#Esther Singer Kreitman

[whosafraidofvirginiawoolf]

When they presented Deborah with a long, golden chain and hung it around her neck, she shivered at the touch of the cold metal and the thought that the most vicious of dogs might safely be tied up with a chain such as this.

— The Dance of the Demons (Der Sheydim Tants) by Esther Singer Kreitman, translated from the Yiddish by Mauric Carr

[thehappyscavenger]

Books Read June 2024

Direct Sunlight by Christine Sneed

I fell in love with Sneed's writing after reading The Virginity of Famous Men earlier this year. This is another strong collection with her trademark subtle shifting glances into people's delicate lives and emotional states. Excellent work.

Cocktail by Lisa Alward

This was the final of the 2024 Danuta Gleed nominees I had to read. The funny thing is this is a lot like Sneed's work; literary fiction about relationships, but this didn't resonate. Probably found it the least engaging of the nominees but what do I know? It won the Danuta Gleed.

The Doll's Alphabet by Camilla Grudova.

Also a Danuta Gleed nominee but from a previous year. I saw this mentioned in a Twitter thread about best short story collections. Lived up to the hype. Eerie speculative fiction.

The Dance of the Demons by Esther Singer Kreitman

I heard someone mention Kreitman in the context of being Isaac Bashevis Singer's neglected and forgotten older literary sister. Was she an undiscovered amazing author buried by the patriarchy? Well, not in English she wasn't. I found the novel quite sad and a bit of a slog. An interesting read in the way it captures a way of European Jewry about to be completely obliterated but not a great read on its own. The edition I read included essays and notes on the translation which were very interesting though.

Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness by Danila Botha

I wanted to like this so much. I found it incredibly mid. Also not the author's fault but there was an insane amount of typos in my copy, like 20+ which I've never had in a book before.

Bear by Julia Phillips

Went in and out of like with this one but I thought it stuck the landing incredibly well.

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Quick and heartbreaking look at a sex bot who gains sentience. I thought this was incredibly heartbreaking and wonderful.

[dzismis]

Dziewczyna z Krochmalnej, która nie została Jentł

Przyslala Katharina Dr.Gasinska-Lepsien Esther Singer Kreitman, (Jewish Womens Archive.) Całe rodzeństwo z Biłgoraja: Ester, Izrael i Izaak, niczym siostry Brontë, pisało (Z wyjątkiem najmłodszego Mojsze, który pozostał w tradycji i poszedł w ślady ojca). Swoje historie kreślili w  “mame loszn”, tj. w języku matki, czyli w jidysz. Pierwsza po pióro sięgnęła Kreitman, jednak to jej bracia…

[globalhappenings]

The Singer family told in pictures

The Singer family told in pictures

(ANSA) – ROME, NOV 09 – Hazel Karr, grandson of three great Yiddish novelists, the brothers Isaac Bashevis, Nobel Prize for Literature, Israel Joshua, author of ‘The Ashkenazi brothers’, and Esther Kreitman, author of ‘Deborah’ , tells us through his paintings the story of an extraordinary family of writers in an exhibition that opens on November 17 at the Center d’Art et Culture Juive in Paris,…

[moritmblrdlastudiow]

Israel Joshua Singer (left), Melech Ravitch (right), Ravitch’s wife, and their two children, Yosl and Ruth, ca. 1925. (YIVO)

Singer, Israel Joshua

(1893–1944), Yiddish fiction writer. Born in Biłgoraj, Lublinprovince, Israel Joshua Singer was the second child in a family of Yiddish writers that included his elder sister, Esther Singer Kreitman, and his younger brother, Isaac Bashevis Singer. Singer spent much of his childhood in another small town, Leoncin, Warsaw province.

Singer received a traditional Jewish education and was influenced by the opposing strains of Jewish thought represented by his Misnagdic mother and his Hasidic father. When he was 14, the family moved to the Hasidic court at Radzimin and then to Warsaw, where Singer worked as an unskilled laborer and proofreader. He studied painting and hid in an artists’ atelier to avoid the military. By 1918, when he traveled to Kiev and Moscow, he had already begun publishing his earliest stories.

In Moscow, he was influenced by Dovid Bergelson. But, dissatisfied with his reception among Soviet Yiddish writers and unhappy with their politics, Singer returned to Warsaw in late 1921. Singer associated with the small, fluid group of writers called Di Khalyastre (The Gang), who opposed both social realism and romanticized depictions of Jewish life and who announced a new, though brief, expressionist episode in Yiddish literature. Their journal, Khalyastre, included illustrations by Marc Chagall and poems, stories, and essays by Perets Markish, Melech Ravitch, Uri Tsevi Grinberg, Yoysef Opatoshu, Oyzer Varshavski, Dovid Hofshteyn, and Singer.

When Singer published his most ambitious work to date, a short story titled “Perl” (Pearls) in Ringen(1921), he attracted the attention of Abraham Cahan, the powerful editor of the New York Yiddish daily, the Forverts. Singer served as a correspondent for the newspaper, reporting on his travels to Galicia in 1924, throughout Poland in 1926, and then once again to the Soviet Union in the same year; in 1931 he met Cahan in Berlin and then visited the United States for several months in 1932, before finally settling there in 1934. His travelogue, Nay Rusland (New Russia; 1928), as well as his subsequent work, appeared first in the Forverts. He wrote fiction under his own name and journalistic essays primarily under the pseudonym G. Kuper, his wife’s maiden name. He and his wife had two sons, one of whom died just before the family’s emigration from Poland.

Singer’s first novel, Shtol un Ayzn (1927; in English translation, Blood Harvest; 1935; and Steel and Iron; 1969) generated considerable controversy about the place of politics in fiction. Accused of not understanding politics and convinced that his critics were merely Communist or socialist party hacks, Singer publicly renounced Yiddish literature, turning to journalism instead. But just four years later, he published his second and most successful novel, Yoshe Kalb (1932; in English translation, The Sinner; 1933; and Yoshe Kalb; 1965). He published three more novels after his arrival in the United States: Di brider Ashkenazi (1936; in English translation, The Brothers Ashkenazi;1936 and 1980); Khaver Nakhmen (1938; published in English as East of Eden; 1939); Di mishpokhe Karnovski (1943; in English translation, The Family Carnovsky; 1969).

Adapted for the stage, Yoshe Kalb was performed in New York in 1932 and became one of the most critically acclaimed and financially successful plays ever produced in the Yiddish theater. Less successful adaptations of his other novels followed: Di brider Ashkenazi in 1938, Khaver Nakhmen in 1939, and Di mishpokhe Karnovski in 1943. In addition, a collection of stories, Friling (Spring; 1937) appeared in Warsaw and two posthumous works were issued in New York: his autobiographical memoir, Fun a velt vos iz nishto mer (1946; in English translation, Of a World that Is No More; 1970), and Dertseylungen (Stories; 1949).

His epic novel, Di brider Ashkenazi, traces the history of twin brothers and the industrial city of Łódź. Written in the first years of Nazi rule, it ends with World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the establishment of an independent Poland. But for the Jews in this novel, these events have less resonance than the end that is depicted in the infamous 1918 pogrom in Lwów. The fates of the religious and the Marxist, the assimilated and the traditional Jew are identical.

By the time Singer wrote Di mishpokhe Karnovski, he was explicitly coming to terms with the early years of what was already being called in Yiddish the khurbn (the Holocaust). The novel traces three generations through half a century, following a family from a Polish shtetl to Berlin to New York, and ending almost at the moment of publication. At the end of the novel, Singer leaves his characters’ fates uncertain, a sign of the difficulty of conceiving of a coherent conclusion to the conflicts of the novel and current history. Singer’s energies were no doubt placed elsewhere. His correspondence during the period is full of increasing concern about his family’s fate under the Nazis. (He could not maintain contact with his mother and youngest brother, Mosheh, caught in the war’s upheaval. Neither survived the war, and Singer died still uncertain of their fates.)

[mashkaroom]

This documentary was SO good by the way. Exactly what I was looking for, which is a rare gift. The translators and family members they interview are all really charismatic story-tellers, and the editing is quite good, so it makes for a really compelling narrative. Fascinating insight into the translation process and how the translators themselves felt about it and how they perceived him. They even discuss Yentl! The translators of Yentl are both long dead, by they interview Leah Napolin, who wrote the play, and Esther Kreitman’s (singer’s sister) granddaughter, who speculates that the character of Yentl was in large part based on Esther, which is not an uncommon view. She says she didn’t like the movie because “I couldn’t believe in Barbra Streisand as my grandmother”. Also, I don’t think any one interviewee said this complete thought, but the way they edit it together suggests a FASCINATING interpretation of the ending of yentl. I, and many others, tend to interpret the ending as a sort of default queer ending, an inability to imagine a happy ending for a queer character. What the documentary suggests, though, is that it’s actually the same pattern as many of his other stories, in which the man gets into a mess and then leaves rather than face up to it, which mirrors his own life -- he left his wife and son for America and never sent for them despite promising to do so (he even married another woman without formally divorcing his first wife). I’ve of course heard the theory about Yentl as an Esther stand-in. But Yentl as a self-insert?? That’s SO interesting and it makes SO much sense. Anshel gets this woman totally infatuated with and dependent on him, despite knowing from the very beginning that he can never give her what she truly wants and that what he’s doing is wrong, and, eventually, abandons her. Of course this is pure speculation, but putting it that way -- it does feel a bit like Singer’s own behavior. Near the end of the documentary, they show an interview where he’s asked if he thinks he been a good Jew. He says “I haven’t been a good man. I’ve done many wrong thing in my life. I still do them. I’ve broken many laws which I studied in the Bible or in the Talmud. I would like to be a good man and a good Jew. But how do you do it?” Of course, this is pure speculation, as is any theory as to what it was that inspired Bashevis to write Yentl (though there’s evidence for many different versions and likely the truth is spread in some way between them) -- but once the connection’s been pointed out, it’s hard not to see it!

Anyway, I highly recommend the documentary if you’re interested in Singer’s work or Yiddish and translation more broadly, and wouldn’t you know, just after I returned the dvd to the library, it happened to pop up on archive.org ;)

https://archive.org/details/the-muses-of-bashevis-singer

ALSO i was looking for sources on singer's translation process and relationship with his translators, and there's a documentary called Muses of Bashevis Singer, which is EXACTLY on that topic, and there's like 15 dvds of it in public libraries in the country, and it SO HAPPENS that one of those DVDs is in my nearest library literally god bless

[newyorktheater]

Bob Dylan, whose songs are featured in “Girl From The North Country”

Playwright Taylor Mac brings “The Fre” to the Flea

Greg Kotis, Tony winner for “Urinetown,” is bringing a new show Off-Off Broadway

Patti LuPone in a gender-reversed Company, coming to Broadway

the late Michael Friedman

Martyna Majok, a playwright of the displaced in such plays as Ironbound and queens, is author of the long-awaited “Sanctuary City” slated for New York Theatre Workshop

Hilary Bettis, who was a writer for the FX series “The Americans,” brings a play about a recently deported mother Off-Broadway

Lynn Nottage, who has turned her play “Intimate Apparel” into an opera

Below is a selection of the abundant New York theater openings in March, organized chronologically by opening date*. Seven shows are opening on Broadway, a jarring mix of royalty and penury, a reflection perhaps of the divide in the world at large. Three are plays, three are musicals; a seventh is sort of both, featuring Bob Dylan’s old songs in a new drama by Conor McPherson. For the times they are a-changin’

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There are also exciting shows Off-Off Broadway — including new works by Greg Kotis and Taylor Mac, whose play is said to focus specifically on the cultural divide. Off Broadway, a musical by the late Michael Friedman makes its debut, along with new work by Katori Hall, Martyna Majok, Duncan Macmillan, Hilary Bettis.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, there’s the third annual On Women theater festival in Brooklyn.

And then there’s the celebration of the ban on plastic bags in New York State (which has gone into effect this month) with “The Plastic Bag Store,” free in Times Square — half art installation, half immersive theater…and one of several boundary-crossing shows with cutting-edge puppetry on stage in this busy month of March.*

Each title below is linked to a relevant website. Color key: Broadway: Red. Off Broadway: Black or Blue.. Off Off Broadway: Green. Theater festival: Orange. Immersive: Magenta. Puppetry-Brown

For those shows that don’t have official openings, I list by first performance.

March 1

The Hot Wing King (Signature)

A comedy by Katori Hall (“Our Lady of Kibeho,” “The Mountaintop”) that  centers around the annual “Hot Wang Festival” in Memphis, TN.

March 3

The Perplexed (MTC’s City Center Stage 1)

Richard Greenberg, whose “Take Me Out” is being revived on Broadway this season, tells the story of two families, whose lives have been tumultuously intertwined for decades, as they gather in the massive library of a Fifth Avenue apartment to celebrate the nuptials of their children. Nothing goes smoothly

Coal Country (Public)

A new play with music by the wife-and-husband team Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen (The Exonerated) is based on first-person accounts of the explosion of the Upper Big Branch mine in 2019.

March 4

On Women Festival (Irondale Center)

The third annual three-week theater festival begins with “To Moscow! A Palimpsest” by Ada Luana and Gabriel F. (Brazil.) It continues with “Night Shadows—Or, One Hundred Million Voices Shouting” by Lynda Crawford, and two workshop presentations, “England’s Splendid Daughters” by Ann Kreitman and “The Fainting Room” by Becca Bernard.

March 5

Girl From the North Country (Belasco)

Written and directed by Conor McPherson, using songs that Bob Dylan wrote between 1963 and 2012, this play with music is set in 1934 at a guesthouse in Duluth, Minnesota (Dylan’s birthplace.) A group of travelers pass in and out of each other’s lives, and share stories that awaken each other with passion, fury and, beauty. This originated at the Public Theater. My review Off-Broadway.

  I Am Nobody (The Tank) 

An unhinged computer chip engineer threatens to destroy the world. What’s most noteworthy about this production is that it’s written by Greg Kotis, the Tony-winning author of arguably the most successful Off-Off Broadway show ever, “Urinetown.”

Kosmos Invers (HERE)

A new solo piece by puppeteer performance artist Karlan Sherrard with a powerful environmental message.

March 9

Unknown Soldier (Playwrights Horizons)

In this musical co-written by the late and much missed Michael Friedman, a woman sets out on a journey to unearth the secrets of her family’s past when she discovers in her grandmother’s home a mysterious photograph of an anonymous soldier, tucked away in a box of keepsakes.

March 10

72 Miles to Go (Roundabout’s Laura Pels)

Seventy-two miles. That’s the space between a recently deported mother in Nogales, Mexico and her husband and children in Tucson, Arizona. Written by Hilary Bettis, who was a writer for the FX series “The Americans”

March 11

  Anywhere (HERE)

Freely inspired by the novel Oedipus on the Road by Henry Bauchau, Anywhere evokes the long wandering of Oedipus accompanied by his daughter Antigone. The fallen Oedipus appears in the form of an ice puppet that gradually turns into water then into mist and disappears in the Erynian Forest

March 12

Six (Brooks Atkinson)

Pop-concert musical featuring the six wives of Henry VIII.

March 13

Twelfth Night (El Barrio’s Artspace)

“Audiences will be welcomed to Illyria…This romantic comedy will explore themes of wealth and class, identity and disguise, and love and loss. Our production will allow participants to directly engage with these themes with a high level of agency.”

March 15

The Minutes (Cort)

Letts’ most political work to date is a dark comedy about a town council meeting in the fictional town of Big Cherry that turns ominous.

The Fre (The Flea)

The Fre is written by Taylor Mac, and directed by The Flea’s artistic director Niegel Smith, his collaborator on “Hir” and “24 Decade History of Popular Music” and that makes this show a must-see no matter how weird or uncomfortable it winds up being. “In this queer love story, audiences will literally and figuratively jump into the mud with the Fre to hash out the current cultural divide.”

Washington Square (Axis)

A new adaptation of the Henry James novel written and directed by Randy Sharp. (A previous adaptation is “The Heiress”)

March 18

The Plastic Bag Store (20 Times Square)

The Plastic Bag Store, a public art installation and immersive theater piece by artist and director Robin Frohardt explores the enduring effects of plastics. The “store” is stocked with thousands of original, hand-sculpted items — produce and meat, dry goods and toiletries, cakes and sushi rolls — all made from discarded plastics. At night, the store transforms into an immersive, dynamic set for free performances where “hidden worlds and inventive puppetry tell the darkly comedic, sometimes tender story of how the overabundance of plastic waste we leave behind might be misinterpreted by future generations.” Free and open to the public.

  March 19

Hangmen (John Golden)

A dark comedy by Martin McDonagh about a retired executioner who now presides over a pub, visited by a mysterious gentleman. My review Off-Broadway

March 20

Treasure Island (New Victory)

In this rendition of the classic pirate story, 12 puppeteers animate marionettes to tell the swashbuckling adventures of cabin boy Jim Hawkins.

March 21

Best Life (Jack)

In Melisa Tien’s play, a woman of color can rewind time, but only within the last five minutes. The result: her exchange with a white woman in a cafe becomes increasingly alarming

March 22

Company (Bernard B. Jacobs)

Starring Patti LuPone and Katrina Lenk, this fifth Broadway production of the Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical about a single 35-year-old with married friends, this one is “re-gendered” so that the protagonist is now a woman, Bobbie.

  March 23

Intimate Apparel (Lincoln Center Theater)

An opera based on Lynn Nottage’s play about the life and loves of Esther, a lonely, single African-American woman in early 20th century New York who makes her living sewing beautiful corsets and ladies’ undergarments.

March 24

Sanctuary City (New York Theatre Workshop)

Much anticipated (and much delayed) play by Martyna Majak, who was the 2018 Pulitzer Prize winner for Cost of Living, about two teenagers, life-long friends, in post-9/11 America.

March 25

Lungs (BAM)

Claire Foy and Matt Smith (who played Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in the first season of “The Crown”) reunite in this look at love in the time of climate change, written by Duncan Macmillan (People, Places & Things)

March 26

The Lehman Trilogy (Nederlander)

The history of the rise and fall of the Lehman Brothers over 164 years, starting with the arrival of the three Lehman brothers from Bavaria in the mid nineteenth century. My review of The Lehman Trilogy when it was at Park Avenue Armory in April.

March 30

Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova Greenwich House)

A large scale musical work by Heather Christian, staged by director Lee Sunday Evans and featuring eighteen virtuosic singers and instrumentalists.

March 31

Diana (Longacre)

Jeanna de Waal portrays Princess Diana in this musical, with Roe Hartrampf as Prince Charles,Erin Davie as Camilla Parker Bowles, Judy Kaye as Queen Elizabeth

March 2020 New York Theater Openings Below is a selection of the abundant New York theater openings in March, organized chronologically by opening date*.

[whosafraidofvirginiawoolf]

She was so evidently the victim of the civilization which had produced her, that the links of her bracelet seemed like manacles chaining her to her fate.

— The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

When they presented Deborah with a long, golden chain and hung it around her neck, she shivered at the touch of the cold metal and the thought that the most vicious of dogs might safely be tied up with a chain such as this.

— The Dance of the Demons (Der Sheydim Tants) by Esther Singer Kreitman, translated from the Yiddish by Mauric Carr