Chidusz” 1/2021: „Perły” Izraela Singera i list do Philipa Rotha

REDAKCJA

NIETŁUMACZONE DOTĄD NA JĘZYK POLSKI OPOWIADANIE PERŁY IZRAELA J. SINGERA I ODWAŻNY LIST ELISY ALBERT DO PHILIPA ROTHA, W KTÓRYM AUTORKA BŁAGA ZNANEGO PISARZA O ZROBIENIE JEJ DZIECKA. W TYM NUMERZE SPORO DOBREJ LITERATURY.

ETTA, BESSIE, DORA ALBO ROSE

Ten numer „Chiduszu” otwiera opowiadanie Etta, Bessie, Dora albo Rose w tłumaczeniu Jolanty Różyło. Pochodzi ono z cieszącego się uznaniem, debiutanckiego zbioru Elisy Albert How this Night is Different (2006). Bohaterka – alter ego autorki – czując, że w jednym momencie posypało się jej całe życie, desperacko szuka sposobu na przywrócenie mu sensu. Pisze odważny, lekko fanatyczny, ale i bardzo zabawny list do Philipa Rotha (kiedyś znienawidzonego mizogina, teraz ukochanego geniusza), proponując, żeby… zrobił jej dziecko: 

„Roth”, spluwałam z pogardą za każdym razem, kiedy wypływał temat Twoich książek. „Ble”. Ble, bo obsesja na punkcie sziksy, dysfunkcje seksualne, swobodne odrzucenie żydowskich kobiet i kpiny ze wszystkiego, co ma w judaizmie religijną i duchową wartość, przenosiło mnie z powrotem do Ramah: do bycia ignorowaną i przeoczaną, do bycia dziwaczką za sprawą mojej estetyki, mojej wrażliwości, mojego pragnienia więzi, przyjaźni i miłości; do cotygodniowego nadejścia świętego szabatu jako okazji dla nas, dziewcząt, aby ładnie wyglądać i zgromadzić erotyczne Shabbat-O-Gramy od mocno nażelowanych i wyperfumowanych chłopców; do wieloletniej udręki nieodwzajemnionego zadurzenia w lizusowatym studencie szkoły rabinackiej, którego ujmujące uśmieszki, jakimi mnie zbywał, brałam za sygnały wypaczonego pożądania. Ble, bo u Rotha byli Justin Steinberg, Eric Landsman i Ron Frank, te zjeby z United Synagogue Youth z wisiorkami w kształcie konopi, zośkami, biletami na koncerty Phish i awersją do owłosienia, manifestującą się w uniwersalnej fetyszyzacji Azjatek. Ja się nie liczyłam. Byłam bezradna. Byłam niewidoczna. Musiałam Cię nienawidzić.

PERŁY

W związku z premierą pierwszego polskiego tłumaczenia Pereł, zbioru Izraela Joszuy Singera z 1922 roku, w tym „Chiduszu” publikujemy pierwszą część tytułowego opowiadania, które powstało w Kijowie w 1919 roku. Opowieść o chorym na gruźlicę, uciekającym przed nieuchronną śmiercią jubilerze, według Abrahama Cahana, redaktora amerykańskiego „Forwertsa”, miała wiele cech świadczących o niezwykłej potędze wyobraźni młodego artysty – jego „największego odkrycia” wśród wschodnioeuropejskich pisarzy jidysz. Redaktor zachwalał „literacką potęgę” Singera, „niemożliwy do wyuczenia” talent do opisów, wnikliwość i doskonałe oddanie każdego środowiska, jakie pojawiało się w jego opowiadaniach. 

Po blisku stu latach, dzięki uprzejmości wydawnictwa Fame Art, w tym i kolejnym „Chiduszu” publikujemy Perły, a w trzecim tegorocznym numerze – opowiadanie zatytułowane Magda (oba w tłumaczeniu Krzysztofa Modelskiego). 

Wygraj Perły w naszym konkursie

WIELKA WIZJA, MAŁE ŻYCIE

„Większość tych, którzy teraz tworzą podwaliny mitu »żydokomuny«, jak na ironię robili wszystko, co mogli, żeby zostać nie-Żydami. Komunizm był dla nich ucieczką od żydostwa – albo w morze polskości, albo w stronę jakiegoś przyszłego społeczeństwa anarodowego, w którym nie będzie się ani Żydem, ani Grekiem, a człowiekiem”, mówi Jaff Schatz w rozmowie z Katarzyną Andersz. 

Pod koniec ubiegłego roku, prawie trzydzieści lat po wydaniu angielskim, nakładem wydawnictwa Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego ukazała się książka Schatza Pokolenie. Wzlot i upadek polskich Żydów komunistów. „Żydokomuna”? Nadreprezentacja komunistów żydowskiego pochodzenia? Z tymi mitami konfrontuje się autor, twierdząc, że jego celem nie jest udowodnienie fałszywości stereotypu, a odmalowanie drogi życiowej wyjątkowego, urodzonego przed wojną pokolenia, które Zagładę przeżyło w ZSRR, potem budowało nową powojenną Polskę, a w następstwie Marca ’68 zostało z niej wygnane.

DLA MEZUZ REZERWUJĘ PORANKI

„W Europie tylko ortodoksyjni Żydzi produkują koszerne pergaminy. Nie chcą mi ich sprzedawać. Dlaczego? Bo jestem kobietą. Mój dostawca na Brooklynie też jest ortodoksyjnym Żydem, ale na szczęście z kobietami handluje bez żadnego problemu”. O pisaniu świętych tekstów przez kobiety w rozmowie z Anną Pamułą opowiada Ermeline Rachel Vicaire, jedna z pierwszych europejskich soferot. 

POTRZEBA MĄDROŚCI

W queerowym komentarzu do parszy Jitro rabin Menachem Creditor rozważa różne ścieżki poszukiwania mądrości i prawdy. „Czy można znaleźć świętość, rozważając idee i prawdy spoza naszej tradycji, czy może jedyna droga do Boga wybrukowana jest światłem Tory?” – pyta. Za przykład służy mu stosunek Mojżesza do jego teścia, Midianity Jitra:

Jawna krytyka ze strony Jitra i łatwość, z jaką Mojżesz przyjmuje radę, o którą nie prosił, to model otwartej komunikacji. Najważniejsza lekcja płynąca z tej rozmowy stanie się jednak oczywista dopiero wtedy, gdy przypomnimy sobie, że Jitro nie był Izraelitą. Jego córka Cypora poślubiła Mojżesza i odegrała kluczową rolę w narodzinach narodu żydowskiego, ale sam Jitro był midianickim kapłanem, kimś zupełnie spoza hebrajskiej kultury, prawdziwym outsiderem. To jednak właśnie jego zewnętrzna perspektywa i mądrość ratują sytuację, inspirując Mojżesza do stworzenia systemu sądownictwa, który stanie się znakiem rozpoznawczym żydowskich koncepcji sprawiedliwości i wspólnotowości.

DER SZWARCER JUNGERMANCZIK

Czarny młodzieniaszek – w jidysz: Der szwarcer jungermanczik – to tytuł powieści Jankewa Dinezona („najsłynniejszego zapomnianego pisarza”), którą od 2019 roku publikujemy w odcinkach w tłumaczeniu Magdaleny Wójcik. W kolejnym rozdziale, zatytułowanym Litość wilka, Roza wyrzuca Mosze Szneurowi:

– Wiem o wszystkim. Nie musicie niczego przede mną ukrywać. (…) Moszeńku, zlituj się! Nie nade mną, lecz nad nim, nad Józefem! Ze mną zrób, co zechcesz, głowę mi obetnij, lecz jego nie krzywdź! Jest niewinny! Nie chciał się przyznać, że mnie kocha, ja to wymusiłam! Mścij się na mnie za bycie dzieckiem Fridmanów, to przecież przez mój posag twój dobytek się skurczy! Cóż on ci zrobił? Dlaczego ja jestem wolna, a on siedzi za kratami? Mosze, Mosze! On jest niewinny! To ja jestem zbrodniarką, na mnie się mścij!

Co na to Mosze?  

BIORÓŻNORODNOŚĆ JAKO WYRAZ BOŻEJ CHWAŁY

Rabin Shaul David Judelman pisze o tym, jak ogromne znaczenie w judaizmie ma biologiczna różnorodność i co możemy zrobić, aby ją chronić: 

Bioróżnorodność może być dla nas źródłem mądrości i inspiracji. Uwagi mędrców, którzy doceniają misterność przyrody, rozsiane są po całej Torze. Psalm uczy na przykład o siedliskach zwierząt i doskonałości, z jaką wpisują się one w naturalny porządek świata: „Na których ptaki gnieżdżą się, bocian, którego cyprysy domem. Góry wysokie dla kozic, skały schronieniem dla królików” (104:17-18). W Sentencjach Ojców mowa jest natomiast o tym, czego możemy nauczyć się od innych gatunków: „Jehuda, syn Tejmy, powiadał: Bądź silny jak tygrys, lekki jak orzeł, szybki jak jeleń i śmiały jak lew, żeby spełnić wolę twego Ojca w niebie (5:20, tłum. Michał Friedman).

„TEGOŻ DNIA DASZ MU ZAPŁATĘ JEGO”

Czy wiecie, że w Gemarze rabini pozwalają, aby władze miasta zajęły mienie kogoś, kto wstrzymuje pensje oraz nie płaci podatków na równi z innymi?

O prawach pracownika i pracodawcy, które znajdują się w Torze, pisze Joanna Maria Machel. 

Despite the surge of antisemitism, America is worth fighting for

Jonathan S. Tobin

“Declaration of Independence,” showing the Committee of Five presenting its draft for approval by Second Continental Congress on June 28, 1776. Oil on canvas painting by John Trumbull, 1819. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The victory of a virulent Israel-hater in New York City’s Democratic Party mayoral primary this past week was the last straw for some people.

The prospect of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani becoming the next mayor of the most Jewish city in the United States is not merely appalling. That a man with a record of support for the antisemitic BDS movement—and who even under the pressure of an election campaign cannot bring himself to condemn the genocidal “Globalize the intifada” chants of pro-Hamas mobs—is now the darling of liberal elites is enough to cause some Jews to question whether they can or should leave the Big Apple.

As Americans make preparations to celebrate the 249th anniversary of their independence, this isn’t the time to abandon ship or give up on the United States. The promise of American exceptionalism of a nation built on the devotion of its citizens to the idea of personal liberty and equal opportunity unmatched elsewhere and untainted by the prejudices and hatreds of Europe may be under siege right now, but it is not dead.

Yet there is no denying the crisis that now faces the Jewish community.

An undeniable crisis

Mamdani, 33, a charismatic populist who tapped into the economic distress that many New Yorkers feel as well as the support for fashionable, toxic leftist ideas that are fueling antisemitism, isn’t likely to be rounding up Jews if he takes office in 2026. Still, his support for those who cheer for Jewish genocide, coupled with his record of anti-Jewish and hard-left radicalism, understandably sends a chill down the backs of the overwhelming majority of Jews who rightly see his popularity as an ominous development that cannot be ignored.

The talk about leaving New York or the United States is not the usual nonsense often heard from partisans on both ends of the political spectrum when they threaten to flee to Canada or elsewhere if a candidate that they oppose wins the presidency. Few who make such statements ever follow up them. Such pronouncements are partisan hyperbole rooted in the demonization of opponents, and in almost all cases, not something rooted in any real fear about the personal consequences of having voted for the losing side.

Coming as it did after the surge of antisemitism that has swept across the globe since the Hamas-led Palestinian attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Mamdani’s triumph is feeding into a genuine sense of peril that a portion of American Jews feel.

It doesn’t take much in the way of antisemitism or Jewish tragedies to lead some in the community to begin singing dirges for the end of American Jewish life. Yet after 21 months of witnessing mobs in the streets of U.S. cities and on college campuses chanting for the destruction of the Jewish state (“From the river to the sea”) and terrorism against Jews around the world (“Globalize the intifada”), people are nervous. And more recently, three violent attacks from “Free Palestine” supporters against American Jewish targets in as many months, putting that despicable notion into effect, have brought into focus the idea that something terrible is happening in the United States.

The discussion about antisemitism isn’t catastrophizing. Who can blame people for feeling that the sense of security and acceptance they took for granted in the freest, most prosperous and most politically influential Diaspora community in history is rapidly evaporating? The places where Jews felt most at home, such as academic institutions like Columbia and Barnard, CUNY and New York University in Manhattan, are no longer safe spaces.

Elites embrace antisemitism

That so many of our credentialed elites, including a minority of left-wing Jews, are indifferent to Jewish suffering and victimization on Oct. 7, as well as the war being waged on Israel by Iran and its terrorist allies, would be troubling in and of itself. But the fact that these same people are using their bully pulpits at places at The New York Times to gaslight Jews by trying not merely to demonize Israel and its defenders, but to redefine antisemitism to allow those engaging in Jew-hatred or their enablers like Mamdani to evade being labeled as such, is even more alarming.

While the dilemma faced by Jews seems overwhelming, it’s important to place it in the context of a broader struggle that has been going on in the last decade. A new secular, left-wing faith rooted in toxic theories about the illegitimacy of the American republic and the canon of Western civilization arose in the last half-century. It was only in recent years, however, that this long march of progressives reached its goal of dominating education, the arts community and popular culture.

The turning point was the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020, when, after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a moral panic took hold of the nation, causing many Americans to buy into more than just the myth of police hunting down African-Americans. The toxic concepts of critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism that were behind the “mostly peaceful” riots that took place, but also took over many institutions. They were at war with traditional American values that prioritized liberty. The woke attempt to radicalize society was terrible for race relations; one of the aspects of this belief system was the notion that Jews and Israel were “white” oppressors who deserved to be suppressed and forced to apologize for their success and even existence. These subversive concepts were aimed at transforming America and served to legitimize Jew-hatred among the chattering classes in a way that was unprecedented in this country. That they are echoed by a loud, though relatively small, “woke right” faction led by people like former Fox News host Tucker Carlson only adds to the gloom that Jews are feeling.

American history is replete with failures and open breaches of the principles of the founders, of which the most prominent was the decision to tolerate slavery until a civil war that cost the lives of 750,000 Americans ended it. The ideals of the Declaration of Independence were often honored in their breach, but they remained the aspirational touchstone of the long arc of progress through which liberty eventually expanded to the point where its words have been given full expression. 

But if we are to remain locked in the ideological dead-end of woke ideology, not only will that progress unravel amid racial and ethnic quotas mandated by “equity” that ends the hope of equality and a colorblind society. We will then find ourselves living in a nation where Jews are forced to see this as not an exceptional nation, but just one more failed attempt at building a home in the Diaspora.

As important as it is to face the facts about this dire situation, it’s equally important to think rationally and soberly about it. As bad as things are, the situation that American Jews now face is not the same as that of the Jews of Germany in 1932 or any other Holocaust or annihilation analogy. They are not weak. They have considerable economic and political influence.

Jews are not alone

More importantly, they are not alone. The vast majority of Americans are not only philosemitic and emphatically pro-Israel, even after the deluge of anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda being foisted on them by a leftist-dominated press. Many people in this country recognize the problem and are beginning to address it by pushing to roll back the woke tide.

Mamdani, along with his fellow leftists and Israel-haters among the progressive “Squad” in the U.S. House of Representatives, may have gained ground, may have gained ground, but their power is, as of yet, minimal. They might be on the cusp of a takeover of a Democratic Party that is shifting to the left, as well as against Israel, and are—their professions of concern for Jews notwithstanding—opting out of the fight against antisemitism.

That said, they are not in control of the country and are highly unlikely ever to do so.

President Donald Trump’s campaign to punish the universities that have tolerated and even encouraged antisemitism since Oct. 7 is evidence that Jews have powerful allies, even if some in the Jewish community are so immersed in the hyper-partisan spirit of the times that they refuse to recognize it. Indeed, in much of the country outside of the deep blue coastal enclaves where most Jews continue to live, the reaction to the uptick of hated and rise of radicals like Mamdani is the sort of disgust and outrage that should reassure the Jewish community that talk of giving up on America is as wrongheaded as it is counterproductive.

If nothing else, the U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities that posed an existential threat of another Holocaust are evidence that America is not a lost cause.

So, as much as it may seem tempting or even rational to talk of abandoning America, that would be a terrible mistake. Though Israel and Zionism still represent the Jewish future in a way that America cannot, Jews cannot give up on this country and certainly shouldn’t even think of doing so without a fight.

We must do so not merely out of a desire to defend our lives here but because a strong America that has not abandoned the best of Western civilization and values is essential to the worldwide struggle against the forces of tyranny—both Marxist and Islamist—that threaten Israel and Jews everywhere.

If Jewish life is unsafe in America, then it will be unsafe everywhere. That’s why it is essential that, rather than giving up or giving in to hysterical talk about the end of liberty and even the end of Jewry in the States, we must recommit to the fight to roll back the woke tide and defeat it.

This may be a generational struggle in much the same way that leftist efforts to impose these false beliefs on America were. Yet it is a battle that is necessary not just to save American Jewry, but to save the canon of Western civilization on which our freedoms rest.

The quintessential American response

A year from now, this nation will attempt to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its independence, and the battle over how to commemorate it has already begun. The contempt for traditional patriotism and belief in the truth that the American republic, flawed though it might be, is a force for good in the world has already been made clear by left-wing elites. As discouraging as this discourse may be, it is a reminder that the stigmatizing and targeting of Jews is part and parcel of the same struggle other citizens are engaging in. The American republic is and has always been exceptional. But it will only remain that way so long as a broad cross-section of Americans—Jews and non-Jews, liberals and conservatives, Democrats as well as Republicans—are willing to stand up against the woke forces seeking to traduce its founding values.

The appropriate answer to attacks on Jews is not flight or a call to shelter in place. The appropriate response is for Jews to speak up and not abandon the streets to antisemites and woke mobs. The rejoinder to anti-Jewish violence is for Jews to act in the most quintessential American way possible: to arm themselves (verbally, legally and literally) and make it clear that they will not be intimidated or silenced.

Those who hate the founding principles of the United States are wrong about the end of American greatness or the need to transform it into some pale reflection of Marxist or Islamist concepts. And so, on this Independence Day, rather than writing off America, we should be embracing it all the more enthusiastically—and pledging to defend it against those who wish to tear it down.

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor-in-chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, a senior contributor for The Federalist, a columnist for Newsweek and a contributor to many other publications. He covers the American political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS “Think Twice” podcast, both the weekly video program and the “Jonathan Tobin Daily” program, which are available on all major audio platforms and YouTube. Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. He has won more than 60 awards for commentary, art criticism and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history at Columbia University.

New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’

Corey Walker

Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

In a warning sign for the campaign of Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, a majority of city voters in a new poll say the candidate’s hardline anti-Israel stance makes them less likely to vote for him.

In the survey of likely city voters conducted by American Pulse, 52.5 percent said Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” coupled with his backing of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement made them less likely to vote for him in November. Just 31% of city voters polled were more likely to support him because of these positions.

At the same time, a significant share of young New York City voters support Mamdani’s anti-Israel positioning, a striking sign of shifting generational views on Israel and the Palestinian cause.

Nearly half  of voters aged 18 to 44 (46 percent) said the State Assembly member’s backing for BDS and “refusal to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’” made them more likely to support him.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, has been under fire for defending “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many Jewish groups associate with incitement to violence against Israel and Jews. While critics argue it glorifies terrorism, supporters claim it’s a call for international solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially Palestinians. Mamdani has also voiced support for BDS, a movement widely condemned by mainstream Jewish organizations as antisemitic for singling out Israel.

The generational divide exposed by the poll comes amid a broader political realignment. Younger progressives across the country are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, especially in the wake of the Gaza war, and more receptive to Palestinian activism. But to many Jewish leaders, Mamdani’s rising support is alarming.

Rabbi David Wolpe, visiting scholar at Harvard University, condemned the phrase with a sarcastic analogy.

“‘Globalize the intifada’ is just a political slogan,” he said. “Like ‘The cockroaches must be exterminated’ was just a housing authority slogan in Rwanda.”

Jewish organizations have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York and across the U.S. since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last fall. The blending of anti-Zionist slogans with calls for “intifada,” historically linked to violent uprisings, has deepened fears among Jewish communities that traditional red lines are being crossed.

Whether this emerging coalition reshapes New York politics remains to be seen. However, the poll indicates that among younger voters, views that were once considered fringe are quickly moving into the mainstream.