In spite of the brilliant evolution of Judeo-German literature in the
last fifty years, the older ethical works of the preceding period
continue in power and are reprinted from time to time, mostly in the
printing offices at Warsaw and Lublin. Among these we find a large
number of biographies of famous Rabbis, testamentary instructions of
wise men, essays on charity, faith, and other virtues, and an endless
mass of commentaries on the Bible and other religious books. Most of
these are translations from the Hebrew. Of late there have also begun to
appear treatises on moral subjects written specially in the vernacular.
We have had occasion to mention the works of Zweifel. There have also
been written sermons of a more pretentious character in Judeo-German,
and even the missionaries have used the dialect for the purpose of
making propaganda among them: the first to attempt this were the English
missionaries, the last have been emissaries from the Greek Church. Of
course these have had no influence of any kind on the minds of the
people. One of the most fruitful branches of the liturgical literature
has been the Tchines, or Prayers. They are intended for women, and there
is a vast variety of them for every occasion in life. Some of the older
ones are quite poetical, being translations or imitations of good
models. But many of the newer ones have been manufactured without rhyme
or reason by young scholars in the Rabbinical seminaries of Wilna and
Zhitomir. These were frequently in sore straits for a living, and
knowing the proneness of women to purchase new, tearful prayers, have
composed them to their tastes. They have hardly any merit, except as
they form a sad chapter in the sad lives of Russian Jewish women. The
old story-books and the prayers have been almost the only consolation
they have had in their lives fraught with woe.
In one of Abramowitsch's novels a woman, purchasing a prayer from an
itinerant bookseller, gives the following reason for being so addicted
to them: "For us poor women, the Tchines are the only remedy for hearts
full of sores and wounds; they furnish us with the only means of weeping
to our hearts' content, and of finding relief for our saddened spirits
in a warm stream of tears.... It is truly aggravating and painful to see
men who do not understand and who do not wish to understand our hearts
make light of women's Tchines and begrudge us the only consolation we
have. Let them take a seat in the women's synagogue on a Saturday or
some holiday, and let them watch the many poor, unfortunate women who
have come away from their homes under difficulties:--one suffering an
evil fate from her husband, another a forlorn widow; one heavy with
child, another downhearted and exhausted from watching long nights at
the bed of her sick, suckling babe; one with swollen, blistered hands
from standing at the stove, and another with her face careworn, and pale
from heavy slave's work, from walking eternally under a yoke;--let them
watch all these sad, downtrodden women standing around the Reader, let
them hear them wail and lament with eyes uplifted to their merciful,
all-kind Father in heaven, bathing in tears and ready to tear their
hearts out of their bosoms. If the men could see such a scene with
their own eyes, they would, I am sure, never open their mouths again to
ridicule the prayers of women."
Outside of these prayers and ethical treatises the most popular books
since the middle of our century have been two elementary works,--one on
arithmetic, teaching the rudiments of the art, the other a letterwriter.
It is probably no exaggeration to say that a hundred editions of the
latter book have appeared in print. It was composed by Lewin Abraham
Liondor, and was intended as a guide for Judeo-German spelling and
letter-writing by children and women. This has been almost the only
text-book written in and for the vernacular. Liondor knew how to make it
entertaining by having a series of connected stories in the form of
letters and an occasional song interspersed in them. The book begins
with an interesting dialogue in the form of letters between the
letterwriter and the author, and ends with a number of letters from and
to a schadchen, the go-between in marriage affairs. From the dialogue
one can see what great popularity this humble work has had in its time.
There have been issued in the last ten years a number of similar
letterwriters, more in accord with the demands of the time, but the
naïveté of Liondor's book has all disappeared in them, and they present
no interest to the reader.
It has never occurred to Judeo-German writers to treat their language
grammatically. They all started out with the idea that it was not a
language, but merely a corrupted dialect which could not be brought
under any grammatical rules. In this opinion they have persevered up to
the present. Where they felt it, nevertheless, their duty to establish
some kind of system, they have dealt only with orthography, and thus of
late a few pamphlets on that subject, but of no scientific value, have
been produced by them. Much greater has been the attempt of Judeo-German
authors to furnish their people with text-books for the study of foreign
tongues. As early as 1824 a Polish grammar appeared in Warsaw. Wherever
the conditions have been favorable for it, the Jews have tried to learn
the languages of their Gentile fellow-citizens. If they have so long
persevered in the use of their dialect in Russia and Poland, the fault
is with the Government and not with them, as we shall soon see. In the
seventies Jewish youths were admitted liberally to the gymnasia and
universities, and they eagerly availed themselves of the privilege and
threw themselves with ardor upon the study of the Russian language. The
most encouraging time for them was from the year 1874 to 1875, when all
seemed to presage better days for them. The schools were crowded with
ambitious children, and there were many left at home who had to get
their Russian education privately or through self-instruction. To help
these, a number of excellent text-books were written. Such were the
books of Skurchowitsch, Lifschitz, Zazkin, Chadak, Feigensohn. All these
appeared within the short period of two years. Later a number of other
similar productions followed. Lifschitz also published at the same time
a Russian-Judeo-German and Judeo-German-Russian dictionary, which is one
of the most valuable stores of Judeo-German that we possess. Everything
was preparing the way for the extermination of the native dialect in
favor of the literary language of the country, when the
short-sightedness of the Government drove them once more back into their
separate existence.
Previous to the seventies there could be found only grammars for the
study of German, French, and even English, but no works to make the
study of Russian easy. Since the year 1881, when the forced emigration
began, new interests have taken hold of the minds of the Jews. They have
been scattered to the four winds, have formed colonies in Germany and
France, but more especially in England, South Africa, and the United
States. Most of those who have gone to their new homes, and who still
intend going there, hardly know any other language than Judeo-German.
But they must learn the tongues of their adopted countries, and we find
a large number of text-books of all descriptions prepared for them. They
have been driven also to Spanish America, and we find Spanish word-books
and grammars written for them. Sadder still, they have begun to dream of
returning to their former home in Palestine, and Arabic word-books have
become their latest necessity. It must not be forgotten that this class
of publications has no claim to scientific recognition; though they are
sometimes written by educated men, they are meant to serve only for the
immediate needs of the wandering Jew. They consequently reflect, like
the belles lettres, the conditions under which the Jews are laboring.
At the dawn of the new era, in the first half of this century, few
thought of the study of foreign languages. The masses were too ignorant
in more essential things to be ready for that kind of instruction. It
was more important that they be made acquainted with the most obvious
facts around them. We saw how one of the most popular books of those
days was 'The Discovery of America,' which also gave some facts in
regard to physical geography. In the sixties, when books of instruction
for the first time were being printed, history and geography were the
first to receive the attention of those who wished to further popular
instruction. Almost one of the very first to be issued then was Resser's
'Universal History,' and this was followed not long after by a primer on
geography. Only after the riots, a more direct attempt was begun at the
education of the people from the standpoint of their vernacular, and
since then geographies and histories of the best foreign authors have
been adapted to their humble needs. We find then, among others, a
translation of Graetz's 'Popular History of the Jews.'
When we reach the nineties, we get a whole literature of popular
science. We have Bernstein's 'Natural Science,' Brehm's 'Essays on
Animals,' and a large number of other similar adaptations for this
period. The most systematic distribution of such books was carried on by
A. Kotik and Bressler, who published a series of text-books on the
useful sciences. Among these are several on anthropology, on political
economy, and even on Darwinism. But none of these can compare in
literary value with the excellent essays of Perez, or even with some of
the articles in the various periodicals. Within the last few years the
popular stories of Tannenbaum in New York have become very popular in
Russia, where nearly all of his works are being reprinted as soon as
they have appeared in America. One of the most persistent kinds of this
class of literature has been the one that gives instruction in popular
medicine. We find such information teaching what to do in case of
cholera in the first half of the century, and later for nearly forty
years many such useful essays have been written by Dr. Tscherny. This
exhausts the scanty collection of a scientific nature that has been
produced for the masses.
Conditions have not been favorable in Russia for the development of a
periodical literature such as the leaders of the people have always had
in mind, and such as the writers now would like to see inaugurated. The
Government has put so many obstacles in the way of their publications
that they have nearly all been of an ephemeral nature, and have had
successively to give place to new and just as short-lived periodicals.
The earliest use of Judeo-German, at least of German written with Hebrew
letters, we find in a gazette published in Prague in the beginning of
the century; the next was a similar paper that was published in Warsaw
in 1824. After that there ensued a long silence until the year 1848,
when a constitution and the freedom of the press were announced in
Austria. The happy news was brought to the Jews of Galicia by a
Judeo-German proclamation issued by Jizchok Jehuda Ben Awraham in
Lemberg. In a simple language the author tells his co-religionists of
the change that has come over them, of the formation of a National
Guard, of the Freedom of the Press, and of the Constitution. It proceeds
to give the late occurrences in Lemberg, and expresses the hope of a
close union with the Gentile population. "And to-day when the Gentiles
cast away their hatred against us, we Jews who have always had good
hearts shall certainly be one body and one soul with the Christians." A
month later A. M. Mohr started a political gazette under the name of
_Zeitung_, in which a corrupt German, rather than Judeo-German, was
employed. This paper has subsisted, with some interruptions and various
changes of form, up to the present time. The following year there was
issued a rival paper, _Die jüdische Post_, which added a commercial
column to the political news.
In Russia no periodical appeared until Zederbaum issued his supplement,
_Kol-mewasser_, to the _Hameliz_ in 1863. This weekly was not only a
gazette of political news, but also a literary magazine which, as we
have seen, has fostered the Judeo-German literature and has made it
possible for Abramowitsch and Linetzki to develop themselves. In 1871
its life was cut short. In 1867 a short-lived attempt was made in Warsaw
to issue a weekly, _Die Warschauer jüdische Zeitung_, which followed
closely the precedent set by the _Kol-mewasser_. Many of the
contributors to the older magazine have written articles for the same.
For some reason, emanating mainly from the censor, no periodical in
Judeo-German was published in Russia during the seventies. The Jews
were, however, not entirely without reading matter of that class, for at
different times magazines and gazettes were issued for them abroad. The
first of the kind was the _Jisrulik_, which appeared in Lemberg in 1875
under the joint editorship of Linetzki and Goldfaden. This differed from
its predecessors in so far as it made the literary part the most
important division in its columns. Most of the matter was furnished by
the editors themselves, or rather by Linetzki alone, for Goldfaden's
name does not figure upon it after the first few numbers. In less than
half a year, the _Jisrulik_ was discontinued. From 1877 up to 1881 Brüll
issued in Mainz a weekly, _Hajisroeli_, devoted to the interests of the
Russian Jews. Upon its pages one may now and then find the names of some
of the older writers, but on the whole it seems to have been only in
distant contact with its countrymen at home. Another weekly of the same
character was started in 1880 under the name of _Kol-leom_ in
Königsberg. Only the next year Zederbaum succeeded in obtaining the
Government's permission for his _Volksblatt_, which appeared
uninterruptedly until 1889, some time after its chief contributors,
Spektor and Rabinowitsch had discontinued their connection with it and
had started annuals of their own. Since then, several new ones, all of
them of very short duration, have seen daylight. At the moment of
writing this, permission has been granted by the Russian government to a
Zionistic society, in Warsaw, to publish a magazine under the name of
_Bas-kol_.
There has been a steady progress in the periodical press, such as could
be expected under the tantalizing restrictions attendant on a
Judeo-German press in Russia. The _Volksblatt_ is both quantitatively
and qualitatively an improvement over the _Kol-mewasser_, which in its
turn is far superior to the gazettes preceding it. The _Hausfreund_ and
the _Volksbibliothēk_, _Dās hēilige Land_, and _Die Jüdische Bibliothēk_
are all more systematic, more in accord with the modern form of
periodicals, than the _Volksblatt_.
There has been and still is another potent factor in the dissemination
of useful knowledge and even of good literature, that is furnished by
the almanacs, of which a large number have been issued at various times.
The best of these were started in the seventies, just at the time when
the periodical press was discontinued. One of the earliest of the kind
was _The Useful Calendar_, the first of which was issued in Wilna in
1875 by Abramowitsch. In addition to the usual information given in
publications of this sort, there are in it tabular data on geography,
history, statistics, and similar sciences, all gotten together from the
best and most reliable sources. It is a close reproduction of similar
almanacs in the Russian language. Soon after a similar series was begun
by Linetzki, who added a column of anecdotes to those of a more serious
nature. In the nineties, when there was again a lull in the publication
of the annuals and magazines, the almanac was revived, but in a still
more improved form than before. In fact, it now differs little from the
annuals, for the calendar is the minor part in it, while the literary
division is worked out with great care. The first of this new kind was
edited by J. Bernas under the name of _The Jewish Commercial Calendar_
for the years 1891-1896. Among the contributors to the literary
department we find the familiar names of Perez, Dienesohn, Goldfaden,
Frischmann. Since 1893 Spektor has been issuing an annual almanac, _The
Warsaw Jewish Family Calendar_, which is constructed after the manner of
Bernas's publication. Another similar series is that issued by Eppelberg
of Warsaw. The most perfect of the almanacs is the one which was started
in 1894 by G. Bader in Lemberg under the name of the _Jewish Popular
Calendar_, of which not less than two-thirds is occupied by literature.
As contributing editors are mentioned Abramowitsch, Frug, Perez, J. M.
Rabinowitsch, and a few others who have not appeared before in
Judeo-German literature. These almanacs are calculated to do a great
deal of good among the masses, as they are circulated in much larger
editions than any other books, and as they generally escape destruction
at least for the period of one year, whereas the people have not learned
to preserve printed works longer than during the time they are perusing
them. The rapidity with which books disappear from the market and from
the possession of private individuals is something astounding. Of books
printed in the sixties one need hardly hope to be able to find more than
one in ten asked for, while even those that have been printed
comparatively late, in the eighties, have frequently become a rarity.
This is partly due to their being sold in uncut, unstitched sheets which
easily fall to pieces. But much more often it is the result of
indifference to the printed word which, to a certain extent, is also
shared by the corresponding classes of their Gentile countrymen. The
works that have been published in the last twenty years stand a better
chance of being preserved, as they are well stitched and not seldom even
bound. They are also printed on much better paper than the majority of
books of the older time.
What few Judeo-German books were issued in Russia before the sixties
were printed mostly in the printing offices of Wilna and Warsaw. Up to
the forties, the books that proceeded from the first place bear the
names of the printers Manes and Simel, after which begins the activity
of the firm Romm, which is still in existence; but Romm is not the only
firm there now as it has been for nearly fifty years. In Warsaw we find
in the beginning of our century the office of Levinsohn; in the forties
many works were also printed at Orgelbrand's. In the sixties and the
seventies, most of the better works were published in the South. The
firms of Nitsche, and Beilinsohn in Odessa and of Schadow, and Bakst in
Zhitomir printed nearly all the Judeo-German books of the Southern group
of writers. The books of the Odessa firms are particularly well printed,
and put together in an attractive form. In the last twenty years
Berdichev, Kiev, Wilna, Warsaw, have been the leading cities to print
such books, while Lublin in Poland, and Lemberg in Galicia, have
brought out a mass of religious and legendary literature. The Lemberg
chapbooks can hardly be equalled for the miserable way in which they are
gotten up and printed.
Anciently Jewish bookstores could be found only in the largest cities.
In the towns and villages the books were disseminated by the itinerant
bookseller who carried with him a variety of things which did not have
anything in common with the book trade, such as candlesticks,
show-threads, prayer shawls, and other things necessary in the
observance of the Mosaic Law. Even now this wandering bookseller has not
gone out of existence. All the stories of Abramowitsch are told in the
person of Mendele Mōcher Sforim, _i.e._ Mendel the Bookseller, of whose
part played in the distribution of literature and as a newsmonger many
interesting details will be found in his works. It is interesting to
note that a few years ago several Russians who had undertaken to spread
good books among the people resorted to the same means that for a
hundred years, if not longer, had been in vogue among the Jews. The
books were hawked about in a wagon from village to village, and to
attract the peasants, many other useful things were sold by these
itinerant bookstores.
Since the dispersion of the Russian Jews in Europe and America, there
has arisen in the diaspora a large number of periodical publications
which serve as the medium for the dissemination of all kinds of
knowledge. In England there were issued in the eighties the weeklies
_The Future_ and _The Polish Jew_, and in the nineties a monthly _The
Free World_. Some good essays on sociological questions, mostly of a
socialistic nature, were issued by the 'Socialistic Library' and 'The
People's Library' in London. In Paris there has appeared since 1896 a
weekly, _The Hatikwoh_, under the editorship of Bernas, the former
compiler of a calendar. In that city Zuckermann is publishing also a
'Library of Novels,' in which one may find translations of many of the
popular French works. Roumania has had a gazette, the _Hajōez_, ever
since the seventies, which has published a number of novels in book
form. The most of these are translations; the few original ones that
have appeared in that collection are of little value. A few other papers
may be found in Jassy and other places. In 1896 H. L. Gottlieb started a
monthly in M.-Sziget in Hungary, but it lived only two months. Most of
the articles in prose and poetry are by the editor himself, whose style
resembles that of Linetzki and Goldfaden. There have also been published
a dozen books, mostly farces or parodies, in Judeo-German, but with
German letters. Nearly all of these appeared in Austria and Hungary.
They add nothing to the store of the Judeo-German literature.