From Our Springtime: Literary Memoirs and Portraits of Yiddish New York

Acknowledgments

• xi Acknowledgments I am deeply indebted to the many people who responded generously to my requests for information and help, and without whom this translation would not have been possible. I want to thank first of all Jules Chametzky, who read an early version of the manuscript and gave me much needed encouragement and advice. Throughout the course of this project, Itzik Gottesman gave me the benefit of his great knowledge of Yiddish and the world of Yiddish. Ben Sadock was extraordinarily generous with his time and expertise and helped solve many linguistic riddles. I am indebted to Ruth Wisse, who suggested a solution to the mystery of “the sweet singer in Israel” (chapter 6, note 1). Ben Feldman’s close reading of the manuscript and advice were extremely helpful. Sheva Zucker and Binyuman Schaechter helped greatly with linguistic questions. I thank Naomi Tannen and Joe Mahay for their help and support. I thank my dear friend Isidore Haiblum, whose rich knowledge and love of Yiddish have been an inspiration for many years. I thank the librarians and archivists at YIVO Institute as well as the librarians at the Dorot Jewish division of the New York Public Library. The help and advice of Ilana Abramovitch, Joel Shatzky, and Jeffrey Shandler has been very much appreciated. I thank Ben Kraus for his insights into religious questions and terminology and for giving me the benefit of his profound knowledge of Rabbinic and biblical Hebrew. I thank Robert Stevens for giving me access to recorded interviews with Reuben Iceland’s children and for answering my many questions; much of the information that appears in the introduction came from him and those interviews. I thank my editor Mathew Kudelka and the editors at Syracuse University Press, in particular Ken Frieden, for his erudite afterword and for xii | Acknowledgments his support of this translation; and Jennika Baines and Kay Steinmetz, who patiently and expertly guided the manuscript through the complex process of becoming a book; and I thank Mary Petrusewicz for her fine copyediting. I especially want to thank my wife Frances, who believed in this translation from the very beginning, for her patience and support. And last, I thank Judith Meiselman for entrusting me with this project. This translation is dedicated to Judith Meiselman and her late mother, Rebecca Iceland Halpern. ...