Synopses & Reviews
From the author of
In Search of Zarathustra an illuminating chronicle of Yiddish civilization from its roots in the Diaspora to the present.
Paul Kriwaczek begins his search when Jewish culture first spreads to Europe during the Roman Empire after the end of ancient Jerusalem and the destruction of its Temple at the hands of the Romans in the year 70. We see the burgeoning exile population disperse, moving outward and northward throughout the following centuries, making their mark in more far flung cities under Roman rule. We see these communities settle and coalesce until in 1264 the Statute of Kalisz lays down a general charter of Jewish Liberties, establishing the legal foundation of a separate, self-governing Yiddish world. It is now the treks that begin from the Rhineland and Bavaria to Western Russia and the Ukraine. By its late-medieval heyday, this economically successful, intellectually adventurous, and largely self-ruling Yiddish society stretches from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
Providing a rich portrait of Yiddish civilization, Kriwaczek reflects upon the development of Yiddish language, occupations, social life, art, music, and literature, and introduces us to notable diplomats, artists, and thinkers: from the “Court Jews” of 17th- century Europe to Glikl of Hamelins, who wrote the first great Yiddish autobiography, to Moses Mendelssohn, the 18th-century philosopher and musician, to the great writers of the late 19th and 20th centuries, Sholem Aleichem and I.B. Singer among them. He chronicles the slow decline of Yiddish culture in Europe and Russia, beginning in the 17th century with the Chmielnicki Massacres in the Ukraine and culminating in the Holocaust, but looks further to fresh offshoots in the New World.
Combining intimate family anecdote, travelogue, historical research, and interviews with scholars, Kriwaczek retraces the history of this nearly extinguished civilization to give us a celebration of what remains of Yiddish culture in our own time.
About the Author
Paul Kriwaczek was born in Vienna in 1937 and, with his parents, narrowly escaped the Nazis in 1939, fleeing first to Switzerland and then to England. He grew up in London and graduated from London Hospital Medical College. After several years spent working and traveling in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa, he joined the BBC, where he spent the next quarter of a century as a program producer and filmmaker. Since leaving television in the 1990s, he has devoted himself to writing full-time, catching up on the unfinished business of a life spent exploring places, times, and ideas. He is married and lives in London.
Paul Kriwaczeks In Search of Zarathustra is available in Vintage paperback.
Table of Contents
List of IllustrationsAcknowledgments
Maps
Introduction
1. Bist a Yid?
Roots Schmoots!
Nostalgie de la Boue
2. The Jews of Rome
A Basket and a Truss of Hay
3. From the Mediterranean to the Baltic
As Strange as a Circumcised Unicorn
Sennan and Zippan
4. The Remaking of Western Europe
Charles's Elephant
New Borders, New Allegiances
Drang Nach Osten
5. At the Crossroads
In Every Castle a King
A Blessing Upon Mieszko, King of Poland
6. The New Yiddish World
The Language
The Literature
The Religion
The Scholarly Tradition
7. Political Consolidation
Landowners, Merchants, Artisans, Servants a the Jewish Inn
8. The Reformation
Hussites
Luther
Now a Miracle Happened
9. The Yiddish Renaissance
Cracow
Prague
Dovid Gans
10. Wide Horizons
Wealth and Honour
The Great Divide
11. The Deluge
The Cossacks
Poverty and Disgrace
12. Decline . . .
Who Permits the Forbidden
The Holy Creed of Edom
The Famous Baal Shem Tov, May His Light Long Shine
Oppose Them Strongly
13. . . . and Fall
The “Jewish Problem”
Words That Fall on Us Like Lashes
Shakespearean Tragedy
14. A Winter Flowering
Notes
Bibliography
Index