Isaac Bashevis Singer: Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt: The War Years, 1939-1947

by Isaac Bashevis Singer, David Stromberg (Translator)

Writings On Yiddish and Yiddishkayt, The War Years, 1939-1945  is the first major effort to fill the gap between the Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer's Yiddish and English oeuvre. David Stromberg, editor of the Singer Literary Trust, presents 25 never-before-translated essays originally published between 1939-1945, which were selected from over 150 written by Singer during WWII.
 
Knowing that a whole world, a whole way of life, a whole cultural treasure bound up with Yiddish and Yiddishkayt--that they were all going up in flames before his very eyes--was crushing for Singer, driving him to put pen to paper and write. His wartime writing--appearing in an intensely urgent tone--sought to record not only the customs but also the immediacy of the loss that was taking place at that very moment.

David Stromberg's chronological presentation of Singer's highly readable articles takes readers on a dual one of history, and one of a writer watching history unfold. Every piece in Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt was originally published in the Forverts, the world's largest and most influential Yiddish newspaper. Stromberg's careful curation, contextual explanations, and excellent translations give the readers a unique lens onto the past. While Singer's foresight, expressions of hope, and scathing critique of demagogues and fascism are products of their time, they are just as essential—and as chillingly relevant—in 2023.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Holocaust, History, Language

181 pages, Paperback

Published November 14, 2023

About the author

Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Polish American author of Jewish descent, noted for his short stories. He was one of the leading figures in the Yiddish literary movement, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978.
His memoir, "A Day Of Pleasure: Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw", won the U.S. National Book Award in Children's Literature in 1970, while his collection "A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories" won the U.S. National Book Award in Fiction in 1974.

Reviews

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of these articles delve into the Jewish world and which is familiar to the devoted reader of SInger. Some, however, were a little too deep into the Jewish religion to be understandable or interesting to me. However, the explanations at the end of each article, added later by the author of the collection, allowed me to place all the articles in a context not only historical but also familiar, which I was completely ignorant of, and this certainly was the added value of this book, at least for me.

La maggior parte di questi articoli approfondisce un mondo, che é quello ebraico e che é noto al lettore affezionato di SInger. Alcuni peró erano un po' troppo dentro la religione ebraica per essere per me comprensibili o interessanti. Le spiegazioni alla fine di ogni articolo, aggiunte poi dell'autore della raccolta, mi ha permesso comunque di inquadrare tutti gli articoli in un contesto non solo storico, ma anche familiare di Singer, che ignoravo completamente e questo certo é stato il valore aggiunto di questo libro, almeno per me.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this really gives you a sense of how alien, in many ways, Singer's sensibility became as the 20th century wore on, and also how much he had departed from his upbringing: he mentions rabbinic law, which he knows backward and forward, and also Kant, Freud, Tolstoy, Twain, psychology. The very first column reproduced here concerns abandoned women in Jewish law: apparently the rabbis ruled that, if your husband seemed to have drowned in the ocean, maybe he didn't, and so you were stuck and could not marry again, because maybe he had survived or been carried off by a whale. Also, if he drowned in a river and his body was later recovered, but unfortunately fish had nibbled off his nose, tough luck--the rabbis ruled that you needed a nose to ID him, so again you were a widow for life. His position on this: It's Jewish law, though in spots he says things like "we don't know whether or not it's true" about various legends and the doings of wonder-rabbis. After that, we get horrified discussions of the disappearance of Jewish Warsaw, complete with a class breakdown between "these streets" and "those streets," worries that American Jewish writers are deracinated isolates with no real knowledge of their culture and history (which, given his learning, they absolutely were), desperate cries to preserve a fast-disappearing Yiddish heritage, moral/theological dismissals of Nazism as contrary to the worldwide theological truths established by "Jewish contempt for violence," and a weirdly homespun defense of Israel as a Jewish state based on a comparison to the crowded train cars of prewar Poland. It makes clear the tragic roots of his sometimes-bleak, sometimes-accepting vision of human frailty.

I have to admit that a lot of this emphasizes to me how much that worldview was also shaped by adherence to a completely, um, antique understanding of the world. In one story, he describes a story in which a shopkeeper claims a housemaid must become his second wife ("Well, so I'll have two wives") because of some shenanigans involving what he said when giving her change for yeast. At the same time, he's talking about entirely modern conceptions, as when he uses psychology to explain dybbuks, which his fiction certainly treats as absolutely real quite often. The turns of phrase are often chef's-kiss on point (not to mention highlighting how little changes in the lit world, no matter the language or the era), such as this withering dismissal of the idolators of Yiddish writers like I.L. Peretz: "If Peretz was a great writer and I, Zekl son of Flekl, think highly of him, then this must mean that I'm great too--so you should throw me a party and read my poems." Definitely sending me back to his work, which I've read almost all of (never made it through The Family Moskat), but years ago.

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book written by Isaac Bashevis Singer an author I knew nothing about this is the first book of essays in the trilogy and I wanted to read this book because I know general information about the Jewish religion but I wanted to know more in this book certainly helped with that. The essays were written right before the war in the end right after World War II. This book was so interesting and it covered everything from the demonic divic in the Jewish peoples belief about demons in possession to his opinion on Hitler and his propaganda he even writes an essay on the plight of the aguna law written in the Terron which states a woman cannot remarry unless her husband divorces her and this means even if he fell in the water but his body was never retrieved you cannot get remarried and if your husbands body was retrieved and his nose was bitten off you’re still and A because it further states you can only identify a Jewish man by his nose or his forehead. He talks about Enoch and other holy men who confer with the spirits he talks about the creation of the world annex juxtaposition to God he talks about where the word gentile came from this book is full of so many different aspects of Jewish life and it’s written by a very intelligent man who I had never heard of but I am so interested and cannot wait to read the next book even if you’re Jewish these essays I think a really important there’s so many things loss to the tatters of time and I think it’s especially important to know things we don’t there’s just so many good reasons to read this book most importantly because it’s so interesting it even talks about early marriages it’s so good there’s so much to read and so much to know and I can’t believe there’s two more books I cannot wait! I think learning about religions and lifestyles that are different from ours is a good way to open up your mind and hopefully your heart because ultimately we’re all just people trying to make it in a world with problems. I loved this book I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review. guna

[Book Club of One · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first in a planned three volume series, Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt brings essays by Isaac Bashevis Singer to English for the first time. The articles in The War Years, first appeared in The Yiddish Forward (Forverts) under a pseudonym (Isaac from Warsaw) between 1939 and 1945. Singer is best known as the only Yiddish writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978.

Through this time period we see many of the themes later explored in Singer's short stories and novels. Given his fame and that the essays are from a Yiddish publication, it is no surprise that their topics cover various aspects of Yiddish culture and Jewish life. There is the lamentation of Jews losing faith and the indifference that it breads, the loss of readers of Yiddish language, the lack of Jewish representation in American media, reactions to the deaths of family members, issues with governing Palestine without equal in put of its peoples and grappling with the totality of the Holocaust.

The essays are presented chronologically as published, and often show Singer reacting in real time to global events. It shows his thinking with an immediacy that is tempered by time in many of his stories and novels. Each of the essays is introduced by the translator, David Stromberg, contextualizing them and linking them to other essays in the volume, or detailing that they appeared alongside other similar topic essays by Singer not yet translated.

Specific essays in this work should be read by those working with responses to the Holocaust. In general this work is best for those with some familiarity with works of Yiddish literature or Isaac Bashevis Singer's writings as it will deepen the understanding of those works.

I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote so many essays for the Forward newspaper that many were published under pseudonyms. David Stromberg, who translated and edited “Isaac Bashevis Singer Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt: The War Years, 1939-1945” (White Goat Press)*, writes that Singer was not known in the U.S. as a novelist/short story writer during this period. His writing focused on Yiddishkayt, including many musings on European Jewish/Yiddish customs and communities. Stromberg notes that Singer was trying to accomplish a massive task: “He wanted to get it all on record – not only the customs but also the immediacy of the loss that he realized was taking place at that very moment... [the knowledge of what was happening] was crushing for Singer. It also drove him to put pen to paper and write.”
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume of writings by Isaac Bashevis Singer entitled “Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt. The War Years, 1939-1945 was a grouping that spoke mostly of the Yiddish language, the homes of Yiddish language, Judaism, and the possible destruction/destruction of it all due to the atrocities of World War II/Holocaust.

Each entry was meticulously written and each word could not have been changed. Though there was a mixture of fiction and nonfiction, neither detracts from each other.

Something of note: if one who was unfamiliar with anything Yiddish or Jewish history were to read this, such a person could learn a wealth of information.

Note: Having information about Singer’s personal history only enhances this work.

[jes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book had some interesting essays on Jews and their lives, basically a collection of thoughts and writings from a Jewish pov.

For anyone expecting this to say more about WWII, you may find very little on this particular subject. The main idea of the book is that it covers a wide range of thoughts and ideas on Jewish people, their culture, struggles, literature and so on. It helps you understand more about their lives.

An ok book

[T S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Mostly short articles

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isaac Bashevis Singer has long been my favorite writer. I was delighted to discover, many years later, that my grandmother had read his columns and his works in the original Yiddish. He was such a keen observer and a brilliant writer, who wrote about regular people from Warsaw, Poland, to NYC in the most engaging way that pulls the reader right into the story. These essays are so informative and I love reading something new (to me). The editorial notes were very helpful in placing real-time context. I’m so looking forward to reading the next volumes.
Highly recommended!

[Moshe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A critical collection to understanding how Singer reinvented himself in real time in America.
Stromberg’s careful curation, contextual explanations, and excellent translations give the readers a unique lens onto the past. While Singer’s foresight, expressions of hope, and scathing critique of demagogues and fascism are products of their time, they are just as essential—and as chillingly relevant—in 2023. A must read for Singer fans and for those who want to learn more about his work.