Memories and Scenes: Shtetl, Childhood, Writers

Outstanding work. A gem from a master of Yiddish literature of the early 20th century. His work has just recently been translated into English

I don't know how I found this book, yet I found it touching and engaging and the story telling is wonderful.

The stories are too slow and plain to keep my interest.

The stories illustrate timeless questions in an age from which I have descended.

What a great and pleasant experience reading this book.

The three classic writers of modern Yiddish literature, Sholem Abramovitsh (Mendele Moykher Sforim), Sholem Aleichem, and Isaac Leybush Peretz are commanding and well known as novelists with a focus on the Shtetl, the small Jewish communities scattered across Russia and Eastern Europe. Almost anyone well versed in Jewish and especially Yiddish literature can name and successfully discuss their works.Far less is known about Jacob Dinezon and his work to promote other Shtetl authors. He advised the great Sholem Aleichem on how to create and produce the first Jewish literary journal, called The Jewish Folk Library. He used his own money to publish the first book by one of his colleagues—the great I.L. Peretz. The two then joined forces to create and publish a series of Jewish holiday publications. This became critical to the literary lifeblood of Jewish communities as Russia and other Eastern European nations outlawed Jewish newspapers.One of Dinezon’s most important books was Yosele, which exposed corporal punishment in Jewish elementary schools (cheders). The book was so persuasive that its influence created sweeping changes in those schools and made Dinezon a champion for Jewish children.Each story in Memories and Scenes is unique and powerful. Dinezon’s characters represent the duality of life in the Shtetl—common people attempting to reconcile a life of poverty and discrimination against traditional Jewish values and religious obligations. In one story, a town learns about inequality and poverty from someone they thought was a town drunk, although he was not. In another, a good-hearted young man is pursued relentlessly by the town yenta (matchmaker). An old man, ridiculed for teaching that everything can be explained with algebra, learns from a student that the beauty of nature is the ultimate way to explain life. Finally, an entire town is thrown into chaos over the behavior of a goat.Dinezon’s writing is touching and evocative; his characters are vivid and memorable. Like many Jewish authors of his time, Dinezon advocated for poor and exploited Jews who lived in Shtetl communities. In doing so, he displays the unique character of these physically disparate, but socially similar societies, while effectively adding to the quality of Yiddish literature. Friend and advisor to almost every major Jewish writer of his day, Dinezon is truly a giant in Yiddish literature.

This is quite a remarkable book in many ways. First of all, it comes from the pen of a Jewish writer, Jacob Dinezon, a highly respected member of a 19th century Jewish literary circle, whose works, written in Yiddish, have remained buried until this time. Secondly, it took the ten-year commitment of a public television producer, Scott Davis, to see the value of recovering Dinezon’s works by having them translated into English. This effort not only places Dinezon alongside the major Yiddish literary figures of his day, it opens a portal on Dinezon’s rich contributions to Jewish literature, history, and culture. Set in the shtetl towns of 19th century Eastern Europe, we are treated to stories and characters that touch the heart and nourish the soul: Borekh the orphan with his simple goodness who must face a complicated future; Motl Farber the painter who can only work half the year and for the rest must survive on his earnings from the performance of an annual Purim play, until he runs afoul of the town’s police chief; and the wonderful account of Yosl Algebrenik, the Algebra Man, who learns from his young student that there is more to life than mathematics. In all of Dinezon’s stories, the Jewish people’s struggle to hold on to their values and way of life is treated with gentleness, respect, humor, and genuine insight. Highly recommended.