Yiddish language and literature, with special focus on Prague
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Yiddish language and literature, with special focus on Prague1 Astrid Starck-Adler Université de Haute-Alsace ABSTRACT: For centuries Yiddish was the vernacular of Ashkenazi Jews, and Prague awidely known center of Jewish culture and the Yiddish language. But what is Yiddish? How and where did it arise? What characteristics distinguish it? What kind of literature did it bring forth? To what purpose and extent? What role did Prague and Bohemia, located between East and West, play in Central Europe? What factors led to the preeminence of Hebrew and Yiddish printing in Prague? Did they include the fact that an erudite book by awoman appeared there (Menekes Rivke) and that the adventures of the popular figure Till Eulenspiegel happen to him only in the Prague edition? The great Rabbi Loew (Maharal of Prague: 1525–1609) spoke Hebrew, but the Golem of Prague, arecent invention (1836) attributed to him, spoke Yiddish and inspired artists as diverse as the filmmaker Paul Wegener and the writer H.Leivick. By the early 20th century, however, Yiddish had become acuriosity in Central Europe, akind of exotic pastime, if not something reprehensible dismissed by the bourgeois— even as Franz Kafka confided to his Diaries his love for Eastern Yiddish theater and its actors, whose tours included Prague and Berlin. The present article gives Yiddish the place its significance and richness merit, and raises awareness of the grandeur of the lost culture and language which echo softly yet today in the narrow streets of Prague. KEYWORDS: Yiddish, Ashkenazi Jews, Prague, Yiddish linguistics, Yiddish literature, Yiddish theater, Franz Kafka Yiddish,2 more than athousand years old, is awide and largely unexplored field that suffered abrutal rupture. For with the destruction of European Jewry, Yiddish language and culture were annihilated. In recent years, however, awareness and appreciation of this rich world have grown, leading to astrong revival of interest in Yiddish. Newspapers— mainly the Forverts in New York3— report on it, manuscripts 1 Iwould like to thank my close friend Roger Harmon for the beautiful translation he made of my article. 2 This spelling is the one used by the YIVO, the Institute for Jewish Research founded in 1925 in Vilnius and whose New York branch assumed the Institute’s work in 1940: https://www. yivo.org/ (22.6.2018) 3 This daily on-line newspaper exists also in English as “The Yiddish Daily Forward”: http:// yiddish.forward.com/ OPEN ACCESS
38 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 from the war years are discovered and published,4 plays5 and musicals in Yiddish are staged,6 songs in Yiddish are sung and music composed,7 concerts are sponsored and cinemas and television show movies old and new, among them classics such as Tevye der milkhiker (“Tevye the Milkman”),8 Abrivele der mamen,9 Benya Krik,10 Aferd ganev (“AComplete Scoundrel”),11 Herr Zwilling und Frau Zuckerman12— to name but afew. Two important institutions— The National Center for Jewish Film (Brandeis University)13 and The National Yiddish Book Centre14 with Spielberg’s Digital Library15 in Amherst, MA— are in the process of collecting and digitalizing the repertory of Yid4 Cf. Herman Kruk: Togbukh fun Vilner ghetto. YIVO 1961 (English); Vassili Grossman, Ilya Ehrenburg: Dos shvartse bukh. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1980; Marek Edelman: Resisting the Holocaust: Fighting Back in the Warsaw Ghetto. Ocean Press, 2004. 5 The National Yiddish Theatre in New York, the Folksbiene, performs Yiddish plays (Fiddler on the Roof is announced for July 4 and 5, 2018). The Yiddish version of Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot was produced at the Barrow Street Theatre. In this performance, the characters are survivors of the Shoah. At the Beckett Festival in Ireland (Summer 2014) Vartn Af Godo was nominated for 5 awards. There are Yiddish theatres all over the world: in Israel, Germany, France, Canada, etc. 6 The most famous one is Anatevka (Tevye der milkhiker by Sholem Aleykhem), known as Fiddler on the Roof performed until today. Another one is Yentl by Isaac Singer, starring Barbra Streisand. Such plays are usually performed in English, but also sometimes in Yiddish, for example The Megile of Itzik Manger by the National Yiddish Theater (see the review by Catherine Rampell, “Queen Esther’s Tale, in Yiddish, with Cartwheels, Puppets and aUnion Label”, New York Times, May 3, 2013). 7 The American composer David Schiff (b. 1945) composed Gimpel The Fool, An Opera in Two Acts (1975), and wrote the libretto after Gimpl nar by Isaac Singer: http://www.naxos.com/ catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.669010-11 (22.6.2018). The German composer Georg Wötzer composed Esslinger Kaddisch Ifor Strings, Bariton, Live-Elektronik and Conductor, after an epic poem by Yitskhok Katzenelson: Dos lid funem oysgehargetn yidishn folk (Song of the Murdered Jewish People). Text online: Spielberg Digital Library, https:// archive.org/ details/nybc100484 (22.6.2018) 8 Adapted to the screen from one of the most famous novels by Sholem Aleykhem (Salomon Rabinovitch) about aJewish father and his seven daughters. The great actor Maurice Shvartz played the main role and directed it (New York 1939). See http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/moyt/pih/tevye-der-milkhiger.htm (22.6.2018). 9 Amoving family story set during World War I about people trying to emigrate to the United States, by Joseph Green (Poland 1938). 10 This screen version of ashort story by Isaac Babel from 1926 is about aRussian gangster of Jewish descent played by Yuri Shlumsky, directed by Vladimir Vilner (USSR 1926). 11 Based on apopular novel by the Polish-Jewish author and Amerian immigrant Joseph Opatoshu, the film features Yul Brynner and Isaac Babel’s son David Babel (Los Angeles 1971). 12 Adocumentary film about two survivors in Czernowitz (1999) and about what remained of the Jewish Community which had produced great artists such as Paul Celan and Rose Ausländer et al. 13 http://www.jewishfilm.org/(22.6.2018) 14 http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/ (22.6.2018) 15 http://archive.org/details/nationalyiddishbookcenter (22.6.2018) OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 39 dish films and books. Around the world, universities and scholarly congresses contribute to the preservation and understanding of the Yiddish language, literature and culture. New literary journals such as Gilgulim (Metamorphoses) in Paris as well as the publication and translation of books by older and younger authors bear witness to the vitality of the present-day Yiddish scene. The revival hastens from success to success. Among Jews it reflects the determination of the second and now third generation to learn the language of their grandparents and great-grandparents and thus save it from extinction; among non-Jews it reflects the wish to access this once so important component of European culture. New voices renounce the mere nostalgia of the beginnings. The European Parliament in Strasbourg has recognized Yiddish as an endangered language worthy of preservation, and for the year 2003 there were plans to establish in Strasbourg aHouse of Yiddish Cultures uniting Western and Eastern Yiddish. Unfortunately these plans were dropped, but in Paris aMaison du yiddish was established, which has become avery active Yiddish Cultural Center, dedicated primarily to Eastern Yiddish.16 With the New Media, the Internet has become aparadise not only for amateur Yiddish enthusiasts, but also for scholars: numerous websites devoted to Yiddish language, literature and culture are available online.17 Of course it isn’t quite that simple. For an important prerequisite is familiarity with the Yiddish alphabet, that is: with the Hebrew letters used in written Yiddish. Worthy of note is the EYDES-Program18 which has gradually made available to the public all existing Yiddish dialects, in written and in spoken form. It consists of six thousand hours of interviews conducted in New York after World War II. The biggest obstacle to asignificant revival of Yiddish is that it has become alanguage without acountry. In other words: with the extermination of European Jewry, Yiddish has disappeared from the Eastern European countries in which it once was spoken. However, already in the 19th century famine and horrendous pogroms had led to massive emigration and the establishment of Yiddish-speaking communities in the immigration countries. Thus, before World War II cities such as New York— the most important refuge— but also Berlin, Paris, Montreal, Buenos Aires, Melbourne and Johannesburg came to host large Yiddish-speaking populations. In those days some 13 million people spoke Yiddish. A. THE YIDDISH LANGUAGE Yiddish Studies are ahundred years old. The pioneer was the Yiddishist and philologist Ber Borokhov (1881–1917) with his landmark essays, the two seminal pieces 16 Located there is the biggest Yiddish library in Europe, the Bibliothèque Medem founded in 1929 by Bundists who had emigrated to Paris. 17 One of numerous sites is Shtetl. Yiddish Language and Culture: http://www.ibiblio.org/ yiddish/shtetl.html (22.6.2018) 18 EYDES means testimony in Yiddish. It stands for Evidence of Yiddish Documentation in European Societies: http://www.eydes.de/Usr0CA1996DOE/ (22.6.2018) OPEN ACCESS
40 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 “ Oyfgabn fun der yidisher filologye” (“The aims of Yiddish philology”)19 and “Di bibliotek funem yidishn filolog” (“The library of aYiddish philologist”), which appeared in Der Pinkes (“The Record Book”) in 1913, edited by Shmuel Niger.20 For Borokhov, the word filologye covered not only the language, but also literature-based disciplines such as folklore, literary history, bibliography etc. Together with his assistants, he established rules for amodernized and standardized spelling and grammar. The process was completed in 1930 by the YIVO. Astandard orthography took shape: for example, h and double consonants were dropped. Furthermore, the use of the so-called daytshmerizm (Germanisms) prevalent in the 19th century was reduced and replaced by Hebrew words or those no longer in use in High German. Khoydesh replaced monat, mishpokhe replaced familye, os replaced bukhshtab etc. On the other hand, Yiddish influenced the German language, which includes some 500 Yiddish words (Yiddishisms) whose original meaning21 has often shifted.22 For example, mishpokhe was borrowed as Mishpoke and means “clan”, while in Yiddish “clan” is mishpakhte. All the countries were Yiddish was spoken integrated Yiddishisms in their own language, so for example also Czech. Borokhov’s ideas were fully recognized only after his death. Solomon Birnbaum and the father-and-son team of Max and Uriel Weinreich also devoted their lives to Yiddish language and literature. Solomon Birnbaum23 was appointed to the first chair for Yiddish at the University of Hamburg in the 1920s, while Max Weinreich wrote his revolutionary doctoral thesis on Yiddish at the University of Marburg in 1923: instead of considering Yiddish as a“satellite” of German, Weinreich brought Yiddish from the periphery to the centre.24 Thus he took an approach opposite to that of the Wissenschaft des Judentums (Jewish Studies) and its focus on the Jewish Enlightenment, whose prestigious members— Leopold Zunz, Moritz Güde19 See “Ber Borokhov: Di bibliotek funem yidishn filolog. Firhundert yor yidishe shprakh-forshung”, in: Shmuel Niger: Der Pinkes, Nr.1 (1913); Dovid Katz: “Ber Borokhov, Pioneer of Yiddish Linguistics”, in: Jewish Frontier (June-July 1980), pp. 114–118; “Ber Borokhov: The Aims of Yiddish Filology (1913)”, in: Jewish Frontier (June-July 1980), pp. 15–20, transl. by Dovid Katz: http://www.dovidkatz.net/dovid/PDFLinguistics/1980-Ber%20Borokhov.pdf (both articles, 22.6.2018). 20 In this first issue, Yiddish language and literature are considered as ahighly scholarly field of research. 21 Cf. Štěpán Balík: Yiddish Loanwords in Czech. Jidišové výpůjčky včeštině aneb Očem vypovídají slova. Filozofická fakulta Jihočeské univerzity vČeských Budějovicích, Ústav bohemistiky aJazykovědné sdružení AV ČR, 24.7.2014. The printed version will appear in Studia Judaica, Cracow. 22 See Hans-Peter Althaus: Zocker, Zoff & Uzores. Jiddische Wörter im Deutschen. Hamburg: C.H. Beck, 20103; Kleines Lexikon deutscher Wörter jiddischer Herkunft. Hamburg: C.H. Beck, 20103. 23 Salomo A.Birnbaum: Yiddish. ASurvey and aGrammar. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1979. 24 Max Weinreich: Geschichte der jiddischen Sprachforschung, ed. by Jerold C.Frakes. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1993, I.5. This dissertation has been translated into Yiddish: Geshikhte fun der yidisher shprakh. Vol. 1–4. New York: YIVO, 1973; and into English: History of the Yiddish Language. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980 (new ed. in 2 vols., Yale University Press and YIVO 2008, including all the footnotes of the Yiddish version). OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 41 mann and Heinrich Graetz a.o.— were interested in Yiddish only to the extent that it, relic-like, mirrored the Jewish life and culture of “prehistoric times”.25 A.I. THE TERM And ConCEPT “yIddISH” The word Yiddish means “Jewish” and denotes alanguage created and first used by Jews in anon-Jewish environment— the Holy Roman Empire— in order to express their specific way of life based on Holy Scripture, i.e. the Bible and its commentaries in the Talmud. This geographical environment received aBiblical name— Ashkenaz— invested now with new meaning. Ashkenaz is connected with the invention of alanguage, Yiddish, reflecting anew identity and anew community. The Holy Roman Empire and Ashkenaz are two inseparable entities. In addition, however, there were always non-Jews who understood or/and spoke the language, sometimes out of interest, mostly with the aim of converting Jews. In the Early Modern Period Johann Buxtorf I., apart from being the greatest Christian Hebraist of his time, was curious about Jewish life and customs and collected all the Hebrew and Yiddish books he could get,26 while in the 18th century Goethe, who lived in Frankfurt am Main (the city with the largest Jewish community), wanted to learn “das barocke Judendeutsch” (the baroque Judeo-German). Yiddish is an original symbiosis between two Semitic languages— Hebrew and Aramaic— and aEuropean one— German. It is written from right to left in Yiddish letters, i.e. in letters adapted from the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew alphabet being consonantal, Yiddish devised ameans of using Hebrew letters to indicate vowels. Because of its similarity to German, Yiddish was often transliterated with Gothic or Latin characters. At the end of the 19th century, the “Southwestern Yiddish”27 of southwestern Germany (Baden), Switzerland (Surbtal) and northeastern France (Alsace-Lorraine) abandoned Yiddish characters in favor of Latin characters. Yiddish, today the only term used to denote the language, was not used consistently until the 20th century. According to Max Weinreich, the word Yiddish dates back to the 17th century; the language itself is of course much older. Earlier it was called loshen ashkenaz (language of the Ashkenazim) or taytsh,28 Judendeutsch or Jargon. The latter expression was the usual and neutral one at the turn of the 20th century. Today the word Yiddish has superseded all other terms for the language, except in Alsace, where Yiddish-speakers go on calling it Judeo-Alsatian.29 25 Abraham Tendlau: Sprichwörter und Redensarten deutsch-jüdischer Vorzeit (1860). Ulan Press, 2012. 26 Some were printed in Basel and are kept at the University Library. Cf. Joseph Prijs: Die Basler hebräischen Drucke. Olten: Urs Graf, 1964. 27 Cf. Johannes Brosi: Southwestern Yiddish: AStudy in Dialectology, Folklore and Literature. M.Litt. thesis, University of Oxford, 1990. 28 Taytsh refers to the target language of translation done in order to make agiven written or spoken text accessible to the people; taytsh has the same meaning as Deutsch, the word having originally meant “Volk”. In modern Yiddish, taytshn means “to translate”. 29 Asubject worthy of investigation. There is anegative perception here of adialect not considered to be “real Yiddish” or East Yiddish. People speaking “real Yiddish” see themselves OPEN ACCESS
42 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 A.II. THE oRIgInS oF yIddISH According to Max Weinreich (b. 1894 in Courland, d. 1969 in New York), Yiddish arose more than athousand years ago in the Rhine and Mosel valleys, an area called Lotharingia (Yiddish Loter). The most important cities with Jewish communities were Speyer, Worms and Mainz (abbreviated as Shum) plus Regensburg. In this area Judaism acquired its specific character as expressed in the word Ashkenaz mentioned above. Little is known about the beginnings of Yiddish. The earliest surviving written documents date from the second half of the 13th century. Adichotomy arose between Yiddish, which was developing as avernacular language, and Hebrew and Ara maic, the languages of the elite and of Biblical and Talmudic studies. In the Middle Ages, when it fell out of use, Aramaic was considered as sacred alanguage as Hebrew. Weinreich distinguishes four historical periods of the Yiddish language: Proto-Yiddish ( –1250): from the beginnings to the Late Middle Ages. During this period Jewish communities expanded into the Upper Rhine and the Danube Basin. This is Ashkenaz I, located in Central Europe. Great figures of the time included Rabbi Gershom ben Juda (c. 960–1040), born in Metz and called the “Light of Exile”, and Rashi (1040–1105), whose commentaries on the Bible are still studied today. In Rashi’s glosses, numerous French expressions as well as several Yiddish ones are to be found. If the Yiddish words indeed originated from Rashi himself, they would be the oldest witness to the Yiddish language.30 The turn of the 11th century saw the first persecutions of Jews from the Rhineland in the wake of the First Crusade (1096–1999).31 This marks the beginning of an endless series of massacres of Jews. Old Yiddish (1250–1500): the center of gravity shifts slowly to the East, to Bohemia and Moravia, Poland and Lithuania. This is Ashkenaz II. As the oldest Jewish community in Bohemia and one of the most significant such communities in Europe, Prague was important as aJewish metropolis with alarge population and as the home of spiritual mentors, erudite scholars and great rabbis. Avigdor Kara (d. 1439) the great cabbalist and poet from Regensburg, one of the first to spread Spanish and German Kabbalah32 in his country, was appointed as adayyan (judge) in Prague in 1389. There, as speaking the “true Yiddish”. This denotes adeep social malaise deriving from the discrepancy between Westand Ostjuden. 30 Erika Timm: “Zur Frage der Echtheit von Raschis jiddischen Glossen”, in: BGdSL (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur) 107 (1985), pp. 45–81. 31 Henriette Benveniste: “Fierté, désespoir et mémoire: les récits juifs de la première croisade”, in: Médiévales 35 (1998), pp. 125–140. 32 Moses de Leon wrote the masterpiece of Jewish mysticism, the Sefer ha-Zohar (“Book of Splendour”), and at the same time, the Khsidei-Ashenaz (“the Pious of the Rhineland”) developed amystical movement called Hasidism. In the Sefer Hasidim (“the Book of the Pious”), written by Rabbi Juda ben Samuel or Rabbi Judah the Pious from Regensburg, the Jewish mysticism of the Middle Ages is depicted very accurately, so that this book offers insight into the Jewish life and Jewish-Christian relations of that time. OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 43 the same year, he witnessed the massacre of the Jews accused, on the last day of Passover,33 of having desecrated the Host.34 As occurred in other Jewish communities in the Holy Roman Empire to which Bohemia belonged, the Jews were victims of pogroms triggered by the Crusades: accused of the Desecration of the Host, of Blood Libel and of poisoning wells during the Black Plague, they endured discrimination and persecution until the horror of the Shoah in the 20th century, including deportation to Terezín. Middle Yiddish (1500–1750): the transition between Ashkenaz Iand Ashkenaz II occurred around 1500, and Prague played acentral role in it. In 1492, the year the Jews were expelled from Spain, Rabbi Jacob Pollack (ca. 1470–1541) left the German lands for Prague, then settled in Cracow after being excommunicated. He was the founder of new Talmudic studies and the inventor of the pilpul,35 amethod to sharpen the mind with questions and answers. Poland became the center par excellence whither students came from all over to study in famous yeshivot.36 In her Me moirs written in Western Yiddish, Glückl Hamel gives an interesting description of this period.37 Eastern Yiddish dialects arose. The 16th century was the Golden Age, the time of Jewish Renaissance in Prague. Rabbi Löw (1520–1609), known as the MaHaRal,38 was aleading thinker and an icon of the Jewish community of Prague. He obtained from Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II the protection of the Jews. He was afamous Talmudic scholar, aJewish philosopher and areformer of the Jewish educational system. An opponent of the interpretation method of the pilpul, he emphasized the study of classic Jewish texts. Though he knew the discoveries of his time— the Copernican Revolution and the Discovery of America— his work analyses Israel’s position in the world and discusses the Tora and the commandments. His magnificent grave is one of the gems of the Old Jewish Cemetery. When it comes to famous figures, scholarly and popular cultures often mingle.39 In the case of Rabbi Löw, the legend says he created ahomunculus, the golem, supposed to protect Jews in times of pogroms; this myth arose in the 33 Passover was adangerous time for Jews, who were accused of deicide. At the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), the transubstantiation of Christ’s body and blood into bread and wine was defined as dogma. The host was not symbolic anymore, but amaterialization of this miracle. 34 To mourn this tragedy, he wrote an elegy called Et Kol ha-Tela’ah asher Meẓa’atnu (“All the Hardships that Befell Us”), which is recited during the Minkhah service on the Day of Atonement by the Jews of Prague. 35 He is the founder of halakhic and Talmudic exegesis based on sharp and clever analysis. For more details and examples, see: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12153pilpul (22.6.2018). 36 Though amodern story, Isaac Singer’s novella "Yentl the yeshive bokher" (1962) and Barbara Streisand’s film musical version of it wonderfully depict the atmosphere of Lernen there. 37 Bertha Pappenheim (ed. and tr.): Die Memoiren der Glückel von Hameln, Weinheim: Beltz, 20053 (E-Text at de.wikisource); Glikl. Zikhronot 1691–1719 (Glikl. Memoirs 1691–1719), ed. and tr. from the Yiddish by Chava Turniansky. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, 2006. 38 This is the abbreviation for Morenu ha-Rav Löw, Our Teacher Rabbi Löw. 39 Cf. Eli Yassif: “Entre culture populaire et culture savante. Les exempla dans le Sefer Hassidim”, in: Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 49/5 (1994), pp. 1197–1222. OPEN ACCESS
44 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 19thcentury, as did many other myths, but not from Romanticism. On the contrary, it anticipated the revival in Europe of an old but entrenched accusation, that of Blood Libel (ritual murder),40 which led to violent, internationally condemned anti-Semitic rioting in Hungary in Tiszaeszlár in 1882, in Bohemia in Polná in 1899 (the Hilsner Affair)41 and in Kiev in 1913 (the Beilis Affair). All three unleashed violent anti-Semitic rioting. It is no wonder that in the early 20th century, golem stories are to be found in literature, theater (especially in Yiddish) and movies. New Yiddish (1750– ): except in Switzerland, Baden and Alsace-Lorraine, Western Yiddish slowly declined, while Eastern Yiddish flourished right up until the Nazi era. Beginning in the 19th century, the flow of emigrants led to Yiddish being spoken in new areas: North and South America, South Africa, Australia, Palestine/Israel (though it was not welcome there). The language of the immigration country enriched the Yiddish dialects spoken by Jews. These dialects belonged to two main groups: Western and Eastern Yiddish. Within Eastern Yiddish, the Polish dialect became the largest one; written Yiddish, however, used the Lithuanian dialect while adopting the neuter gender from the Polish one. Western Yiddish is older than Eastern Yiddish; between them arose the so-called Middle Yiddish, today largely extinct (Prague, Pressburg/Bratislava, Budapest). What are the characteristics of the Yiddish language? It is aJewish language, which, according to Weinreich, may be considered to be, like all Jewish languages (Judesmo/ Ladino, Yavanic,42 Knaanic)43, ashmeltssprakh, a“fusion language”.44 For in it are reflected all the languages which contributed to its present form. A.III. CoMPonEnTS There are four main linguistic components: 1) The Semitic component of Hebrew and Aramaic: this is the oldest linguistic layer and stems largely from the Bible and the Talmud (in Old Yiddish texts, Hebrew and Aramaic words occur less often). In Yiddish, Hebrew is called loshn koydesh, the holy language: shabes, tsdoke (alms), kehile (congregation), besmedresh (house 40 Wolfgang Pascheles (1814–1857): “Jajin Kidush oder die falsche Beschuldigung”, in: Sippurim. Eine Sammlung jüdischer Volkssagen, Erzählungen, Mythen, Chronicken, Denkwürdigkeiten und Biographiee berühmter Juden aller Jahrhunderte, besonders des Mittelalters. Prag 1856; reprint Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1976, vol. 2, pp. 5–48. 41 František Červinka, “The Hilsner Affair,” Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 13 (1968), pp. 142–157; reprint in Alan Dundes (ed.), The Blood Libel Legend: ACasebook in Anti-Semitic Folklore, Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1991, pp. 135–161. 42 Cf. Max Weinreich 2008: 62: “Afusion language the stock of which was mostly Greek”; the “mistakes” show that Jews spoke a“separate language, similar to Greek”. 43 Knaanic (Judeo-Czech) is an extinct West Slavic Jewish language, spoken e.g. in the Czech lands until the Middle Ages. 44 Max Weinreich 2008: 29 ff. OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 45 of learning), brismile (circumcision), mitsves (commandments), khasene (wedding), kinesine (jealousy, envy). 2) The component of Romance languages, in particular as spoken in southern and northeastern France and in northern Italy: faunt (child), shpouses-fingerle (wedding ring), piltsel (maid), orn < Latin orare (pray), leyenen < Latin legere (read), bentshn < Latin benedicere (bless, give thanks after eating; note that the Latin word meaning the opposite of bless, maledicere “to damn”, is not used; for “to damn” one uses the Hebrew word klole). 3) The component of Middle High German (MGH). This component supplies the largest number of words as well as much grammar: kumen (to come), zogn (to say), shlofn (to sleep), entfern (to answer), lernen (to study the Scripture) trikenish (drought), umkum (Shoah), gas (street), di yidishe gas (the Jewish Quarter). 4) The component of Slavic languages. This component is the most recent and contributed words referring above all to plants and animals: sosne (fir tree), verbe (willow), truskavke (strawberry), sove (owl), veverke (squirrel). The fusion of components also occurs within agiven word, different components combining in single words or expressions. For example: Romance/German: leyenen, bentshn (to give thanks after eating, in loshn koydesh = birkas hamozen; before eating one says the blessing: abrokhe ton) German/Hebrew: doktoyrim, poyerim (peasants), derhargenen (kill) Hebrew/German: tames-trayvelish (currant, Ribes; cf. Swiss German Johannistrübeli, replacing the Christian name Johannis/John by the month when the berries are ripe, tames “Tammuz”); Moyshe rabeynus kiyele (ladybug; Moyshe rabeynu = Moses our teacher, replacing “Lady” (= Maria); kiyele = diminutive of ku, cow); kol ha-meglekhkeytn (all possibilities; kol = all, ha = Hebrew definite article) German/Slavic: gotenyu (familiar name for God), studentke (female student), profesorshe (female professor) Slavic/German: sedl (park; sod = Obstgarten, sedl = diminutive), tshemodanen (suitcases) Hebrew/Slavic: kolboynik (rogue; hum. know-it-all), kibutznik (someone who lives in akibbutz) English/Slavic: alraytnik (“all right”; someone who has worked his way up) South African/Slavic: kaferitnik (owner of akaferite, acanteen for Blacks, i.e. [racistly] kafers) Certain words have aparticular meaning. The Hebrew word sefer, religious book, can never be used for anon-religious book; such books are called bukh/bikher. In the religious context of Eastern Europe, bukh always refers to secular literature. For example, one says: Er kukt in di bikhlekh, which means: he reads modern (non-Jewish) literature.45 Women in frequent contact with non-Yiddish speakers knew other lan45 Cf. Karl Emil Franzos: Der Pojaz. Eine Geschichte aus dem Osten. Berlin: Rotbuch Verlag 2005. In this Bildungsroman, the author deals with the hero’s interest in bikher, for which he is severely punished. OPEN ACCESS
52 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 (rules the king) = kinigt der kinig. Asimilar process had occurred when the Pentateuch was translated into Aramaic, the vernacular of the Jewish people around the time of Christ: this was called the Targum (“translation”).72 Yiddish Bible translations were usually made by reading apassage aloud in Hebrew, then translating it averse at atime. Atranslation into Synagogue Yiddish for example sounds like this: aHebrew verse Breyshes boro elohim eth ha-shomayim veeth hoarets, followed by the announcement Dos is taytsh (“this is the translation, this is Yiddish”) and then the verse in Yiddish: In onheyb hot hkb’’h (“The Holy One, blessed be He”) bashafen dem himel und die erd (“created Heaven and Earth”). These Bibles, consisting of the Five Books of Moses, were called taytsh-khumesh (Yiddish Pentateuch). Morality books (muser-sforim) were especially produced for women. The most famous is the Sefer Brantshpigl (“Burning Mirror”, Cracow 1596)73 “for women and for men who are like women”, i.e. for non-scholarly men, as Moses Henokhs Altshul Yerushalmi puts it in his prologue. Like the books of customs (minhogim sforim) first printed in Venice in 1593, morality books teach how to study and observe the commandments, how to behave, how to discipline the body, how to care for one’s health and hygiene (Meneket Rivkah), how to deal with marital sexuality and morality, how to fight against magic and superstition, against the misuse of language and against lying and obscenity. Morality books consider the imperatives of Jewish ethics and convey the virtues to which civil society ever strives. Story books (mayse bikher) were agenre of edificatory and entertaining literature with amessianic aim. They include Jewish exempla, Talmudic and Midrashic legend as well as tales from international lore; the most complete and famous collection is the Mayse bukh (1602,74 Prague 1665)75 with 255 stories, including for the first time the exempla on the Pious Rabbis from the Rhineland. In his prologue, the compiler writes: the Mayse bukh “will be read both by the rabbis and their wives and by every72 In Arabic areas the Bible was translated into Arabic, leading to aJewish Arabic language or “Judaeo-Arabic”. This language is still spoken today by Jews from the Maghreb (Northern Africa). An interesting aspect of this language is its combination of two Semitic languages. 73 Sigrid Riedel (ed.): Moses Henochs Altschul-Jerushalmi “Brantspigel”. Transcribed and edited from the editio princeps of Krakau 1596. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1993, p.12. Reprints Basel 1602 (Conrad Waldkirch) and Prague 1610 (Yaakov ben Gershon Bak). 74 Un beau livre d’histoires. Eyn shön mayse bukh. Fac-similé de l’editio princeps de Bâle (1602). Traduction du yiddish, introduction et notes par Astrid Starck (Ed.). Schriften der Universitätsbibliothek, vols. 6/1 & 6/2, ed. V.Ueli Dill and Martin Steinmann, Basel: Schwabe Verlag, 2004. 75 Cf. Erika Timm: Graphische und phonische Struktur des Westjiddischen. Tübingen: Niemeyer 1987. The work includes “Beria und Simra” (521–557) printed by the Bak Family; the text “Beria und Simra” ends with a“mayse” from the Mayse bukh (ibid., 515–518). This print “sold” by the Frankfurt Library in April/June 16, 1937 to Salman Schocken was long deemed lost, but it has just been discovered at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, where it had been sent with other precious books to save them from the Nazis. Cf. Elisabeth Singer-Brehm: “Das Prager Maisebuch von 1665”, in: Jiddistik Mitteilungen 55/56 (April/November 2016), pp.1–12. An analysis of both edition would be of great interest. OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 53 one else. Even by ascholar well versed in gemara, who will quote midrashim, stories and aggadoth”.76 It is the cornerstone of narrative literature in Yiddish, and all subsequent writers drew from this inexhaustible well, the most famous one being the Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer.77 Prayer books for daily (sidur) or festive prayers (makhzor) were widely printed, and their distribution generated significant income. Supplication prayers for women (tkhines)78 allowed women to express emotions and for along time were the only female-oriented genre permitted.79 Written at first by men, eventually such books came to be written by women who excelled in the genre.80 Prague was particularly prolific in printed tkhines from the 16th century onwards; collections of tkhines were published there in 1586 and 1590 and, in the 17th century, in 1650, 1660, 1674, 1682 and 1688. B.II. yIddISH PRInTIng In PRAgUE81 Jewish printing in Prague began in 1512 with aHebrew prayer book or sidur. The 16th-century Jewish Renaissance in Prague witnessed aflowering of learning and crafts which attracted artisans and scholars from all over Europe, and the Jewish authority known as the Maharal contributed to the city’s brilliance. In those days Yiddish, the vernacular language of Ashkenazi Jews, flourished throughout Europe. The invention of printing, “the crown of all science”, had arevolutionary impact on Jewish religious and cultural life. It made learning, reading and writing accessible to awide and demanding audience, as books in Yiddish found new readerships among women and uneducated men. For despite the bilingualism of Jewish society, apoint emphasized by Max Weinreich and others, those able to read Scripture in the original were but asmall elite. Prague distinguished itself furthermore as the home of two Jewish printer dynasties, the Kohen (“Gersonides”) and Bak families, active (except during conflicts between the Czech and the Habsburg monarchies) from the 16th to the 18th century— for elsewhere (e.g. in Basel) printers of Jewish literature tended to be Christian Hebraists. In Prague, Jewish printers cooperated with Christian craftsmen for their machinery and expertise. 1512 was amemorable year in the history of Hebrew letters, for it saw the publication of the first Hebrew book (asidur or prayer 76 Astrid Starck 2004: pp. 4–5 (f°1v). 77 Astrid Starck-Adler: “Bashevis’s Interactions with the Mayse-bukh (Book of Tales)“, in: The Hidden Isaac Bashevis Singer, ed. by Seth L.Wolitz. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001, pp. 119–133. 78 Devra Kay (ed. and transl.): Seyder Tkhines. The Forgotten Book of Common Prayer for Jewish Women. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society 2004. 79 Tkhines, Basel: Konrad Waldkirch 1609. Bilingual Hebrew &Yiddish. 80 Kathryn Hellerstein: AQuestion of Tradition. Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586–1987. Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture. 81 Jean Baumgarten: Le peuple des livres. Les ouvrages populaires dans la société ashkénaze XVIe–XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Albin Michel 2010, pp. 295–304; Shlomo Z.Berger: Yiddish Books in Prague (2nd version). Online: http://www.academia.edu/6981167/Yiddish_books_in_ Prague (22.6.2018). OPEN ACCESS
54 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 book) by agroup of Prague printers led by Gershom ben Shlomo Kohen Katz (d. 1544); the 500th anniversary of this prayer book was celebrated in 2012 by the Jewish Museum in Prague.82 It was afirst in Europe, and Prague became the leading center for Jewish printing north of the Alps. Together with his brother Gronem Katz, Gershom went on to print awonderful Haggada83 (1526) with sumptuous wood engravings by Hayyim Shakhor (Schwartz).84 It contains aparaliturgical song with the words Adir hu / Almekhtiger got. These are the first lines ever to be printed in Yiddish. The printing and circulation of Yiddish books was closely connected to that of Hebrew books, which usually preceded them. An exception was Basel, where Yiddish printing in extenso preceded Hebrew printing: there, two Yiddish epics, rhymed paraphrases in vaybertaytsh (“women’s Yiddish”, i.e. the special typeface used for Yiddish literature), were printed in 1557: the Sefer Doniel (reprints: Prague 1609 & 1673)85 and Di Megile,86 both by Jakob Kündig. An interesting example of the preeminence of the vernacular is the sermon on forbidden wine held by the Maharal and printed in Hebrew. Since most people understood not Hebrew but Yiddish, their mother tongue, the sermon was probably held in Yiddish and translated into the “Holy Language” for publication.87 Gershom Kohen specialized in prayer books for Germany and Poland. Dealers were often the owners of print shops, and books were produced for an international market extending beyond the Holy Roman Empire. Prague remained aJewish printing centre from the 16th until the 18th century. Yiddish printing was less important than Hebrew, ca. 20%. Most Yiddish books published in Prague appeared between 1553 and 1629, i.e. between the decline of Italy and the rise of Amsterdam as Jewish printing center. They were printed in vaybertaytsh, derived from the semi-cursive Ashkenazi writing but in fonts less neat than that of Basel. Large numbers of Prague titles were exported to Poland. It would be interesting to compare Yiddish printing in Basel,88 where there was no Jewish community, and in Prague with its large and important one.89 82 For this occasion, the Jewish Museum organized an exhibition at the Robert Guttman Gallery: “‘You won’t need to see arabbi.’ 500 Years of Hebrew Printing in Bohemia and Moravia.” Catalogue: Olga Sixtová (ed.), Hebrew Printing in Bohemia and Moravia. Prague: Academia and the Jewish Museum in Prague, 2012. 83 Ritual for Pessah, the Jewish Easter celebration. Adir hu is sung during the Seder meal. 84 Hayyim ben David Shakhor (Schwartz), he too aHebrew printer in Prague from 1514 to 1526, joined Kohen in 1518. 85 “Doniel” : das altjiddische Danielbuch nach d. Basler Druck von 1557, ed. Wulf-Otto Dreessen and Hermann-Josef Muller. Vol. 1: Transcription; vol. 2: Facsimile. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1979. 86 Joseph Prijs: Die Basler hebräischen Drucke (1492–1866). Olten: Urs-Graf, 1964, pp. 139ff., 146ff. The latter is an editio unica. 87 Judah Loew ben Bezalel (c. 1525–1609): Derush al ha-Torah al ha-Mitzvot. Prague: Solomon ben Mordecai Katz and Moses ben Bezalel, 1593. JMP, call no.4.727. Cf. Exhibition. 88 Clemens P.Sidorko: Basel und der jiddische Buchdruck (1557–1612). Schriften der Universitätsbibliothek Basel, Vol. 8. Basel: Schwabe Verlag 2014. 89 Shlomo Z.Berger: Yiddish Books in Prague (2nd version). Online: http://www.academia. edu/6981167/ Yiddish_books_in_Prague (22.6.2018). OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 55 Yiddish printing in Prague covered all the genres of Old Yiddish literature, and acatalogue like the one Prijs established for Hebrew and Yiddish printing in Basel would be most welcome.90 One can speak of a“classical stock” which supplied the printing houses of Europe and whose language was aliterary Western Yiddish read by Jews from Western and Eastern Europe; it began with Bible translation and continued with paraphrases from the Bible and the Midrash, prayer books, morality books, historical books and story books.91 Thanks to David Oppenheimer, the chief rabbi of Bohemia and Prague and acollector of Jewish books printed in Prague, many such books have survived. They are now at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Two books had an indisputable pedagogical influence and show in turn the influence of the Maharal, who valued textual comprehension over “pilpulic” discussion: the Yiddish glossaries Beer Moshe on the Pentateuch & Five Scrolls, and the Lekah tov92 on the Prophets and the remaining books of the Bible. The author of these glossaries was the teacher, translator, editor and publisher Moses Sertels (d. 1614/1615); they were published in 1604/1605 by Moses ben Joseph Bezalel Katz and became indispensable for teachers in Jewish schools in Europe. B.III. AUnIQUE PUBlICATIon In PRAgUE: MENEKES RIVKE (“REBECCA’S WET nURSE”, 1609)93 Education in the vernacular was aprimary goal of both Christian and Jewish circles during the Early Modern Period. Erasmus emphasized the importance of educating young girls and women. There was areason for this above and beyond the new market for printed books they represented. In early bourgeois society, women’s role was domestic: they helped with their husbands’ work— for example as baker, butcher, printer etc.— but were above all responsible for their children’s religious education. Thus Yiddish, the vernacular language, became the privileged vehicle of education.94 But not all women were ignorant of Hebrew. Since the Middle Ages, educated women in Germany and Italy read in the synagogue. They were called firzogerins (“women who prompt”).95 One such woman was Rivke bas Meir Tiktiner (d. ca 1550). She belonged to alearned family. As an erudite “female rabbi and preacher”, her duty was to convey religious knowledge in her homilies. These sermons formed the basis of Rivke’s scholarly, original and “modern” book on morality and homiletics. A“Man90 Prijs 1964. 91 Cf. Maéße Béria vé-Simra (Bak ca. 1618–1629), in Erika Timm 1987: 503–553. 92 The Lekakh tov is one of the few early Jewish prints still to be found in Prague. 93 Rivkah bat Meir Tiktiner: Menekes Rivke (“Rebecca’s Wet Nurse”, 1609). Erlangen: Old University Library. Aphotocopy of the original is in the library of the Jewish Museum in Prague. 94 Astrid Starck: “Wie weiblich ist Jiddisch? Übersetzung und Metamorphose am Beispiel des Maysebuchs (Basel 1602)”, in: Tagung des Instituts zur Erforschung und Förderung österreichischer und internationaler Kulturprozesse (ISNT): Das Verbindende der Kulturen. Wien, 2003. Online: http://www.inst.at/trans/15Nr/07_2/starck15.htm (22.6.2018) 95 Cf. Shmuel Niger: “Di yidishe literatur un di lezerin”, in: Der Pinkes 1 (1913), pp. 85–138. OPEN ACCESS
56 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 ual of Wisdom and Piety”, it is entitled Menekes Rivke (“Rebecca’s Wet Nurse”) and was not published until some fifty years after her death, first in Prague (1609), then in Cracow (1618).96 It is the only morality book of female authorship known to survive, and as such it is of unique value. It is embedded in the urban, mercantile Jewish milieu of 16th-century Prague97 and hence reflects the ethical and pedagogical preoccupations of the time and its author’s moral responses to them. It is ahighly erudite book with numerous allusions to the Bible. Thus it follows the Maharal’s educational program of acquiring and comprehending primary texts. Rivke mentions aggadot from the Talmud— fewer though than appear in other morality books (e.g. the Brant shpigl)— and quotes ethical books or muser sforim; these include the Reshit Khokhmah by Rabbi Eliahu da Vidas (“The Beginning of Wisdom”, Hebrew, 16th century),98 the Sefer Orakh Khayyim (“The Path of Life”, anonymous, Yiddish, Basel 1602), the Sefer ha-Middot (“The Book of Character Traits”, Hebrew) known as Sefer Orkhot Tsaddikim (“The Ways of the Righteous”, anonymous, Yiddish Isny 1542, Hebrew Prague 1581) and others which she had read in Hebrew or Yiddish. This rich intertextuality shows that women— and men— who read the Menekes had already obtained asolid religious education. Hebrew verses from the Bible are followed by Yiddish translations, signaled thus: Dos iz taytsh. These books were read aloud at home on Shabbat afternoons, thus sharing knowledge among readers and listeners, both the educated and the less or uneducated. Seven chapters, reflecting the seven arms of the Menora and the seven pillars of wisdom,99 are devoted to the duties of arighteous, pious, God-fearing woman. Love divine and human plays amajor role. The Menekes Rivke attains amystical dimension. The woman has to unite wisdom of the body and wisdom of the soul.100 Her duties include good deeds toward the household and servants, the children’s education— not distinguishing between boys and girls— and moral and social behavior towards her husband, her parents and her in-laws. Menekes Rivke is an edifying book with amessianic aim. It exhorts women— and men— to pursue ideals of conduct and social practice conducive to the Redemption of the world (ge’ule):101 “In recompense of this we will merit the Redemption of the [Messiah], who will make peace in the whole world” (f° 36a). 96 “Meneket Rivkah”: AManual of Wisdom and Piety for Jewish Women by Rivkah Bat Meir. Edited with an introduction and commentary by Frauke Von Rohden. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2009. 97 Rivke insists that people “should not imitate the nations in food, drink, or manner of dress, neither marrying them nor mingling with them” (F° 20b). 98 Eliyahu ben Mosheh de Vidaś : The Beginning of Wisdom. Unabridged Translation of the “Gate of Love” from Rabbi Eliahu de Vidas’ “Reshit Chochmah”. Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav Publishing House, 2002. 99 “Wisdom has built herself ahouse; she has carved her seven pillars” (Prov. 9.1) 100 Neoplatonism had astrong influence on Jewish thinkers. 101 The messianic aim is evident in all Yiddish literature of the 16th and 17th centuries. OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 57 Menekes Rivke emphasizes the woman’s virtues: she is to be at home and not outside the house, and is to be modest and obedient to her husband. Thus Rivke conveys an exhortation based on the Bible and found in morality books compiled or written by men, such as Moses Henokhs Yerushalmi’s Brant shpigl. At the same time, she refutes the persistent accusation uttered in those books that Eve brought death into the world, that she is amurderer and that therefore she has to atone for her crime by suffering in childbirth.102 This new perspective offered by Rivke is closely connected to aconcern of the 16th century: the parent’s love for the child and the care taken by the parent for the child’s body and soul. Health and hygiene become an important concern: bathing the child is recommended, as is nursing by its own mother.103 The techniques of nursing and bathing are described in avery sensitive way (f° 22a-b). The mother is admonished not to take the child with her into bed at night. Why? Presumably to prevent it from being crushed, amishap that occurred often and was denounced at the time.104 Rivke describes the physical and spiritual connection between mother and child and writes how important the thoughts of apregnant mother are if her child is to become adevout and erudite scholar. Rivke’s vision105 is based on areligious belief, which anticipated what we have come to know today: how receptive the embryo is.106 Reflecting the position of the educated and devout woman of 16th century Prague, Rivke emphasizes the woman’s mission to change the world and make it worthy to receive the Messiah hic et nunc. B.Iv. PRAgUE And yIddISH In THE 20TH CEnTURy At the end of the 18th century, Western Yiddish went into decline. During the Haskalah in Berlin, two languages alone were recognized as being of cultural significance: German and Hebrew. Yiddish was highly criticized and rejected by the Western world. In order to help familiarize Jews with German, the Yiddish-speaking Moses Mendelssohn translated the Bible into German written in Yiddish characters. While Western Yiddish no longer produced important works of literature, Eastern Yiddish, which developed in aSlavic environment, went its own way. Scholars and writers from Poland and Russia who had come to Berlin now moved back as adepts of the Haskalah wishing to educate their people. They could choose between Hebrew, 102 It is worth indicating that in most traditional societies, natural functions of the woman’s body such as menstruation, childbirth and in some cases nursing are subject to ostracizing patriarchal rules. 103 Nursing is an interesting social topic throughout the centuries: the mother was often prevented from nursing her own child, either for puritanistic or economical reasons. 104 In the Mayse bukh, for example, this problem is evoked through the parable of the Judgement of Solomon (mayse 228, pp. 738–742). 105 The Mayse bukh has two stories illustrating the influence of the parent’s thoughts during the conception of the child and anticipating its future: Nr.134 and Nr.249. 106 There is also apopular belief that if apregnant mother desires strawberries in winter she will have achild with astrawberry on his bottom (or elsewhere). OPEN ACCESS
58 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 Russian or Polish, and Yiddish. Hebrew was elitist, Russian and Polish were galkhes (Christian) languages. That left Yiddish. The writers who developed Yiddish literature in the 19th century— Mendele Moykher Sforim (1835–1917),107 Sholem Aleykhem (1859–1916)108 and Yitskhok Leybush Peretz (1852–1915)— wrote in all three languages. But in order to reach and touch, to educate and entertain the Jewish masses, they had to use the language that reflected the shtetl and its quirks and quarrels, its joys and sorrows. This was the beginning of atremendously vivid linguistic, literary and cultural adventure, aYiddish Renaissance with great Yiddish writers, artists and intellectuals from Poland, Russia and, due to emigration, America. The movement expanded first throughout Europe wherever Jews were in transit and left behind their cultural imprint; Yiddish theatre revolutionized the genre. Later on, peregrinating through foreign countries, Yiddish made discoveries, integrated them and enriched its own specificity, so that in each emigration country anew construct emerged. All together, these constructs constitute what Icall yidishofonye.109 Thanks to this Yiddish-speaking diaspora, Yiddish language and culture survived annihilation by the Nazis— but only just. Between 1881 and 1910, trying to escape the horrendous pogroms perpetrated in the Ukraine by the Cossack “Black Hundreds” under the rule of the Russian Tsar Alexander III, Jews fled westwards to Bohemia and Moravia. Thus Eastern Jewish culture physically met Western Jewish culture. This happened in Prague, and the privileged vector was theatre; indeed, Eastern Yiddish writers were well informed on Western Yiddish and German-Jewish culture, in the original language or in Eastern Yiddish translation. In Prague, Yiddish— called Judendeutsch— was still alive at the time, but not lively anymore, since the Jewish upper classes spoke German. The days when Prague Jews performed purim shpiln and other Yiddish plays in the vernacular were neither long gone nor forgotten, but all that was considered “prehistoric” and at most of antiquarian interest. Inspired on one hand by German nationalism and its Romantic legacy, on the other by Alexander von Humboldt’s ethnographic and geographical essays, ageneral interest in folklore and in the collection of legends and tales— cf. the Brothers Grimm— developed in Europe in the 19th century. This is when the “historical” Rabbi Loew became alegendary and major figure in Jewish foklore,110 first compiled in German. Awhole range of authors, mostly Jewish, were to contribute to this legend, publishing separately or in anthologies. While Franz Klutschak (1814–1886) published “Der Golam des Rabbi Löw” in his journal Panorama (1841),111 Wolf Pascheles 107 Sholem Yankev Abramovich wrote under the pseudonym “Mendele the Bookseller”. 108 “Good Morning” was the pseudonym of Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich. 109 Cf. Astrid Starck-Adler: “Das Jiddische als Kulturvermittlung und der Begriff der Jiddischophonie”, in: Trans. Internet Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften, 16 (June 2006). Online: http://www.inst.at/trans/16Nr/06_6/starck-adler16.htm (22.6.2018). 110 For an exhaustive analysis and bibliography of the different stories, cf. Edan Dekel & David Gantt Gurley: “How the Golem Came to Prague”, in: The Jewish Quarterly Review, 103/2 (Spring 2013), pp. 241–258. Online: http://jqr.pennpress.org/media/23891/JQRnewArticle.pdf (accessed 22.6.2018). 111 Cf. Hillel J.Kieval: “Pursuing the Golem of Prague: Jewish Culture and the Invention of aTradition”, in: Languages of Community. The Jewish Experience in Czech Lands. Berkeley: UniOPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 59 (1814–1857) assembled an exhaustive collection of stories written by different authors and called Sippurim (Prague 1847).112 It contains two stories told by the ethnographer and author Leopold Weisel, who was interested in the Jewish folklore of Bohemia. The first story, “The Golem” (vol. I, pp.51–52), evokes Rabbi Loew’s cabbalistic knowledge and magical power enabling him “to make alive figures formed with clay or carved in wood, in order to do one’s work like real human beings” (p.51).113 Rabbi Loew is like aBaal Shem (“Master of the Good Name”). The shem (magical word) Rabbi Loew puts into the golem’s mouth114 to bring him alive has to be removed during the Holy Sabbath. But once, the rabbi forgets to do so and, as in Goethe’s “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, the golem goes out of control and rampages wildly in the streets. Word gets back to the rabbi, who is confronted with adilemma: how to stop the golem without violating the Sabbath? But in the Old-New Synagogue (Altnayshul), the office has not yet started. The rabbi removes a letter from the Golem’s forehead, and it returns to its passive state. Frightened, Rabbi Loew desists from creating such dangerous “fellows”. Until today it is said that the golem’s remains are kept in the attic of the Old-New Synagogue! The second story, “Yayin Kiddush or False Accusation” (vol. 2, pp. 5–48), recalls the infamous days when Jews were accused of ritual murder115 and how the great rabbi— thanks to asupernatural gift from God— saves in extremis the Jewish people from persecution.116 Later on, elements from both stories are combined in Eastern Yiddish legend. The golem becomes both an intermediate between Western-German and Eastern-Yiddish folklore and adistinguishing factor between them.117 If on one hand adeep gap existed between Westand Ostjuden, i.e. between German-speaking and Yiddish-speaking Jews, on the other hand artists and intellectuals versity of California Press 2000, pp. 95–113; “Franz Klutschak’s Rendition of the Golem Folktale”, Panorama des Universums, vol.8 [1841]. Online: http://california.universitypressscholarship.com/mobile/view/10.1525/california/9780520214101.001.0001/upso-97 80520214101-appendix-1 (22.6.2018). 112 Wolfgang Pascheles (hrsg.): Sippurim. Eine Sammlung jüdischer Volkssagen, Erzählungen, Mythen, Chroniken, Denkwürdigkeiten und Biographien berühmter Juden. 5 Sammlungen in 2Bänden. Hildesheim: Georg Olms (reprint Prague 18564). 113 Akind of “robot” avant la lettre! 114 There are different ways of bringing him to life. The most famous one is to put the word emeth (truth), written alef-mem-tav (the first, middle and last letter of the alphabet), on the Golem’s forehead. To render him passive, the rabbi removes the letter alef, which represents the Creator of the universe, leaving mem and tav, which spell the word “dead”, “corpse”. 115 On ritual murder, cf. Ronnie Po-chia Hsia: The Myth of Ritual Murder. Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. 116 Rabbi Loew hears avoice informing him of the thwarted plot— Blood Libel— against the Jews, which would lead necessarily to retaliation. He finds the two bottles of blood under the Ark and fills them with wine. This enables him to save the Jews. The interesting thing in this story is that the ritual murder has been stirred up by a“bad” Jew who wants revenge for having been excluded from the Jewish community. 117 Apparently there are no Golem stories in Western Yiddish, but the word is not unknown: it is used, as in Eastern Yiddish, for adummy, an awkward man. OPEN ACCESS
60 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 of both sides cooperated in aJewish cultural magazine called Ost und West (“East and West”, Berlin 1901–1923). Intended as abridge, the magazine sought to familiarize assimilated Western Jews with the rich cultural world of the Ostjuden in order to forge amodern Jewish identity. The determination to collect Jewish folksongs and folktales in Eastern Europe echoed the Western determination to do so at the turn of the 20th century. The folklorist Yehuda Leyb Cahan (1881–1937) collected and published folksongs— Libelider118— old and new119 as well as folktales.120 Some Yiddish writers became collectors and authors of old legends they revisited and adapted. In 1890, before writing his “Golem”,121 Peretz went on an ethnographic fieldtrip through Poland to study Jewish customs and preserve Jewish popular culture (Bilder fun aprovints-rayze, 1891).122 It became essential for Eastern European Jews to preserve their Jewish heritage. In contrast to Western Europe, where anti-Semitism was also virulent but where influential personalities stood up for Jews— for example Émile Zola in the Dreyfus Affair—, Eastern European Jews had no protection against the anti-Semitic rampages of the mob. This was especially true at the turn of the 20th century and before and during World War I,123 aperiod characterized by massacre and destruction— themes we shall find in Leivick’s Goylem. In this context, the collection of popular treasures was seen as being extremely urgent. An-ski (Solomon Zanwil Rappoport, 1863–1920), later an ethnographer influenced by the Narodnik Movement, published part of the material he collected for the Jewish Museum in St.Petersburg under the title Der yidisher khurbn (“The destruction of the Jews”).124 He wrote the most famous play in Yiddish: The Dybbuk oder Tsvishn tsvey veltn (1914). There An-ski explores alegend based on the cabbalistic, mystical belief in the Dybbuk, arestlessly wandering soul’s reincarnation in aforeign body offering it relief; he uses the legend to create alove story in an Eastern Jewish religious and cultural context. For his Goylem, Leivick too uses an old legend connected to Kabbalah and mysticism— the use of divine names to bring to life anon-human being. But whereas in Western stories the golem was merely the rabbi’s servant, in Eastern stories it becomes the protector of the Jews. Leivick goes astep further: his golem is both the protector of the Jews and their Savior. The question is: Why did the Maharal need the golem, since in earlier stories he could ward off bad luck with his knowledge alone? Why is there an abyss between spiritual knowledge 118 Yuda Leyb Cahan : Yidishe Folkslieder. Mit melodyes. Bd. 1. New York: Literarisher farlag, 1920; YIVO 19572. 119 Yuda Leyb Cahan: Studies in Yiddish Folklore. Ed. by Max Weinreich, New York: YIVO, 1952. 120 Yuda Leyb Cahan: Yidishe folksmayses oys dem folksmoyl gezamelt. Bd. 1. New York-Vilne: Yidishe Folklor-Bibliotek, 1931. 121 Isaac Leybush Peretz: Dertseylungen, mayselekh, bilder. Ale verk, Bd. II. New York: CYCO, 1947, pp. 310–311. 122 Ibid, pp. 117–209. 123 An-ski reports on the destruction of Jewish communities and the civilian population by the Russian Army during World War Iin: The Enemy at His Pleasure: AJourney Through the Jewish Pale of Settlement During World War I, tr. by Joachim Neugroschel, Macmillan, 2003, p.253. This work has become amajor source in the historiography of the war’s impact on civilian populations. 124 Sholem An-ski: Der yidisher khurben, in: Gezamelte shriftn, Bd. 5, Vilne: Farlag “An-ski”, 1922. OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 61 and physical force? The mingling of Maharal and Golem in the same story makes visible two kinds of response— one upstream, the other downstream— to an event which seemed connected to the past and definitely extirpated from society: the old accusation of ritual murder and its devastating consequences, the pogroms. The two responses are reflected in Leivick’s Goylem, which sounds so prophetic of the Shoah. More than alegend, based on mystical and cabbalistic elements— the creation of ahuman being, the peregrination of asoul in search of abody with which to be reunited125— Leivick’s Goylem tells ahuman tragedy of silence, violence and dereliction. B.Iv.A. PRAgUE And lEIvICK’S dRAMATIC PoEM DER GOYLEM (1921)126 At the beginning of the 20th century, writers, poets, dramatists and filmmakers showed interest— “historical”, folkloristic, nationalistic or ideological— in agreat Jewish character, Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel or Maharal. To him they now added adeuteragonist: the golem, which became even more famous than its creator! The golem appeared in narratives, expressionistic fantasy films127 and theatre plays128 mostly set in an imaginary, rebuilt and “refurbished” Jewish Quarter (Josefov).129 Today the fictional and critical literature on the golem legend is rich, diverse and embraces all kinds of “golems”.130 The golem became akind of archetype leading to numerous genres in literature and film. The golem taken from amound of dust and kneaded and shaped into ahuman being has along Jewish tradition stretching from the Bible and Talmud131 down to our 125 There are similarities between Leivick’s Goylem and An-ski’s Dybbuk. 126 Leivick Halpern: Der goylem. Adramatishe poeme in akht bilder, in: Ale verk, Vilne: Farlag Kletskin, 1921. Digitalized version (Spielberg Digital Library): http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/books/search (see Leivick reading from Der goylem “Nisht gerufene”, 5tes bild, 121–134). This major work of Yiddish literature, performed as adrama by the Habima Theatre in 1925, is unfortunately unknown to non-Yiddish speakers. 127 Franz Wegener (1874–1948): Der Golem (1915; now lost), Der Golem und die Tänzerin (1917) and what is considered his masterpiece: The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920). 128 Leivick’s Golem is adramatic poem, but it has been staged many times until today. 129 Gustave Meyrink: Der Golem (1913–14). Fischer Verlag, 1981; Paul Wegener: Der Golem: Wie er in die Welt kam (1920); Eduard Petiška: Golem ajiné židovské pověsti apohádky ze staré Prahy (převyprávění pro mládež, 1968; more of afantastic novel); Leo Perutz: Nachts unter der steinernen Brücke: ein Roman aus dem alten Prag. München: dtv, 2011 (begun in 1924 in Vienna, the book was finished in 1951 in Tel Aviv and first published in 1953 by the Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt); Friedrich Torberg: Golems Wiederkehr und andere Erzählungen. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1968 (set after World War II and the Holocaust). 130 Cf. Veronika Ambros: “How Did the Golems (and Robots) Enter Stage and Screen and Leave Prague?”, in Cornis-Pope & Neubauer (eds.) 2004: pp. 308–320; on Leivick’s Golem, see pp. 313–314. 131 The word appears first in Psalm 139:16 for an “unshaped form”, then in the Talmud, in Tractate Sanhedrin 38b referring to Adam made from dust, and Sanhedrin 65b as amute being. During the Middle Ages, the mystical Sefer Yetsira (Book of Creation) dealt with this problem. Rabbi Juda the Pious and his disciple Rabbi Eleazar of Worms wrote acomOPEN ACCESS
68 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 from the cabbalistic body of thought (creation of the golem), the poem appeals to the Hasidic belief in the hidden righteous called Tsadikim and known as the Lamed-vovnikes (36 righteous), usually poor craftsmen, thanks to whom the world will be saved and the Messiah will come. As awoodcutter and water carrier, the golem belongs to them; as Yossele, the name the Maharal gave him, he reinforces the messianic dimension of the drama: he recalls the Messiah ben Joseph in post-Biblical Scripture who wages war against the forces of evil represented by the enemies of Israel. He will be killed, but he proclaims the Messiah ben David. The latter appears in the poem as ayoung beggar, together with an old beggar, the prophet Elijah. The young beggar feels out of place and arrives unexpectedly, hoping to be needed and heard. But the Maharal tells him that his time has not yet come and sends both beggars away. In alater scene, the young beggar, this time enchained,148 is thrown into the dark cave and there meets the golem, the “only Messiah”; during their dialogue, the young beggar repeats the golem’s words, because he says that he and the golem are one. Not only poor craftsmen, but also disabled people and beggars speak in the poem. Their presence onstage shows Leivick’s interest in social, ethical and national issues and recalls Peretz’s Hasidic stories149 and his great play Bay nakht oyfn altn mark (“ANight in the Old Marketplace”, 1907).150 The Goylem,151 surely Leivick’s most impressive work,152 was written between 1917 and 1920 concurrently with the “Four Pogrom Poems”.153 Many Yiddish writers, like the Russian-Jewish poets Kvitko, Bergelson and Markish,154 tried to find their voice, and many painters sought apalette for the pogroms in their work, so for example Issachar Ber Ryback (18971935)155 and Marc Chagall.156 In the Goylem, Leivick lets his character Tankhum speak, afather who lived through apogrom on Passover and lost his son, ayoung man who had his limbs chopped off and had an eye put out. The fa148 Cf. Leivick’s early drama in Hebrew: Di keytn fun Meshiekh (1909), later in Yiddish (“The Chains of the Messiah”, 1939). 149 “Oyb nisht nokh hekher” (“If Not Higher”), in: Khsidish. Ale verk, Bd. IV-V, pp. 98–102; “Bontsye Shvayg” (“Bontsche the Silent”), in: Dertseylungen, mayselekh, bilder. Ale verk, Bd.II. New York: CYCO 1947, pp. 412–420. 150 In: Dramatishe verk. Ale verk, Bd. VI-VII. New York: CYCO, 1947, pp. 181–280. 151 For adetailed analysis and contextualization of the poem, cf. Pao-hsiang Wang: “Necessary Monster: H.Leiv[i]ck’s Drama The Golem”, in: Journal of Theater Studies 6 (July 2010), pp. 1–26. 152 The poem has been compared to Goethe’s Faust and to Dante’s and Milton’s Inferno. 153 Cf. Shmuel Niger 1951: 147–168. 154 Cf. David G.Roskies: Against the Apocalypse: Responses to Catastrophe in Modern Jewish Culture. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press 1999. 155 Issachar Ber Ryback: Pogrom, 1918. The artist and sculptor painted eight impressive aquarelles depicting pogroms in the Ukraine; the exhibition Berlin Transit (2012) made them available to the public for the first time since 1924, in: Berlin Transit. Jüdische Migranten aus Osteuropa in den 1920er Jahren. Jüdisches Museum Berlin: Wallstein, 2012, pp. 39–41. 156 Cf. the Jewish Museum exhibition Chagall: Love, War, and Exile, including apainting called Pogrom. OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 69 ther, who carries his son with him in the Chariot of Fire,157 resurrects him every year at Passover (p. 74); but immediately after, the son relives the same pogrom over and over again as a“repetition compulsion”.158 This recalls Jesus’s suffering on the cross and his resurrection, told over and over every year. In the poem there is also acharacter called The Man with the Cross (p. 202), appearing with the Young Beggar, the Messiah ben David. In the 1920s Jewish artists saw themselves as Jesus on the Cross, emphasizing his Jewishness.159 Uri Zvi Grinberg wrote apoem called “Before the Cross/INRI”, for which he was condemned in Poland as an iconoclast and blasphemer.160 In this poem Grinberg soliloquizes with his brother Jesus the Jew, who like him suffers; but forgetting his Jewishness with the passing of the centuries, he witnesses, now petrified and distraught, the anti-Jewish pogroms perpetrated in his name. Chagall followed the same inspiration and painted numerous paintings of Jesus on the cross; the most famous one is The White Cross.161 Tankhum’s son, who suffers between resurrection and massacre, chariot and pogrom, shows that Leivick raises the issue of the coming of the Messiah, and through this reliving he stresses the cyclic and transtemporal character of the pogrom, illustrating Nietzsche’s theory of the Eternal Return. Tankhum himself, at the end of the poem, will fall victim to the golem’s axe: “Fargosn blut— / Yidish blut –” (“Spilled blood— / Jewish blood”, p.241) he says to the Maharal after having been savagely attacked by the golem whom the Maharal had created to protect the Jews. And he adds: “Farshteynt im” (“stone him”, ibid.) In an early dialogue with the Maharal, Tankhum spoke of revenge. He and his son embody martyrdom. The idea of repetition is supported by structural features that make up the framework but also are literary elements functioning like intertextual quotations. For example, the settings— castle ruin (= Prague) with its five towers, the subterranean realm beneath with its secret, labyrinthine passages, the cave— are literary motifs from medieval and Romantic literature and the Gothic novel.162 They are connected to uncanniness and angst; there, evil people and evil spirits are on the lookout. There indeed Tadeush and the monk hatched their plot; the latter kills aChristian and takes his blood in two bottles to the synagogue, but the Maharal who is clairvoyant sees through the plot (on Passover 157 Cf. Ezekiel 1:1–3:27. 158 Sigmund Freud: “Erinnern, Wiederholen und Durcharbeiten (Remembering, Repeating and Working-Through)”, 1914; “Jenseits des Lustprinzips (Beyond the Pleasure Principle)”, 1920. 159 Cf. Matthew B.Hoffman: From Rebel to Rabbi. Reclaiming Jesus and the Making of Modern Culture. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007; Neta Stahl: Other and Brother: Jesus in the 20th Century Jewish Literary Landscape. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. 160 Uri Zvi Grinberg : “Farn tseylem”, in: Albatros 2 (Warsaw 1922), pp. 3–4. 161 In the abovementioned Chagall exhibition, 20 paintings and works on paper depict Jesus. Though Chagall witnessed apogrom in Vitebsk when he was astudent, his paintings were made later in asimilar political context: White Crucifixion (1938), The Artist with Yellow Christ (1938), Persecution (1941), Descent from the Cross (1941), Study for The Yellow Crucifixion (1942), Apocalypse en Lilas: Capriccio (1945/47), In Front of the Picture (1968–71). 162 Sex and violence in the Goylem are further such motifs. Cf. Matthew Lewis: The Monk. London: Michael Trayler, 2007. OPEN ACCESS
70 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 they always accuse the Jews of ritual murder, and can “prove” it) and sends the golem to foil it, but not to kill them, which however the golem does, reacting to vague impulses of independence. The play is themed around “Blood”: Blood Libel, bottles of blood, Jewish blood, Tadeush wants to spill Jewish blood, there is blood on the golem’s axe, Jewish blood spilled in the end by him who knows what he did (pp. 241–242). Astrange episode happens in the cave. The Young Beggar— the Messiah ben David— and The Man with the Cross are there, exhausted and thirsty. They want to drink. The golem gives them the bottles of blood. Recognizing this, they are horrified and neither wants to drink even adrop (pp. 201–204). This recalls the Catholic dogma of transubstantiation; in the Eucharist, the bread and wine are changed in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. 26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” 27 And he [Jesus] took acup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 20: 26–28).163 Blood is the word the Maharal inculcates repeatedly into the golem’s head, adjuring him not to forget it: “Dos vort heyst blut” (“The word is blood”, pp. 168–169); this is also the word the Maharal repeats in the end, accusing himself of having impatiently attempted to induce Redemption, although it was against the order of things (“seyder haoylem”). He wanted to put an end to the suffering of his people: Ikh hob gevolt farmaydn blut un blut fargosn (243) “Iwanted to avoid blood and have spilled blood.” It is adeeply ethical problem the Maharal deals with in the dramatic poem. To fight against injustice, one increases injustice. This theme has been depicted by Goethe in his play Götz von Berlichingen and by Heinrich von Kleist in his novella Michael Kohlhaas. Both characters finally admit that the injustice they caused is more important than the one they had to suffer. Is this Leivick’s message, the message of aman who fought himself and had to suffer for taking action? Did Leivick in his poem “convey the tragic failure of the dream of anew world that would allow for the emergence of anew Jewish type”?164 163 This led to another accusation, the Desecration of the Host, which is not present in the poem but which led to massacres of Jews in Prague, accused of stabbing the Host with an awl, making Jesus bleed and thus killing him again. Cf. note 33. 164 Cf. Cathy S.Gelbin: The Golem Returns: From German Romantic Literature to Global Jewish Culture 1808–2008. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011, p.89. OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 71 B.Iv.B. KAFKA And THE yIddISH THEATER165 In his personal longing and individual quest for Jewishness, Kafka turned to Eastern Europe and found in Eastern Jewish culture an antidote to the emptiness of his Western Jewish background. The Yiddish theater he saw in Prague and Berlin was arevelation.166 The actors and actresses, above all Yitskhok Löwy and Mrs. Tschissik, showed him a“natural” language: lively, colorful, exuberant, tragic, full with laughter and tears, mimic and gesture, asouland body-language.167 Kafka found acommunity of spirit and joy of life. Yitskhok Löwy introduced him to Yiddish literature, to Hasidism and mysticism, to the values of Eastern European Jewry and to Jewish pride based on Jewish history. Starting with Kafka’s Diaries and the investigation of Yiddish literature mentioned there, certain critics have sought to establish parallels between Yiddish theater and the author’s literary oeuvre,168 and plays seen by Kafka have been transliterated into the Latin alphabet and provided with glossaries to make them easier for non-initiates to read and understand.169 There are also abbreviated versions of these plays in German prepared for the Berlin Board of Censors.170 Kafka experienced Yiddish theater for the first time in 1910 in Prague, together with his friend Max Brod. In 1911 and 1912 he regularly attended Yiddish plays at the Café Savoy, ashabby venue ironically called by Löwy “the temple of culture”. There Kafka saw some 20 plays and attended recitals of popular song and poetry readings. There, women played men’s roles. What kind of roles were they? Kafka didn’t know, but was free to let his imagination roam. Far from getting bogged down in the situations they created, the actors had afreedom of facial expression and aphysical dexterity which fascinated him. It was in those days that Kafka wrote his most important works, the short story Das Urteil (“The Judgement”) and the novella Die Verwandlung (“The Metamorphosis”), and began revising his novel Der Verschollene (“The Man who Disappeared”, aka Amerika). He made friends with actors from Lemberg, the capital of Galicia. This ancient province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was home to alarge Yiddish-speaking population. Kafka’s Diaries171 bear witness to the sympathy he felt 165 This chapter is based on the following article: Astrid Starck: “L’influence du théâtre yidich sur Kafka dans son roman Der Verschollene”, in: Nouveaux Cahiers d’Allemand, Université de Nancy, February 1997, pp. 17–26. 166 Franz Kafka: Tagebücher 1910–1923, in: Gesammelte Werke. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1983 (October 1911–February 1912). 167 On the influence of Yiddish on Kafka’s œuvre, cf. David Suchoff: Kafka’s Jewish Languages: The Hidden Openness of Tradition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. 168 Evelyn Thorton-Beck: Kafka and the Yiddish Theater. Its Impact on his Work. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971; cf. also Iris Bruce: “The Yiddish Theatre”, in: Kafka and Cultural Zionism. Dates in Palestine. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007, pp. 34ff. 169 Kazuo Ueda: Transkription der jiddischen Texte, die Kafka sah, in die lateinische Schrift mit Anmerkungen. 4 vols. Fukuoka: Kôchi University, 1992–2000. 170 Peter Sprengel: Scheunenviertel-Theater. Jüdische Schauspieltruppen und jiddische Dramatik in Berlin (1900–1918). Berlin: Fannei & Walz Verlag, 1995. 171 Franz Kafka: Tagebücher 1910–1923, in: Gesammelte Werke. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1983. All subsequent quotations have been taken from this edition. OPEN ACCESS
72 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 toward Yiddish actors, the enthusiasm he felt for their theatricality172 and his propensity for Jews of Eastern Europe. Kafka identified with them to alarge extent,173 which was incomprehensible to most of his friends and family.174 It was thanks to actors from Lemberg that Kafka discovered aJudaism which his father had been incapable of passing on to him.175 Via his education, Kafka belonged to aWestern Judaism well on its way to assimilation and for which Jewish rites and customs were devoid of meaning. The situation was quite different with Eastern Judaism, still deeply attached to roots which, although subject to criticism, were nevertheless known. The gulf between Western and Eastern Judaism was aproblem discussed ardently at the turn of the 20th century and gave rise to anumber of important publications.176 The Jewish world was in astate of ferment. In the wake of the Enlightenment, Western European Jews rid themselves of all that which smacked of ghetto, and alarge number converted. In Eastern Europe, Jews sought national identity either through creation of aEuropean “Yiddishland” and official recognition of Yiddish as alanguage (obtained finally— thanks to the efforts of Nathan Birnbaum— at the Conference of Czernowitz in 1908) or through return to Palestine (the Zionism of Theodore Herzl) and revival of Hebrew (the life work of Ben Yehuda). Kafka’s first contact with aliving Judaism took place in the Yiddish theater; not until later did he occupy himself more intensely with Zionism. Modern Yiddish theater, proceeding from the ancient Purim plays,177 originated in Romania in the second half of the 19th century. Its founder, Abraham Goldfaden (1840–1908), anative of Russia, had worked under extremely difficult and precarious conditions before immigrating to the United States. The author of some 60 plays, Goldfaden was actor, musician, stage-manager, playwright and director in one.178 He was bound by official 172 Such actors included Kafka’s friend Itzkhak Löwy, Madame Tschissik— of whom he was enamored— and numerous others mentioned in his Diaries. 173 “Das Mitleid, das wir mit diesen Schauspielern haben…ist eigentlich nur das Mitleid über das traurige Schicksal vieler edler Bestrebungen und vor allem der unseren” (“The pity we feel for these actors […] is in fact the regret we feel for the sad fate of many noble aspirations, above all our own”). In: Franz Kafka: Tagebücher 1910–1923, in: Gesammelte Werke. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1983 [October 22nd, 1911, p.83]. Löwy himself became an actor against his father’s wishes. 174 Above all his father, who couldn’t stand Kafka’s familiarity with such “vermin”. 175 “(Ich) verstand nicht, wie Du mit dem Nichts von Judentum, über das Du verfügtest, mir Vorwürfe deshalb machen konntest, daß ich…nicht ein ähnliches Nichts auszuführen mich anstrenge” (“[I] didn’t understand how the quantum of Judaism known to you could suffice to reproach me for my effort to live out asimilar quantum”). In: Franz Kafka: “Brief an den Vater”. In: Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande. Gesammelte Werke. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1983. p.144. 176 See e.g. the monthly Ost und West (Berlin 1901–1922) and Martin Buber’s journal Der Jude (Berlin 1916–1924). 177 The purimshpil, comparable to the Fastnachtspiel (Carneval play), depicts the story of Esther who saves the Jews from annihilation at the hands of Haman, aminister of King Ahasverus. 178 Goldfaden’s œuvre was varied. His earliest plays were comedies in the spirit of the Enlightenment. Following the Russian pogroms of 1881, he wrote plays calling into question OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 73 censure and, where Yiddish was prohibited, was obliged to perform certain plays in “German”.179 On October 14th 1911, Kafka saw Shulamis (1880), ahistoric operetta which, in his eyes, merited being called an opera. Based on aTalmudic legend,180 its language recalls that of the Song of Songs.181 Goldfaden made the Sulamith legend into amelodrama with chorus and intermezzi to be sung and danced. Above all, Kafka admired Goldfaden’s musical taste,182 and we know that music plays an important role in Der Verschollene (Amerika). Kafka’s love of Yiddish theater did not blind him, though, and he did not hesitate to criticize the poor staging of aplay. This was the case regarding both Goldfaden’s Bar Kokhba (1882), aplay dramatizing nationalistic-Zionistic ideals (Rabbi Akiba, taken by some for the Messiah, leads Jewish resistance against the Romans) and Abraham Sharkansky’s (1869–1907) Kol Nidre dramatizing the Inquisition and the Marranos— Jews who, in order to remain in Spain, converted while continuing to practice Judaism in secret.183 Attributes of this incognito, disguised Judaism can be seen as characteristic of Kafka’s oeuvre. We shall forego enumerating all the plays seen by Kafka, the list of which is readily available.184 Suffice it to evoke Yosef Latayner (1853–1935),185 whose play Di seydernakht (“The Eve of Passover”) depicts the kidnapping of aJewish child by aChristian servafrantic assimilation and extolling ideas, taken quite literally, of the Enlightenment. His late plays dramatize nationalistic-Zionist ideals. Cf. Helmut Dinse, Sol Liptzin: Einführung in die jiddische Literatur. Stuttgart: Sammlung Metzler, vol.165, 1978. 179 Cf. Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur. Vol.2: Alveltlikher yidisher kultur-kongres. New York, 1958, pp. 77–87. 180 Tractate Ta’anith 8a, Babylonian Talmud. In Goldfaden’s play, Sulamith is saved by Absalon, who pulls her out of adesert well she has fallen into while trying to drink. They promise themselves to each other, with awild cat and the well as witness. Sulamith returns to her father in Bethlehem, while Absalon returns to Jerusalem, where he marries the rich and beautiful Abigail who bears him two children. One is torn to pieces by awild cat, the other falls into awell. Only then does Absalon remember his vow. Full of remorse, he leaves Abigail and returns to Sulamith who has feigned insanity to avoid marrying the suitors proposed by her father. Absalon and Sulamith marry. This legend is contained in the Mayse bukh (nr. 101), the collection of medieval stories and legends first printed in Yiddish in Basel (1602). The legend of Sulamith is entitled there “Das einer sol haltin was er zu sagt das lernen mir es dor […] fun einer gruben und fun einem wislein” (“That one should keep apromise we learn from awell and aweasel”): the cat is replaced by aweasel. 181 See ch. 7. 182 Kafka: “Goldfaden, verheiratet, Verschwender auch in großer Not. An hundert Stücke. Gestohlene liturgische Melodien volkstümlich gemacht. Das ganze Volk singt sie” (“Goldfaden, married, spendthrift even in dire straits. About 100 plays. Liturgical melodies stolen and made into folksongs. Everyone sings them”). In: Diaries, October 23rd, 1911, p.84. 183 Born in Lubave, Scharkansky emigrated to the United States. He was the author of poems, satire and plays. 184 Evelyn Tornton Beck, op. cit., pp. 214ff.; Kazuo Ueda, op. cit., pp. IVff.; Peter Sprengel, op. cit., p.25. 185 Latayner was born in Jassy, Romania and died in New York. In his native country Latayner coauthored Yiddish plays with Goldfaden, whom he strove to imitate but never equaled. OPEN ACCESS
74 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 ant186 and an accusation of ritual murder— Kafka knew about the Beilis Affair187— and Yakob Gordin (1853–1909),188 the playwright held by Kafka to be far superior to all others. One of Gordin’s plays, Der vilder mentsh (The Wild Man), written for the great actor Yakob Adler (1855–1926),189 was staged in Prague by the playwright’s friend, Yitzkhok Löwy (1887–1942).190 Der vilder mentsh tells the story of aman of humble spirit and his young stepmother Zelde. She has twisted his dotard father around her little finger and, together with her lover, pilfered all his wealth; the protagonist, in love with her, cannot master his instincts and ends up killing her. Kafka’s favorite play was Got, mentsh un tayvl. In Got, mentsh un tayvl Gordin retells the legend of Faust and his pact with Satan. Masik— the Yiddish Mephisto— wagers with God that, like Job, the extremely devout scribe Herschele Dubrovner will commit evil if tempted by awinning lottery ticket.191 And indeed the old man allows himself to be corrupted. He abandons his wife, marries his young niece and mutates into aheartless, pitiless businessman. In the end, though, Dubrovner recognizes Masik’s true nature and, overwhelmed by remorse, hangs himself. Latayner’s plays, with their predilection for false accusation, and Gordin’s morality plays do not lack comic moments. They portray the life of the shtetl, the Eastern European market village, and the problems which arose there due to the villagers themselves or due to the conditions imposed upon them as Jews. The humor of these vignettes is largely based upon paradox and unmasks the absurdity of their situation. It is akind of self-irony verging on derision with adose of optimism necessary for 186 Child kidnapping for the purpose of forced conversion actually happened. In the Middle Ages such kidnappings were the stuff of legend, the most celebrated of which undoubtedly was that of the future Jewish Pope Elkhanan, astory found also in the Mayse bukh (nr.187). See also Joseph Sherman: The Jewish Pope. Myth, Diaspora and Yiddish Literature. Oxford: Legenda 2003. 187 The Judgement, The Trial and In the Penal Colony bear implicit witness to it. Cf. Iris Bruce: “The Spectre of Ritual Murder”, in: Kafka and Cultural Zionism. Dates in Palestine. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2007, pp. 57ff. 188 Born in Mirgorod (Russia), Gordin was afollower of the ideas of Tolstoy. In 1891 he immigrated to New York. In 1892 he staged his play Di frayhayt (“Freedom”), which was hugely successful. Together with the actor Jacob Adler, he managed atheater and adapted European plays such as Shakespeare’s King Lear for the Yiddish stage. His play Sappho thematized women’s rights and female emancipation. He was innovative and ahead of his time. 189 Adler had made his debut in Goldfaden’s theater company. In 1888 he emigrated to the United States and became astar of the Yiddish stage. He excelled in tragic roles. 190 Löwy was born in Warsaw to apoor and extremely devout family for whom the stage was tabu; he made his debut in Purim plays, the only kind of theater allowed. Unknown to his parents, he performed in Warsaw before leaving for Paris, where he became aprofessional actor. In addition to touring, he lived in Berlin and Budapest; he returned, though, to Warsaw and during the war years participated in the theater of the Ghetto. In 1942 he was murdered by the Nazis at Treblinka. 191 The winning lottery ticket is aleitmotif of Yiddish literature of the time. The locus classicus is the episode “Dos groyse gewins” (“Big Profit”) from Tevye der milkhiker (“Tevye the Milkman”) by Sholem Aleykhem. OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 75 survival and illustrated by the recurring phrase “Shver tsu zayn ayid!” (“It’s hard to be aJew!”), denoting sadness and bitterness but also pride and chosenness. Kafka was seduced by these actors who played and sang as Jews for Jews,192 who expressed themselves in alanguage which was their own and corresponded to their spirit and lifestyle.193 Kafka felt akind of symbiosis with the actors, even if he didn’t always understand everything they said in Yiddish. And given the minimalism of the stage and props used by the actors of the Café Savoy, the actors themselves loomed all the larger.194 It is they who shall “furnish” the stage with their typical gestures inherited from Talmudic discourse, filling the available space and giving their acting weight, joining gesture to word and replacing word with gesture, with their extravagant costumes and epic, repetitive performance, where comedy and tragedy are cheek to jowl, where body— in its total participation via song and dance— becomes language, expression, challenge.195 It is they who shall people Der Verschollene (Amerika), anovel which at least in part seems to retrace the history of these marginal, barely tolerated actors performing on shabby European stages the very plays being presented luxuriously in America, the land where the playwrights now lived. Kafka speaks twice of Löwy getting chased off like amisfit by the manager of the Café Savoy:196 “Suddenly one sees Löwy, who’d seemed to have disappeared, shoved— with hands and maybe even knees— out the door by the headwaiter R.He’s supposed to have been simply thrown out.”197 192 Diaries, October 5th, 1911. p.61. 193 Kafka’s remarks about Yiddish contain more romanticism than linguistic reality. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note the liberating, imaginative, even surrealistic role that Kafka conferred upon Yiddish as opposed to the German which weighed upon him like ayoke. Cf. “Rede über die jiddische Sprache”. In: Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande. Gesammelte Werke. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1983, pp. 306ff. 194 “The simple stage awaits the actors just as silently as we do. Three walls, one chair and atable shall suffice for all that is to transpire. Thus we, the audience, expect nothing from the stage and props, and all the more from the actors. Hence we are drawn in unresistingly as avoice sings from behind the wall. The play begins.” In: Diaries, October 6th, 1911. p.67. 195 Frau Tschissik: “From the multiplicity of their true mimicry emerge time and again thrusts of the fist, gyration of the arm drawing to the body the convolutions of an invisible train, aposing of the extended fingers upon the breast. For artless mimicry suffices not. Their mimicry is not multifarious: aterrified glance at the antagonist, the search for an escape route from the tiny stage, asoft voice which only through imperceptible increments and inner resonance becomes heroic, the exaltation which— starting from the wide open face, continuing to the high forehead and on to the hair— permeates their very selves… the self-sufficiency in solo song unaccompanied by any instrument, the rising up in the face of adversity that forces the viewer to fret for the entire body— that and not much more was the entire repertory of their mimicry”. In: Diaries, October 22nd, 1911. p.83. 196 One cannot help but recall Karl being chased off by the head page of the “Hotel Occidental”. 197 Diaries, October 14th, 1911, p.75. OPEN ACCESS
76 CHATREŠŠAR 1/2018 And later: “Thus aheadwaiter wanted to eject Löwy from the hall, while the doorman— aformer brothel employee turned pimp— shouted the petite Tschissik down.”198 In those days, actors had abad reputation in the eyes of the right-minded, and even more so Jewish actors from Eastern Europe, the provenance of all such immigrants. Kafka wondered if these actors and their plays would find favor in the eyes of his fiancée Felice Bauer.199 What if there’s atechnical malfunction and the curtain crashes down out of control? The whole theater company would be immediately condemned for its “scandalous comportment”.200 Theirs was the same sort of fate accorded the unjustly maltreated heroes they sought to defend in their plays: “Although the coffee house’s regular customers and employees love the actors […] they despise them too201— just like in historical times!— as starvelings, itinerants, fellow Jews.”202 This perpetual rejection cut Kafka to the quick and resonates in his entire oeuvre. It corresponds to achoice made by the artist to struggle against the self-satisfied mores of bourgeois society. There is nothing nostalgic about Yiddish theater. On the contrary: with its minimalism, its repertory of gestures and its clamor for sentiment, Jewish theater shares the values of expressionist theater. The most celebrated director of Yiddish theater, Mikhl Vaykhert, was acontemporary and acquaintance of Max Reinhardt.203 Kafka chose America no doubt because many Jews had chosen it, but by no means did he regard it as Paradise. As in Yiddish literature, America shall be the land of the sweatshop, the pigeonhole garment atelier where one sweats blood and water— as witnessed to by the expression “fun shif in shklaf” (“from the ship into slavery”), referring to the passage from immigrant boat to hellhole— the land of insalubrious tenements in New York’s Lower East Side crashed in by disembarking immigrants,204 adistrict traversed by Therese and her mother during ablizzard, the site of her suicide surrounded by bricks— aRamses-like reminiscence of slavery 198 Ibid., October 28th, 1911, p.94. 199 Franz Kafka: Briefe an Felice. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1982 [November 3rd, 1912, pp.72ff.] 200 Asymptomatic fact of the novel is the disproportion of “crime” and punishment. Hence Karl, having left his lift for two minutes, has to run for his life. 201 Note here the ambivalence, the double bind. 202 Diaries, October 28th, 1911, pp. 93ff. 203 Cf. Mikhl Waykhert: Zikhroynes 1890–1918 (“Memoirs”). Vol. I.Tel Aviv: Farlag “Menora”, 1960, pp. 261–270. 204 Cf. the novel by Sholem Ash, Amerika (1911), and the poem by Morris Rosenfeld, “Di likht ferkoiferin. Abild fun der oremer gas” (“The Light-Seller. Portrait of an Impoverished Alley”), read to Kafka by Yitzkhak Löwy. In: Kazuo Ueda, op. cit., pp. 197ff. OPEN ACCESS
ASTRId STARCK-AdlER 77 in Egypt.205 Uncle Jacob’s America serves only to illustrate afallacious myth.206 Karl, the hero of Kafka’s novel, is by turns the young Jewish boy seduced by the Christian servant,207 “Bar Kochba” the defender of the oppressed,208 “Nakhuml” the employee liable to unlimited exploitation,209 “Salmen” unjustly accused,210 “Lemekh” subject to his stepmother’s advances,211 the vagabond under suspicion because lacking 205 Evelyn Beck sees an affinity between Moyshe Rikhter’s play Moyshe Khayit als gemaynderat (“Moses Khayit as City Councillor”) and Kafka’s Der Verschollene. Thus Moyshe (Nakhuml’s son) abandons ayoung, pregnant woman in Palestine and flees to the United States. But for him too America is no Eldorado. He endures poverty and the living conditions are those of Egypt. Is there adifference between Ramses and New York? In: op. cit., p.128. The metaphor of Egyptian slavery is evoked in the Afro-American spiritual. 206 Regarding the choice of first name, one wonders if the millionaire actor Jakob Adler was decisive. 207 “Manchmal kniete sie in ihrem engen Zimmerchen neben der Küche und betete zu einem hölzernen Kreuz” (“Sometimes she got down on her knees in her little room next to the kitchen and prayed to awooden cross”). In: Der Verschollene. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1994, p.35. In Di seydernakht (“The Eve of Passover”), aChristian servant kidnaps Karl in order that he be baptized. Raised in aChristian environment, Karl falls in love with Rachel, ayoung Jewish girl, who foregoes his love for her parents’ sake— neither knowing that they are brother and sister. Later on, Karl’s stepbrother Dimitri accuses Rachel’s parents of killing in order to obtain blood. Karl shows up and the Christian servant confesses her crime. Karl and Rachel can now love one another as brother and sister. 208 Karl defends the coal trimmer, discriminated against because he is German. Cf. Kafka’s remarks reported by Gustav Janouch: “‘Juden und Deutsche haben vieles gemeinsam,’ sagte Kafka… ‘Sie sind strebsam, tüchtig, fleißig und gründlich verhaßt bei den anderen. Juden und Deutsche sind Ausgestoßene’” (“‘Jews and Germans have alot in common’, Kafka said… ‘They are ambitious, able, industrious and thoroughly hated by everyone else. Jews and Germans are pariahs’”). In: Das Kafka-Buch, hg. Heinz Politzer. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1980, p.105. 209 Cf. note 38. 210 Cf. Di seydernakht (“The Eve of Passover”): False accusations of the “stall-master” and torture inflicted by the head porter leave Karl no chance of escape. The scene is especially cruel and condenses centuries of history. 211 Two parallels may be drawn here. Firstly, regarding Klara’s struggle with Karl (p. 72): in Di seydernakht we find on the wall of Salmen Kohn’s house (Rachel’s father) apicture of Joseph and Potiphar and the following remark “Dovid, vi kumt in dayn hoys asa bild? Afroy rangelt zikh mit ayungen man, un vi di froy zet oys, oysgelasn” (“David, how did such apicture get into your house? Awoman wrestles with ayoung man, and she looks wanton”). In: Ueda, op. cit.Vol. I, pp. 8ff. Secondly, regarding Karl’s calling Klara a“Katze, tolle Katze” (p. 73: “acat, amad cat”), in Der wilder Mensch “Lemech” says: “Neyn, tate, nit keyn ketsele is zi, nur akats, agroyse vayse kats” (“No, mother, it isn’t akitten, it’s abig white cat”). In: ibid., p.98. The young Jewish-American girl who fights or boxes seems to be an ancillary theme. See the Yiddish film Mizrekh un Mayrev (“East and West”), shot in Vienna in 1923 by Sydney Goldin. OPEN ACCESS