_The Mendele Review_: Yiddish Literature and Language
              (A Companion to _MENDELE_)
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 03.007
14 April 1999

                       Second Anniversary Issue

1) Yiddish Matters: From the Editor (Leonard Prager)
   a. Yom haZikaron laShoa uleGvura
   b. Two Years = 70 issues
   c. Refoel Finkl's Yiddish Typewriter and _The Mendele Review_
   d. Yekheskl Kotik's Memoirs
   e. Koralnik's "On mazl"
2) The Memoirs of Yekheskl Kotik [Table of Contents and Summary] (David Assaf)
3) Selection from _Mayne zikhroynes_ (Yekheskl Kotik)
4) "On mazl" (Avrom Koralnik)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 14 April 1999
From: Leonard Prager <lprager@research.haifa.ac.il>
Subject: Yiddish Matters

                  a. Yom haZikaron laShoa uleGvura

..........  Yesterday, 13 April 1999, was an important date in the
Israeli civil calendar -- Yom haShoa ('Holocaust Day'), a date which in
Israel continues to be widely and solemnly observed.  Owing to the
coinciding of dates this year, we have respectfully pushed forward by a
day notice of the second anniversary of _The Mendele Review_.  Not only
has the TMR included materials (e.g.  Tsvi Kanar's fiction) relating
directly to the Shoa, its whole raison d'etre is suffused with Shoa
awareness -- of the mortal blow dealt to Yiddish culture and the degree
to which both the Shoa period and the world it destroyed are profoundly
memorialized in the Yiddish language.

                       b. Two Years = 70 issues

.......... Readers who go back to the first issue (TMR v01.001, 13
April 1997) will read a list of projected aims and purposes only part
of which have been -- sometimes only partially -- realized thus far.
Yet the 70 issues which have appeared to date constitute a rich resource
for students of Yiddish.  And we have not run out of new ideas for
future issues.  Warm thanks to those who have assisted in the work of
romanization and to those who have provided valuable feedback.

   c. Refoel Finkl's Yiddish Typewriter and _The Mendele Review_

A number of months ago, on an experimental basis, we modified our
romanization rules to conform to Refoel Finkl's brilliant Yiddish
Typewriter.  We confess that we have not always checked our text against
the Yiddish Typewriter printout to make certain that our Yiddish text
was perfect.  We do, however, regard the experiment as successful and
henceforth we shall strive to use the Yiddish Typewriter routinely.  We
also would like to go back and check all files in the archives so that a
large body of correctly pointed Yiddish texts are permanently available.
If you would like to help in achieving this goal please contact the
editor.

                  d. Yekheskl Kotik's Memoirs

.......... The Table of Contents and Summary are given here by
permission of Dr.  David Assaf, editor and principal translator of the
first volume of Kotik's memoirs, and the Diaspora Research Institute
[Carter Building, University of Tel Aviv, Ramit Aviv, Israel], from
which the volume may be ordered.  (The price in Israeli shekels is IS
68.)  Dr.  Assaf has a personal web site (which also has the book's
table of contents and summary):

          http://spinoza.tau.ac.il/hci/vip/David-assaf.html

Dr.  Assaf's edition of Kotik's memoirs will be published in English by
Wayne State University Press under the title _A Journey to the
19th-Century Shtetl:  The Memoir of Yechezkel Kotik_.  Margaret Birstein
translated the work into English and Dr. Assaf and his wife are working
together on both the text and the notes.

The editor gives a few randomly selected pages of Kotik's book in
Yiddish to give the reader a taste of this remarkable work.

                      e.  Koralnik's "On mazl"

..........  A Yiddish publicist and essayist of considerable verve,
Avrom Koralnik (1883-1937) deserves to be better known.  We give here an
essay he wrote over seventy years ago contrasting the support given to
Hebrew as compared to Yiddish literature and publishing.

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  14 April 1999
From:  David Assaf <dassaf@post.tau.ac.il>
Subject: The Memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik


                       _What I Have Seen..._

                 The Memoirs of Yechezkel Kotik

    Edited and Translated into Hebrew* with an Introduction by

                           David Assaf

[*Translated from Yiddish into Hebrew by Rachel Krone and David Assaf]

                        TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword                                                     ...11
Introduction: Between Memory and History - Yechezkel Kotik
and His Book Mayne Zichroynes
 1. The Song of the Shtetl                                   ...13
 2. Kamieniec Litewski and Its Environs                      ...16
 3. Yechezkel Kotik: The Man and His Times                   ...19
 4. The Reception of the Memoirs
    A. "I am Crazed with Delight": Yechezkel Kotik and
        Sholem Aleichem                                      ...33
    B. "The Big Spark of a True Writer" or "Silly Tales"?    ...47
 5. The Lost Volumes of the Memoirs                          ...56
 6. The Memoirs as a Cultural Document and Historical Source
    A. The Structure of the Book and Its Main Characters     ...61
    B. A Picture of the Past                                 ...68
    C. Between Writer and Storyteller, between Historian
       and Memoirist                                         ...73
 7. On this Edition                                          ...83

Yechezkel Kotik, _What I Have Seen_...
    A Letter from Sholem Aleichem to Yechezkel Kotik         ...88
    My Memoirs                                               ...93

Appendices

   A. Yechezkel Kotik's Letters to Sholem Aleichem           ...383
   B. Yechezkel Kotik: List of Publications                  ...389
   C. Selected Bibliography on Yechezkel Kotik and His Memoirs..394

Indices                                                       ..397

Map                                                            ..10

Family Trees                                                  ..378


                               SUMMARY


The first volume of Mayne Zichroynes [= my memoirs] by Yechezkel Kotik
(1847-1921), one of the masterpieces of modern Yiddish literature, was
published early in the year 1913 in Warsaw and opened a new era in the
history of Jewish memoir literature and in the description of the
traditional Eastern European shtetl.  "This is not only a book -- this
is a treasure, a garden, a paradise full of blossoms and birds songs,
just a simple monumental creation... it is a necessity that each Jewish
home with an interest in the Jewish past own and be proud of such a
book" -- these are just a few samples of the acclaim the book received
upon its publication by no less a figure than Sholem Aleichem, and by
the important Yiddish literary critic, Ba'al Machshoves.  The
distinguished Russian-Jewish historian Simon Dubnov further claimed
that no historian of Eastern Europe can refrain from consulting this
book.

Since its publication, the book has achieved a place of honor among
Jewish memoir literature.  Attractively written, the memoir records a
panoramic description of the author's family members, his childhood, the
community of his birthplace Kamieniec Litewski with its many sites,
institutions and characters, including those whom he knew personally and
those about whom he had heard.  The events of the past and present,
daily Jewish life in times of happiness and sorrow, hope and fear, find
colorful expression in the memoir.  These vignettes are an indication of
the unique talent of the storyteller, who not only wove into his tale
both humor and bittersweet sadness, but also presented an important
historical document of Jewish life in the Russian Pale of Settlement of
the nineteenth century.  "I spent my life in a typical small town,"
wrote Kotik in his foreword, "this was a life with a special flavor...
but today [=1913] none of this exists any longer, the songs of these
shtetls have disappeared."

Kotik's recounting of the lives of his grandfather and grandmother, his
parents, and other members of his large family form the basis of his
memoirs.  At face value, the work records the saga of a family through
four generations describing the life of an ordinary Jewish family,
simple though wealthy and influential, who live in a marginal and remote
town in Belarus.  Yet, the genre is merely a ruse for the author,
enabling him to portray a fantastic gallery of colorful characters and
events which he describes so vibrantly and loyally, with love but seldom
with nostalgia.

Kotik's stage features characters and events in moments of despair and
warmth.  Stories of panic weddings of children to avoid forced
conscription and of kidnappers of child recruits intermingle with
descriptions of the rise and decline of the Jewish community
institutions, the relationships between Jews and the Russian authorities
and Polish lords, Jewish livelihood and everyday life, tax collectors,
rabbis and zaddikim, merchants and the poor, hasidim and mithnagdim,
scholars and illiterates, believers and heretics, matchmakers and
informers, teachers and kleyzmers.

Strangely enough, most of the important events in the history of
nineteenth century Eastern European Jewry were connected with the small
town of Kamieniec and are mirrored in the lives of the town's
inhabitants described by Kotik: _inter alia_, the brutal decrees of Tsar
Nicholas I; the abolishment of the Kahal; the Polish revolts against
Russia.  Moreover, some of the basic problems of the Jews in modern
times are reflected in the history of Kamieniec:  the crisis in
traditional Jewish society and its confrontation with modern trends; the
dramatic economic changes; the social and cultural struggles between
hasidim, mithnagdim and maskilim and their vision of the future of the
Jewish people; the collapse of traditional authorities -- religious and
familial -- and the rise of new sources of authority.  Many developments
that took place in nineteenth century Kamieniec Litewski can serve as a
model for hundreds of similar towns across Eastern Europe.

The book was first published in Warsaw in 1913-1914 in two volumes and
again in Berlin in 1922, and received warm acclaim from Yiddish readers
(the especially friendly comments of Sholem Aleichem are discussed in
detail in the introduction).  Parts of the book were even translated
into German and published in 1936 in the very prestigious series of
_Buecherei des Schocken Verlags_.  Since then the book has been
overlooked and few historians have utilized its historical, cultural,
and folkloristic material.  The absence of this book from both academic
teaching and the research literature may be attributed to the lack of a
Hebrew or English translation.

The Hebrew edition of Kotik's memoirs, edited by Dr.  David Assaf, a
senior lecturer in the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv
University, includes a complete translation of the original Yiddish text
[i.e. of Volume One -- L.P.], and is accompanied by hundreds of notes,
which elucidate terms, names (people and places), customs, realia, as
well as bibliographical references to the research literature.  The
editor has also included a detailed introduction which discusses aspects
of Kotik's personal biography, the history of the book, its reception by
critics and the public alike, and its importance as a historical,
anthropological and folkloristic source.

(pp. vii-ix)

[The above Table of Contents and Summary are also given on David Assaf's
personal home page:  http://spinoza.tau.ac.il/hci/vip/David-assaf.html]

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  14 April 1999
From: Leonard Prager <lprager@research.haifa.ac.il
Subject:  selection from kotik's "mayne zikhroynes" (1922 ed., Berlin,
vol. 1, pp. 15-18)

z' 15
                             [di kromen]

vi di mode iz, zaynen in mitn shtot geshtanen tsvey tseyln kromen mit di
forershte tirn ineveynig [ineveynik]. tsvishn di beyde tseyln hot zikh
getsoygn a shmol gesele un dort hot zikh koym gekont durkhshparn a fur.
a dray, fir kromen hobn ge|miskher|t mit manufaktur fun hekhern grad:
far idn [yidn] un pritsem fun arum shtot; in a dray, fir -- hot men
farkoyft fartukher, tikher, tikhlakh [tikhlekh] un desglaykhn [dest
glaykhn]. in di iberige [iberike] hot men ge|miskher|t mit tselnik, mit
smole un mit dzegekhts [dzhegekhts] u. a. v.

ge|miskher|t in di kromen hobn bloyz di froyen -- alte, yunge, meydn un
meydelakh [meydlekh]. un ot di ale vayber zaynen gezesn eyne kegn di
andere, tsekokhte un oyfgeregte [tsetrogene] ober der hekherer grad
koynem, di idn [yidn] un di pritsem, hobn zikh yederer gehat eyn kremer
un aza min koyne hot shoyn keyner nisht gehat di hoze tsu shlepn, vi
hering, tsu zikh in krom arayn. in der shtil hot men im efsher
shtilerheyt bagleyt mit a klole tsuzamen mit der kremerke, vos leyzt fun
im.

leyzung oyser zuntog iz eygntlekh geven veynig [veynik]. vorum oyser
zuntog iz der poyer kimat in shtetl nisht gekumen. iz men take gezesn
far di kromen un nisht gehat vos tsu ton. zuntog ober flegn zikh shteln
groyse merk, es flegn zikh tsunoyfkumen masn poyerem un arum di tirn fun
di kromen flegt zayn aza geshteysenish [shtoysenish] un shtupenish,
punkt vi flign oyf a fenster, vu es iz ongeshotn mel-tsuker.

                         [di shenken]

tsu di gresere gesheftn in shtot hobn oykh gehert di sheynken. zey
zaynen geven in a hipsher tsol. un poyerem hobn dort gefunen tsubaysn
oykh; kez, hering, ugerkes. nor zise bronfns hobn oykh nisht oysgefelt,
un dos hot zikh farginen a shliakhtitsh [shlyakhtshits], tsi a kleyn
poretsl, vos hot tsugebisn nokhn shnaps nisht mit kez tsi mit hering, vi
der poyer, nor mit a genzl oder mit fish. di dozike sheynken zaynen oykh
gefirt gevorn fun di vayber, punkt vi di kromen. zuntog ober, der tog
fun groysn pidyen, hot shoyn der mansbl [mansbil] oykh tsugeholfn.

                          [di pritsem]

mit vos-zhe fort hobn zikh basheftigt di manen? zey zaynen oykh nit
geshtanen leydig [leydik]. arum kamenits hot zikh gefunen ba a por

z' 16

hundert pritsem, ba yedn porets iz geven a por hundert layb-knekht
(kreposnikes [cf. krepostnoyer]) dozike layb-knekht geton
avoydes-perekh, nisht gehat nit keyn tog un nit keyn nakht, un di
pritsem, farshteyt zikh, hobn badarft lebn a gutn tog -- hot zikh yeder
porets gehat a idn [yidn] in shtetl, mit velkhe er hot zikh geshaft un
velkhe hobn derfun mer oder veyniger [veyniker] fardint.

oyb arum porets hobn zikh gedreyt tsvey idn [yidn], hot eyn id [yid]
badarft zayn a sheyner id un a b|koved|iker soykher un der tsveyter
shoyn a "klenerer id," say in sheynkayt un say in soykhres. beyde idn
[yidn] zaynen geven bam porets di gantse kolvelokh|s. der shenerer id
hot im gedint mer tsu eytses, der tsveyter -- tsu farsheydene arbetn un
shpitslakh [shpitslekh]. nor beyde idn [yidn] zaynen geshtanen far im in
groys eyme, un khotsh zey hobn teylvayz gelebt fun im un er iz ba zey
geven a groyser "tsar" in inyen natshalstvo, fundestvegn darf men tsen
mol a tog loybn got, vos der inyen id-porets [yid-] iz arop fun der
stsene.

hot zikh dem porets farvolt, hot er opgeshmisn zayn idn [yidn] un im
dernokh gezogt:

-- vestu makhn a shvayg, blaybstu ba mir vayter, un az nit, nem ikh an
ander idn [yidn] un du vest mit mir say-vi gornisht oysfirn, vorum der
aseser iz mayner un der ispravnik iz mayner.

der id hot geshvign un far zikh getrakht:  meyle, opgeshmisn. deroyf iz
er dokh a porets, ober derfar fardin ikh dokh a shtikl broyt fun im. un
vider, az ikh vel tsu makhn [tsumakhn] mit an oyg, vet hobn mayns a kind
ba im parnose.

un dos iz afile rikhtig [rikhtik] geven. iz geshtorbn bam porets der id
[yid], hot der porets oyf zayn ort genumen dem idns [yidns] a zun oder
an eydem, vi ver es iz im gefeln, vi men tut a shidekh. un der id hot
dervayl ge|yarshn|t dem porets. der porets iz geven a min yerushe.

do iz efsher oykh keday tsu dermonen, az der porets hot oykh gehat zayn
balmelokhe in shtetl, vos nor im hot er gegebn zayn arbet. balmelokhes
in shtetl zaynen geven a sakh -- shuster, shnayder, blekher u. a. v.
farshteyt zikh, az zay hobn zikh mefarnes geven a sakh shverer vi der
kremer, un khotsh dire-gelt hot men getsolt zeyer veynig [veynik] -- a
vosere tsen, tsvelf rubl a yor far a voynung, fundestvegn zaynen zey
nisht be|koyekh geven tsu bavoynen aleyn a dire un in eyn hayzl hobn
gevoynt a tsvey -- dray familyes.

z' 17

                 [der aseser un der ispravnik]

in yene tsaytn zaynen geven der aseser un der ispravnik gantse moyshlem.
az tsvey idn [yidn] hobn zikh tsekrigt in shtetl, iz men bald gelofn
tsum aseser mit di vayber un kinder, mit di bahelfers un gute fraynt un
kroyvem -- un der aseser hot ge|mishpet gut far dem, ver es hot gegebn a
gresere matbeye, oder ver es hot glat noyse kheyn geven ba im. un tomer
iz eyner geven a takef un a groyser yabernik, hot zikh nisht banoygnt
mit mitn asesers mishpet un iz gelofn in brisk tsum ispravnik mit a
zhalobe oyfn aseser, hot es zeltn geholfn, un aza khvat|s lebn iz shoyn
nisht vert geven keyn halbn groshn, vorum der aseser hot im gegrobn un
ge|roydef|t mit vos er hot gekont, biz klep afile un biz fararestirn.
vider hot der ispravnik shtendig gehaltn mitn aseser.

der ispravnik iz demolt geven di gantse kraft in der svive un fun a
gubernator hot men demolt gehat a modne hasoge. a gubernator iz in yene
tsaytn farrekhnt geven vi a keyzer un tsunitsn im tsu idishe [yiishe]
inyonem iz gor oyfn zinen nisht gekumen.

                    [der fakter un der arendar]

der porets hot gehat a fakter a id [yid], vos hot gevoynt ba im in hoyf,
vider hot er gehat an arendar, dos rov oykh a id [yid], un ven bam
porets zaynen geven etlekhe hoyfn un etlekhe derfer, zaynen oykh dortn
gezesn idn [yidn] -- a fakter un an arendar. azoyne idn [yidn] hobn,
farshteyt zikh, farn porets getsitert.

demolt, ven bam porets iz geven a kleynikayt tsu shmaysn poyerem mit
poyertes, alte un yunge, to vos far a rolye hot geshpilt aza idele
[yidele] bam porets? men kon zikh forshteln, vi vayt der fakter mit dem
arendar un zeyere kinder zaynen geven in toyt-shrek far dem porets. hot
der fakter un der arendar gehat, kholile, sheyne meydlakh [meydlekh], iz
dos geven a shreklekhe onshikenish. men hot badarft tsitern, az di
tekhter zoln nisht gefeln vern dem porets, vos hot mit zayn makht gekont
oysfirn, vos nor im volt zikh farvolt.

zaynen di sheyne meydlakh [meydlekh] ba di yishuv|nikes geven shtendig
[shtendik] farshmutst, misht arumgevashn, farsmalyet, far|khoyshekh|t,
kedey zeyer sheynkayt zol zikh nisht aroyszen. nor ven zey zaynen geforn
in shtot un hobn zikh gut arumgevashn mit zeyf, hot men gevust, az dem
yishuv|niks tokhter iz a sheyn meydl.

z' 18

der porets hot alts, vos er hot badarft, geshafn dos rov durkh zayne idn
[yidn], varum der porets hot gehaltn, az a id [yid] iz a klug
bashefenish, er iz khitre un dokh erlikh [erlekh] (yeder porets hot
gehaltn, az nor zayne idelakh [yidelekh] zaynen erlikh [erlekh], ober di
iberige [iberike] -- shvindlers, ganovem.

zey hot er geshikt in shlikhes tsu di andere pritsem, zayne koleges, un
khotsh er hot gehat an ekonom, velkher iz geven der gantser balebos in
zayn hoyf un der balebos iber di poyerem, fundestvegn hot er liber gehat
tsu shafn zikh mit did idn [yidn]. a id [yid] kon geshikter epes oyftun,
hot er gehaltn, un on "moshken" oder "shmulikn" hot er zikh nisht gerirt
fun ort.

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  14 April 1999
From: Robert (Itsik) Goldenberg <goldenbe@vaxxine.com>
Subject: [a shprakh] on mazl (Avrom Koralnik) [Abraham Coralnik]

                     Avrom Koralnik (1883-1937)


                             on mazl*


[*reprinted from _kritik un literatur-geshikhte_, Warsaw, 1928]

tsu altsding darf men hobn mazl. afile di toyre in heykhl -- zogt men --
darf oykh hobn mazl. un efsher zi mer fun ale. es iz gevendt in vemes
hent zi falt arayn, ver es iz ir "treger," ver ir oystaytsher un
farshpreyter.

yede toyre, yede gaystikayt, altsding vos iz hekher un tifer un
vikhtiker fun der groyer alteglekhkayt, fun der poshet|er, klotsiker
erdikayt -- altsding hengt op fun mazl. mer afile fun di materyele zayt
fun lebn. tsu raykhkayt darf men nisht tsu hobn keyn mazl. dort iz genug
-- der viln, un amol oykh der tsufal. der, vos vil vern raykh -- vert
es. frier oder shpeter. un helft im dertsu nokh a tsufal, iz avade gut.
un der tsufal iz nokh nisht mazl. tsufal iz dos plutslung ongetrofene,
dos nisht foroysgezeene, dos, vos iz, azoy tsu zogn, nisht noytvendik.
vert a mentsh raykh derfar, vos men hot tsufelik lebn im gefunen a
gold-grub, iz dos nisht keyn mazl -- es iz a tsufal. es hengt nisht op
fun im, hot gornisht vos tsu ton mit zayn perzenlekhkayt.

mazl ober iz mer. es iz di tife farvortslkayt un farankertkayt fun der
perzenlekhkayt. es iz der gruntgezets fun dem zayn, vos tsvingt tsu lebn
azoy un nisht andersh. mazl iz -- kharakter un talant. un iber zey iz
keyner nisht keyn moyshl. keyner kon nisht tsugebn tsu zey keyn
shpritsele, keyn brekele. azoy fil un azoy fil iz oysgefaln oyf dem
kheylek -- un mer nisht. un hekher, vi der kop, kon keyner nisht
shpringen.

es zenen do felker, vos hobn mazl un felker, vos hobn nisht. di
englender hobn im. di daytshn nisht. un dos iz nisht keyn tsufal. afile
nisht keyn viln. di daytshn hobn gevolt zayn di hersher fun der velt.
zey hobn oykh gehat gelegnhaytn, dos heyst tsufaln. ober es hot zey
nisht geholfn. di englender hobn gornisht gevolt. zey hobn ober gekont.
zey zenen geven barufn tsu a historisher velt-misye un hobn zi oysgefirt
-- nisht kukndik deroyf, vos zey hobn gehat altsding antkegn zikh:  di
tsol, di izolirte lage, dos shpete araynkumen in der veltgeshikhte. der
englisher kharakter iz geven der englisher mazl.

oykh shprakhn hobn mazl.

un eyne fun di mazldikste iz di hebreishe. efsher di mazldikste. di
shprakh fun a kleyn felkele in a vinkl fun azye, iz zi gevorn di
"heylike shprakh" fun a velt. zi iz gevorn der rezervuar fun gaystike
potentsn far toyznter yorn. altsding iz geven antkegn ir -- afile dos
eygene folk. ober zi hot goyver geven. yidn hobn azoy lib gehat di
hebreishe shprakh, az zey hobn afile nisht gevolt tsukumen tsu noent
tsu ir. zey hobn geshafn dos mayste, vos zey hobn gekont, oyf andere
shprakhn:  arameish, sirish, arabish. ober hebreish hot mazl. yedes
mol, ven es iz gekumen eyner a groyser, an ekhter un hot gevolt zogn dem
folk dos tifste, dos beste, hot er es gezogt in hebreish; hot er es
aleyn nisht gekont zogn, hot di hebreishe shprakh gefunen a veg tsu im.
un es iz farblibn. der _moyre-nevukhem_ volt shoyn geven fargesn, ven
evn tivun volt im nisht fartaytshn fun dem sheynem, flisndikn,
lebedikn arabish in a shvern, umgelumpertn, mitlalterlekhn hebreish. un
di shlekhte iberzetsung hot ibergelebt dem gut geshribenem original.

hebreish hot gehat mazl. di shprakh, di literatur, hot gehat
metsenatn. metsenatn! yedes mol, ven ikh her dos vort, dermon ikh zikh
on dem altn ferz fun horats, dem ferz iber dem ershtn metsenat, dem
roymishn patritsyer un gvir, vos hot ibergelozt nokh zikh an
umshterblekhn nomen -- nor derfar vos er hot geshtitst di literatur. un
der ferz iz:

maecenas, atavis edite regibus.

"metsenas, du, vos shtamst fun malokhem." der ershter metsenas hot
geshtamt fun malokhem, malokhem-blut hot gerunen in zayne odern. un vayl
fun keniglekhn blut, vayl fun keniglekhn gayst, vayl an aristokrat,
farvortslt in doyres, mit tife respekt far ir fargangenhayt, ful mit
dem bavustzayn fun der farkeytlkayt fun dem lebn -- hot er oykh gehat
dem grestn respekt, di greste libe far dem gayst.

un efsher iz take dos der tam, farvos dos yidishe folk hot gehat fun
toyznter yorn aza metsenatn-batsiung tsu der hebreisher shprakh. dos
eyntsik keniglekhe, aristokratishe, dos eyntsike, vos farbindt di
tsaytn; di eyntsike aristokratishe batsiung fun dem yidish folk.

ot iz far undzere oygn -- kimat far undzere oygn -- oysgevaksn di nay
hebreishe literatur. un far undzere oygn, in undzere tsayt, iz
oysgevaksn paralel tsu ir -- di yidishe literatur.

tsvey literaturn bay dem eygenem folk. ober eyne hot mazl -- di tsveyte
hot nisht.

shtil un on impet geyt zikh di hebreishe literatur. nisht in der breyt,
ober in der tif. eyns tsu eyns -- pamelekh. "kav lekav," a seyfer nokh a
seyfer, a verk nokh a verk. un azoy -- kimat umbamerkt -- a bibliotek, a
literatur.

a literatur, vos iz oysgevaksn oyf reynem idealizm. keyner hot zi, dakht
zikh, nisht badarft hobn. keyner hot zikh nisht geneytikt in ir. zi iz
geven a moysres. ober dos iz geven ir lebns-kval. dos "nisht neytike" iz
gevorn ir noyt-ventikayt. ir oremkayt, ir bashrenktkayt -- iz gevorn ir
greste raykhkayt.

zi iz geven fun ale literaturn -- di aristokratishste, vayl di eyntsike,
vos hot nisht gehat keyn shum andere motivn, a khuts -- ir aleyn.

keyner hot fun ir gornisht dervart. nisht keyn gelt, nisht keyn koved. i
der shrayber, i der lezer zenen tsugetretn tsu dem hebreishn bukh tsu
dem vort in a "shal neolekho" ['remove your sandals' (for you stand on
holy ground) -- Exodus 3:5] shtimung. zey hobn gefilt, az dos iz a
"heylike arbet." es iz oft geven naiv, melitse|dik, batlonish,
altmodish-orientalish-ibergetribn; ober dos iz geven bloyz di form. in
dem tokh iz zeyer gefil geven tif un emes. zey hobn gefilt, az zey zenen
shutfem tsu dem velt-historishn gayst. un derfar hot di hebreishe
literatur in ir oremkayt zikh gekont haltn shtarker un vortsldiker, vi
di yidishe literatur mit ir raykhkayt, mit ir groyse tsoln.

di yidishe literatur hot gehat lezer. di hebreishe -- metsenatn,
mentshn, vos tuen zikh a koved, ven zey dernentern zikh tsu der
keniglekhkayt fun der shprakh.

men meg nit batsien, vi men vil, tsu di naye yidishe gvirem in eyrope un
amerike, vos hobn avekgegebn groyse sumen far hebreishe literatur. men
ken shpotn afile iber dem modnem plan, aroystsugebn oyf hebreish
umneytike, shoyn farshimlte bikher, vi, lemoshl, di drit-klasike
dramatishe poeme fun der ungar maratsh, vos der shtibl-farlag hot nisht
lang tsurik oysgegebn. men kon argumentirn, az es zenen do besere,
neytikere bikher. dos iz bloyz a geshmak un a detel-frage. ober in etsem
muz men dokh bavundern dem mut, di greytkayt tsu korbones fun di ale
yidn, vos grindn farlagn, vos gibn aroys sheyne, gute vikhtike bikher,
vos shafn fondn far hebreishe farlagn:  shtibl, dvir, gibn avek tsayt un
mi un gelt, un, der iker, libe far dem hebreishn vort.

un es fregt zikh:  vi kumt es? vi kumt es, az es zenen do azoy fil
hebreishe farlagn:  shtibl, dvir, moria, eshkol, u.az.v., yeder mit a
groysn program, yeder mit ernste, sheyne plener, un oykh vunderbare
rezultatn. vi kumt es, vos es gefint zikh in amerike a yid, vi der y.
mets, vos git avek hundert toyznt doler far a fond far hebreishe
shriftshteler? vi kumt es, az far a kleyne tsol yidn, vos leyenen
hebreish, iz do altsding -- i gelt, i respekt, i metsenatn -- un far
yidish, der shprakh fun milyonen yidn, fun dem yidishn rov, iz gor
nishto. gornisht? azoy fil hebreishe metsenatn un keyn eyntsiker
yidisher!

amerike hot azoy fil yidishe tsaytungen -- mit hunderter toyznter lezer,
un keyn eyntsikn farlag, un keyn eyntsike umpartayishe, reyn-literarishe
vokhnshrift un keyn monatshrift!

un di prese aleyn; ikh vil do nisht araynfaln in dem eykhe-ton. ikh vil
nisht araynlozn zikh in a khkire vegn der yidisher prese, farvos zi iz
azoy vi zi iz. ober eyns ze ikh:  yeder bazunder un ale in eynem hobn
tsu ir di batsiung fun opshtupn. opshtupn di tsayt, oplebn di por yor,
vos iz nokh bashert -- un dernokh -- "nokh undz der mabl." a shleyer fun
pesimizm, fun umgloybn in zikh aleyn, in der tsukunft, in dem vert hengt
arum der yidisher prese. un ikh gloyb, az dos iz nisht bloyz in amerike.
in eyrope iz dos oykh nisht beser. dort kukt men mit kine oyf amerike.
mir do meynen, az got veyst vos er tut zikh dort. un beyde in eynem
shteyen mir far a retenish un fregn:  farvos iz dos azoy.

a literatur on mazl. tsu shpet gekumen -- un derfar nisht farvortslt,
derfar nisht tif arayngedrungen in dem yidishn bavustzayn. yidn hobn lib
altkayt. vos elter -- alts beser. un dos naye past nisht tsu zey. zey
konen nisht trogn dos naye mit gratsye -- nisht di naye frayhayt, nisht
di naye ashires un oykh nisht di naye shprakh.

men kon vegn dem nisht kemfn. es iz in blut.

un fort -- es tut bank. es iz a shod. ikh kon mir oysmoln a tsayt, ven
yidn veln badoyern, vos zey hobn zikh batsoygn azoy botl|dik, azoy fun
oybn arop, azoy on libe un respekt tsu dem yidishn vort. es vet zayn di
tsayt, ven yidish vet zayn a "fargangenhayt." un dos, vos iz fargangen,
iz alt, un toyt un shtimungsful. un es vet zikh farbenken di yidn, di
english-redndike, di poylish-redndike, di hebreish-redndike, nokh dem
eygnartikn ton fun der shprakh, vos doyres un doyres fun yidn hobn
geredt. es vet zikh zey farbenken nokh di klangen, vos zenen geboyrn
gevorn in mitlalter, farflantst gevorn in di slavishe stepn; klangen fun
yidisher aynzamkayt, fun hisoyreres un intimitet un troyer un vits;
klangen -- ongezapt mit dem hartsblut fun a folk.

un es vet zey bank ton -- di, vos veln kumen nokh undz -- far di lider,
vos zenen nisht oysgezungen gevorn; far dem zifts, vos iz nisht
oysgevaksn in a simfonye; far di oytsres, vos zenen geblibn nisht
oysgenutst.

efsher vet zikh demolt gefinen a metsenat far dem toytn, far dem
heylik-gevorenem yidish -- ober es vet zayn tsu shpet.

a shprakh on mazl!
______________________________________________________
End of _The Mendele Review_ 03.007

Leonard Prager, editor  <lprager@research.haifa.ac.il>

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