Everyday Jews: Scenes From a Vanished Life (51 page)

6
. On Warsaw as the new center for Yiddish culture, see the indispensable book by Natan Cohen,
Sefer, sofer ve’iton: merkaz hatarbut hayehudit beVarsha, 1918–1942
(Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2003).

7
. Finkelshteyn, xii. For a sober assessment of the Bund’s attitude and contribution to Yiddish culture, see David E. Fishman,
The Rise of Modern Yiddish Culture
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005), chap. 4.

8
. See “A Legend (1920),” in
No Star Too Beautiful: An Anthology of Yiddish Stories 1382 to the Present
, trans. Joachim Neugroschel (New York: Norton, 2003), 518–26; In land fun der Vaysl (Warsaw: Di tsayt, 1921); Mirl (Warsaw: Di tsayt, 1926); “In shtot (Fun der poeme ‘Ruta’),” Ringen (Warsaw) 1 (1921): 22–28; Sh. Niger, “Fun der bikher-velt,” Tsukunft (August 1922): 497.

9
. “Tsifern” (Numbers),
Varshever almanakh
(Warsaw: Beletristn-fareynikung, 1923), separate pagination. Later retitled “Nayn a zeyger in der fri” (9:00 A.M.), this served as the title work for Perle’s best collection of novellas and short stories (Vilna: Farlag fun B. Kletskin, 1930), a book he dedicated to “the sacred shadow of my wife Sarah.” On his rocky relationship to Weissenberg, see Finkelshteyn, xii.

10
. Cohen,
Sefer
,
sofer ve’iton
, 29.

11
. Ravitch,
Mayn leksikon
, 169–70.

12
. On this whole fascinating chapter in Yiddish literary history, see the landmark essay by Khone Shmeruk, “Letoldot hasifrut ha‘shund’ beyidish,”
Tarbiz 52
(1983): 325–54. The titles lose much in translation. In Yiddish they read:
Barg arop; Yidish blut: roman fun der groyser shtot; Af zibn shleser: yidisher roman fun di letste yorn in frayen poyln
(1928–1929);
Gold un broyt: roman fun yidish asimilatorishn lebn in Poyln
(April 1932—February 1933).

13
. Itzik Manger, “Shomeryade,”
Getseylte verter
(Kraków) 2:4 (June 1930): 1–2.

14
. Cohen,
Sefer, sofer ve’iton
, 109.

15
. This episode is recalled by Nachman Maisil in
Geven amol a lebn: dos yidishe kultur-lebn in Poyln tsvishn beyde velt-milkhomes
(Buenos Aires: Dos poylishe yidntum, 1951), 366–67. For this and other references and insights I wish to thank my good friend and colleague Samuel Kassow.

16
. Interview with Perle published in
Moment
on 16 January 1931, as cited by Shmeruk, “Letoldot sifrut ha‘shund’ beyidish,” n. 68.

17
. See Henry Roth, “On Being Blocked and Other Literary Matters: An Interview,”
Commentary
(August 1977): 31; Finkelshteyn, x.

18
. The official Bundist press: a review by Kh. S. Kazdan in the
Folkstsaytung
, as quoted at length by Rachel Auerbach in her review of Perle,
Literarishe bleter 50
(13 December 1935): 807; Y. Bashevis’s review from the Yiddish daily
Forverts
as reprinted in
Literarishe bleter 22
(29 May 1935): 352; and Sh. Niger, “A shrayber vos shmeykhlt,”
Di tsukunft
(July 1936): 504–7. In the 1930s, Niger was on a campaign to champion “humor” over mere satire.

19
. Rachel Auerbach, “Y. Perles ‘Yidn fun a gants yor,’”
Literarishe bleter
49 (6 December 1935): 789–90; 50 (13 December 1935): 807–9.

20
. Shmeruk, “Letoldot sifrut ha‘shund’ beyidish,” 347; Cohen,
Sefer, sofer ve’iton
, 89–90, 259.

21
. Letter to Ravitch from Warsaw, 24 March 1936, Ravitch Archive, National University Library, Jerusalem. My thanks to Ofer Dynes for photocopying the materials from the Ravitch Archive.

22
. Both quotations are drawn from the same letter to Ravitch of 24 March 1936.

23
. Yehoshue Perle,
Di gildene pave: roman in tsvey teyln
(Warsaw: Farlag “Literarishe bleter,” 1937), 527 pp.

24
. Yehoshue Perle,
Gilgulim: roman
, and on the same title page:
“Di gildene pave” tsveyte teyl
(Warsaw: Farlag “Literarishe bleter,” 1939). The novel was sent free of charge to subscribers of
Literarishe bleter
in seven separate but consecutively paginated installments. The National Library of Poland copy, Cat. No. II:512.302, ends on p. 336. Another semisensational novel,
Hintergasn
(Backstreets), was serialized in the
Folkstsaytung
(1937–38). It picks up on Perle’s romance with Sarah in the charmed circle of I. L. Peretz. From this we learn that the line between high- and lowbrow Yiddish fiction was razor thin and that the study of Perle’s oeuvre has barely begun.

25
. Missing from my account is the oft-repeated claim that Perle was appointed Secretary of the Yiddish Writers Union. This is highly implausible, unless what is meant is the
Recording
Secretary of the Union. Our only source is the entry in Ravitch’s
Mayn leksikon
, which he wrote in Montreal in 1943. It is nowhere mentioned in Ravitch’s correspondence with Perle, which ended in November 1940, while Finkelshteyn and Lender both emphasize Perle’s political naïveté and the opposition he faced from fellow writers with more open Communist sympathies.

26
. For Perle’s sojourn in the Soviet Union and the meeting of Soviet Yiddish writers with their Polish counterparts, see Dov Levin,
The Lesser of Two Evils: Eastern European Jewry Under Soviet Rule, 1939–1941
, trans. Naftali Greenwood (Philadelphia and Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society, 1989). The photograph is reproduced on p. 172. In the Warsaw ghetto, Perle showed Auerbach a copy of the photo.

27
. The correspondence between Ravitch and Louis Pearl is in the Ravitch Archive, Jerusalem.

28
. Emanuel Ringelblum, “Vi azoy zaynen umgekumen di yidishe shrayber,”
Ksovim fun geto, 2: Notitsn un ophandlungen
(1942–1943), 2d, photo-offset ed. (Tel Aviv: Y. L. Perets, 1985), 180–81; Auerbach,
Varshever tsavoes
, chap. 35 and passim; Kassow,
Who Will Write Our History?
According to Kassow, Perle’s report on the Soviet occupation of Lwów was never found in either cache of the archive.

29
. Jonas Turkow,
Azoy iz geven
… (Khurbn Varshe) (Buenos Aires: Dos poylishe yidntum, 1948), 92, 124. Turkow is our only source on the specific content of Perle’s ghetto satire, and Auerbach is our only source on its title. I am guessing that both are referring to the same work.

30
. “Answers to a Questionnaire by Yehoshue Perle” (Ringelblum Archive, I/86), in To Live with Honor and Die with Honor: Selected Documents from the Warsaw Ghetto Underground Archives “O. S.” (Oneg Shabbath), ed. Joseph Kermish (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1986), 755–56.

31
. Perle’s escape is described by many chroniclers. The most extensive description, complete with reconstructed dialogue, is in Turkow,
Azoy iz geven …
, 310–11.

32
. Yehoshue Perle, “Khurbn Varshe,” in
Tsvishn lebn un toyt
, ed. Leyb Olitsky (Warsaw: Yidish bukh, 1955), 100–41. Although the manuscript is dated “3 August–2 October 1942,” a careful reading allows us to distinguish between the brief time of its composition and the time span it encompasses. Perle took pen in hand on the fortieth day of the slaughter. An uncensored, annotated translation into French, made directly from the manuscript by Nathan Weinstock, appears in
Revue d’Histoire de la Shoah
164 (September 1998): 114–67, with an introduction by Micheline and Nathan Weinstock on pp. 106–12.

33
. Yehoshue Perle, “4580,” trans. Elinor Robinson, in
The Literature of Destruction: Jewish Responses to Catastrophe
, ed. David G. Roskies (Philadelphia: JPS, 1989), sec. 76;
Tsvishn lebn un toyt
, 142–49.

34
. Auerbach,
Varshever tsavoes
, 331–33.

35
. See Abraham Shulman,
The Case of Hotel Polski: An Account of One of the Most Enigmatic Episodes of World War II
(New York: Holocaust Library, 1982). The section pertaining to Perle, excerpted and translated from Auerbach’s memoir, is on pp. 102–3. There are differing accounts of when Perle and son went into hiding on the Aryan side of Warsaw. Turkow has Perle still living in the “wildcat” buildings on the eve of the ghetto uprising, and mentions him as one of the invitees to a large communal seder, to have been held on April 19, 1943.

36
. Shulman,
The Case of Hotel Polski
, 81–82.

37
. Esther Boyman, “Di letste khadoshim fun Yehoshue Perle,”
Dos naye lebn
16, February 1948; Kassow,
Who Will Write Our History?

38
. Finkelshteyn, xiii–xiv.

39
. This is the main thesis of Dan Miron’s brilliant and densely argued “Afterword” to Yehoshue Perle,
Yehudim stam
, trans. Yehudah Gur-Aryeh (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad and Siman Kri’ah, 1992), 295–317. Miron’s close reading of the novel should inform all future readings.

40
. See Miron, ibid., 295–96.

41
. Ibid., 310–17.

42
. In Yiddish, toybn can mean either “pigeons” or “doves.”

43
. In the sequels to
Everyday Jews
, set mostly in Warsaw, there is virtually no contact between the Jewish protagonists and their Gentile neighbors. This reflects the actual social segregation of Jews living within the urban ghettos of Poland. Compare the descriptions of Krochmalna Street in the autobiographical fiction of Isaac Bashevis Singer.

44
. Ber Mark, “Yudenratishe ‘Ahvas yisroel’ (an entfer oyfn bilbl fun H. Leyvik),”
Bleter far geshikhte
5:3 (1952): 63–115.

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