On the Library Shelf:
Kadia Molodowsky and Other Groyse Shrayber
When Nomi wants to become a poet, her inspiration is Kadia Molodowsky. Nomi points out Molodowsky’s book to Moby along with those of other great writers — the “גרױסע שרײַבער” — on the shelf of their library.
Below are brief descriptions of Molodowsky and the other Yiddish writers that she names, as well as even shorter descriptions of the other writers on the bookshelf. If you look closely at the shelf during the movie, you might see them all!
Kadia Molodowsky (קאַדיע מאָלאָדאָװסקי)
1894–1975. Molodowsky was born in the shtetl Bereza Kartuska, in what is today Belarus. She lived in Warsaw from 1921 until 1935, when she immigrated to New York. A teacher, an editor, and a writer of prose and poetry (including many poems for and about children), she was an important member of Yiddish literary circles in both Warsaw and New York.
Molodowsky’s biography in the YIVO Encyclopedia
Suggested Reading
Yiddish and English: Paper Bridges: Selected Poems of Kadya Molodowsky, translated by Kathryn Hellerstein.
English: A Jewish Refugee in New York: A Novel by Kadya Molodovsky, translated by Anita Norwich.
Yitskhok Leybush Peretz (יצחק־לייבוש פּרץ)
1852–1915. Peretz was a leading figure in Yiddish literature and modern Jewish culture, who placed Yiddish at the center of a secular Jewish identity. He wrote short stories, plays and poetry. Some of his stories combine Jewish folk motifs with universal humanistic ideas, while others explore injustice within traditional Jewish life, or the tensions experienced by Jews who find themselves caught between tradition and modernity. He also expressed his opinions on social and cultural topics in many influential articles and essays. His apartment in Warsaw became a literary gathering place and aspiring young writers were eager for his approval.
Peretz’s biography in the YIVO Encyclopedia
Suggested Reading
English: The I.L. Peretz Reader, edited by Ruth Wisse.
Yiddish: פֿון פּרצעס אוצר, edited by Zalman Yefroikin. An anthology of Peretz’s work prepared for Yiddish schools with a Yiddish-English glossary.
Sholem Aleichem (שלום־עליכם)
1859–1916. Perhaps the best-loved writer of modern Yiddish literature, Sholem Rabinovitz is known universally by his pen name Sholem Aleichem. He evokes the tribulations of Jews in the Russian Empire around the turn of the twentieth century in his short stories, novels, and plays. The humor in many of his stories allows for cathartic laughter in the face of extreme difficulties from poverty to pogroms. Although firmly rooted in Jewish life, his work frequently explores universal themes — for example, his character Tevye der milkhiker (Tevye the dairyman) reflects changes in the Jewish world that occurred as Sholem Aleichem was writing the Tevye stories, while also tackling topics such as generational change and the fate of tradition in the modern era.
Sholem Aleichem’s biography in the YIVO Encyclopedia
Suggested Reading
English: Sholem Aleichem, Tevye the Dairyman and The Railroad Stories, trans. Hillel Halkin.
Yiddish: מאָטל פּײסע דעם חזנס, student edition with English glossaries prepared by Sheva Zucker and Anne Gawenda. Motl, a nine-year-old boy, is the first-person narrator of this series of stories about his life after his father dies. Although the stories depict the desperate straits of an impoverished family in an Eastern European shtetl, their tone – thanks to Motl’s perspective – is humorous and hopeful.
Itsik Manger (איציק מאַנגער)
1901–1969. Itzik Manger was born in Czernowitz and began his writing career in Romania, then moved to Warsaw where he spent his most prolific years (1928–38). He combined a modernist sensibility with the forms of folk creation: his ballads explore the dark side of the human condition, while the rhyme and rhythm of folksong shape his playful retellings of Bible stories that imagine biblical heroes as Eastern European shtetl Jews. After leaving Warsaw, Manger lived in Paris, London, New York and finally, Israel, turning in his writing to themes of wandering and exile.
Manger’s biography in the YIVO Encyclopedia
Suggested Reading
English: The World According to Itzik: Selected Poetry and Prose, translated by Leonard Wolf, with an introduction by David Roskies.
Yiddish: ליד און באַלאַדע. This volume includes many of the poems Manger had written up to its date of publication in 1952.
Isaac Bashevis Singer (יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער)
1904–1991. As a young writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer was an active participant in Warsaw Yiddish literary circles. He immigrated to New York in 1935, where he published his work continually in the Yiddish press. In America he oversaw the translation of his work into English and became perhaps the best known Yiddish writer in translation, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. His work is deeply rooted in the pre-war Eastern European world of his childhood, but also portrays Jewish life in post-war America. While most of his work is for adults, he also wrote stories for children that draw on Jewish storytelling motifs and traditions.
Note: Isaac Singer took the pen name Bashevis in order to differentiate himself from his older brother I. J. Singer, also a well-known Yiddish writer. In Yiddish he is known as “Isaac Bashevis” or “Bashevis”. In English, however, he added his family name, and is known as “Isaac Bashevis Singer” or “Singer”.
Singer’s biography in the YIVO Encyclopedia
Suggested Reading
English: In My Father’s Court
Yiddish: מײַן טאַטנס בית־דין־שטוב
This autobiographical work consists of short chapters in which Singer describes interesting cases brought before his father, a rabbi, for a ruling. The cases provide a window onto a wide range of personalities and incidents in Warsaw Jewish life. In addition, Singer depicts himself as a curious, observant child who eagerly takes in everything around him.
