The Glatstein Chronicles (61 page)

p. 303
   
The Blunderer on the Road of Life
(1868–1870) traces the emergence of a young boy from the traditional Jewish world into enlightenment.

p. 306
   The Marranos were Jews of the Iberian Peninsula who converted to Catholicism under duress during the Inquisition but remained secret or crypto-Jews. The term is sometimes used for Jews who conceal their identity.

p. 307
   A Russian greeting.

p. 310
   Abraham Ibn Ezra (1093–1167) major Spanish-Jewish exegete, philosopher, scientist, and writer.

p. 313
   Karet, signifying excision, is the biblical penalty for certain offenses, but the exact nature of the penalty, whether execution or being cut off from the community, remains in dispute.

p. 317
   Daniel Khvolson (1819–1911), a Russian Jewish Orientalist who converted to Christianity, but did much to defend Jews from anti-Semitic attacks.

p. 322
   Lilith, variously portrayed as Adam’s first wife or the consort of Satan, is the chief female demon of Jewish folklore.

p. 323
   Phrase signifying ordinary laborer from Joshua 9:21.

p. 325
   Communists convicted for crimes against the regime in the 1930s were sent to the Polish concentration camp Kartuz-Bereza, said to be modeled on the German camp at Dachau.

p. 326
   Stefan Żeromski (1864–1925) was a noted Polish novelist, whose house at Naleczow has been preserved in his memory.

p. 327
   The Mishna, created around 200
CE
, is the first codification of Rabbinic Judaism and the first part of the Talmud. The Amoraim were Jewish thinkers of the third to sixth centuries, whose teachings were collected in the Gemara, the later part of the Talmud. The Gaonim were the prominent rabbis of the early Middle Ages who presided over the rabbinical colleges of Sura and Pumbedita in Babylon. Moving through the centuries, the Rambam, acronym for Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or Maimonides (1135?–1204), is the most influential of all Jewish philosophers, and the Ba’al Shem (see note to page 194) was the founder of Hasidic Judaism. The difference between the rationalist Maimonides and the mystic Ba’al Shem would have sealed the point that every generation developed its own thinkers.

p. 329
   The kozatzke, or the Cossack male dance, traditional for Russia and Ukraine, involves a series of jumps and squats.

p. 334
   When Poland recovered its independence from Russia in 1918, it changed the official language and language of education from Russian to Polish.

p. 336
   Kazimierz Dolny, in Yiddish Kuzmir, is a small town in Lublin province on the Vistula River that attracts tourists for its historical sights and natural beauty.

p. 337
   Anatole France (1844–1924) was a French poet and novelist, awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1921.

p. 338
   Josef Pilsudski (1867–1935), effective head of independent Poland after 1918 and prime minster at the time of his death, was the target of an assassination attempt in 1921 by Stepan Fedak, member of a Ukrainian nationalist group. Poland’s National Democratic Party, whose members were called the Endeks, engaged in anti-?Semitic politics and agitation.

p. 339
   Reference to the burning bush in Exodus 3:4 that burns but is not consumed.

p. 349
   The Yiddish folksong “Di goldene pave” (The golden peacock) is said to describe the fate of Esther, the Jewish girl whose legend in one of its variations is recounted here. The legend of Esther, consort of King Casimir, based on the story in the Book of Esther, is a staple of both Polish and Jewish folklore.

p. 351
   A shames is the equivalent of a sexton.

p. 354
   The first five-year plan was declared by Joseph Stalin in 1928 as a program to build the Soviet economy so as to achieve parity with the advanced Western countries. The tongue-in-cheek addition of “seven-year plan” translates this into an imagined Jewish equivalent, since Jews think in units of seven, including in computing sabbatical cycles.

p. 363
   Ramón del Valle-Inclán (1866–1936), Spanish modernist writer, wrote a cycle of
Sonatas
—Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter—recounting the adventures of the Marquis of Bradomín, who loses one arm in a duel.

p. 364
   Probably the Hasidic master Gershon Hanoch Leiner (1839–1891).

p. 365
   On the holiday of Simhat Torah, Jews joyfully celebrate the completion of the annual cycle of reading the Pentateuch and starting it afresh.

p. 373
   The quotation is from Song of Songs 1:6.

p. 375
   See Book One, note to page 87.

When I launched the Library of Yiddish Classics in 1987, I mentioned to Lucy Dawidowicz that I would need to raise independent funds for translation, since Schocken Books required copy-ready manuscripts before it would publish the series. I had spoken to her as a colleague; it never occurred to me that she would try to help, yet shortly after our conversation, Lucy incorporated the Fund for the Translation of Jewish Literature, providing the seed money herself so that we could get the project off and running. The Fund supported five books of the original series, and another seven so far in its expanded sequel, the New Yiddish Library published by Yale University Press under the general editorship of David G. Roskies. Since the present volume will be one of the final books supported by the Fund, this is the moment to salute Lucy’s initiative, and to thank my fellow members of the board she assembled—Etta Brandman and Malcolm Thomson—with special gratitude to Neal Kozodoy, who assumed responsibilities for the Fund as Lucy’s executor in 1990 and has directed it since. Neal sustained the project and his oversight improved every aspect of every book in both series.

I am very fortunate and thankful to have David Roskies for a brother. I owe him special thanks for including this book in the New Yiddish Library and for his advice and encouragement throughout.

Maier Deshell’s translation of the first of these two chronicles was a labor of love and high intelligence. I hope that he will take rightful pride in the part of the book that is wholly his. Norbert Guterman’s translation of the second chronicle,
Homecoming at Twilight,
was too good to be superseded, but since he was no longer alive to be consulted, may I be forgiven the few corrections and refinements I made as editor. I am grateful to Yale University Press for publishing this series of modern Yiddish classics, and to Dan Heaton for his editorial help.

This book was so long in the making that I will surely forget to acknowledge all those involved in various stages of conception, translation, editing, and production. Catherine Madsen of the National Yiddish Book Center provided most helpful technical and editorial assistance. Thanks to Kyle Berkman, who helped with research, to Marta Figlerowicz, who helped with footnotes, and to students, past and present, whose appreciation of Glatstein contributed to my own understanding. I doubt that any teacher has ever been more fortunate in her students than I, first at McGill, then at Harvard. This book is for them, and for all readers to come.