Have I Got a Story for You: More Than a Century of Fiction from The Forward

by Ezra Glinter (Editor), Dara Horn (Introduction)

Overview

A Finalist for the 2016 National Jewish Book Award

Forty-two stories from America’s greatest Yiddish newspaper, in English for the first time.

The Forward, founded in 1897, is the most renowned Yiddish newspaper in the world. It welcomed generations of immigrants to the United States, brought them news of Europe and the Middle East, and provided them with sundry comforts such as comic strips and noodle kugel recipes.

It also published some of the most acclaimed Yiddish fiction writers of all time: Nobel Prize laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer on justice slyly being served when the governor of Lublin comes to town; celebrated Forward editor Abraham Cahan on how place and luck can change character; and Roshelle Weprinsky, setting her story in Florida, on the rupture between European parents and American children.

Cahan described the newspaper as a “living novel,” with good reason. Taken together, these stories reveal the human side of the challenges that faced Jews throughout this time, including immigration, modernization, poverty, assimilation, the two world wars, and changing forms of Jewish identity. These concerns were taken up by a diverse group of writers, from novelists Sholem Asch and Chaim Grade to short-story writers like Lyala Kaufman and Miriam Karpilove.

Ezra Glinter has combed through the archives to find the best stories published during the newspaper’s 120-year history, digging up such varied works as wartime novellas, avant-garde fiction, and satirical sketches about immigrant life in New York. Glinter’s introductions to the thematic sections and short biographies of the contributors provide insight into the concerns of not only the writers but also their avid readers. The collection has been rendered into English by today’s best Yiddish translators, who capture the sound of the authors and the subtleties of nuance and context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393254853
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	977,437
File size:	722 KB

About the Author

Ezra Glinter is the Forward’s former deputy culture editor and current critic-at-large. He is writing a biography of the Lubavitcher Rebbe for Yale University Press.
Dara Horn is the author of five novels and was one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists. She has taught Jewish literature at Harvard, Sarah Lawrence College, and Yeshiva University. She lives in New Jersey with her family.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xv

Section 1 Immigration and Its Discontents 1

Rokhl Brokhes 3

Golde's Lament 4

Abraham Cahan 10

Shneur Zadobnik and Motke the Hatter 11

Morris Rosenfeld 27

Collecting Rent 28

B. Kovner 33

Brownsville Looks to the Heavens 34

Yente Describes a Strike 38

Yente and Mendel Look for Rooms 40

How Pinnie Celebrated Election Day 43

Yente and Mendel and Mendel Beilis 45

Pinnie Grows to Be a Businessman 47

Rooms with Steam Heat 50

Yente at the Metropolitan Opera 52

Roshelle Weprinsky 56

Annie 57

By a Far Shore 62

Sarah Hamer-Jacklyn 69

Compatriots 70

Section 2 Modern Times 81

Hersh Dovid Nomberg 83

Friends 84

Avrom Reyzen 96

Who Will Prevail? 97

Yente Serdatsky 116

The Devoted Cousin 117

The Young Widow 125

She Waits 132

Lyala Kaufman 139

At Prayer 140

A Country Girl 143

To Go, or Not to Go? 147

The Grandmother 150

Poor Sammy! 153

Her Dowry 156

Miriam Raskin 160

She Wants to Be Different 161

In the Automat 165

Section 3 World on Fire 171

Sholem Asch 175

The Jewish Soldier 175

David Bergelson 212

On the Eve of Battle 213

Israel Joshua Singer 233

Bakhmatsch Station 254

David Zaritski 260

The Edge of Death 261

Wolf Karmiol 268

After Liberation 269

Section 4 The Old Country 275

Yona Rozenfeld 277

A Holiday 278

Zalman Schneour 290

That Which Is Forbidden 291

Miriam Karpilove 310

In a Friendly Hamlet 311

Kadya Molodowsky 316

A House on the Hill 317

Isaac Bashevis Singer 324

The Hotel 325

Chaim Grade 337

Grandfathers and Grandchildren 339

Section 5 New Horizons 383

Blume Lempel 385

A Journey Back in Time 386

Yente Mash 391

Mona Bubbe 392

Mikhoel Felsenbaum 398

Hallo 399

Boris Sandler 414

Studies in Solfège 415

Translators 431

Editorial Reviews

11/15/2016
Starting in 1897 in New York City, the Forward is the most renowned Yiddish-language newspaper in the world. While Yiddish writers such as Isaac Bashevis Singer have been translated into English, many of the contributors remained untranslated and unknown. The 42 stories collected here, including ten tales by women writers, have all been translated for the first time and are organized by themes such as immigration, modern times, war, and Eastern European life. With an introduction by novelist Dara Horn, this groundbreaking anthology is an important contribution to the understanding of the Jewish immigrant experience in America.

Library Journal

★ 2016-08-16
A new anthology gathers a century’s worth of fiction from a pre-eminent Yiddish publication.When the Forward began publishing news, editorials, literature, and essays in 1897, it became a haven for writers and readers of Yiddish not only in New York, where it was published, but also in much of Europe. It has since become the longest-lasting Yiddish newspaper in the United States. A vibrant, and vital, new anthology gathers fiction from across the Forward’s long tenure. It seats luminaries like Isaac Bashevis Singer, Sholem Asch, and Abraham Cahan (longtime editor of the Forward) alongside lesser-known figures like B. Kovner, Yente Serdatsky, and Miriam Raskin. Many of the stories, like those of Lyala Kaufman (daughter of the illustrious Sholem Aleichem), are here translated into English for the first time. With sections organized around various themes, such as “Immigration and Its Discontents,” “Modern Times,” which looks at shifting social and sexual mores, and “World on Fire,” with fiction inspired by the two world wars, the Ukrainian War of Independence, and other violent tragedies, the anthology provides a wide-ranging, comprehensive depiction of a century’s worth of experiences by American and European Jews. Many of the stories take the form of slight character sketches, like Roshelle Weprinsky’s “Annie,” which describes a factory worker’s yearning to provide her husband and children with comforts they can’t afford. In Avrom Reyzen’s “Who Will Prevail?” a pompous young intellectual tries to win over his landlady’s daughter only to lose her to a more unequivocal tailor. Many of the stories have the edifying aspect of fables. If there is a certain sameness in narrative structure and literary style, this is forgivable, since Glinter, who edited the collection (and currently serves as deputy culture editor for the Forward) has selected such a diverse, wide-ranging group of writers. Women are well-represented here, as are the aging, the lonely, and the yearning. This is a crucial act of preservation: by archiving and translating into English this wealth of fiction, Glinter has helped to ensure the legacy of the Forward and its many brilliant contributors.

Kirkus Reviews