Isaac Bashevis Singer: Writings on Yiddish and Yiddishkayt A Spiritual Reappraisal, 1946–1955

by Stromberg, David; Singer, Isaac Bashevis

• ISBN13: 9798989452484
• ISBN10: 8989452481
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-03-11
• Publisher: White Goat Press

Summary

Between 1946 and 1955 Isaac Bashevis Singer underwent a total transformation. During the post-Holocaust period Singer reappraised everything he knew, questioned all his assumptions, and rebuilt his artistic vision. This transformation would soon become evident in his literary fiction, but it was also laid out for readers in essays that appeared in the pages of the Yiddish daily Forverts. Sitting in New York, with the Cold War and McCarthyism gripping American hearts and minds, Singer dove deep into his cultural and spiritual heritage to turn the moral and social principles of the past into workable tools that could build a viable Jewish future. Some of the issues that Singer raises in this collection are not only prescient— they are more urgent in our day than they were in his. Throughout, Singer reminds us that the human spirit is our greatest treasure and that we are each personally responsible for its safekeeping.

Author Biography

David Stromberg is a writer, translator, and literary scholar. His work has appeared in Salmagundi, The American Scholar, and Woven Tale Press, among others. In his role as editor of the Isaac Bashevis Singer Literary Trust he has published Old Truths and New Cliché s (Princeton University Press), a collection of Singer’ s essays, and a new translation of the canonical story Simple Gimpl: The Definitive Bilingual Edition (Restless Books). Among Stromberg’ s recent writing is a series of speculative essays, including “ A Short Inquiry into the End of the World” (The Massachusetts Review), “ The Eternal Hope of the Wandering Jew” (The Hedgehog Review), and “ To Kill an Intellectual” (The Fortnightly Review). He is based in Jerusalem.