Published: 2024-06-07

From a Proggresive Yiddish Writer to an Apologist for the Hasidic Past: A Brief Novel by Perets Hirshbeyn and Soviet Literature of the Late 1920s

Ber Kotlerman Logo ORCID

Abstract

In the spring of 1928, three publications by American prose writer, playwright, and publicist Perets Hirshbeyn (1879–1948) appeared in the Moscow literary and artistic magazine “Krasnaya Niva,” translated from Yiddish into Russian. These included a sketch of life in Japan, impressions of a visit to Tahiti, and a pamphlet on South Africa. These publications were intended to serve as a calling card before the writer's extended tour of the USSR in 1928–1929. At the beginning of his literary career, Hirshbeyn, born in the “Pale of Settlement,” published several of his plays in Russian. However, for a decade and a half after leaving the Russian Empire, he lost contact with the Russian-speaking reading public. While better known as a talented playwright and having achieved success on the Russian theater stage, he now intended to maintain his reputation as an international publicist in the eyes of the Soviet public. However, as early as 1932, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia labeled Hirshbeyn “as an exponent of the nationalist bourgeoisie,” an “apologist for the Hasidic past,” and “a singer of the lonely, desperate Jewish intelligentsia.”

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Citation rules

Kotlerman, Ber. 2024. “From a Proggresive Yiddish Writer to an Apologist for the Hasidic Past: A Brief Novel by Perets Hirshbeyn and Soviet Literature of the Late 1920s”. Iudaica Russica, no. 1(12) (June):1-13. https://doi.org/10.31261/IR.2024.12.02.

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No. 1(12) (2024)
Published: 2024-06-28


ISSN: 2657-4861
eISSN: 2657-8352
Ikona DOI 10.31261/IR

Publisher
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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