Mendele Moicher Sforim

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Mendele Moicher Sforim

Mendele Moicher Sforim (born December 21, 1835 July / January 2,  1836 greg. In Kopyl near Minsk ; d. November 25 July / December 8,  1917 greg. In Odessa ; Yiddish מענדעלע מוכר־ספריםTranscription mendele mojxer-sforim ; Hebrew מנדלי מוכר ספרים; Yiddish or Ashkenazi pronunciation: Mendele Mojcher Sforim, Sephardic pronunciation: Mendele Mocher Sefarim; literally German "Mendele the bookseller", actually Scholem Jankew Abramowitsch ) was a primarily Yiddish , but also a Hebrew writer . He is considered the "grandfather" (Yiddish sejde ) of New Yiddish literature and has given it world renown with his polished prose. Mendele is, ahead of Scholem Alejchem (who always referred to himself as Mendele's "grandson") and Jitzchok Leib Perez , the oldest of the so-called three classics of Yiddish literature.

Life

Ravnitzki, Anski , Mendele, Bialik , Frug , before 1916

Abramowitsch learned Hebrew, Bible and Talmud from an early age . After the death of his father, the almost 13-year-old Mendele left his place of birth, moved around as a wandering student and visited various yeshivot . On his travels through Lithuania , Volhynia , Podolia and the Ukraine , he recorded numerous impressions of Jewish life, which were later reflected in his works. In Podolia he was accepted by the then famous writer Abraham Bär Gottlober, where he studied German, Russian and the latest educational literature, then started regular studies, acquired a teacher’s diploma and worked as a teacher at a state school for a few years.

From 1853 to 1858 Mendele stayed in Kamenz , where he married the daughter of a follower of the Haskala . However, this turned out to be mentally unstable and the marriage fell apart. In Berdichev , where he lived from 1858 to 1869, he married a second time, and this time the marriage lasted. From then on he lived in Zhytomyr until 1881 (where he obtained the rabbi diploma) and for the rest of his life, apart from a two-year stay in Geneva (1905-1907), in Odessa, where a large and prosperous Jewish community was. Here, in a center of the Enlightenment, he worked as a teacher and became director of the Jewish community school Talmud-Torah .

Mendele's work and his literary work move between opposing poles: on the one hand, a satirical description of the ghetto jew, on the other hand, forgiving love and commitment to the Jewish people. Often both tendencies can be found in the same work. In his youth he was a supporter of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskala), whereby he was fundamentally critical of the assimilation of the Jews, and then in old age turned to Zionism . In a story written in Hebrew from 1894/95 (The Heavenly and Earthly Academy) , he describes the division between supporters of assimilation, Orthodox Jews and supporters of the new Zion movement ( Chowewe Zion ) . The author himself, who appears under his name in the story, lists many of the arguments of the parties, but cannot decide on his own point of view.

Mendele is considered the founder of modern Yiddish literature. He drew a humorous and realistic picture of the Jews from the Pale of Settlement . The fictional place names (such as "Dümmingen" or "Schnorringen") in his works indicate ignorance and the lack of practical meaning of the residents. He wrote in both Yiddish and Hebrew throughout his life. He often achieves surprising effects by transferring idioms from the biblical context to questions of the day. He describes the quality of his new Hebrew style as follows: "Let's create a Hebrew style, a living being who speaks clearly as people do here and now, and let his soul be Jewish."

Works (selection)

Rachel Szalit-Marcus , Portfolio Fischke der Krumme (1920)
  • Mixed pass Scholojm . Wilna 1860 (collection of various writings).
  • Toledos hatewo . 1862-72.
  • Doss little people . Odessa 1864.
  • Doss wuntschfingerl . ( Der Wunschring . Yiddish: Warsaw 1865, Mendele's first Yiddish novel; Hebrew, translated by Mendele himself: Be emek habacha , Das Tränental 1897/98; German first edition: Jüdischer Verlag, Berlin 1925; most recently together with Fischke der Krummer in Walter, Olten 1961).
  • Ho owojss we ha-bonim . ( Fathers and Sons, Hebrew, Roman). Zhitomir 1867.
  • En mischpas . Zhitomir 1867.
  • Diwre hajomim liwne harussim . Odessa 1868.
  • Fischke the crook . ( Der lahme Fischke, Yiddish: Schitomir 1869, German by Alexander Eliasberg , Der Luftballon, Schitomir 1869; extended, Yiddish: Schitomir 1888; Hebrew 1901; other German edition: Loewit-Verlag, Vienna and Berlin 1918; Fischke der Lahme: Beglerroman . Reclam, Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-379-01496-6 ; Fischke der Krumme. Tredition Classics, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-8472-6712-6 ).
  • Di taksse . Zhitomir 1869 (in Russian by J. M. Petrikowski).
  • The fish . Odessa 1870.
  • You clap . ( Das Loadpferd, Die Schindmehre, Die Mehre, Yiddish: Wilna 1873; Polish: Warsaw 1886; Hebrew 1901; German first edition: Jüdischer Verlag, Berlin 1924; most recently Goldmann, Munich 1988, ISBN 978-3-442-08909-3 ).
  • The usstaw iber wojnsski pavinosst . Zhitomir 1874.
  • Doss jidl . Warsaw 1875.
  • Pirke Shirah . Zhitomir 1875.
  • Luach hassocherim (Calendar for Merchants). Zhitomir 1877.
  • Majssess Binjomin haschlischi, 1878 (translated into Polish by Klemens Junosza under the title Donkiszot Żydowski (= "The Jewish Don Quichotte", Wilna 1878; Hebrew 1896 under the title Masaot Binjamin ha-Schlischi; also Czech; translated into German by Efraim Frisch under the title The journeys Binjamins the Third, Schocken-Verlag, Berlin 1937, most recently by Walter, Olten 1983, ISBN 978-3-530-56410-5 ; newly translated by Susanne Klingenstein under the title Die Reisen Benjamin the Third , Hanser, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-446-26395-6 ).
  • Luach hassocherim (Calendar for Merchants). Vilnius 1879.
  • The Prisiw (drama in five acts). Odessa 1884.
  • Shem we Japhet ba Agalah . 1890.
  • Bijeme haraasch (from the time of the pogroms). 1894.
  • Bi Yeshiva schel maalah (humoresque). 1895.

Without year or not determined:

  • Bejomim hahem (“In those days”).
  • Schlojmale (autobiographical story)

Issues (selection):

  • Work edition in 17 volumes 1910 on the occasion of the honored man's 75th birthday published by his admirers Mendele publishing house (including a volume of reviews)
  • Ale work . 22 volumes. Krakow, Warsaw, New York, Vilnius, 1911–1936.

Literature (selection)

Web links

Commons : Mendele Mocher Sforim  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Self-chosen pseudonym
  2. ↑ In the later years of his life he himself translated some of his Yiddish writings into Hebrew
  3. ↑ Salomon Ettinger is known as the “great grandfather of Yiddish literature” .
  4. ↑ Three-volume popular scientific natural history, Hebrew, originally published in individual essays in Haboker Or , Mendele's most extensive work in Hebrew
  5. ↑ The little human or a biography; Criticism of the behavior of the Jewish community leaders who enrich themselves unjustifiably
  6. ↑ Basic thesis of the book: The Haskala - but not assimilation - is the magic ring for a happy Jewish future
  7. ↑ Description of the struggle between the old, traditionally observant living and the youth generation attached to the Enlightenment; Mendele's only novel in Hebrew; Translated into Russian by Löb Bienenstock, Petersburg 1868
  8. ↑ Two treatises on Russian Judaism
  9. ↑ Brief Russian History, commissioned by the "Society for the Dissemination of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia"
  10. ↑ Fischke the crooked, a majsse fun Yidish oreme lajt, mild-loving criticism of the conditions in the shtetl , embodied by the figure of the "lame Fischke", whom the community married to a blind beggar - using his own youthful experiences as Mendele moved across the country with the beggar "Avreml the Lame"
  11. ↑ Die Takse or di gang Städt-baale-toves: Die Takse = the tax, namely for the control of kosher meat etc., again criticism of the greed of the community leaders; this drama led to further disagreements with the community leadership in Berditschew, which finally caused him to leave the place in 1869
  12. ↑ The gossip or Zaar baale chajim: allegorical portrayal of the fate of the Jewish people in the form of an enchanted prince who was enchanted into a pack horse, which is beaten by everyone, found by the young Jisrolik in a swamp at night and his sad fate tells; now the Haskala - the former magic ring! - criticizes, decrees education, but overlooks social hardship, hunger and dirt
  13. ↑ The Mare , 1924
  14. ^ History of the Jewish people from Sinai to Mendelssohn, written in verse
  15. ↑ Smires, songs for Shabbat with Yiddish translation
  16. ↑ Humoresque about the type of unrealistic Jew, a kind of Don Quixote, who, spurred on by the tales of the lost tribes, sets off like the great traveler of Tudela to gain clarity about the coming of the Messiah. But he and his companion, Senderl, are caught in the next village and forced into military service, from which the two are only saved because they are completely unsuitable. Here Mendele depicts the lack of realism that many Jews have, full of sharp satire, but at the same time is sympathetic to their idealism
  17. ↑ German by Solomon Birnbaum = Schelomo Rabbi Chaims, first published in Jid, Krakau; Remaining fragment
personal data
SURNAME Mendele Moicher Sforim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abramovich, Shalom Jacob (real name); Mendel Mocher Sforim; Mendele Mocher Sefarim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Yiddish writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH Kopyl near Minsk
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1917
Place of death Odessa