Writers in Poland and the Soviet Union
Following the Russian Revolution and World War I, new trends in Yiddish literature appeared in Kiev, Moscow, and Warsaw (as well as in Berlin and New York). Some of the leading authors were David Bergelson, Der Nister, Peretz Markish, and David Hofshteyn. Their literary activities were most successful in the 1920s, after which Soviet restrictions made free expression increasingly difficult. In August 1952 several major Yiddish authors fell victim to the Stalinist purges.
Bergelson read widely in Russian and Hebrew literature and introduced a powerful, innovative, impressionistic style into Yiddish narrative. Arum vokzal (1909; “At the Depot,” translated into English in A Shtetl and Other Yiddish Novellas [1986]), his first novella, already exemplifies the new modernism—involving multiple perspectives and internal monologues in free, indirect style. Bergelson’s characteristic atmosphere of futility and despair is vividly present in the novella In a fargrebter shtot (1914; “In a Backwoods Town”). His masterpiece Opgang (1920; Departing) conveys the decline of the shtetl using techniques such as internal monologue, dream sequences, nonlinear narrative, and a roving narrative eye that views the town from the perspective of many different characters. When the novel opens, its main character has already died of uncertain causes; his friend returns to the shtetl and tries to understand his death. The novel’s sordid details hint at the moribund quality of small Jewish towns in eastern Europe. Opgang and two of Bergelson’s shorter works appear in English translation in The Stories of David Bergelson (1996).
Der Nister (“The Hidden One”; pseudonym of Pinhas Kahanovitsh) was a highly original Symbolist author. Early in his career he translated selected stories of Hans Christian Andersen and later incorporated folktale elements into his fiction. His major work was the two-volume novel Di mishpokhe Mashber (1939–48; The Family Mashber [the Hebrew word mashber means “crisis”]).
Expressionism (a movement that emphasized the representation of subjectivity through forceful, often exaggerated effects) in Yiddish is clearly represented by the poetry of Uri Tsvi Grinberg. Although he is best known as a Hebrew poet, his early Yiddish works from 1912 to 1921 are also remarkable. His first book of poems, Ergets af felder (1915; “Somewhere in Fields”) describes wartime experiences in deliberately shocking images. In the title poem, the poet exclaims, “Oh, give me fresh-blossoming red flowers! / Flowers that remind me of blood.” In 1920–22 he was associated with the Warsaw-based group known as Khaliastre (“The Gang”). After he moved to Palestine in 1924, he concentrated on writing in Hebrew.
Another member of “The Gang,” Markish, wrote outstanding epic poems. His 1922 pogrom poem “Di kupe” (“The Mound” or “The Heap”) contrasts sharply with his idyllic, ahistorical nature poetry in “Volin” (1919). His later work is less often studied, in part because Markish adapted himself to the Soviet regime. The Expressionism of his early poems gives way to mimetic, class-conscious representations. Markish was among the many Yiddish authors killed during the Stalinist purges of 1952.
In the 1920s I.J. (Israel Joshua) Singer worked with Markish as coeditor of literary journals in Warsaw. He wrote conventional novels about Hasidic life in Poland, such as Yoshe Kalb (1932; Eng. trans. Yoshe Kalb), which was serialized in Forverts and adapted for the Yiddish stage by Maurice Schwartz. After the great success of this work in Schwartz’s Yiddish Art Theatre, Singer moved to New York. Di brider Ashkenazy (1936; The Brothers Ashkenazi) is a three-volume historical novel about the growth of the Jewish textile industry in Poland.
Itzik Manger, born in Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine), also lived in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Tel Aviv. He wrote numerous books of poems, the most memorable of which are charming modern retellings of biblical stories, such as Khumesh lider (1935; “Songs from the Torah”), later included in Medresh Itsik (1951; “Isaac’s Midrash”). Written in traditional rhyming ballad stanzas (usually in the form abcb), Manger’s poems convey shrewd humour while affirming a link to both Hebrew scripture and Old Yiddish writing. Perhaps because of its accessibility to readers, Manger’s poetry achieved wide popularity. Some of his verses—such as “Eynzam” (“Alone”) and “Afn veg shteyt a boym” (“On the Path Stands a Tree”) have been effectively set to music; others have inspired stage adaptations. Manger made his Yiddish debut in the Czernowitz-based journal Kultur (“Culture”), edited by Eliezer Staynbarg, who himself wrote beloved fables in verse as well as stories for children. Like Manger, he was sometimes inspired by Bible stories.
In the 1930s a number of poets formed the Yung Vilne (“Young Vilna”) group. Among them were Chaim Grade and Abraham Sutzkever (see below). Grade published several highly esteemed volumes of poetry, such as Doyres (1945; “Generations”). He was one of the surviving eastern European writers who immigrated to North America after World War II. After his arrival in New York in 1948, Grade also published novels—many of which have been translated into English—and the philosophical post-Holocaust story Mayn krig mit Hersh Rasseyner (My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner). This work, which appears in English translation in A Treasury of Yiddish Stories, rev. and updated ed. (1990), presents an extended debate between a secular and a religious Jew.
Writers in Israel
Arguably the most important Yiddish writer in Israel during the 20th century was the poet Abraham Sutzkever. He moved to Vilna about 1920 and began publishing Yiddish poetry associated with the Young Vilna group in the 1930s; the Introspectivist poet A. Leyeles encouraged him. Sutzkever lived for several years in Warsaw, where he published his first book of poetry in 1937. He escaped from the Vilna ghetto in 1943 and wrote poems about his experiences—as well as one of the most powerful memoirs from Lithuania, Fun Vilner geto (1946; “From the Vilna Ghetto”). Some of his poetry that responds to the Nazi genocide is contained in Di festung (1945; “The Fortress” or “The Prison”) and in Lider fun geto (1946; “Poems from the Ghetto”). After Sutzkever moved to Palestine in 1947, he furthered Yiddish literary culture in Israel and around the world by editing the journal Di goldene keyt (1949–96; “The Golden Chain”). His poetry explored a wide range of subjects, including Israel and Africa. Selections from Sutzkever’s work were published in English translation as A. Sutzkever: Selected Poetry and Prose (1991). Other Yiddish writers in Sutzkever’s group Yung-Yisroel (“Young Israel”) were Shlomo Vorsoger, Tzvi Eisenman, Rivka Basman, and Rokhl Fishman.
Rikudah Potash was born in Poland and moved to Palestine in 1934. She published poetry in Poland and in Israel, including the volume Moyled iber Timna (1959; “New Moon over Timna”). Both her sense of fantasy and her knowledge of art history enrich this collection of poems. For example, “Dos rod mazoles fun Beys-Alpha” (“The Zodiac Wheel from Beit Alpha”) spins out an intimate encounter with the mosaic floor that had been discovered at Kibbutz Beit Alpha.
After surviving the Holocaust, Leyb Rokhman, who had moved to Warsaw in 1930 and studied in a yeshiva, published Un in dayn blut zolstu lebn (1949; And In Your Blood Shall You Live), a journal of his wartime experiences. He settled in Jerusalem in 1950. With his family he tried to carry on both the Hasidic tradition and secular life of prewar Poland. His second book, Mit blinde trit iber der erd (1968; “With Blind Steps over the Earth”), expresses the psychological complexities of life as a survivor.
Yosl Birshteyn was born in Poland, lived in Australia, and moved to Israel in 1950. He published poems, novels, and stories in Yiddish and Hebrew, including the novel Der zamler (1985; “The Collector”). Polish-born Tsvi Kanar survived three years in a concentration camp. He moved to Palestine in 1946, studied theatre in Tel Aviv, and performed as a pantomime artist. In 1980 he began writing fiction in Yiddish; among his books are Ikh un lemekh (1994; “Lemekh and I”) and Opgegebn broyt (1996; “Returned Bread” or “Returning the Favour”).
Lev Berinsky was a Russian poet who switched to Yiddish—in the tradition of Shimon Frug, a 19th-century Russian Yiddish poet. Berinsky’s first volume of Yiddish poetry, Der zuniker veltboy (1988; “The Sunny World-Structure”), was published in Moscow; after emigrating to Israel, Berinsky published Fishfang in Venetsie (1996; “Fishing in Venice”).
Yiddish women writers
In the 20th century women began to contribute substantially to the development and diversity of Yiddish literature. Coincidentally, the following three leading women poets were born in Belorussia (now Belarus), lived for a while in Warsaw, and later moved to New York.
Anna Margolin (pseudonym of Rosa Lebensboym) moved to Odessa, Warsaw, and, finally, New York City. She began publishing poems in 1920 and collected the volume of her Lider (Poems) in 1929. Her themes and use of rhyme associate her with poets of Di Yunge, but in other respects she has more in common with the Introspectivists. Margolin’s lyricism is typified by her short poem “Slender Ships,” which begins, “Slender ships drowse on the swollen green water, / black shadows sleep on the cold heart of the water.” Margolin portrays a natural scene that resonates with the poet’s psychology, concluding, “I shall be still.”
Celia Dropkin lived in Warsaw and Kiev before immigrating to the United States in 1912. She began writing poetry in Russian. She was associated with both Di Yunge and the Introspectivists, and, in the words of critic Kathryn Hellerstein, “her poems of sex, love, and death shocked and seduced her contemporaries.” Dropkin published poems and stories in many leading journals, and she authored one volume of poetry, In heysn vint (1935; “In the Hot Wind”).
Kadia Molodowsky moved from Belorussia to Odessa and then Kiev, where she published her first poetry and was influenced by David Bergelson and his circle. From 1922 to 1935 she lived in Warsaw and published her important collections of poems Kheshvndike nekht (1927; “Nights of Heshvan”) and Dzshike gas (1933; “Dzshike Street”). In her first book, the sequence entitled “Women Poems” reflects on the possibility and meaning of writing poetry as a woman. She immigrated to the United States in 1935. Her book Der melekh David aleyn iz geblibn (1946; “Only King David Remained”) mourns the destruction wrought by the Nazi genocide, as in the poem “Es kumen nit mer keyn briv” (1945; “No Letters Arrive Anymore”).
Born in Ukraine, Malka Heifetz Tussman immigrated to the United States in 1912. She lived in Chicago; in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and in California. She published her poems in many journals, including In zikh. Tussman’s early poetry, as evinced in her first book, Lider (1949; Poems), was written in sonnet form. She also experimented with the eight-line poetic form called a triolet (with a rhyme scheme of abaaabab). In later poems she sometimes used short lines of free verse. Her six important books of poetry include Mild mayn vild (1958; “Mild My Wild”) and Haynt iz eybik (1977; “Now Is Ever”). Selections from Tussman’s poetry appear in English translation in With Teeth in the Earth (1992).
The anthology Found Treasures (1994) provides a selection of short fiction by many significant women authors, including Rikudah Potash, Fradel Schtok, and Yente Serdatzky.
