkele Chochem.
P. Z., Eli Feelet mi-Sastschin.
Bas-malke.
Schomer.
Isch.
Selikowitsch M.
Litwischer Philosoph, Aus Kapelusch-
macher, Sambation, Wachlaklakes.
Ernes, Lamedwownik.
Isabella.
Isch Nomi.
Ben Nez, Meschugener Philosoph, Chaim
Barburim, Chaim Bolbetun, Der Dasi-
ger, T. E. Debkin, Jankele Traschke.
INDEX
Abderitic towns, 52.
Abendblatt, 223, 225. .
Abrahams, 90, 231.
Abramowitsch, Solomon Jacob,
translated into Polish, 10 ; his use
of the older language, 20; his
vocabulary, 22; cradle song, 86;
translates Sabbath prayers and
hymns, 97; allegory in 'Judel,'
97, 98; review of his life and
writings, 148-100; first work in
Kol-meivasser, 150 ; his birth, 150 ;
education, 150; wanderings, 150,
151 : life in Kremenets, 151 ; meet-
ing with Gottlober, 151, 152 ; begin-
ning of literary career, 152 ; artistic
nature, 152; compared with his
predecessors, 152, 153 ; his ideal of
reform, 153; love of the people,
153, 154 ; style and language, 154 ;
abandons anonym, 155 ; ' The Lit-
tle Man,' 155; 'The Meat-Tax, or
the Gang of City Benefactors,'
155, 156; a social factor, 156;
'Fischke the Lame,' 156, 157;
study of mendicant life, 157 ; ' The
Dobbin,' 157-159; psychological
study, 157; prophecy, 158; per-
sonifies the Jewish race in the
allegory, 159; prohibition of re-
issue of book, 159 ; ' The Wander-
ings of Benjamin the Third,' 159,
160; study from nature, 159;
creates the ' Jewish Don Quixote,'
159; 'The Enlistment,' 160; scien-
tific articles, 160 ; called ' Grand-
father,' 160; ceases writing, 178;
on prayers, 245, 246 ; ' The Useful
Calendar,' 252; and see ix, 51,
176, 177, 179, 187, 231, 234, 235,
251, 252, 255. Extracts and trans-
lations: 'The Dobbin,' 276-285;
• Parasiteville,' 284-295.
Abramsky, 237.
Absorption of Russian Jews by
America, xi, 119.
Adelberg, S., 51.
Africa, Jews in, 248.
• Ahasuerus-play,' 231, 234, 239.
" A kleine Weile wollen mir spielen,"
56.
Aksenfeld, Israel, influenced by
Lefin, 136 ; review of his life and
works, 140-145; influence of his
wife, 141; 'The Fillet of Pearls,'
141, 142; style and language, 142;
drama, 142-145; 'The First Re-
cruit,' 142-145; his works as his-
torical documents, 145; anonym,
148, 149; and see 137, 138, 154,
160, 161, 177, 234, 235.
Alexander stories, compared to
Schaikewitsch's novels, 174.
Alexander II., his reforms not lib-
eral, 158 ; play at coronation, 235.
Allegory, not employed by Ehren-
kranz, 77; in Goldfaden's songs,
87, 88 ; in Abramowitsch's works,
97, 98 ; why resorted to by Rus-
sian authors, 211, 212; employed
by Perez, 212, 213.
Allgemeine Zeitung des Juden-
thums, 29, 31.
Almanacs, Abramowitsch's, 160 ;
Harkavy's, 227 ; their importance,
252, 253.
Alperin, J. J., 155.
" A Maedele werd a Kale," 62.
America, difficulty of collecting data
in, x; absorbing Russian Jews,
xi, 119; future of J. G. in, 10;
evolution of J. G., 22; badchen,
93; poetry, 118-130; increased
well-being, 118 ; dulling of Jewish
sensibilities, 119; American bal-
lads in J. G., 119; in Zunser's
songs, 120; in J. G. literature,
134, 135 ; Longfellow in J. G., 168 ;
H. Beecher-Stowe in J. G., 171;
prose writers in, 216-230; Rus-
sian Jews before 1881, 216, 217;
the immigration, 217, 218; first
writers, 218; daily press, 219;
socialistic propaganda, 219, 220;
authors, 220-224 ; magazines, 226-
229; instruction in citizenship, by
Harkavy, 228 ; and see 64, 135, 214,
248.
American People's Calendar, 227;
and see 10.
Americana Germanica, 76.
Americanus, 10.
385
386
INDEX
Amphibrachic measure, in Rosen-
feld's poetry, 129.
Amsterdam, viii, 19, 32.
Anarchists, Jewish, in America, 121-
123; Edelstadt, 122, 123; periodi-
cal in J. G., 223 ; and see 126.
Andersen's fables, in J. G.,44.
Andover Review, on J. G. literature,
10.
Andree, R., attacks J. G., 12.
Animal life, in literature, 157-159,
213.
Anonyms, 148, 149, 155, 171.
Anthropology, in literature, 249.
Anuarul pentru Israeliti, 44, 51.
Apotheker, David, 80, 81.
Appleton & Co., 221.
Arabic, in non-Semitic languages,
15; 'Thousand and One Nights,'
27 ; word-books in J. G., 248.
Arbeiterzeitung , as an educator,
219; its history, 221, 223; and see
225.
Archiv fur Litteraturgeschichte, 27.
'Arise, my People!' M. Gordon's,
83.
' Aristocratic Marriage, The,' Gold-
faden's, 87, 88.
Arithmetic, in J. G., 246.
Art, conception of its perfection, 95.
Arthur, King, in J. G., 2, 4, 43.
Asiatic Museum, J. G. collection,
viii.
Assimilation, advanced by M. Gor-
don, 83, 84; of no avail, 158; as
viewed by Spektor, 185 ; no longer
preached, 191.
Assyria, 50.
Astor Library, manuscript of Ettin-
ger, 101.
Atlantic Monthly, 221.
Atonement day, in songs, 67.
'Atonement Day, The,' Dienesohn's,
190, 191 ; extract and translation,
314-325.
" Auf'n Barg steht a Taubele," 65.
' Aunt Sosie,' Goldfaden's, 236 ; ex-
tract and translation, 268-273.
Austria, J. G. books in German let-
ters, 256.
Awramowitsch, coupletist, 119.
Badchens, imitate Galician poets,
80; school of, 90-94; his func-
tions, 91; Zunser's innovation,
91, 92 ; American modification of,
93, 94 ; why popular, 104 ; and see
61, 95.
Bader, Gerschon, 253.
Baethgen, F., 29.
Bakst, printer, 254.
Ballads, Rosenfeld's, 128; Gold-
faden's, 237 ; singers of, in Rou-
mania, 237.
Bal-schem-tow, birth, 35; legends of,
38-40 ; legendary life, 39, 40 ; Spek-
tor's novel of, 186.
'Bar of Soap, The,' Berenstein's,
86.
' Bar-kochba,' Goldfaden's, 239.
Bas-kol, 252.
Bastille, in J. G. poetry, 123.
'Beard, The,' M. Gordon's, 84.
Beckermann, 174.
Beecher-Stowe, H., in J. G., 171.
' Beggar Family, The,' Rosenfeld's,
127.
Beggar songs, 66.
Beilinsohn, printer, 254.
" Bei'm Breg Wasser thu' ich stehn,"
60.
Bender, A. P., 50.
Beranger, translated, 89.
Berdichev, and Abramowitsch, 31,
152, 153, 155, 160; printers, 254.
Berenson, B., on literature, 10.
Berenstein, S., and M. Gordon, 82,
83; his German culture, 85, 86;
poems, 86, 87 ; cradle song, 88.
Bernas, I., editor of Handelskalen-
der, 253; of Hatikwoh, 256.
Bernstein, A., in J. G., translation
and imitation, 171, 202.
Bernstein, Ignaz, proverbs, 51, 193.
Bernstein's Natural Science, in J.
G., 249.
Bersadskij, S. A., on Saul Wahl, 54.
Bescht, see Bal-schem-tow.
Betrothal, early, 57.
' Betrothal, The,' Goldfaden's, 87.
'Bevys of Hamptoun,' in J. G., 8,
27, 43 ; mentioned by Dick, 169.
Bibikov, 155.
Bible, Blitz, 19 ; apocryphal stories,
29 ; preferred to Czar, 68 ; Biblical
songs, Goldfaden's, 88.
Bibliography, imperfect data, ix ; in
Volksbibliothek, 199, 200.
Bibliothek, see Jud. Bibliothek.
Bick, J. S., defends Lefin, 136.
Bilingualism, of medieval litera-
tures, 1 ; of Jews, 2.
Biographies, by Dick, 171; of Rab-
bis, 244.
' Bird, The,' Zunser's, 93.
Blaustein, 174.
Blitz Bible, its language, 19.
Blumauer, translated, 101.
Bodleian Museum, J. G. collection,
vii.
ohei
G., 16.
INDEX
387
'Bontsie Silent,' Perez's, 210, 211
In Chrestomathy, 332-353.
' Book of Wisdom of Solomon, The,'
232.
Booksellers and bookstores, 255.
Booth and Salvini, 242.
Boston, periodical, 124.
Bourget, translated, 225.
Bovchover, poetry, 229.
Bovo, see ' Bevys.'
Bowery Garden Theatre, 240.
' Bowery Girl, The,' in J. G., 119.
Bredow, G. G., 30.
Brehm, in J. G., 249.
Bressler, see Kotik.
Brettmann, Maschil, 166.
British Museum, J. G. collection, viii.
Broder, Berel, poetry of, 79-80 ; his
imitators, 91, 92; and see 103.
'Broom and a Sweeping, A,' Win-
chevsky's, 124.
Brown, John, in J. G. poetry, 123.
Browning, Robert, 168.
Briill, 27, 251.
Buchbinder, on superstitions, 50, 193 ;
and see 174, 187.
Budianov, 228.
Budson, 174.
Bukanski, 229.
Bukarest, theatre in, 236, 237.
Bulgaria, its literature compared
with J. G., 9 ; its orthography, 21 ;
language, 23; renaissance, 135.
Burlesque, older, 231; Goldfaden's,
237.
Buxtorf, 29, 42.
Byplay, see Zuspiel.
Cabbala, and Khassidism, 168; and
see 20, 50.
Cahan, Abraham, review of his life
and writings, 221, 222; founds
periodical, 221; writes English
sketches, 221; style, 221; works
not of the highest merit, 222 ; and
see 223, 225, 226.
1 Cain,' Goldfaden's, 88.
Calendars, see Almanacs.
Campe, J. H., translated by Hurwitz,
134; by Dick, 171; imitated by
Tannenbaum, 222.
Canal Street, New York, centre of
Ghetto, 216.
Candle tax, in ' Little Man,' 156.
Cantonment, of Jewish children, 68.
Career of Jew, in song, 57.
Cassel, D., 31.
'Cat and the Mouse, The,' Horn-
stein's, 117.
* Cemetery Nightingale, The,' Rosen-
feld's, 128.
'Cemetery, The,' Ehrenkranz's, 78;
Sharkansky's, 121 ; in poetry, 80.
Cervantes, M., compared to Abra-
mowitsch, 159.
Chadak, 247.
'Chaimel the Rich,' Falkowitsch's,
174.
Chaldea, superstitions of, 28, 50.
' Chanuka,' Lerner's, 238.
diapers, 68, 90.
Chaschkes, M., poetry, 106, 107.
Cheeder, language of, 20; and see
57, 109, 150.
Chekhov, his influence on writers,
222, 230; translated, 225.
Chelm, wise man of, 52.
'Child's Play,' S. Rabinowitsch's,
195, 196.
Childhood, in folksong, 56.
Children's songs, 54.
Chodrower, M. J., 156.
'Cholera in the Year 1866, The,'
Ehrenkranz's, 79.
Chrestomathy, its normalized text, x.
Chronicle, rhymed, of military ser-
vice, 68 ; of persecution, 70.
City Guide, The, 226 ; and see Stadt-
anzeiger.
'Clock, The,' Zunser's, 93.
'Colonization of Palestine, The,' S.
Rabinowitsch's, 198.
Columbus, in literature, 134, 135 ;
and Washington, 120.
Comedy, Gottlober's, 76, 145, 146;
L. Levinsohn's, 166, 167; Schai-
kewitsch's, 173 ; S. Rabinowitsch's,
108; Ahasuerus play, 231, 232, 234 ;
Goldfaden's, 236; Sahik's, 243;
Frumkis's, 243.
Comical songs, 70, 71 ; Schafir's, 81.
Commemoration, songs of, by Schafir,
81.
Condition, of Jews in beginning of
century, 131.
' Consolation,' Berenstein's, 86.
Consonants, pronunciation of, x.
Constitution, of United States, in
J. G., 228.
' Contented, The,' Ehrenkranz's, 78.
Contributions, paid by Rabinowitsch,
199.
' Conversation of the Khassidim,
The,' Brettmann's, 166.
Cosmopolitan, 221.
Cossacks, massacre by, in folksong,
69.
' Countryman and the Townsman,
The,' Zunser's, 93.
Cracow, printing offices, 16; local
legends, 32, 35; and see ix, 37,
106.
388
INDEX
Cradle songs, as folksongs, 54;
Abramowitsch's, Linetzki's, Gold-
faden's, S. Rabinowitsch's, 86;
Goldfaden's, 88.
■ Cradle, The,' Beren stein's, 86.
I Crazy Beggar-Student.The,' Perez's,
204, 206.
Criticism, in Volksbibliothek and
Volksblatt, 199-202 ; Frischmann's,
201 ; S. Rabinowitsch's, 201 ; Rab-
nizki's, 201; Katz's, 228; critical
apparatus, Hermalin's, 228.
II Criticus," 10.
Culture, defined by M. Gordon, 85.
Czar, in folksong, (58 ; cultural efforts
of, 74; not praised in literature,
120 ; calamity of serving him, 143.
Dactyllic measure, Frug's, 108;
Winchevsky's, 124.
' Daisy Bell,' in J. G., 119.
Dalman, G. H., 76.
Dan, 50.
Danish, translation from, 171.
Dante, compared with Rosenfeld,
130.
'Dark Young Man, The,' Diene-
sohn's, 189.
Darwinism, in J. G. literature, 249.
Daudet, in J. G., 225.
■ David and Goliath,' 231.
' David Copperfield,' translated, 225.
David, King, in legend, 32.
• Day and Night,' Broder's, 80.
'Decktuch, Das,' Gottlober's, 76,
145, 146.
Declaration of Independence, in
J. G., 228.
'Despair,' Rosenfeld's, 128.
' Destiny, or Discussions for Pleas-
ant Pastime,' S. Sobel's, 96.
Deterioration, of J. G., since Dick,
172-174 ; its cause, 175, 176.
Deutsche Mundarten, 13.
Dialects, of J. G., 17-22 ; origin near
the Middle Rhine, 17, 18; contact
kept up with literary German, 18 ;
uniformity in books, 18 ; evolution
of, in Russia, 18, 19 ; in literature,
21, 22.
'Dialogue of the New-born Soul
with the Angel of Life,' 96.
Dick, Aisik Meier, his corrupt lan-
guage, 22, 23 ; deterioration of lan-
guage, 134; review of his works,
169-172; noble purpose, 169-171;
earnestness, 171 ; prolific activity,
171; cheap editions, 171, 172;
anonyms, 171 ; his followers, 172 ; |
death, 177 ; and see 35, 68, 145,
173-175. 179, 189, 193, 216. I
Dickens, Charles, in J. G., 225.
Dictionary, Lifschitz's, 247.
Dienesohn, Jacob, on J. G. litera-
ture, 10 ; rejoinder to Graetz, 13 ;
review of his works, 189-191 ; ' The
Dark Young Man,' 189; his popu-
larity, 189; creates the sentimen-
tal novel, 189; activity in the
Volksblatt, 190; ' Stone in the
Way,' 190; 'Herschele,' 190; his
gentleness, 190; 'The Atonement
Day,' 190, 191 ; compared with
Rabinowitsch, 195; and see viii,
192, 233, 253 ; extract and transla-
tion, 314-325.
' Dietrich of Bern,' 4, 43.
Difficulty of study of J. G. litera-
ture, viii, ix.
Diminutives, Slavic, in J. G., 108.
'Discovery of America, The,'
Hurwitz's, 134 ; its popularity,
136; and see 147, 248.
Dispute, songs of, Ehrenkranz's, 78 ;
Broder's, 80; Linetzki's, 82; Zun-
ser's, 93; S. Sobel's, 96.
Dlugatsch, 22.
'Do, do, Huckleberry, Do,' in J. G.,
119.
' Dobbin, The,' Abramowitsch's, 157-
159, and see 176; extract and
translation, 276-285.
' Doctor ,' Browning's, 168.
'Doctor Almosado,' Goldfaden's,
239.
' Doctor Kugelmann,' 166.
Dolizki, M. M., 229.
' Don Carlos,' on J. G. stage, 240.
' Don Quixote,' Cervantes's in J. G.,
228 ; and see ' Jewish Don Quixote,
The.'
Dostoyevski, in J. G., 225.
Drama, songs, in Goldfaden's, 89;
in America, 119, 120; Rosenfeld's
dramatic character, 129 ; ' Serkele,'
Ettinger's, 138-140; 'The First
Recruit,' Aksenfeld's, 142-145 ;
' The Fillet of Pearls,' Gottlober's,
145, 146 ; Abramowitsch's, 156, 160;
Falkowitsch's, 174; older myste-
ries, 231-233 ; ' David and Goliath,'
231 ; ' The Sale of Joseph,' 231-233;
'The Greatness of Joseph,' 232;
' The Book of the Wisdom of Solo-
mon,' 232; ' Sale of Joseph,' Zun-
ser's, 232, '233; present perform-
ances of mysteries, 233 ; ' Purim
plays,' 234; Kamrasch's, at coro-
nation of Alexander II., 235 ; older
literature, 235, 236; semi-dramatic
style, 235; German models, 235;
couplets in Aksenfeld's and Gott-
INDEX
389
lober's, 235, 236 ; Goldfaden's, 236-
240 ; ' The Two Neighbors ' and
'Aunt Sosie,'236 ; creation of stago,
236-238; in Bukarest, 236, 237; in
Odessa, 237, 238; his immediate
followers, 238 ; attack on theatre,
239; Goldfaden's repertoire, 239;
translated into Polish, 239; in
America, 240-242; its deteriora-
tion, 240; Gordin's, 241, 242; re-
vival of, 242, 243 ; popular form of
poetry, 243; and see 229 and
Comedy.
'Driver, The/ Perez's, 113.
' Drubbing of the Apostate at Fools-
town, The,' Epstein's, 166.
Dukes, L., 29.
Dutch words, in J. G., 19.
1 Dworele,' Gordin's, 241.
' Ecclesiastes,' Lefin's, 136 ; in Chres-
tomathy, 258-261.
Economics, in J. G., 208.
Edelstadt, David, poetry, 122, 123.
Egypt, 50.
Ehrenkranz, Wolf, review of his
works, 77-80 ; improvisations, 77 ;
his Hebrew translation, 77; songs
of reflection, 77, 78 ; songs of dis-
pute, 78; Zuspiele, 78; 'Memento
mori,' 78; other poems, 79; Khas-
sid songs, 79 ; imitated by Zunser,
91, 92; and see 82, 87, 103; poem
and translation, 260-265.
Eisenmenger, 29.
Eisenstadt and Schapiro, printers, 96.
Eldad ha-Dani, 30.
Elijah, in legends, 31, 32; and see
39, 169.
'Elischewa,' Gordin's, 241.
Emeth, The, Winchevsky's, 124, 226,
227.
'Empty Bottle, The,' Berenstein's,
86.
England, poetry in, 121, 122; Win-
chevsky in, 124; Rosenfeld in, 125 ;
Russian Jews in, 248; periodicals,
255, 256.
English, element in J. G., 22; mis-
sionaries writing in J. G., 135, 136,
244; authors, in translation, 168,
171, 225; for Jews, 228; Jewish
authors in, 229, 230; and see x,
17, 27.
' Enlistment, The,' Abramowitsch's
160.
Ephemeral nature, of periodicals,
xi ; of literature, 253, 254.
Epic poetry, why none, 54.
Epigrams, Ettinger's, 101; Win-
chevsky's, 227.
' Eppelberg, 253.
j Epstein, M., poetry, 165, 166; and
see 99, 235.
| Ersch and Gruber, 30.
Erter, imitated by Gottlober, 146.
Ethical treatises, 5, 244.
Ettinger, Solomon, Dr., fables, 99;
review of his life and works, 101-
103; biography, 101; imitation of
German models, 101; his works
not specifically Jewish, 101, 102;
'Serkele,' 138-140; ideal and real
characters of his drama, 139; and
see 20, 73, 108, 109, 111, 136-138,
147, 148, 152, 154, 177, 234, 235, 236 ;
poems and translations, 260, 261.
Expatriation, in songs, 67.
Fables, 99-101 ; translations of Kry-
lov, 99, 100; Suchostawer's, 99;
Gottlober's 'The Parliament,' 99,
100 ; Krylov translated by Reicher-
sohn and Singer, 100; by Katze-
nellenbogen, 100; Ettinger's, 101;
Winchevsky's, 124.
Fairy tales, Frischmann's, 202.
' Faithful Love, A,' Frumkis's, 243.
Falkowitsch, J. B., dramas, 174 ; and
see 235.
'False Hope, The,' Berenstein's,
86.
Familienfreund, Der, 106; and see
83, 87, 91, 101, 164, 179, 194, 202.
Familienkalender, Spektor's, 91, 96,
116, 179, 213.
Farces, with German letters, 256.
' Fashionable Shoemaker, The,'
Spektor's, 181-183.
Faust, bookseller, ix.
Feder, Tobias, attack on J. G., 136.
Feigenbaum, 228, 229.
Feigensohn, Russian Grammar, 247.
" Ferd hab' ich vun Paris," 71.
' Ferry, The,' Zunser, 93.
Feuilletons, in rhyme, Samostschin's,
117; and see 178.
' Fillet of Pearls, The,' Aksenfeld's,
141, 142 ; and see 147.
" Finster is' mein' Welt," 60.
'Firebrand, The,' Goldfaden's, 88.
' First Bath of Ablution, The,' Rosen-
feld's, 128.
'First Khassid, The,' Lefin's, 138.
'First Recruit, The,' Aksenfeld's,
142-145 ; and see 160.
' Fischke the Lame,' Abramowitsch's,
156, 157; psychological study, 157.
'Floh vun Tischebow, A,' Frisch-
mann's, 201.
' Floris and Blanchefleur,' 43.
' Flower, The,' Zunser's, 93.
390
INDEX
Folklore, German, among Slavic
Jews, 4 ; its relation to medieval-
ism, 8; in J. G., 25-52; diffusion
of, 25; innate love of, 26; long
survival of, 26, 27 ; its composite
nature, 27, 28; Mendelssohnian
Reform opposed to, 28 ; Talmudical
substratum, 29-32; the Sambation,
30, 31 ; treated by Meisach, 30, 31 ;
by Abramowitsch, 31; Elijah, 31,
32 ; Moses and David, 32 ; medieval
legends, 32-3G ; Maimonides, 32-34 ;
local legends in Slavic countries,
34, 35; in Wilna, 35; the Golem,
36; the Thirty-six (Lamed-wow)
saints, 36-38; Khassidic legends,
38-42; miracles, 38; Bal-schem-
tow, 38-40 ; stories of his followers,
40, 41 ; story of penance and the
grateful dead person, 41, 42;
strictly Jewish legends, 42 ; med-
ieval romances of Gentile origin,
42-44; 'Bevys of Hamptoun,' 43;
' Zeena-Ureena,' 43 ; oral folktales,
44-49; their vast number, 44; love
of story-telling, 44, 45 ; ' The Fool
is Wiser than the Wise,' 45-49;
popular beliefs, 49, 50; their com-
posite nature, 50; imaginary beings
and animals, 50 ; popular medicine,
50; proverbs, 51; anecdotes, Ab-
deritic towns, 52; folklore, in
Linetzki, 162; in Dick, 169; in
Meisach, 193.
Folksong, 53-71 ; retrospective spirit
in, 53; consideration of nature
absent, 54 ; no epic poetry, 54 ;
cradle song, 54, 55; motherhood,
ideal for women, 55, 56 ; childhood
in, 56 ; man's career, 56, 57 ; con-
ception of love, 57-59; songs of
pining, 59-61; wedding and mar-
riage in, 61-63; songs, of suffering,
63, 64; of widowhood, 64, 65; of
orphans, 65, 66; of military ser-
vice, persecution, 67-70 ; of soldier's
life, 68, 69; of massacres, 69, 70;
gloomy view of life, 70 ; comical
ditties, 70, 71; songs of Khas-
sidism, 71 ; Lerner, on, 192.
' Fool is Wiser than the Wise, The,'
45-49.
France, Russian Jews in, 248.
Francke, K., 63.
Frankfurt, resemblance of its dialect
to J. G., 17 : local legends, 32.
Free World, The, 255.
Freid, M. J., 213; and see viii.
French authors, in J. G. translation,
89, 123, 168, 171, 225, 227, 238, 241 ;
and see 28.
Frischmann, David, poetry, 116, 117;
as a critic, 201 ; his prose, 202 ; and
see 199, 253 ; poem and translation,
294-301.
'From the Marriage Baldachin,' M.
Gordon's, 84.
Frug, S., his defence of J. G., 12;
review of his life and works, 107-
110 ; why writing in J. G., 107 ;
previous poetical career in Russian ,
108 ; greater value of his J. G.
poetry, 108; model of beautiful
style, 108; mellifluousness of his
word-formations, 108, 109; his
subject — tears, 109 ; review of his
songs, 109; absence of dramatic
qualities, 110; Rosenfeld's greet-
ing to, 126 ; and see 122, 125, 187 ;
poems and translation, 306-311.
Frumkis, Sanwill, dramatist, 243.
' Fur Cap, The,' Perez's, 211.
Future, The, 255.
Galicia, culture of Jews in, 72; its
periodicals, 72; its poets, 77-82;
Ehrenkranz, 77-79 ; Broder, 79, 80 ;
imitated by badchens, 80 ; Apothe-
ker, 80, 81; Schafir,81, 82; reform
in, 132; theatre in, 242; periodi-
cals, 250; printing offices, 255;
and see ix.
Gaon, of Wilna, in folklore, 35, 36.
Garshin, in J. G., 225; and see 230.
Gaster, M., 28, 29, 34.
Gelbhaus, S., 27.
Gentiles, their literature identical
with Jews', 2, 3; blood in Pass-
over ceremony, 82.
Geography, in J. G. literature, 134,
135, 248, 249.
German = civilized, 73 ; a nickname,
149; Jews after Mendelssohn, 6;
culture in Russia, 73; language,
not possible for Russian Jews, 7;
element in J. G., in Russia, 21, 23;
in America, 22, 216, 217 ; in Gali-
cia, 72, 132 ; in Schafir's poetry,
81; in periodicals, 133; literature,
J. G. songs as, 3; model for J. G.,
7; authors in J. G. translations
and adaptations, 56, 73, 76, 101, 102,
146, 147, 165, 168, 225, 238, 241 ; and
see Blumauer, Grillparzer, Gutz-
kow, Hauptmann, Lessing, Rich-
ter, Schiller ; element in folklore,
28 ; school of poetrv, 89 ; J. G., with
— letters, 256 ; and see 50, 64, 248.
' Geschichte vun Mechiras Jossef
u-Gdulas Jossef,' 232.
Ghetto, in New York, 119, 217, 218,
et passim.
INDEX
391
Gilgulim, in folklore, 44, 50 ; in
Gottlober's work, see Transmi-
gration.
Girls' songs, 55, 57-59.
Globus, 12, 38, 44.
Gloom, in folksong, 90; in Rosen-
feld, 129.
Goethe, 128.
Gogol, translated by Schaikewitsch,
173; compared with S. Rabino-
witsch, 195, 196; adapted by Gor-
din, 241.
Goido, J., his activity in Russia, 213,
214 ; in America, 224, 225 ; and see
10, 226, 228.
Goldfaden, Abraham, review of his
poetry, 87-89 ; allegorical and his-
torical songs, 87, 88; 'The Jew,'
87 ; ' The Aristocratic Marriage,'
87, 88; 'That Little Trace of a
Jew,' 88; his prolific activity, 88,
89 ; poetry in his dramas, 89 ; ' The
Jewess,' 89 ; his most original
period, 89 ; ' Schabssiel,' influenced
by Abramowitsch,98; in America,
120, 218; starts periodical, 218:
founds theatre, 236-239, and see
Theatre ; and see 86, 92, 103, 10(5,
118, 187, 235, 242, 251, 253, 256;
extracts and translation, 268-273.
Goldstein, Rosa, 116.
'Gold Watch, The,' Ehrenkranz's,
78.
Golem, 36.
Golubok, 240.
Gonto, in rhymed chronicle, 70.
Gordin, J., dramatist, review of his
life and works, 241, 242.
Gordon, Jehuda Loeb, not translator
of 'Two Grenadiers,' 75; review
of his poetry, 89, 90 ; not surpassed
in simplicity of diction, warmth of
feeling, and purity of language,
90; and see 7, 105, 117, 177, 178;
poem and translation, 272-277.
Gordon, Michel, review of his life
and works, 82-85 ; compared with
Berenstein, 82, 83 ; his poetry mili-
tant, 83, 84; 'Arise, my People,'
83, 84 ; preaches assimilation, 84 ;
decries evil customs, 84, 85; his
definition of true culture, 85; his
ballad, 85; Frug's obligation to,
108; and see 73, 87-89, 91, 92, 103,
106, 107, 148, 177, 187, 233 ; poem
and translation, 264-269.
Gorki, imitated by Kobrin, 226.
Gosche, see Archiv.
Gottlieb, H. L., 256.
Gottlober, H. L., his popular poems,
76, 77; adaptations of German
authors, 76 ; his fable ' The Parlia-
ment,' 99, 100 ; influenced by Lefin,
136; his comedy 'The Marriage
Veil,' 145, 146; his satire "The
Transmigration,' 146 ; meeting
with Abramowitsch, 151, 152; his
daughter, 152; idealized by Abra-
mowitsch, 155 ; and see viii, 7, 20,
73, 75, 76, 91, 101, 137, 141, 147, 148,
154 234 235
' Grab, Das,' Uhland's, in J. G., 121.
1 Griiberlied, Das,' Gottlober's, 76.
Gratz, his dogmatic statements, 13;
translated, 165, 249.
Grammar, J. G., why none, 246, 247.
' Grandfather,' see Abramowitsch.
' Greatness of Joseph, The,' 232.
Greek, spelling compared with J. G.,
21 ; Church, its missions among
Jews, 244.
' Greeting to Zion,' Schafir's, 81.
Grillparzer, on J. G. stage, 241.
Grimm's fairy tales in J. G., 44.
Grossgluck, Solomon, 213.
Griinbaum, M., his ignorance of J.
G., ix, 9, 13.
Giidemann, M., his attitude to J. G.,
13 ; and see 17, 51.
Giinsburg, 134 ; and see Hurwitz, Ch.
Gurewitsch, 226.
Gutzkow, translated, 238.
Gypsy, xi.
Hajisroeli, 251.
Hajdez, 256.
Hamagid, 152.
Hameliz, 148, 149, 177, 251.
Handelskalender, see Jud. Handels-
kalender.
'Happy Reader of the Haphtora,
The,' Zweifel's, 175.
Harkavy, Alexander, 227, 228;
founds almanac, 227; writer of
text-books, 228 ; teacher of Ameri-
can citizenship, 228 ; his deserts in
the education of the Jews, 228;
translates 'Don Quixote,' 228.
Harkavy, Professor, his gift of
books, ix.
' Harp, The,' Hornstein's, 117.
Haskala, see Reform.
Hatikwoh, 256.
Hauptmann, 111.
Hausfreund, Der, compared with the
Volksbibliothek, 110; its popular
character, 186, 187; contributors
to, 187; its aim, 199; criticisms in,
201 ; and see 10, 21, 51, 83, 87, 90,
91, 96, 107, 116, 164, 179, 190, 194,
202, 213, 214, 238, 252.
' He and She,' Perez's, 113.
392
INDEX
Hebrew, compared to Latin, 2 ; learn-
ing in Slavic countries, 6; in-
struction in, 16; in Germany, 17;
religious literature in, 18 ; studies
of Abramowitsch, 151, 152; lan-
guage of enlightenment in Galicia,
72 ; translations, Ehrenkranz's and
others, 77; literature, affecting J.
G., 7; in translation, Gottlober's,
76, 147; Samostschin's, 117; from
Luzzato, 168 ; words, their spelling,
x; in J. G., before 16th century,
15; in J. G., vocabulary, 22; in
Linetzki, 22; their absence in
Winchevsky and Edelstadt, 122;
in mnemonic songs, 56.
Hebrew American, 228.
Hebrew Puck, 227.
Heilige Land, Dan, 87, 91, 201, 252.
Heine, Perez's obligations to, 111;
his imitation of, 114; Rosenfeld's
obligations to, 126 ; and see 75.
Heinike, H., 50.
' Hektor and Andromache,' Schiller's,
parodied, 121.
Held, Hersch Meier, 155.
Helwich, Ch., 43.
Hermalin, D. M., his works, 228.
'Hernani,' Hugo's, translated, 241.
'Herschele,' Dienesohn's, 190; and
see 233.
Herschele Ostropoler, 52.
Hidden saints, 36-38.
High German, J. G. a dialect of, 17.
Hindustani, compared with J. G., 15,
17.
" Hinter Jankeles Wiegele," 54, 55;
made use of by Berenstein, 86.
Historical subjects, not used by
Ehrenkranz, 77; in Goldfaden's
songs, 87 ; in his dramas, 239.
History, in literature, 249; of J. G.
literature, Sehulmann's, ix, 200.
' History of the Jews,' Gratz's trans-
lated, 165.
Hochbaum, S., 166.
* Hoffnung, Die,' Schiller's, trans-
lated, 86.
Holiday Leaves, see Jontewblattlech.
Holland, Polish Jews in, 19; Rosen-
feld in, 125.
' Homesickness,' Schafir's, 81.
Homunculus, see Golem.
Hood, Thomas, translated, 123; and
see 114, 129.
Hornstein, G. O., his works, 117.
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 221.
' How Grandfather's Child put on
her First Shoes,' Spektor's, 185.
' How the Rich Live,' Winchevsky 's,
124.
'Hudel,' Lew's, 99.
Hugo, Victor, translated, poetry,
123; novel, 227; dramas, 241.
Humor, Linetzki's, 164; humoristic
magazine, 227.
Hungary, periodical in, 256.
Hurwitz, Chaikel, 133-135 ; his use of
a Germanized J. G., 134; effect of
his ' Discovery of America ' on the
people, 134, 135; not forgiven for
writing on worldly matters, 136.
Hurwitz, coupletist, 119, 240.
Hymns, Abramowitsch's, 97.
Ibsen, translated, 241.
1 1 Cannot Understand,' M. Gordon's,
84.
" Ich geh' arauf auf'n Gass'," 68.
• Ich lach sich vun euere Traten aus,'
Gottlober's, 76.
Iliowizi, H., 36.
Imitators, Zunser s, 93.
Imperial Library, at Berlin, viii;
at St. Petersburg, viii, x.
1 Imported Bridegroom and Other
Stories,' Cahan's, 221.
Improvisations, of badchens, 93.
' In the Basement,' Perez's, 210.
' In the Garden of the Dead,' Rosen-
feld's, 128.
1 In the Sweat-shop,' Rosenfeld's, 129.
1 In the Wilderness,' Rosenfeld's, 129.
Individuality of style, evidenced by
Frischmann's criticisms, 201, 202;
not developed in America, 222.
* Insane Philosopher, The, ' 227 ; and
see Winchevsky.
'Inspector, The,' Gogol's, trans-
lated, 173.
' Iron Safe, The,' Zunser 's, 93.
Isaacs, A. S., 29, 31.
' Isabella,' her works, 187-189; com-
pared with Spektor, 187; 'The
Orphan,' 187, 188; points out dan-
gers from superficial education,
188.
Israelitische Annalen, 29.
Isserls, Rabbenu Moses, in folklore,
37,38.
Italian, Frug's language compared
to, 108.
' Ivanhoe,' Scott's, translated, 168.
Iwre-teutsch, 20, 23.
Jacobs, J., 24, 27, 43.
Jaffa, J., 238.
Jahrbiicher f. jiid. Geschichte und
IAtteratur, 27.
" Jahren kleine, Jahrenschoene," 56.
' Jaknehos,' Rabinowitsch's, 198.
' Jankel Boile,' Kobrin's, 225.
INDEX
393
Jargon, of the Talmud, 2; defined,
17 ; in Blitz Bible, 19 ; as name of
J. G., 23, 89 ; of Seiffert, 23 ; ' Songs
of the Jewish Jargon,' Frug's, 108 ;
no longer treated with contempt,
192.
Jassy, periodical in, 256 ; and see ix.
Jehuda, Jizchok — , Ben Awraham,
250.
' Jekele Kundas,' Abasch's, 168.
Jester, see Badchen.
'Jesus the Nazarene,' Hermalin's,
228.
' Jew, The,' Goldfaden's, 87.
' Jew, then not a Jew, then a Good
Jew, and again a Jew, A,' Hoch-
baum's, 166.
1 Jewess, The,' Goldfaden's, 89.
Jewish American Library, The, 225.
1 Jewish Ante-Passover,' Schatzkes's,
174.
Jeioish Chronicle, 27, 28.
Jewish Commercial Calendar, The,
see J'dd. Handelskalender.
'Jewish Don Quixote,' Abramo-
witsch's, 31, 159; extract and
translation, 284-295.
Jeioish Gazette, The, its origin, 216;
prints English supplement, 229;
and see 219, 223.
'Jewish Melodies,' Sharkansky's,
121.
Jewish Popular Calendar, see J'dd.
Volkskalender.
' Jewish Priest, The,' Gordin's, 242.
1 Jewish Tunes,' Sharkansky's, 120.
Jews, in Slavic towns, 3 ; German, of
the East and West, identical before
the 18th century, 6 ; as travellers,
24 ; disseminators of folklore, 25 ;
fond of story-telling, 44 ; their wit,
52.
Jisrulik, 251 ; and see 76, 87.
Johannisburg, ' Serkele,' printed in,
149.
John III. of Poland, his letters patent
to Blitz Bible, 19.
Jontewblattlech, Perez's, 213; and
see 114, 179, 214.
Jossef Loksch, 52.
•Jossel Bers un' Jossel Schmaies,'
Perez's, 113.
'Jossele Journeys to America,'
Sharkansky's, 121.
'Jossele Ssolowee,' S. Rabino-
witsch's, 198.
Journal of American Folklore, 12.
Journalism, J. G., in America, 219;
and see 223.
'Judas Maccabaeus,' Longfellow's,
translated, 168.
'Judel,' Abramowitsch's, an alle-
gory, 97, 98 ; and see 157.
Judeo-German, books, first printed,
4 ; for women, 55 ; language, trans-
literation, x; abandoned in Ger-
many, 6; its history, 12-24; its
neglect, by scholars, 12; by Ger-
man Jews, 13; prejudice not jus-
tified, 14; compared with the
evolution of other languages, 14,
15; the Hebrew element in, 15-17;
analogy in non-Semitic languages
with Arabic element, 17; a Ger-
man dialect group, 17, 18; evo-
lution in Slavic countries, 18;
Lithuanian dialect nearest to lit-
erary German, 18; probable fur-
ther development from Lithuanian
dialect, 18, 19; uniformity in books
of previous centuries, 19; Jargon
of Blitz Bible, its cause, 19; older
stage of, in prayers, 19, 20 ; Lefin
regenerates the language, 20 ; chaos
of orthography, 21; no linguistic
norm, 21 ; German influence, 21,
22 ; large divergence in diction, 22,
23 ; various names of, 23, 24 ; dif-
ferences between J. G. and Ger-
man, 24; dying out, 103, 104, 130;
resuscitated by Lefin, 137; style
from Lefin to Abramowitsch, 154 ;
and see Jargon; literature, not
known to the world, xi; in
newspapers, xi; result of anoma-
lous situation of Jews, 3; made
possible through isolation, 5; its
medieval period in Germany, 5;
modern period not a continuation
of old, 5 ; identical in Slavic coun-
tries and in Germany before 19th
century, 6; affected by Hebrew,
7; various phases of, 7-9; com-
pared with Bulgarian, 9; igno-
rance of some investigators of, 9,
10; sympathetic treatment of, 10;
its future, 10, 11, 214, 215 ; history
of, Dienesohn's, 192 ; Schulmann's,
200.
Judisch, 23.
Jildisch-amerikanischer Volkskalen-
der, 238, 253.
Judisch-teutsch, 23.
Judische Bibliothek, Die, Perez's,
its history and its aims, 207, 208 ;
and see 190, 213, 252.
'Judische Merk wiirdigkeiten,'
Schudt's, 231.
Judische Post, Die, 72, 251.
Judische Universalbibliothek, 36.
Judische Volksbibliothek, Die, Ra-
binowitsch's, its birth and aims,
394
INDEX
110; compared with Hausfreund,
194; its superiority, 198, 199; its
criticisms, 200 ; and see ix, 29, 76,
87, 90, 91, 96, 107, 116, 164, 190, 195,
202.
Jiidischer Handelskalender, Der,
253; and see 87, 202.
Jiidischer Volkskalender, 253; and
see 107, 202.
Jiidischer Wecker, Der, 76, 87, 91,
106, 194, 201.
Jiidisches Volksblatt, its birth, 105 ;
its history, 178, 179 ; literary part
conducted by Spektor, 179; Spek-
tor severs his connection with, 186 ;
criticisms in, 200; and see 12, 13,
30, 51, 76, 83, 90, 91, 99, 101, 106,
107, 116, 126, 140, 156, 172, 187, 190,
194, 202, 238.
1 Jungling am Bache, Der,' Schiller's,
translated, 76.
Junosza, Klemens, on J. G. literature,
10; translates Abramowitsch, 157,
159.
Jusefov, book printed at, 232.
' Kabale und Liebe,' Schiller's, trans-
lated, 241.
Kahal, 90, 156.
Kaindl, R. F., 44, 54.
Kaiser, W., 116.
Kalmus, Ulrich, 91, 167, 168.
Kamrasch, writer of drama, 235.
Kantian scholar, 132.
Kantrowitz, bookseller, 216.
Karpeles, 9, 13.
Katz, 228.
Katzenellenbogen, Raschi, his fables,
99, 100 ; dramas, 238 ; and see 76.
Kaufmann, D., 30.
Khassidim, legends of their founder,
35 ; in folklore, 38-40 ; in folksong,
70; songs on, Ehrenkranz's, 79;
life of, Linetzki's, 162, 163 ; Brett-
mann's, 166; defined, 168, 169;
treated by Perez, 211.
Kiev, Liuetzki in, 82, 149, 164 ; print-
ing office, 255 ; and see ix, 181.
' King Ahasuerus and Queen Esther,'
Goldfaden's, 239.
Kirkor, A., 36.
Kleiner Wecker, Der, 179, 202.
Kobrin, Leon, writer of sketches,
225, 226 ; and see 224, 242.
Kol-leom, 252.
Kol-mewasser, founded by Zeder-
baum, 148, 149; the rallying ground
of Jewish writers, 178; and see
via, 87, 101, 105, 106, 161, 251, 252.
Kol-mewasser, S. Rabinowitsch's, 23,
86, 201.
Kompert, 202.
Konigsberg, periodical in, 252.
Konigsberger, Dr. B., 29.
Kopyl, birthplace of Abramowitsch,
150.
Korben-ssider-teutsch, 20.
Kbrner, quoted by Berenstein, 85, 86.
Korolenko, translated, 225, 227 ; and
see 230.
Kotik and Bressler, publishers, 249.
Kowno, mysteries in, 232.
Krafft, C, 30.
Krantz, Philip, see Rombro.
Krauss, F. S., 12.
Kremenets, Abramowitsch in, 150,
151.
Krylov, translated, 99, 100.
Lachrymose novel, Dienesohn's, 189.
' Lame Marschalik, The,' 93.
Lamedwownik, see Hidden Saints.
Lamteren, 116.
Landau, A., 13, 14.
Lassale, translated, 223.
Lateiner, J., 240.
Latin, compared to Hebrew, 1,
' Law Written on Parchment, The,'
M. Gordon's, 90, 105 ; in Chrestom-
athy, 272-277.
Learning, see Tore.
Lefin, Minchas Mendel, founder of
modern period, 20; review of his
life and works, 136-138; his op-
ponents and friends, 136; obliga-
tions of later writers to, 136, 137;
introduces the vernacular into
literature, 137 ; founds popular lit-
erature, 137, 138; gives himself
example for new departure, 138;
and see 101, 133, 147, 152, 154; ex-
tract and translation, 258-261.
Legends, of Saul Wahl, 52 ; and see
Folklore.
' Leier, Die,' Apotheker's, 80.
Leipsic, printing of Aksenfeld's
works, 149.
' Leipsic Fair, The,' Ehrenkranz's, 79.
Lemberg, Mendelssohnian Reform
in, 20; books printed in, 27, 40,
255 ; and see ix, 250.
'Lemech the Miracle Worker,' Ep-
stein's, 99, 165.
Lenz, 12.
Lerner, J. J., on folksong, 53, 192;
his dramas, 238; and see ix, 140,
195, 242.
'Les Miserables,' V. Hugo's, trans-
lated, 227.
Lesselroth, B., 133, 136.
Lessing, translated, 101, 103, 138,
147, 165, 168, 241.
INDEX
395
Letterwriter, in J. G., 246.
Levi, G., 28.
Levi, Is., 28, 43.
Levi, J., 157.
Levinsohn, J. B., his J. G. work, 140;
and see 73, 102, 132, 137, 138.
Levinsohn, Ludwig, his comedy, 167 ;
and see viii, 235.
Levinsohn, printer, 254.
Levita, Elia, 43.
Lew, M. A., 99.
Libin, Z., see Gurewitsch.
1 Library of Novels,' Zuckermann's,
256.
Lifschitz, 247.
Lifschitz, J., 238.
Lilienblum, his drama, 238.
Linetzki, Izchak Joel, his Hebra-
isms, 23; his poetical works, 82;
compared with Ehrenkranz, 82;
review of his life and works, 161-
165; popularity of 'The Polish
Boy,' 161; graphic description of
Khassid's life, 161, 162; his life,
162-164; is too didactic, 164; his
Rabelaisian humor, 164; absence
of plot, 164 : later works less read-
able, 164; his translations, 165;
publishes almanac, 253; and see
ix, 20, 51, 54, 86, 91, 103, 106, 149,
175, 177, 178, 187, 211, 251, 256.
Ling, L., 123.
Liondor, L. A., letterwriter, 246.
Literatur un' Leben, Perez's, 210;
and see 179, 213, 214.
' Literature and Life,' see Literatur
un' Leben.
Lithuania, its Jewish dialect, de-
fined, 18; used by authors, 21, 82,
154; its pronunciation in normal-
ized text, x ; and see 4, 132, 171.
Litinski, 199.
1 Little Man, The,' Abramowitsch's,
155 ; and see 152.
Little Russian, influence on J. G.,
19 ; tune in J. G. song, 89.
* Little Stories for Big Men,' Perez's,
212, 213; allegory in, 212; con-
tents, 212, 213.
Loeb, Is., 28.
Lokschen, Frischmann's, 201.
London, collection of J. G. litera-
ture in, viii ; in J. G. poetry, 124 ;
theatre in, 240; publications, 256;
and see 223.
Longfellow, translated, 168.
Lotze, H., 27.
Love, not in vocabulary, 57, 112 ; in
folksong, 59; Spektor's conception
of. 181 ; as treated by Perez, 209.
Loweustein, L., 74.
Lubbock, John, translated. 224.
Lublin, printing in, 27, 244', 255.
Luzzato, translated, 108.
Lyrics, in folksong, 53; Linetzki's,
82 ; Ehrenkranz's, 79 ; Perez's, 114 ;
Rosenf eld's, 129.
Maase Adonai, 32.
Maasebuch, offsets Gentile folklore,
2; intended mainly for Eastern
readers, 4 ; Jewish legends in, 5 ;
and see 32, 42.
Magazines, in America, 224 ; and see
Periodicals.
'Maggot in the Horseradish, The,'
Linetzki's, 165.
Maimon, Salomon, 132.
Maimonides, 32.
Mainz, periodical in, 251.
Maisse, see Maase.
Malay, xi.
Mame-loschen, 23.
Manes & Simel, printers, 254.
Mannheim, performance at house of
Rabbi of, 231.
Manuscripts, Ettinger's, in New
York, 101; of J. G. productions,
137 ; Aksenfeld's, 141.
Marks, coupletist, 119.
Marriage, early, 57 ; pleasing to
God, 58; in folksong, 61.
' Marriage Veil, The,' Gottlober's,
145, 146.
Marschalik, see Badchen.
' Marschalik with One Eye,' 93.
1 Mary Stuart,' Schiller's, translated,
240.
1 Massacres of Gonto in Uman and
the Ukraine, The," Skomarowski's,
199, 200.
Masse, translated, 168.
Maundeville, Sir John, 44.
Maupassant, translated, 225.
'Measuring of the Graves,' Rosen-
feld's, 128.
' Meat-Tax, or the Gang of City Ben-
efactors, The,' Abramowitsch's,
156.
'Medea,' Grillparzer's, translated,
241.
Medicine, treated popularly by Dr.
Tscherny, 200, 249.
Medievalism, preserved by Slavic
Jews, 5 ; in folklore, 8.
" Mein Tochter, wu bist du
gewe'n?" 63.
'Meir Esofowitsch,' Orzeszko's, on
stage, 241.
Meisach, 193 ; and see 23, 30, 238.
Melamed, language of, 20; in Frug's
poem, 109.
396
INDEX
Melancholy, in love songs, 59, 60.
'Melodies from the Country near
the River San,' Schafir's, 81.
Melodramas, in America, 119 ; Gold-
faden's, 239.
Me'lusine, 43.
1 Memento mori,' and ' Memento
vivere,' 78.
Mendele Mocher Sforim, 155, 255 ;
and see Ahramowitsch.
Mendelssohn, his teacher, 6 ; and see
Reform.
Mendicant, in literature, 157, 158.
'Merchant of Venice, The,' trans-
lated, 228.
Mesiboz, birthplace of Bal-schem-
tow, 35.
' Messenger, The,' Perez's, 204, 205;
and see 210.
Michel, Louise, 123.
1 Midnight Prayer,' Schafir's, 81.
' Milchomo be-Scholom,' Pawier's,
232.
Militant poetry, M. Gordon's, 83.
Military service, in folksong, 67-69;
in literature, 143-145.
Minski, 107.
Miracle-workers, 38, 39; and see
Bal-schem-tow and Epstein.
■ Mirror, The,' Ehrenkranz's. 78.
Misnagdim, defined, 168, l*i;); and
see 70, 133.
Missionaries, in J. Gv 135 ; translate
New Testament, 136 ; and see 244.
Mitteilungen d. Gesellschaft f. jiid.
Volkskunde, 54, 86.
' Mlawe Malke,' in legend, 32.
Mnemonic songs, 56.
Mogulesco, coupletist, 119.
' Mohammed,' Hermalin's, 228.
Mohr, A. M., 250.
Monatschrift f. Geschichte u. Wis-
senschaft des Judenthums, 74.
1 Monisch,' Perez's, 112, 113 ; and see
125.
Montefiore, Sir Moses, 81.
'Moon Prayer, The,' Rosenf eld's,
128.
Moore, Thomas, 126.
Moral treatises, rhymed, 96.
Morgenstern, bookseller, viii.
Morgulis, M. G., 157.
Moscow, The Jewish, 152; and see
196.
Moses, in legend, 32.
Mother-in-law, in folksong, 61, 62.
Motherhood, in folksong, 55.
' Mother's Parting, A,' J. L. Gor-
don's, 90.
Motke Chabad, 52.
M.-Sziget, periodical in, 256.
1 Mursa,' Freid's, 213.
Music, of cradle song, 86.
' My Advice,' M. Gordon's, 84.
' My Boy,' Rosenfeld's, 127.
Mysteries, 231, 232.
Mythology, German, in folklore,
49, 50.
Nadson, 107, 114.
Nagl, J. W., 13.
Narodniks, of Spektor's circle, 192 ;
in America, 220.
Natansohn, B., 140.
' Nathan the Wise,' Lessing's, trans-
lated, 165; on stage, 241.
'"National Songs,' Rosenfeld's, 128;
Schafir's, 81 ; of America, 240.
National Theatre, Jewish theatre in,
240.
Natural Science, translated, 249.
Nature, consideration of, absent, 54;
and see 92.
Nekrasov, imitated by Rabinowitsch,
106.
Neubauer, A., 74.
Neue Zeit, Die, 224, 229.
Neuer Geist, Der, 228; and see 10,
224, 225, 229.
Newspapers, in America, x, xi, 219.
New Testament, in J. G., 136.
New York, theatre in, 118, 119, 240-
242; and see America, and 101,
125, 217, 223.
Nev) York Illustrated Gazette, The,
87, 218.
Neio Yorker Illustrirte Zeitung, see
above.
Nicholas I., his military regime, 67,
68; Jewish mind under, 145; his
reforms liberal, 158.
' Niebelungenlied,' 4.
' Night of the Destruction of Jerusa-
lem, The,' M. Perel's, 117.
1 Night Songs,' Frug's, 109.
' Nightingale, The,' Ehrenkranz's, 77.
'Nightingale to the Laborer, The,'
Rosenfeld's, 130.
Nihilists, in J. G. literature, 220.
Nitsche, printer, 254.
'Noble Tom-Cat, The,' Winchev-
sky's, 124 ; in Chrestomathy, 312-
315.
' Nora,' Ibsen's, on stage, 241.
Normalized text, x.
North American Indian, xi.
' Nosegay, The,' Rabinowitsch's,
198.
Novels, in America, 218.
Obscurity, alleged, of Perez, 201,
202.
INDEX
397
Odessa, Ettinger in, 101; Aksenfeld
iu, 141: Linetzki in, 163; theatre
in, 237; printing in, 254; and see
ix.
'Old World and the New, The,'
Zunser's, 93.
1 On Michel Gordon's Grave,' Frug's,
108.
1 On the Bosom of the Ocean,' Rosen-
feld's, 128; in Chrestomathy, 324-
333.
'On the History of. the Jews iu
Podolia,' Litinski's, 199.
' On Trades,' Perez's, 208.
' One of the Best,' Frug's, 108.
Operas, Goldfaden's, 239.
' Ophir,' Frischmann's, 116.
Oppenheim collection, vii.
' Oppressed, The,' Pinski's, 214.
Oppression, in Rosenfeld's poetry,
130.
Oral form of popular song, 75
Orgelbrand, printer, 254.
Oriental Theatre, at New York, 240.
Originality, lack of, in American
writers, 222.
Orphan, in folksong, 65.
' Orphan, The,' Isabella, 187, 188.
Orsanskij, I. G.,53.
Orthography, in this work, x ; of J.
G., 21, 246, 247.
Orzeszko, translated, 241.
Ostrovski, compared with S. Rabino-
witsch, 195; adapted for stage,
241.
Oxford, collection in Bodleian Mu-
seum, vii.
Palestine, Jews in, 248.
Paris, publications, 256 ; and see 223.
' Parliament, The,' Gottlober's, 99.
' Parnes-chodesch. The,' Gordin's,
241.
Parsons, A., 123.
Passover, Gentile blood at, 82.
Pawier, Elieser, 232.
' Pedler, The,' Zunser's, 120.
Penance, in folklore, 41, 42.
Penkowski, M. M., 116.
People's Library, The, 256.
Perel, Minchas, his poetry, 117.
Perez, Leon, review of his life and
works, 110-117, among the great-
est writers of 19th century, 110;
his productivity, 110, 111 ; his
course of study, 111 ; not properly
a popular poet, 111, 112; allured
by Jewish Muse, 112; 'Monisch,'
his first production, 112, 113; sto-
ries in verse, 113, 114; shorter
poems, imitations, 114 ; ' The Sew-
ing of the Wedding Gown,' a
powerful poem, 114-116; his disci-
ples, 116; criticised by Frisch-
mann, 201 ; as a novelist, 202-214 ;
most original author, 202 ; accusa-
tion of obscurity not entirely jus-
tified, 203; his sympathies with
humanity at large, 203 ; writes for
the lowly, 203, 204; review of
'Well-known Pictures,' 204-206;
' The Messenger,' 204, 205 ; ' What
is a Soul ? ' 205, 206 ; ' The Grazy
Beggar-Student,' 206; founds Die
jiidische Bibliothek, 206-208 ; as a
popularizer of sciences, 208; pre-
fers the tragic moments in life,
209; his profound sympathies for
the masses, 208-210 ; review of his
sketches in 'Literature and Life,'
210-213; 'The Fur-Cap,' 211; his
allegory due to political causes,
212; 'Little Stories for Big Men,'
212, 213; his disciples, 213, 214;
and see viii, 21, 107, 125, 199, 214,
215, 249, 253; ' Bontsie Silent ' and
translation, 332-353.
Periodicals, x, 110, 124, 133, 148, 149,
177-179, 186, 187, 194, 198-200, 207,
210, 213, 214, 216, 219, 221, 223-
229, 250, 255, 256.
Perovskaya, Sophia, 123.
Persian, compared to J. G., 7, 15.
Pessimism, in folksong, 70 ; in cradle
song, 86.
Petrikowski, 156.
Philipson, D., 13.
Phonetic spelling, of Hebrew and
Slavic words, x.
' Pictures of a Provincial Journey,'
Perez's 208
Pinski, David, his works, 213, 214.
Plagiarism, Zunser's, 93.
'Plough, The,' Zunser's, 120.
Poetry, 53-130; folksong, 53-71;
thjgir didactic purpose, 74 ; manu-
script form of, 74, 75 ; their anony-
mousness leading to mistakes, 75 ;
set to music, 74, 75 ; Gottlober, 76,
77; Ehrenkranz, 77-79; Broder,
79,80; Apotheker, 80, 81 ; Schafir,
81, 82; Linetzki, 82; Gordon and
Berenstein, 82, 83; M. Gordon,
83-85; Berenstein, 85-87; Gold-
faden, 87-89; German school of,
89 ; J. L. Gordon, 89, 90 ; Badchens,
90, 91; Zunser, 91-94; rhymed
moral treatises, 95, 96; S. Sobel
and Zweifel, 96; Abramowitsch,
96-98; Goldfaden, 98, 99 : Lew and
Epstein, 99; fables, 99-101 ; Sucho-
s!;-wer, 99; Gottlober, 99, 100;
398
INDEX
Krylov in J. G., 99, 100 ; Ettinger,
101, 102; review of development
of, 103, 104; after 1881, 105-130;
S. Rabinowitsch, 105, 106; Fam-
ilienfreund, 106; Chaschkes, 106,
107 ; Frug, 107-110 ; Perez, 110-116 ;
minor, 116 ; Frischmann, 116 ; Sa-
mostschin, 116, 117; Perel, 117;
Hornstein, 117; in America, 117-
130; theatre couplet, 119, 120;
Reingold, 120; Zunser, 120; Gold-
faden, 120; Sharkansky, 120, 121;
socialistic songs, 121, 122; Edel-
stadt, 122, 123; Winchevsky, 123,
124; Rosenfeld, 124-130; and see
8, 198, 216, 238.
Pogrom, in song, 67, 69.
•Pogrom, The,' Gordin's, 242.
Poland, J. G., dialect of, 18; and see
3, 50, 53, 69, 132.
'Polish Boy, The,; Linetzki's, 161,
164, 165, 175.
Polish Jew, The, Winchevsky's,
223, 255.
'Polish Scholar, The,' J. Z. Sobel's,
216.
Polish, works in J. G., 171, 225, 241 ;
grammar in J. G., 133, 247 ; J. G.
works in, 10, 157, 159, 239; words
in J. G., 16, 19; and see 21.
Political Economy, in J. G., 249.
' Popular History of the Jews, The,'
Graetz's, translated, 249.
Popular Science, in J. G., 208, 221,
222, 249.
Potapenko, translated, 225.
Prague, printing offices, 16; in leg-
end, 32, 36 ; periodicals, 250.
Prayer, see Tchines.
Prayer-book, in verse, 96, 97.
'Precentor, The,' Ehrenkranz's, 78.
Press, in America, 229.
Printing offices 254, 255.
'Prizyw, The,' 231, 234; and see
Enlistment.
'Progress, Civilization,' S. Rabino-
witsch's, 106.
Pronunciation, of J. G., x.
Prose, 131-256; and see Drama,
Judeo-German, etc.
Prost-jiidisch, 23.
Proverbs, 51, 193.
' Proverbs,' Lefin's, 136.
" Przemysl, You my Dear Cradle,"
Schafir's, 81.
Psalms, versified, by Linetzki, 82;
Abramowitsch, 97; translated by
Lefin, 136.
Pseudonyms, 148, 149; and see ix,
155.
Puck, imitated in J. G., 227.
'Purim and Passover,' Spektor's,
184, 185.
Purim plays, 234, 243.
' Rabbi Joselmann,' Goldfaden's,
239.
1 Rabbi on the Ocean, The,' Ehren-
Rabbinical schools, 74, 235, 244, 245.
Rabbis, opposed to folklore, 26; in
legends, 32-36; in folksong, 71;
and see 6, 50, 91, 124, 163.
Rabelaisian humor, in Linetzki, 164.
Rabinowitsch, B. Z., 75.
Rabinowitsch, M. J., his sketches,
202.
Rabinowitsch, Solomon, his poetry,
105, 106; imitating Nekrasov, 106;
establishes Judische Volksbiblio-
thek, 110; review of his prose
works, 194-201 ; his versatility,
and comparison with Spektor, 194 ;
attracts attention of Russian
critics, 195; his delineations of
character, 195 ; compared to Gogol
and Ostrovski, 195, 196; a littera-
teur, 196; 'Child's Play,' 196;
'Sender Blank,' 196, 197; ' Stem-
penju,' 197; 'Jossele Ssolowee,'
198; his poetic prose not successful,
198; history of Volksbibliothek,
198-200; criticises Schaikewitsch,
200, 201; and see ix, 23, 86, 172,
179, 199, 215, 220, 252, 253 ; extract
and translation, 300-305.
Rabnizki, as critic, 201; and see 21.
' Rag and the Papershred, The,'
Winchevsky's, 124.
' Railroad, The,' Zunser's, 93.
Rambam, see Maimonides.
'Realistic Library,' Kobrin's, 225.
Realists, in America, 222, 225.
' Reb Jossel,' Perez's, 113.
' Reb Treitel,' Spektor's, 186.
Rebe, 71 ; and see Rabbi.
'Rebecca's Death,' Goldfaden's, 88.
'Recollections,' see 'Sichrones.'
' Red Caroline,' Freid's, 213.
Red Jews, 30, 159.
Reflection, songs of, 77, 82, 93.
Reform, Mendelssohnian, finding its
way into Russia and Poland, 6;
forcing Jargon on J. G., 23; in
Galicia, 72 ; not successful because
of ostracism of J. G. , 135 ; connec-
tion with, broken, 191, 196; and
see 8, 89, 101, 131, 132, 148, 149.
Reformation, by Dick, 171; and see
4.
Reichersohn, Zwi Hirsch, translator
of Krylov, 100.
INDEX
399
Reingold, I., coupletist, 120.
Remuneration of authors, 160, 199.
Resser, 249.
Retrospective spirit, in folksong, 53.
Revue des Etudes Juives, 28, 30.
Rhine, Slavic Jews from, 3, 18; J.
G., resembling dialects of Middle,
17.
Richter, Jean Paul, influence on
Aksenfeld, 141, 147.
Rivkin, bookseller, ix.
' Rochele the Singer,' Falkowitsch's,
174.
Romancero, Perez, in style of, 111.
Romantic love, in folksong, 57.
Rombro, J., his activity, 223, 224;
and see 226, 238.
Romm, printing office, 97, 170, 254.
1 Rose between Thorns, A,' Sahik's,
243.
'Rosele,' Gordin's, 241.
Rosenberg, F., 3,74.
Rosenfeld, Morris, review of his life
and works, 124-130; his life, 125;
experience in sweat-shop, 125 ; first
attempts in poetry, 125, 126; his
obligations to various authors, 126 ;
his cry of anguish and despair,
126, 127; review of 'The Songs
from the Ghetto,' 127-129 ; his dra-
matic and lyrical qualities, 129;
technical structure of his poems,
129, 130 ; compared to Dante, 130 ;
and see 107, 120, 123, 229, 242;
poem and translation, 324-333.
Rosenthaliana, at Amsterdam, viii.
' Roumania Opera House,' New York,
240.
Roumania, theatre in, 236, 242; pub-
lications, 256 ; and see ix, 228.
Russian, in J. G. translation and
imitation, 76, 89, 168, 171, 222, 225,
227, 253; J. G. works translated
in, 120, 156; education among
Jews, 7; affecting J. G. litera-
ture, 8, 103; ideals among J.
G. writers, 192; intelligence in
America, 220; grammar in J. G.,
247 ; Russianization unfavorable
to J. G. literature, 5, 7; Russi-
cisms in J. G., 22; and see x, xi,
3, 89, 107, 120, 178, 195, 212, 222,
241.
'Russian Jew in America, The,'
Gordin's, 242.
' Russian Tea-machine, The,' Ehren-
' Ruy Bias',' V. Hugo's, on stage, 241.
' Sabbath Prayers,' Abramowitsch's,
97.
Sachor-Masoch, M., 38.
' Sacrifice of Isaac, The,' Goldfaden's,
239.
Sahik, David, his comedy, 243.
Saineanu, L., 14, 24.
Saints, see Hidden Saints.
' Sale of Joseph,' 231-233.
Sambation, in legend, 30, 31; in
Abramowitsch's work, 159.
Samostschin, Paltiel, his poems, 106;
and see ix, 116, 187.
Satire, Abramowitsch's, 157 ; Perez's,
211 ; Winchevsky's, 227.
Satulowski, M. W., his poems, 116.
' Savings of the Women, The,' L.
Levinsohn's, 166, 167.
• Schabssiel,' Goldfaden's, 98.
Schadow, printer, 254.
Schafir.Bajrach Benedikt,his poems,
81, 82.
Schaikewitsch, M. R., pernicious
effect of his works, 172-174 ; criti-
cised by Rabinowitsch, 200, 201;
in America, 218; and see 9, 22,
134, 181, 189, 215, 220, 227, 238,
240, 298, 299.
Schatzkes, M A , his ' Ante-Pass-
over,' 174, 175 ; and see 38, 51.
Scheinfinkel, bookseller, viii.
Schildburg, 52.
Schiller, translated, 76, 85, 86, 101,
103, 147, 241 ; parodied, 121 ; and
see 126,
" Schoen bin ich, schoen, un' schoen
is' mein Namen," 58.
Schomer, see Schaikewitsch.
' Schomer's Mischpet,' S. Rabino-
witsch's, 200, 201.
Schroder, 43.
Schudt, 231.
Schuhl, M.,51.
Schulmann, A , on literature, 200;
and see ix, 13.
" Schwarz bist du, schwarz, aso wie
a Zigeuner," 59.
Schwarzfeld, M., 44, 51.
Sciences in J. G., 160, 199, 208, 224.
Scott, Walter, translated, 168.
Scribe, translated, 238.
Segel, B. W., 31, 32, 38, 44, 51, 53.
Seiffert, M., 22, 23, 172, 174, 218, 229.
Selikowitsch, 120.
'Sender Blank,' S. Rabinowitsch's,
196, 197.
Sensational novel, in America, 230.
Sentimental novel, Dienesohn's, 189;
and see 181.
Serapeum, 2, 4, 30, 31, 38, 42, 50, 52,
74, 231.
Serious aspects of life, in folksong,
54.
400
INDEX
'Serkele,' Ettinger's, 138-140; and
see 101, 149, 236.
' Sermon of the Lamps, The,' Perez's,
212, 213.
' Sewing of the Wedding Gown, The,'
Perez's, 110, 114, 115.
Shakespeare, translated, 224, 228.
Sharkansky, A. M., review of his
poetry, 120, 121; and see 226,
229.
Shchedrin, imitated by Goido, 225.
Shelley, obligations to, 111, 126.
' Shoemaker and Tailor,' Broder's,
80.
Short Stories, 221.
' Sichrones,' Gottlober's, 134, 141.
Siegfried, 4.
Sieukiewicz, translated, 225.
Silo, in rhymed chronicle, 70.
1 Sinbad the Sailor,' in J. G., 44.
Singer, I., 100.
SistematicesJcij ukazateV, 10, 28, 38,
44, 51, 150, 161, 238.
" Sitz' ich mir auf'n Stein," 58.
Skomarowski, Dr., 200.
Skurchowitsch, Russian grammar,
247.
Slavic, Jews, more active than Ger-
man, 5; separated from German,
6; element in folklore, 28, 50; in
language, 16, 108; folksongs in J.
G., 56, 59, 60; words spelled pho-
netically, x ; and see 137.
'..Sleep, The,' Berenstein's, 86.
Sliwien, see Kirkor.
Sobel, Jacob Zwi, 216.
Sobel, S., his poetry, 96.
Socialism, in J. G. literature, 221,
255, 256; Socialists in America,
121-124, 126, 219, 221, 229.
1 Socialistic Library,' London, 255.
Societe des Etudes Juives, 38.
Sokolowski, Dr., 70.
Solotkov, N., 10, 228
' Song of Summer and Winter,'
Zunser's, 93.
1 Song of the Gravedigger,' Broder's,
80.
'Song of the Shirt,' Hood's, trans-
lated, 123; and see 129.
Songs, set to music, 74, 75, 84; and
see 3, 239, and Folksong, Poetry,
etc.
' Songs from the Ghetto,' Rosen-
feld's, 127-130.
' Songs from the Heart,' Chaschkes's,
107.
' Songs of Jewish Jargon,' Frug's,
108.
' Songs of Labor,' Rosenfeld's, 127.
' Songs of Zion,' Sharkansky's, 121.
Sonnet rhymes, Rosenfeld's, 130.
Southern, dialect in literature, 77,
83, 154 ; writers, 175.
Spanish, translation from, 228; and
see 1, 24, 248.
Spektor, Mordechai, founds Haus-
freund, 110 ; review of his life and
works, 177-193; taking charge of
Volksblatt, 179; his melancholy
dignity and even tenor, 180; de-
scribes life of artisan, 180; his
simplicity of style, 181; candid
treatment of love, 181 ; ' The Fash-
ionable Shoemaker,' 181-183 ; ' Two
Companions,' 183, 184; shorter
stories, 185 ; his strict objectivity,
185; 'RebTreitel,' 186; on the life
of the Balschem-tow, 186 ; purpose
and contributors of Hausfreund,
186, 187; and see viii, 51, 106,
179, 191, 193-195, 199, 203, 207,
214, 215, 252, 253.
Spektor, Mrs., see Isabella.
Sseefer Maisse Zadikim, 40.
Sseefer Sikoron, 148, 150, 161, 169,
179, 195.
St. Petersburg, Imperial Library of,
X', periodicals, 105, 179; and see
viii, 238.
Stddt-aazeiger, I)er, 10, 238.
' Stagnant Pool, The,' Perez's, 212.
Stars and Stripes, in J. G. literature,
120.
Steinschneider, M., his ignorance of
J. G., 9; antipathy to J. G., 13;
and see 19, 27, 196, and Serapeum.
' Stempenju,' S. Rabinowitsch's, 196,
197 ; extract and translation, 300-
305
'Stepmother, The,' M. Gordon's, 85,
233; poem and translation, 264-
269.
' Stone in the Way, The,' Diene-
sohn's, 190.
' Story of a Piece of Bread,' Masse's,
translated, 168.
' Story of Long Ago, A,' J. L. Gor-
don's, 90.
Strack, 13.
Style, Aksenfeld's, 142; from Lefin
to Abramowitsch, 154 ; since Abra-
mowitsch, 155 ; Dick's, 172 ; Perez's,
204.
Suchostawer, Mordechai, 99.
' Sulamith,' Goldfaden's, 239.
Superstitions, 49, 50, 193.
Siisskind, 3.
Suwalk, birthplace of Rosenfeld, 125.
Sweat-shop, and Rosenfeld, 125 ; and
see 118, 119, 123, 129.
Symbolism, Perez's, 201.
INDEX
401
Talmud, in Russia, 16, 53, 132 ; folk-
lore of, 27, 29-32, 49, 50; legends
treated by Perez, 111 ; by Meisach,
193; and see 57.
Tannenbaum, Abraham, popularizer
of science, 222, 223, 249.
Tchines, language of, 20 ; literature
of, 244, 245 ; and see 128.
Tchines-teutsch, 20.
Tears, in art, 95 ; in poetry, 109.
Tendlau, A. M., 28, 52.
' Tenth Commandment, The,' Gold-
faden's, 239.
1 Teudo Beisroel,' J. L. Levinsohn's,
140.
Teutsch, 23.
Text-books, in J. G., 247, 248.
Thankful Dead, in folklore, 41, 42.
1 That Little Trace of a Jew,' Gold-
faden's, 88.
Theatre, 231-243; old period, 231-
234; 'The Sale of Joseph,' etc.,
231-233; mysteries, 232; Zunser's
play, 232, 233; performance of
'Sale of Joseph,' 233; Purim
plays, 234; dramas not staged,
234, 235; early prose style dra-
matic, 235; structure of drama,
235, 236; first two comedies of
Goldfaden, 236; founds theatre in
Roumania, 236, 237 ; vicissitudes
of, in Russia, 237, 238; Lerner's
adaptations, 238 ; Goldfaden's his-
torical dramas, 239; established
in New York, 240; deterioration
of, 240, 241; Gordin's activity,
241, 242; future of, 242, 243; its
primitive nature, 243; and see
Drama, Comedy.
' Theatre, The,' Ehrenkranz's, 78.
Thirty-six, The, see Hidden Saints.
' Thousand and One Nights,' in J. G.,
27, 43.
'Three Persons,' Spektor's, 185.
Till Eulenspiegel, 52.
' 'Tis Best to Live without Worry-
ing,' Ehrenkranz's, 78.
Titles, of books, 55.
' To Michel Gordon,' Frug's, 108.
' To Our Poet,' S. Rabinowitsch's,
105.
'To the Flowers in Autumn,' Rosen-
feld's, 128, 129.
Tomaschewski, 240.
' Tombstone, The,' Ehrenkranz's,
78.
' Tombstone-cutter, The,' Ehren-
kranz's, 78.
' Tony,' Korner's, quoted, 86.
Topolowsky, printer, 216.
Tore, in folksong, 54, 70.
Tradition, no, in J. G. poetry, 108.
Tragedy, see Drama.
Translations, see German, French,
English, Polish, Russian, etc.
Transliteration of J. G., x.
' Transmigration, The,' Gottlober's,
146.
' Trilby,' on stage, 240.
Trubnik, J., 29.
' True Education and the False Edu-
cation, The,' M. Gordon's, 85.
Tscharny, 159.
Tscherny, Dr., 200, 249.
Tunes of Songs, 74, 75, 89.
Turkish, compared with J. G., 15, 17.
Turner Hall Theatre, New York, 240.
'Turnip Soup, The,' M. Gordon, 84.
'Two Companions,' Spektor's, 183,
184.
'Two Grenadiers,' Heine's, paro-
died, 75.
' Two Neighbors, The,' Goldfaden's,
236.
Uhland, translated, 121.
Ukraine, blood bath of, 70.
' Uncle Moses Mendelssohn,' Ler-
ner's, 238.
'Uncle, The,' Spektor's, 185.
'Unhappy Man, The,' 96.
' Universal History,' Resser's, 249.
Urquell, 29, 31, 38, 44, 50, 52-54.
Useful Calendar, The, Abramo-
witsch's, 252.
Venice, Bovo printed in, 43.
Verne, Jules, translated, 222.
Vilenkin, 107.
Volhynia, dialect of, in literature,
21 ; and see 77, 150.
Volksbibliothek, see Jud. Volksbib.
Volksblatt, see Jud. Volksblatt.
Volksfreund, 164.
Voschod, 10, 54, 75, 90, 157, 195.
Vowels, pronunciation of, x.
Wagenseil, 42.
Wahl, Saul, 54.
' Wanderer, The,' Ehrenkranz's, 80.
' Wanderings of Benjamin the Third,
The,' Abrampwitsch's, 159, 160.
War, Jews opposed to, 67.
Warsaw, bookstores in, viii; prints,
27, 244, 254; periodicals, 133, 250;
Spektor in, 186, 187 ; theatre, 239,
242 ; and see 97, 125, 132, 148.
Warsaw Jewish Family Calendar,
The, 253 ; and see Familienkalen-
der.
Warschauer jiidische Zeitung, Die,
viii, 76, 251.
402
INDEX
" Wasser schaumt,Wasser schaumt,"
66.
* Watch, The,' Zunser's, 92.
Wecker, see Jiid. Wecker.
Wedding, in folksong, 61.
Weiberdeutsch, 55.
Weissberg, M., 72.
1 Well-known Pictures,' Perez's,
204-206.
* What is'a Soul ? ' Perez's, 204-206.
1 While you Live, you Must not
Think of Death,' Ehrenkranz's,
78.
White Russian element in J. G., 19.
' Whither? ' Rosenf eld's, 128.
Widerkol, 179.
Widowhood, in song, 64.
Wiener, L., 54, 76.
Wiernik, Ph., 10, 229.
Wigalois, 4.
* Wigderl the Son of Wigderl,' 166.
1 Wild Man, The,' Gordin's, 242.
Wilna, local tales, 35, 36; books
printed in, 27, 134, 245, 254; publi-
cation, 214; and see viii, 74, 145,
149, 221.
Winchevsky, Morris, his poetry, 123,
124 ; his culture and socialism, 123 ;
treats on social questions, 124 ; his
fables, 124; his prose, 226, 227;
edits Emeth, 226, 227; his style
carefully balanced, 227; excellence
of his translations, 227 ; and see 22,
107, 122, 223, 242 ; poem and trans-
lation, 312-315.
Wisla, 38.
Wollmann, 167.
Woloderski, B., 83.
Women, as preservers of J. G., 18;
their love of folktales, 26; books
for, 55 ; songs on, 89 ; in literature,
see Isabella, Goldstein.
Word-building, Abramowitsch's,154.
Word-painting, Rosenfeld's, 126, 129,
130.
Workers' Friend, The, 223.
' Workingmen's Program,' Las-
sale's, translated, 223.
« World Turned Topsy-Turvy, The,'
J. B. Levinsohn's, 140.
' Yekl,' Cahan's, 221.
Yiddish, 23.
' Young Tears,' Berenstein's, 86.
Youth, songs of, 56.
Zamoszcz, Ettinger in, 101 ; Perez
born in, 111 ; seat of Haskala, 132.
Zazkin, Russian Grammar, 247.
Zbaraz, Ehrenkranz born in, 77.
Zbi6r wiadomosci do antropologii
krajowej, see Segel.
Zederbaum, founder of Kol-mewas-
ser, 148, 149; his deserts in J. G.
letters, 177, 178; the connecting
link between two generations of
writers, 177 ; founds Hebrew peri-
odical, 177 ; his Kol-mewasser, 178 ;
founds Volksblatt, 178, 179; and
see 111, 215, 251, 252.
' Zeena Ureena', 5, 19, 43.
Zeit, Die, 229.
Zeitschrift d.Vereinsf. Volkskunde,
29, 44, 54.
Zeitschrift f. Ethnologie, 44.
Zeitung, 72, 250.
Zhelezniak, in rhymed chronicle, 70.
Zhitomir, books published in, 83, 87,
97, 254; Rabbinical school in, 74,
149 ; and see 245.
Zionism, 185, 192, 193, 214, 252.
Zuckermann, publisher, 256.
Zukunft, Die, 224.
Zunser, Eliokum, his poetry, 91-93;
reforming badchen's profession,
91, 92 ; his obligations to popular
poets, 91, 92; adopts manner of
Galicians, 92; his repertoire, 93;
in America, 120; his drama, 232,
233 ; and see 74, 106, 187, 218.
Zunz, 17.
Zuspiel, nature of, 78 ; and see 86.
Zweifel, Elieser, Zwi, his poetry, 96 ;
his moral treatises, 174, 175 ; and
see 137, 244 ; extract and transla-
tion, 264, 265.