Never-Ending Tales: Stories from the Golden Age of Jewish Literature

by Jack Zipes

Overview

An anthology of European and American short stories from the 1870s through the 1930s in which Jewish writers respond to antisemitism with humor, satire, irony, and hope

Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Jewish writers in Europe and America published countless stories addressing “the Jewish Question”—the intense debate about the treatment of Jews following their so-called emancipation. In Never-Ending Tales, Jack Zipes presents more than two dozen of these stories, which attempted to subvert the antisemitism that the debate represented. Humorous and bittersweet, and filled with ironic reversals, these are stories of fantasy, magic, and transformation—tales about little people who assert their humanity; about the Golem, the gargantuan savior of Jews; about rabbis who use wisdom and patience to protect their people; and much more. While illuminating the problems faced by Jews of the period, from assimilation and conversion to pogroms and fascism, these stories offer hope about surviving and overcoming antisemitism.

Bringing together brilliant stories by well-known authors such as Sholem Aleichem, Karl Emil Franzos, Mynona, I. L. Peretz, and Israel Zangwill, and tales by lesser-known writers that deserve more attention, Never-Ending Tales also features a short novel, Hugo Bettauer’s The City without Jews: A Novel about the Near Future (1924), a satire in which the gentiles of Vienna rid the city of Jews only to find themselves hopeless without them. In addition, the anthology includes, for historical and literary context, an antisemitic story, “The Operated Jew,” by Oskar Panizza, to which another story in the collection—Mynona’s “The Operated Goy”—is a direct reply; important historical essays on the Jewish Question by Theodor Herzl and Leo W. Schwarz; and brief biographies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691263779
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	12/02/2025
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jack Zipes is the author of Buried Treasures: The Power of Political Fairy Tales and The Irresistible Fairy Tale; translator of The Original Bambi and The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm; and editor of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (all Princeton). He is professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Jack Zipes has unearthed a treasure trove with this marvelous collection, which includes stories in dialogue with one another and tales that play on familiar tropes with clever and unexpected results. There are timeless folktales that remind readers of Jewish creativity, humor, and resilience, as well as a chillingly prescient—but ultimately optimistic—novella. I loved reading this book!”—Julia L. Mickenberg, author of Learning from the Left: Children’s Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics in the United States

“Jack Zipes is the master of understanding the storytelling about antisemitism. In this volume, he collects a broad range of tales from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that imagined Jews as victims and perpetrators, as visible and invisible. A necessary book for our times.”—Sander L. Gilman, author of The Jew’s Body

“The extraordinary stories in this collection not only recall the hardships and cruelties experienced by European Jews in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but also preserve their heroic responses to the persecutions they suffered. The writers of these stories use the creative weapons of irony and ridicule. Sometimes the stories are cloaked in surreal burlesque, sometimes they express barely suppressed indignation and anger, and sometimes they appear despairing of any humane and compassionate resolution to the problems of assimilation and rejection. But always these stories are imbued with hope.”—Mick Gowar, children’s book author