Vilna My Vilna

by Abraham Karpinowitz

  Trok: Now known as Trakai, the town, situated 28 kilometers west of Vilnius, is surrounded by lakes.

  tsadik: A righteous man. Also, the leader of a Hasidic group.

  Tshernikhov, Joseph (1882–1941): One of the organizers and leaders of the Freeland League (see above) in Poland during the interwar period, Tshernikhov was active in all aspects of the Vilna Jewish community, including serving as the chairman of the Vilna Jewish community. He also a well-respected lawyer in Vilna who specialized in political cases. According to Abramowicsz, “Thanks to his aggressive militancy, a number of Polish-Jewish communists were saved from police ‘justice’ and, in some instances, from the gallows.” Tshernikhov “frequently conversed audibly in Yiddish with his clients and others, something that was previously unheard of in court” (Abramowicz, Profiles of a Lost World, 285–87).

  tsimmes: A stew made from a variety of vegetables and legumes, usually combined with dried fruit and sometimes with meat.

  Tsuker, Regina (1899–1943): Born in Poland, Tsuker married the actor Karl Tsimbalist, joined his theatrical troupe, and played the starring role in performances in Warsaw and the provinces of Galicia. Yiddish actor and director Janos Turkow wrote of her, “Regina Tsuker was an enormously talented actress, possessing limitless charm and simplicity. . . . She was, however, not always capable of distinguishing between what was and was not appropriate . . . (Turkow, Farloshene shtern, 1:117). Her popularity stemmed not only from the joy her performances provided, but also from the constant attacks by the Yiddish press in Poland against low-brow, trashy theater. These attacks were often directed against Regina Tsuker personally. When Tsuker came to Vilna as a guest performer, the welcome she received from the local Yiddish press forced her to terminate her performance and leave Vilna. The city remained forever closed to her” (ibid., 116–21; Zilbertsvayg, Der leksikon fun yidishn teyater, 5: 3853–57).

  Tsunzer, Regina: The librarians at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal, whose skills at research go beyond the highly competent into the magical, have been unable to find any mention of Regina Tsunzer. Everything that Karpinowitz writes about Regina Tsunzer in “The Tree beside the Theater” coincides with what we know about Regina Tsuker (see above). Did this actress perhaps go by two different family names?

  TSYSHO: The aim of the Tsentrale Yidishe Shul Organizatsye (Central Yiddish School Organization) was to create a secular Yiddish school system in Poland that promoted socialist ideals.

  Velfke’s restaurant: “Volf Usian owned a restaurant on Daytshe Street . . . which served as the meeting place for the entire [Yiddish] literary and artistic world” (Turkow, Farloshene shtern, 1: 192). He regularly fed various actors on credit and loaned them money.

  Vilenke River: A tributary of the Viliye River (see below).

  Vilna Gaon (1720–1797): Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman Kremer, known as the Vilna Gaon, was an extraordinary Torah scholar, a prolific author, and one of the most influential Rabbinic authorities since the Middle Ages.

  Vilna Troupe: The Yiddish theater troupe, founded in Vilna in 1915, relocated to Warsaw in 1917. Known for ensemble work, the Vilna Troupe presented literary and artistic theater as opposed to lowbrow vaudeville productions. After 1927, members of the troupe split off into different theater companies, all calling themselves the Vilna Troupe. A small group of actors under the management of Mordechai Mazo (see above) returned to Warsaw where they recruited new members (Bulat, “Vilner trupe”; Sandrow, Vagabond Stars).

  “Vilna, Vilna, Our Native City” (Vilne, Vilne, undzer heymshtot): This song of longing for the city of Vilna was written by L. Wolfson for the Vilne zamelbukh, published in New York in 1935, and set to music by Alexander Olshanetsk. It begins,

  Vilne, Vilne, undzer heymshotot

  Undzer benkshaft un bager.

  Akh, vi oft es ruft dayn nomen

  Fun mayn oyg aroys a trer.

  Vilna, Vilna, our native city

  The source of our longing and our desire.

  Oh how often your name

  calls forth tears from my eyes.

  (Lipphardt, “Vilne Vilne undzer heymshtot”; Wolfson, “Vilne, Vilne, undzer heymshtot”)

  Vilna vokhnblat: Vilna Weekly.

  Vilner tog: The Vilna Day/Daily, a Yiddish newspaper that was published from 1920 to 1939. To deal with the problems resulting from censorship by the Polish authorities, the newspaper often changed its name, but always maintained the word tog/day (Yad Vashem, “The Interwar Period—Cultural Life”). As well as covering the news, the Vilner tog, which had an intellectual readership, published the work of local Yiddish writers and reviews of Yiddish theater.

  Viliye: A river running through Vilna. On contemporary maps, it is called the Neris.

  von Wahl, Victor (1840–1915): Sent to Vilna in 1901 as governor, in his first year, von Wahl ordered the Vilna police to severely beat and torture any workers who participated in May Day activities. He was also personally present for some of the beatings. “The entire Jewish population [of Vilna] was very disturbed about the punishment inflicted on the . . . demonstrators” (Abramowicz, Profiles of a Lost World, 140). “A shoemaker named Lekert [see above] fired two shots at the governor, wounding him slightly” (ibid., 141). Lekert was condemned to death by hanging. After Lekert was hanged, von Wahl received a decoration by “order of the tsar and later, a higher office” (ibid., 142).

  Weinreich, Dr. Max (1894–1969): A Yiddish linguist, literary scholar, and social and political activist, Weinreich was “the driving force” behind the Yidish visnshaftlekher institut (Yiddish Research Institute) or YIVO (see below) from 1925 until his death. Weinreich’s four-volume Geshikhte fun der yiddisher shprakh (History of the Yiddish Language), completed just before his death, remains the “benchmark” study of Yiddish linguistics (Glasser, “Weinreich, Max”).

  With Open Eyes: A drama in three acts written by Leyb Malach, a Yiddish poet, playwright, and cultural worker. Malach was born in Poland in 1894 and died in Paris in 1936 (Baker, “The Lawrence Marwick Collection of Copyrighted Yiddish Plays at the Library of Congress”).

  Yatkever Street: Yatke means “butcher” in Yiddish. The street was in the original Jewish quarter in Vilna (see Glezer Street).

  Yiddish: In the Yiddish language, the word yidish can mean “Yiddish,” referring to the language, or “Jewish,” referring to the religion or culture.

  Yiddish gelt: Jewish money.

  Yiddish Institute, Yiddish Scientific Institute, YIVO: The YIVO Institute was founded in 1925 and centered in Vilna, Poland, from 1929 until 1941, when the institute relocated to New York. YIVO “became the leading institution for scholarship in Yiddish and about the history and culture of East European Jews” (Kuznitz, “YIVO,” 2090). The work of the organization depended on volunteer zamlers (collectors), “ordinary men and women who gathered documents, data, and funds for YIVO in their local communities throughout Eastern Europe” (ibid., 2091). As well as preserving language, songs, and stories, YIVO also “recruited zamlers to record Yiddish terms from various professions and technical fields” (ibid., 2091; Kuznitz, “YIVO”; see Weinreich, Dr. Max above).

  YIVO Institute journal: YIVO published a number of periodicals, both popular and academic. When the narrator of the story “Chana-Merka the Fishwife” refers to “the Institute journal,” s/he is probably speaking about YIVO’s general academic journal YIVO-bleter/YIVO Pages, although s/he may be referring to YIVO’s short-lived popular linguistic journal Yidish far ale/Yiddish for Everyone (Glasser, “Weinreich, Max”).

  Yizkor service: A communal memorial service held in the synagogue four times a year, including on Yom Kippur, for all those who have lost loved ones.

  yortzayt: Literally means anniversary. On the anniversary of the death of a loved one, a memorial service is held. This service includes the lighting of a candle and the recitation of a memorial prayer.

  Yung-teyater (1932–1939): An avant-garde Yiddish theater company in Poland that believed in theater as an agent o
f progressive social change (Steinlauf, “Yung-teater”).

  zloty: A Polish coin. In the interwar years, one U.S. dollar was worth roughly five zloty (“Zloty,” Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkPath=pages/Z/L/Zloty.html, accessed September 9, 2015).

  Story List with Original Publication

  Karpinowitz, Abraham [Karpinovitsh, Avrom]. Baym Vilner durkhhoyf. Tel Aviv: I. — L. Peretz Publishing House, 1967.

  —“Der folklorist” (The Folklorist)

  —“Vladek”

  Karpinowitz, Abraham [Karpinovitsh, Avrom]. Auf Vilner gasn. Tel Aviv: Di goldene keyt, 1981.

  —“Di vunderlekh teyorie fun shuster prentsik” (The Amazing Theory of Prentsik the Shoemaker)

  —“Shibeles loterie-tsetl” (Shibele’s Lottery Ticket)

  —“Hashoves-aveyde” (Lost and Found)

  —“Der boym nebn teyater” (The Tree beside the Theater)

  —“Di royte fon” (The Red Flag)

  —“Vilne, Vilne, undzer heymshtot” (Vilna, Vilna, Our Native City)

  Karpinowitz, Abraham [Karpinovitsh, Avrom]. Vilna mayn Vilne. Tel Aviv: I. L. Peretz Publishing House, 1993.

  —“Vilna on Vilna” (Vilna without Vilna)

  —“Di groyse libe fun lerer gershteyn” (The Great Love of Mr. Gershteyn)

  —“Yidish gelt” (Jewish Money)

  —“Yikhes fun der Vilner untervelt” (The Lineage of the Vilna Underworld)

  —“Tamare di hoykhe” (Tall Tamara)

  —“Zikhroynes fun a farshnitener teyater heym” (Memories of a Decimated Theater Home)

  —“Khane-Merke fun di fish” (Chane-Merka the Fishwife)

  Bibliography

  The following sources were referenced in the translation of the stories and in the preparation of the forward, the introduction, and the notes. I have listed special topic Yiddish dictionaries but not the standard Yiddish dictionaries and thesauruses. A separate bibliography of sources used for the maps is to be found after the main bibliography.

  Abramowicz, Hirsz. “Pludermakher, Gershon.” In Lerer yizkor bukh, di umkegumene lerer fun TSYSHO in Poyln, ed. Y. Pat, Y. Rotenberg, B. Tabatshinski, and S. Gilinski. New York: Martin Press, 1952–54.

  ———. Profiles of a Lost World: Memoirs of East European Jewish Life before World War Two, ed. Dina Abramowicz and Jeffrey Shandler. Translated by Eva Zeitlin Dobkin. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999.

  Arad, Yitzhak. Ghetto in Flames: The Struggle and Destruction of the Jews in Vilna in the Holocaust. Jerusalem: Ahva Cooperative Printing Press, 1980.

  ———. Preface to Ponary Diary, July 1941–November 1943: A Bystander’s Account of Mass Murder by Kazimierz Sakowicz, xiii–xvi. Translated by Laurence Weinbaum. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.

  Augenfeld, Liba. Interview by Helen Mintz, Montreal, Que., December 2008.

  Baker, Zachary M. “The Lawrence Marwick Collection of Copyrighted Yiddish Plays at the Library of Congress: An Annotated Bibliography.” Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 2004.

  Barany, Zoltan B. The East European Gypsies: Regime Change, Marginality and Ethnopolitics. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

  Bart, Michael. “Life in the Vilna Ghetto.” http://www.untilourlastbreath.com/Bart4ghettofacts.html. Accessed August 22, 2011.

  Beer, Helen. “Karpinovich, Avrom.” In Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century, ed. Sorrel Kerbel, 510–13. Taylor and Francis, 2003.

  Bikl, Shloyme. “Avrom Karpinovitshes Vilner dertseylungen.” In Shrayber fun mayn dor, vol. 3. Tel Aviv: Farlag Y. L. Perets, 1970.

  Brancovskaja, Fanya. Interview by Helen Mintz, Vilna, Lithuania, August 25, 26, 27, 2010.

  Briedis, Laimonas. Interview by Helen Mintz, Vancouver, BC, July 15, 2008, November 30, 2011. Consultation on map, August 25, 2015.

  Britannica Reference Centre. “Alexander Dumas, fils.” http://library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/31425. Accessed August 11, 2010.

  ———. s.v. “Michurin, Ivan Vladimirovich.” http://library.eb.com/eb/article-9052487. Accessed August 11, 2010.

  Brown, Benjamin. “Danzig, Avraham ben Yeḥi’el Mikhl.” In YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.

  Bulat, Miroslawa M. Translated by Michael C. Steinlauf. “Vilner Trupe.” In YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.

  Cahan, Mendy. Interview by Helen Mintz, Montreal, Que., June 29, 2011.

  Cammy, Justin. “Tsevorfene bleter: The Emergence of Yung-Vilne.” In Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, ed. Antony Polonsky, vol. 14, 170–91. London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2001.

  ———. “The Politics of Home, the Culture of Place: Yung-Vilne, A Journal of Literature and Art (1934–1936).” In Judische kultur(en) im neuen europa: Wilna, 1918–1939, ed. Marina Dmitrieva and Heidemarie Petersen, 117–33. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004.

  Cohen, Israel. Vilna. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1943.

  Dawidowicz, Lucy S. From That Place and Time: A Memoir, 1938–1947. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.

  ———. From That Place and Time: A Memoir, 1938–1947. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2008.

  Etkes, Immanuel. “Eliyahu ben Shelomoh Zalman.” In YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.

  Gillerman, Sharon. “Strongman Siegmund Breitbart and Interpretations of the Jewish Body.” In Emancipation through Muscles, Jews and Sports in Europe, ed. Michael Reuveni and Gideon Brenner, 62–73. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006.

  Glasser, Paul. “Weinreich, Max.” In YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.

  Gliksman, Dr. Volf. “Kacyzne, Alter-Sholem.” In Der leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur, vol. 8 (8 vols.). New York: Marin Press, 1981.

  Goldberg, R. “Karpinovitsh, Avrom,” In Der leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur, vol. 8 (8 vols.). New York: Marin Press, 1981.

  Golomb, A. “A. Karpinovitshes Baym Vilner durkhoyf.” Di goldene keyt 60 (1967): 256–60.

  Gros-Tsimerman, M., A. Karpinovitsh, and A. Shpiglblat, eds. Almanakh fun di yidishe shrayber in Yisroel, 2nd oysgabe. Tel Aviv, Israel: Fareyn fun yidishe shrayber un zhurnalistn in Yisroel, 1967.

  Gutwirth, Jacques. Translated by Sophie Layton. The Rebirth of Hasidism, From 1945 to the Present. London: Free Association Books, 2005.

  Guy, Donna. “Argentina: Jewish White Slavery.” Jewish Women’s Archive. http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/argentina-jewish-white-slavery. Accessed March 1, 2012.

  Howe, Irving, Ruth R. Wisse, and Khone Shmeruk, eds. The Penguin Book of Modern Yiddish Verse. New York: Penguin Books, 1987.

  Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Warsaw Editor Jailed for Article on Hitler.” May 14, 1935. http://archive.jta.org/article/1935/05/15/2828928/warsaw-editor-jailed-for-article-on-hitler. Accessed August 16,2011.

  Joravsky, David. “Mitchurin, Ivan Vladimirovich.” Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/IG2-2830904917.html. Accessed December 12, 2012.

  Karpinowitz, Abraham [as Avrom Karpinovitsh]. Interview by Boris Sandler. Tel Aviv, Israel, 1995. Unpublished.

  ——— [as Avrom Karpinovitsh]. Interview by Gennady Estraikh, “Intervyu: Avrom Karpinovitsh.” Di pen/The Yiddish Pen 7 (February 1995): 33–36. Oxford, England: Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies.

  Karpinowitz-Gelbart, Anna, interview by Helen Mintz. Vancouver, BC, June 7, 2011.

  Kassow, Samuel. Vilna: Jerusalem of Lithuania; A Series of Three Lectures. National Yiddish Book Center’s 1996 Winter Seminar in Yiddish Culture. Ann Arbor, MI. Unpublished, 1996.

  Katcherginski, S., and K. Pupko. “Gershteyn, Yakov.” In Lerer yizkor-bukh, di umkegumene lerer fun TSYSHO in Poyln, ed. Y. Pat, Y. Rotenberg, B. Tabatshinski, and S. Gilinski. New York: Martin Press, 1952–54.

&
nbsp; Kharlash, Yitskhok. “Grodzenski, Aaron-Yitzkokh.” In Der leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur, vol. 2 (8 vols.). New York: Martin Press, 1958.

  Kopelman Foundation. Jewish Encyclopedia.com, the unedited full text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, “Excommunication.” http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5933-excommunication. Accessed August 1, 2012.

  Kruk, Herman. The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania, ed. Benjamin Harshav. Translated by Barbara Harshav. New York: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 2002.

  ———. “Library and Reading Room in the Vilna Ghetto, Strashun Street 6.” In The Holocaust and the Book: Destruction and Preservation, ed. Jonathan Rose, 171–76. Translated by Zachary Baker. Amherst, MA: Univ. Mass. Press, 2001.

  Kuznitz, Cecile Esther. “YIVO.” In YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.

  Lempertas, Izraelis. Musu Vilne/Our Vilne. Vilnius: Leidini Reme Publication, 2003.

  Levin, Dov. “Hirsh Lekert.” In YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.

  Lipphardt, Anne. “Vilne, Vilne undzer heymshtot . . . ’: Imagining Jewish Vilna in New York.” In Jüdische Kultur(en)in Neuen Europa, 1918–1939, ed. Marina Dmitrieva and Heidemarie Petersen. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 2004.

  Lis, Avraham. “Avrom Karpinovitsh—Vilner dertseylungen.” Tsukunft 5/6 (May–June 1983): 74–75.

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  Melamed, Leo. Email correspondence with Helen Mintz, May 2011.

  Mevorah, Baruch, Abraham J. Brawer, and Alexander Shapiro. “Napoleon Bonaparte.” Encyclopedia Judaica. Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 1972.

  Miller, Uri. “‘The Family Is Not Rich but They’ve Got Integrity,’ or, A Few Leaves from the Genealogical Tree.” www.the-ratner-family.com/Family_story_eng.htm. Accessed September 15, 2011.

  Miron, Dan. “Sholem Aleichem.” In YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.

  Monologn fun yidishe shraybers: Avrom Karpinovitch. DVD. Directed by Boris Sandler. 2012: New York: Produced by Forward Association.