- Germany
Efrat Gal-Ed
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Jewish Studies / Yiddish, Faculty Member
In her biographical essay, Efrat Gal-Ed, drawing on interviews with family members and students, explores Falkovitsh’s life story, his work and influence as a teacher and scholar. Using journalistic and archival material, she pieces... more
In her biographical essay, Efrat Gal-Ed, drawing on interviews with family
members and students, explores Falkovitsh’s life story, his work and influence
as a teacher and scholar. Using journalistic and archival material,
she pieces together his role as an important participant in the great Soviet
Yiddish culture project, which broke off shortly after the end of the Second
World War.
members and students, explores Falkovitsh’s life story, his work and influence
as a teacher and scholar. Using journalistic and archival material,
she pieces together his role as an important participant in the great Soviet
Yiddish culture project, which broke off shortly after the end of the Second
World War.
Research Interests:
Im Prisma von Mangers Lebens- und Schaffensgeschichte brechen sich gleichermaßen Entfaltung und Reichtum der jiddischen Kultur bis 1939, ihre Zerstörung und der tragische Bruch, den die Schoah hinterlassen hat. Im Fokus dieses Beitrags... more
Im Prisma von Mangers Lebens- und Schaffensgeschichte brechen sich gleichermaßen Entfaltung und Reichtum der jiddischen Kultur bis 1939, ihre Zerstörung und der tragische Bruch, den die Schoah hinterlassen hat.
Im Fokus dieses Beitrags steht die Frage nach dem geeigneten biographischen Textverfahren, wenn die Lebenswelt eines Protagonisten nicht länger existiert: Wenn meinem Lesepublikum die Referenzpunkte für den Kontext des Einzelschicksals, das es darzustellen gilt, fast zur Gänze fehlen.
Im Fokus dieses Beitrags steht die Frage nach dem geeigneten biographischen Textverfahren, wenn die Lebenswelt eines Protagonisten nicht länger existiert: Wenn meinem Lesepublikum die Referenzpunkte für den Kontext des Einzelschicksals, das es darzustellen gilt, fast zur Gänze fehlen.
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Anfang der 1920er Jahre wurde Czernowitz zu einem Zentrum jiddischer Literatur, das als Impulsgeber für den gesamten jiddischen Kulturraum Rumäniens fungierte und bereits knapp zwanzig Jahre später dem Nationalsozialismus und dem... more
Anfang der 1920er Jahre wurde Czernowitz zu einem Zentrum jiddischer Literatur, das als Impulsgeber für den gesamten jiddischen Kulturraum
Rumäniens fungierte und bereits knapp zwanzig Jahre später dem Nationalsozialismus und dem rumänischen Faschismus zum Opfer
fiel. Erst 1919 nach dem Anschluss der Bukowina an Großrumänien mit seiner mehrheitlich Jiddisch sprechenden, knapp eine Million zählenden
jüdischen Bevölkerung entstand trotz diskriminierender Maßnahmen und Zwangsrumänisierung ein dynamisches jiddisch-literarisches Feld, das man später Jung-tschernowiz [Junges Czernowitz] bzw. Jung-rumenje [Junges Rumänien] nannte.
Rumäniens fungierte und bereits knapp zwanzig Jahre später dem Nationalsozialismus und dem rumänischen Faschismus zum Opfer
fiel. Erst 1919 nach dem Anschluss der Bukowina an Großrumänien mit seiner mehrheitlich Jiddisch sprechenden, knapp eine Million zählenden
jüdischen Bevölkerung entstand trotz diskriminierender Maßnahmen und Zwangsrumänisierung ein dynamisches jiddisch-literarisches Feld, das man später Jung-tschernowiz [Junges Czernowitz] bzw. Jung-rumenje [Junges Rumänien] nannte.
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Peretz wrote the Hebrew story called ‘Ir ha- metim (‘the city of the dead’) immediately after his Rayzebilder and published it on 5 and 7 August 1892, in the weekly review Hatsefirah (‘The Dawn’). In 1901, Peretz published the story a... more
Peretz wrote the Hebrew story called ‘Ir ha- metim (‘the city of the dead’) immediately after his Rayzebilder and published it on 5 and 7 August 1892, in the weekly review Hatsefirah (‘The Dawn’). In 1901, Peretz published the story a second time, now as a part of his Yiddish Shriften, under the modified title Di toyte shtot. Since we have no drafts or manuscripts of the story, we cannot determine the genesis of the text, nor know in which language the first version was created. The day-to-day language of the represented world was Yiddish. Writing the short story in Hebrew extends the process of literary construction by adding to it the translation of a depicted world – a world presented by the author – that speaks Yiddish, into a world represented in Hebrew; the outer (read) text for the inner (represented) voices is already the product of a cognitive linguistic recoding.
If we attend to the time of publication of ‘Ir ha- metim (1892) and Di toyte shtot (1901), then we are dealing with two time-delayed translation processes. Thus, in the process of the Yiddish literary compression of the story, two components are interwoven: a translation back into the language of the portrayed world, and a reworking of diverse passages. Modifications in the form of corrections, rewriting and re-creation during the translation are common in self-translations. Peretz translated in both directions and appeared not as self-translator but as author; accordingly, both versions of the present story were read as original texts.
Peretz’s practice of self-translation raises questions about the translation of his artistic intentions into literary works in both languages. Can we discern differences of textual production between the two languages? What part do correction and revision have in the translation process, what role does self-translation have in the creative process?
If we attend to the time of publication of ‘Ir ha- metim (1892) and Di toyte shtot (1901), then we are dealing with two time-delayed translation processes. Thus, in the process of the Yiddish literary compression of the story, two components are interwoven: a translation back into the language of the portrayed world, and a reworking of diverse passages. Modifications in the form of corrections, rewriting and re-creation during the translation are common in self-translations. Peretz translated in both directions and appeared not as self-translator but as author; accordingly, both versions of the present story were read as original texts.
Peretz’s practice of self-translation raises questions about the translation of his artistic intentions into literary works in both languages. Can we discern differences of textual production between the two languages? What part do correction and revision have in the translation process, what role does self-translation have in the creative process?
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The only short story written by Moyshe Kulbak — Munye der foygl-hendler un Malkele zayn vayb (Munye the Bird Seller and Malkele His Wife) — was first published in September 1928, in the Vilna monthly Di Yidishe Velt (The Yiddish World).... more
The only short story written by Moyshe Kulbak — Munye der foygl-hendler un Malkele zayn vayb (Munye the Bird Seller and Malkele His Wife) — was first published in September 1928, in the Vilna monthly Di Yidishe Velt (The Yiddish World). The fall of that year marked a decisive turn in Kulbak’s life. In October, a month after the publication, he moved to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and settled in Minsk. This short story would therefore be the last prose he wrote in a situation that allowed him complete artistic autonomy.
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Modernist Yiddish literature was an important part of the Yiddish-cultural response to the existential turmoil caused by the First World War. This “small literature,” to use Kafka’s phrase, came into being without the support of a... more
Modernist Yiddish literature was an important part of the Yiddish-cultural response to the existential turmoil caused by the First World War. This “small literature,” to use Kafka’s phrase, came into being without the support of a nation-state and in an alien environment. In a 1922 edition of Warsaw’s avant-garde magazine Albatros, Yiddish poets reflected on their “wandering through various centres of their Jewish extraterritoriality.” Five years later, in 1927, when stateless Yiddish literature became a member of the International PEN Club, this existential extraterritoriality underwent a bold reinterpretation with the new concept of “Yiddishland.” My paper reconstructs the discourse that led to the transformation of the existential concept of eksteritoryalishkayt along with the creation of the cosmopolitan cultural project originally called “dos land yidish,” and later “Yiddishland:” a republic of words that unified the Yiddish speakers globally via literature and arts.
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Mit dem Ausbau der modernen jiddischen Literatur nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg verband sich die Frage nach Zugehörigkeit: Wie sollte der Zusammenhalt jiddischer Kulturinseln gewährleistet werden? Auf welche Weise haben jiddischsprachige... more
Mit dem Ausbau der modernen jiddischen Literatur nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg
verband sich die Frage nach Zugehörigkeit: Wie sollte der Zusammenhalt jiddischer
Kulturinseln gewährleistet werden? Auf welche Weise haben jiddischsprachige
Kulturschaffende teil an den kulturellen Prozessen der herrschenden Kulturen,
in denen sie leben? Was muss jiddische Literatur leisten, um der
Weltliteratur anzugehören?
Anhand vonÄußerungen und Handlungenvon Literaten und Kulturaktivisten
werden in diesem Aufsatz einige Grundzüge ihrer Welt- und Selbstbilder rekonstruiert,
und es soll gezeigt werden, wie die ausgreifenden kulturellen Erwartungen
auf einen autonom gestalteten historischen Wandel des jiddischsprachigen
Kollektivs und seiner Stellung in der Völkergemeinschaft zielten.
verband sich die Frage nach Zugehörigkeit: Wie sollte der Zusammenhalt jiddischer
Kulturinseln gewährleistet werden? Auf welche Weise haben jiddischsprachige
Kulturschaffende teil an den kulturellen Prozessen der herrschenden Kulturen,
in denen sie leben? Was muss jiddische Literatur leisten, um der
Weltliteratur anzugehören?
Anhand vonÄußerungen und Handlungenvon Literaten und Kulturaktivisten
werden in diesem Aufsatz einige Grundzüge ihrer Welt- und Selbstbilder rekonstruiert,
und es soll gezeigt werden, wie die ausgreifenden kulturellen Erwartungen
auf einen autonom gestalteten historischen Wandel des jiddischsprachigen
Kollektivs und seiner Stellung in der Völkergemeinschaft zielten.
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In 1935, the Yiddish poet, fiction writer, and journalist Itzik Manger (Czernowitz, Bukovina 1901 – Gedera, Israel 1969) published in Warsaw the pathbreaking book of poems called Khumesh-lider (Torah poems). In that book, Manger continues... more
In 1935, the Yiddish poet, fiction writer, and journalist Itzik Manger (Czernowitz, Bukovina 1901 – Gedera, Israel 1969) published in Warsaw the pathbreaking book of poems called Khumesh-lider (Torah poems). In that book, Manger continues a long poetic tradition of drawing on biblical motifs; but his title, Khumesh-lider, makes this familiar practice into
an independent literary genre: the biblical poem, in which the presence of the biblical text, though for the most part radically reshaped and rewritten, remains tangible.
an independent literary genre: the biblical poem, in which the presence of the biblical text, though for the most part radically reshaped and rewritten, remains tangible.
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In 1934 Itzik Manger stated: "My major work will firstly be the folkstimlekhe baladn, containing balladic motifs and characters from the Bible down to our time, from Cain down to Naftoli Botwin. It will be an attempt to create a second... more
In 1934 Itzik Manger stated: "My major work will firstly be the folkstimlekhe baladn, containing balladic motifs and characters from the Bible down to our time, from Cain down to Naftoli Botwin. It will be an attempt to create a second Yiddish folk epic, after the folkstimlekhe stories of Peretz." Manger, to whom the literary Yikhes-briv (family tree) was important, pointed in this statement to the obvious commonality between him and Peretz: their recourse to Jewish folk poetry and folktale. However, what Manger didn’t mention on this occasion was the complexity and transcultural nature of his own creative process; only in 1926 had he begun to reconcile his notion of himself as a young modernist European poet with the possibility of valuing the motifs and themes of Jewish tradition as a source of his work.
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In the Summer of 1933 the Yiddish poet Itzik Manger published his second volume of poems. The book shows Manger's understanding of neo-romantic poetry as a synthesis of historical contexts and modern questions, of European ballad and... more
In the Summer of 1933 the Yiddish poet Itzik Manger published his second volume of poems. The book shows Manger's understanding of neo-romantic poetry as a synthesis of historical contexts and modern questions, of European ballad and aesthetics of Jewish folklore, of modern perspectives and classical forms. Understanding himself as a balladeer validated Manger's portrait of himself as a wandering poet it also supplemented the general anti-bourgeois attitude of the artist with the classic-specific subversive perspective of the former tailor apprentice. In “The Ballad of the Podeloyer Rabbi” Manger draws upon Jewish local history and East European mystical traditions and creates a pious though subversive figure that embodies the possibility of individually configured relationship with the divine as an immediate interlocutor. His intertextual operation allows the reinterpretation and reconfiguration of the motifs and materials from his diverse sources in accord with his artistic concept which aims at the staging of local Jewish traditions as a means of making modern Yiddish poetry.
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For Itzik Manger, purimshpil is a code word, symbolizing an authentically Yiddish expressive
form. And for the reader, the term opens up a mode of approach to Manger’s literary
practice.
form. And for the reader, the term opens up a mode of approach to Manger’s literary
practice.
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Research Interests:
On January 11, 1929, Itzik Manger made his first appearance in Warsaw, at the Yiddish Writers Association, and proclaimed, “The modern Yiddish literary group in Romania has as far as possible betrayed the local; its desire is to be at... more
On January 11, 1929, Itzik Manger made his first appearance in Warsaw, at the
Yiddish Writers Association, and proclaimed, “The modern Yiddish literary group
in Romania has as far as possible betrayed the local; its desire is to be at the center,
and in the turbulence, of European culture.” His statement alludes to a paradigm
shift, a movement from a closed system to a pluralistic one. But did Manger the poet
erase his local traces or transfigure them?
Studying the young Manger’s creative process reveals the necessity of clarifying
the relations among the varied elements of his cultural heterogeneity. At the
beginning, he seems to reject Yiddish motifs, material, and sources, striving instead
to correspond to his German models. With time, however, he emends his relationship
to the great literatures, and does so by turning back to the local, this time
considering it as something of equal worth, and thus valuing his minority culture
more highly. Moving repeatedly back and forth between German and Yiddish, he
finds his way to his own poetry, and gains confidence in reinterpreting and
reconfiguring the motifs and material of his diverse sources. Combining the local
and the European becomes for him a conscious process, the staging of the local as a
means of making poetry. His transversal process reveals
Yiddish Writers Association, and proclaimed, “The modern Yiddish literary group
in Romania has as far as possible betrayed the local; its desire is to be at the center,
and in the turbulence, of European culture.” His statement alludes to a paradigm
shift, a movement from a closed system to a pluralistic one. But did Manger the poet
erase his local traces or transfigure them?
Studying the young Manger’s creative process reveals the necessity of clarifying
the relations among the varied elements of his cultural heterogeneity. At the
beginning, he seems to reject Yiddish motifs, material, and sources, striving instead
to correspond to his German models. With time, however, he emends his relationship
to the great literatures, and does so by turning back to the local, this time
considering it as something of equal worth, and thus valuing his minority culture
more highly. Moving repeatedly back and forth between German and Yiddish, he
finds his way to his own poetry, and gains confidence in reinterpreting and
reconfiguring the motifs and material of his diverse sources. Combining the local
and the European becomes for him a conscious process, the staging of the local as a
means of making poetry. His transversal process reveals
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Two particular groups of poems from Itzik Manger’s largely unpublished early work (1921‐1929), those about Jesus and those about the Baal Shem Tov, form a poetical polarity in his work; at the same time they act as complementary forces in... more
Two particular groups of poems from Itzik Manger’s largely unpublished early work (1921‐1929), those about Jesus and those about the Baal Shem Tov, form a poetical polarity in his work; at the same time they act as complementary forces in the psychological unfolding of Manger’s creative process.
As an itinerant poet travelling on Romanian back roads, Manger encountered many wayside crosses with scenes of crucifixion, and found in the image of Jesus a tragic companion, who embodied homelessness, helplessness, and human pain. From 1921 to 1928 this companion mirrors in Manger’s work the shadows of the poet’s soul and also engages his fascination; in the figure of Christ Manger was able to name the unbearable in his own life, experimenting in that process with symbolist and expressionist forms and models.
In 1927, Manger discovered his deep connection to the Besht. Childhood memories of travelling with his grandfather in the Carpathian Mountains reinforced the connection. Mesmerized by the figure of the Besht, Manger then developed in a new group of poems a healing counter-world to the one depicted in the Christ poems, a world that is tangibly inhabited by the sacred.
Manger thus moved from Golgotha into the open space between Kosev (Kosov) and Kitev (Kuty), and in so doing created poems with a new sonority, poignantly evocative of Yiddish folk songs. The Christ figure disappears once Manger becomes aware of this poetic and psychological fault line in himself, though Christian motifs remain part of his poetic vocabulary.
As an itinerant poet travelling on Romanian back roads, Manger encountered many wayside crosses with scenes of crucifixion, and found in the image of Jesus a tragic companion, who embodied homelessness, helplessness, and human pain. From 1921 to 1928 this companion mirrors in Manger’s work the shadows of the poet’s soul and also engages his fascination; in the figure of Christ Manger was able to name the unbearable in his own life, experimenting in that process with symbolist and expressionist forms and models.
In 1927, Manger discovered his deep connection to the Besht. Childhood memories of travelling with his grandfather in the Carpathian Mountains reinforced the connection. Mesmerized by the figure of the Besht, Manger then developed in a new group of poems a healing counter-world to the one depicted in the Christ poems, a world that is tangibly inhabited by the sacred.
Manger thus moved from Golgotha into the open space between Kosev (Kosov) and Kitev (Kuty), and in so doing created poems with a new sonority, poignantly evocative of Yiddish folk songs. The Christ figure disappears once Manger becomes aware of this poetic and psychological fault line in himself, though Christian motifs remain part of his poetic vocabulary.
Research Interests:
Volume 7 in the series Yiddish: Editions & Research presents for the first time an annotated and orthographically standardized edition, supplemented by four new essays, of Elye Falkovitsh’s remarkable Yiddish grammar, Yidish. Fonetik,... more
Volume 7 in the series Yiddish: Editions & Research presents for the first
time an annotated and orthographically standardized edition, supplemented by four new essays, of Elye Falkovitsh’s remarkable Yiddish grammar, Yidish. Fonetik, grafik, leksik un gramatik [Yiddish. Phonetics, Graphics, Lexis, and Grammar]. It was published in Moscow in 1940 and remains one of the most important reference works in Yiddish linguistics.
time an annotated and orthographically standardized edition, supplemented by four new essays, of Elye Falkovitsh’s remarkable Yiddish grammar, Yidish. Fonetik, grafik, leksik un gramatik [Yiddish. Phonetics, Graphics, Lexis, and Grammar]. It was published in Moscow in 1940 and remains one of the most important reference works in Yiddish linguistics.
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In shkeynes mit der gorer velt | Neighbors to all the world, the sixth volume in the series Yiddish: Edition & Research, offers for the first time a rich collection of Yiddish essays in standardized spelling. It contains sixty-nine... more
In shkeynes mit der gorer velt | Neighbors to all the world, the sixth volume in
the series Yiddish: Edition & Research, offers for the first time a rich collection
of Yiddish essays in standardized spelling. It contains sixty-nine critically
edited essays by thirty-five authors, and provides glimpses of the aesthetic
programs, the artistic reflections, and the cultural discourses of Yiddish modernity,
chiefly in Europe and North America, during the interwar period
and after the Shoah.
the series Yiddish: Edition & Research, offers for the first time a rich collection
of Yiddish essays in standardized spelling. It contains sixty-nine critically
edited essays by thirty-five authors, and provides glimpses of the aesthetic
programs, the artistic reflections, and the cultural discourses of Yiddish modernity,
chiefly in Europe and North America, during the interwar period
and after the Shoah.
Research Interests:
Within a vibrant polylingual and multicultural atmosphere, an eventful history marked by revolutions, the breakdown of empires, the rise (or reappearance) of young nations (partly with an inflated sense of nationalism), and mass migration... more
Within a vibrant polylingual and multicultural atmosphere, an eventful history marked by revolutions, the breakdown of empires, the rise (or reappearance) of young nations (partly with an inflated sense of nationalism), and mass migration to the New World, a modern Jewish literary thinking took shape. Numerous processes of cultural transfer played a major role in forging the concept of Europe for Eastern European Jewish intellectuals.
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Yiddish Edition with trilingual Preface This comprehensive and multifaceted collection of modern Yiddish short stories marks the fourth volume in the series "Yiddish Editions & Research." A unique collection that includes works in... more
Yiddish Edition with trilingual Preface
This comprehensive and multifaceted collection of modern Yiddish short stories marks the fourth volume in the series "Yiddish Editions & Research." A unique collection that includes works in standardized orthography by more than thirty authors, it sheds light on Yiddish life in Europe, the Americas, Soviet Union, and Israel, both before and after the Shoah. Some of the short stories are made accessible here for the first time in book form.
This comprehensive and multifaceted collection of modern Yiddish short stories marks the fourth volume in the series "Yiddish Editions & Research." A unique collection that includes works in standardized orthography by more than thirty authors, it sheds light on Yiddish life in Europe, the Americas, Soviet Union, and Israel, both before and after the Shoah. Some of the short stories are made accessible here for the first time in book form.
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Suhrkamp Verlag. Revidierte Neuausgabe. Leseprobe
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Übersetzt von Jonas Gernot. Herausgegeben von Efrat Gal-Ed, Gernot Jonas und Simon Neuberg. Mit einem Essay von Dan Miron
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Herausgegeben, aus dem Jiddischen übersetzt und mit einem Nachwort versehen
von Efrat Gal-Ed. Mit Umschrift des Jiddischen
von Efrat Gal-Ed. Mit Umschrift des Jiddischen
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Translation has been vital to the growth of Yiddish literature since its beginnings in the 13th century. In the 20th century, the yearning to belong to world literature manifested itself in brilliant feats of translation. The focus of our... more
Translation has been vital to the growth of Yiddish literature since its beginnings in the 13th century. In the 20th century, the yearning to belong to world literature manifested itself in brilliant feats of translation. The focus of our conference is on the Yiddish literature of diverse historical moments in its transnational and translational character. Our topics include translation theory, criticism and history; translation processes and practices from and into Yiddish; the infrastructure and interconnection of actors such as translators and publishing houses; questions of self-translation, intermedial and cultural translation and the function of translation in the context of world literature.