Classic Yiddish Stories of S. Y. Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem, and I. L. Peretz

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Classic Yiddish Stories Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art Ken Frieden and Harold Bloom, Series Editors Other books in Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art Badenheim 1939 Aharon Appelfeld; Betsy Rosenberg, trans.; Ken Frieden, ed. Contemporary Jewish American Writers and the Multicultural Dilemma: The Return of the Exiled Andrew Furman The Dybbuk and the Yiddish Imagination: A Haunted Reader Joachim Neugroschel, trans. & ed. God, Man, and Devil: Yiddish Plays in Translation Nahma Sandrow, trans. & ed. The Image of the Shtetl and Other Studies of Modern Jewish Literary Imagination Dan Miron The Jewish Book of Fables: The Selected Works of Eliezer Shtaynbarg Eliezer Shtaynbarg; Curt Leviant, trans. & ed. Jewish Instrumental Folk Music: The Collections and Writings of Moshe Beregovski Mark Slobin, Robert Rothstein, and Michael Alpert, trans. and eds. Nathan and His Wives Miron Izakson; Betsy Rosenberg, trans.; Ken Frieden, ed. Nineteen to the Dozen: Monologues and Bits and Bobs of Other Things Sholem Aleichem; Ted Gorelick, trans.; Ken Frieden, ed. Polish Jewish Literature in the Interwar Years Eugenia Prokop-Janiec; Abe Shenitzer, trans. The Stories of David Bergelson: Yiddish Short Fiction from Russia Golda Werman, trans. and ed. A Traveler Disguised: The Rise of Modern Yiddish Fiction in the Nineteenth Century Dan Miron The Wishing-Ring S. Y. Abramovitsh; Michael Wex, trans. Classic Yiddish Stories of S . Y . A B R A M O V I T S H , S H O L E M A L E I C H E M , A N D I . L . P E R E T Z Edited by Ken Frieden Translated by Ken Frieden, Ted Gorelick, and Michael Wex SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY PRESS Copyright © 2004 by Syracuse University Press Syracuse, New York 13244–5290 All Rights Reserved First Paperback Edition 2011 11 12 13 14 15 5 4 3 2 1 Translation of Abramovitsh’s novellas and Peretz’s stories © 2004 by Ken Frieden Translation of Sholem Aleichem’s monologues © 1998 by Ted Gorelick Translation of Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye stories © 2004 by Michael Wex ∞The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992. For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press, visit our Web site at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu. ISBN (paper): 978-0-8156-3291-7 ISBN (cloth): 978-0-8156-0760-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Classic Yiddish stories of S.Y. Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem, and I.L. Peretz / edited by Ken Frieden; translated by Ken Frieden, Ted Gorelick, and Michael Wex.— 1st ed. p. cm.— (Judaic traditions in literature, music, and art) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0–8156–0760–1 1. Short stories, Yiddish—Translations into English. 2. Jews—Social life and customs—Fiction. 3. Mendele Mokher Sefarim, 1835–1917—Translations into English. 4. Sholem Aleichem, 1859–1916—Translations into English. 5. Peretz, Isaac Leib, 1851 or 2–1915—Translations into English. I. Mendele Mokher Sefarim, 1835–1917. Short stories. English. Selections. II. Sholem Aleichem, 1859–1916. Short stories. English. Selections. III. Peretz, Isaac Leib, 1851 or 2–1915. Short stories. English. Selections. IV. Frieden, Ken, 1955– V. Gorelick, Ted. VI. Wex, Michael, 1954– VII. Series. PJ5191.E8 C53 2004 839'.13010803—dc22 2003026524 Manufactured in the United States of America I dedicate this book to my wife Tamar, to my children Tal and Maya, to the entire younger set entering the twenty-first century, and to their continuation of Eastern European culture in American Jewish life. K. F. Ken Frieden holds the B. G. Rudolph Chair in Judaic Studies and is a full professor in the departments of English, Literature, and Religion at Syracuse University. His book Classic Yiddish Fiction: Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem, and Peretz is a study of the works anthologized in this volume. Frieden’s other books include his editions of Sholem Aleichem’s monologues and of S. Y. Abramovitsh’s Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler (with Dan Miron). Ted Gorelick was born in Israel and educated in the United States. He specialized in the translation of Eastern European literature and won critical acclaim for his English renditions of S. Y. Abramovitsh’s Fishke the Lame (contained in Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler) and Sholem Aleichem’s Nineteen to the Dozen: Monologues and Bits and...