Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991)

Reason read: botm Septemer 2024, Reading 1001. The story is set in Poland during the late 19th century and is the story of Calman Jacoby, a pious Jew, his daughter's and their husbands. During this time period, the Jewish large family is breaking up and Jewish people are becoming modernized. I think it is an important book but I did not like most of the female characters. Apparently the author is showing us the limitations of women during this time. I did not like most of these women, I did not like Claire because she was a spendthrift with lose morals, I did not like Zelda and Shaindel, etc as they manipulated their husbands with wretched moods. During this time, Russia has taken over and Calman was able to take over managing the Manor which led to his becoming wealthy and all the troubles that come with wealth. It also shows how commerce has ebbs and flows suh as railroads need to be built but then they no longer do. Calman was a respected man until he gained wealth. He was regarded because of his wealth but lost some of the favorable respect he had enjoyed. Isaac Bashevis Singer won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978.

"One's own children were born of pain, but grandchildren were sheer profit."

"...various materialistic theories, and Darwinism in particular, had put almost all values in jeopardy: the soul, ethics, the family."… (more)

The Wondering Jew
Narrated by Ray Hagen
Length: ~7 hours

Written in 1966 in Yiddish and published in 1977 in English, Enemies, a Love Story tells of the lives of Jewish refugees in New York in the aftermath of WWII. The main characters are Herman and his three wives.

Herman Broder, a non-observant Jew and Talmudic scholar has settled in Coney Island. He has lost his family including his wife and two children to the Holocaust. He survived by hiding in a hayloft, aided by Yadwiga, a Polish peasant, a gentile who had served in his father’s house in Poland prior to the Nazi invasion.

Herman is a man who contemplates the meaning of life, constantly wondering and in wonder. When he looks at the moon, he wonders how did it get there? He tries to imagine a god who has given man free will without choice. He wonders how a god could create such a world where Nazis killed whole families. Was god a sadist? And who was the devil and why didn’t god kill him.

I was intrigued by the character of Herman. He’s a man of intelligence, humor, compassion and is an unapologetic liar. At times as he contemplates life, it’s as if he’s a child, seeing the world for the first time. There’s an endearing quality in this complex man.

The plot is a bit of fun. If being hidden in a hayloft in fear of the SS can be described as humorous, then Isaac B Singer is the one to do it.

Before the war Herman was married and had two children. After the war, believing his Jewish wife dead, he brings Yadwiga the Polish peasant who sheltered him, to the U.S. on his visa and sets up house with her. She’s ignorant, superstitious, follows the old ways and is at first ignored by the other apartment dwellers, all Jewish immigrants who mainly speak Yiddish. Yadwiga cant speak English or Yiddish and her rough peasant Polish is barely understandable even by Herman. But he marries her. After all his wife is dead and what else is he to do with her. She can’t survive in New York alone.

Herman lies to Yadwiga and, pretending to be a traveling salesman to cover up his long absences from their Coney Island home. He has an affair with a Jewish woman who lives in the Bronx. Masha also a Holocaust survivor spent the war years in an extermination camp. She’s a drama queen, volatile and sexual. She’s always complaining about the Bronx apartment that Herman has rented for her - “In the camp, at least we had hope”.

Yadwiga has meanwhile learned how to cook Jewish foods such as matzo balls with borscht, and is converting to Judaism. She loves Herman with all her heart. For his part he feels some responsibility and gratitude for her, but not love. At times she annoys him and he mocks her, calling her a peasant. They share no interests and only occasionally, a bed.

As Herman juggles his life between the two women, traveling between Coney Island and the Bronx on the subway, he also has to earn a quid, which he does by ghost-writing speeches for a fraud of a rabbi who he also lies to. While Yadwiga is busy learning Jewish rites, Herman marries Masha, both civilly and under Jewish law.

And suddenly out of the blue, Herman’s Jewish wife, Tamara turns up. She’s found him by advertising in the New York Yiddish newspaper. There was so much dislocation in the immediate post-war years and whole families had been separated by the war, and the paper’s classifieds were full of people looking for family members.

Herman’s life is full of lies. He can’t go on living like this. He owes Yadwiga now pregnant, loves Masha, and is committed to Tamara who probably knows him best.

He can have no rest. He spends his nights imagining bombing Nazis, and staring at the moon. Who put it there? Who is this god? In the days he moves around New York to his various commitments on the subways, a nightmare to this day for any New Yorker.

He lies to the rabbi as to when he’ll complete his speeches. He lies to each of his three wives, and tries to spend time with each one.

The situation cannot go on and how it pans out cannot be told here. But it’s a great book. The characters are impeccably described. There’s humor, some of it gallows. There’s the plot intricacies. There’s the description of post-war New York with its immigrants, humor, decay and the Yiddish culture.

I didn’t read any reviews till I’d finished reading and was astounded at the lack of understanding of a couple of the LT reviewers.
“Herman is a cowardly little Jew who hid out in a haystack while his people were gassed in the Holocaust” one wrote.

Singer is even described as sexist: “Her calves were muscular, hard as stone. . . . Her breasts were full and white; her hips were round” Singer wrote of Herman’s thoughts on meeting Masha. Cannot a man find a woman sexy any more?

“I found his portrayal of survivors offensive”. wrote another reviewer. Obviously he was offended but no offense was intended. Humor is a coping mechanism. But perhaps it was Herman’s denial of god offended him.

Enemies, a Love Story is a moving intelligent and very funny book. It is indeed a love story. Highly recommended.… (more)

A member of the Jewish community in old Prague is accused of ritual murder, the judges are on the side of the denouncers and a pogrom threatens. The wise Rabbi Löw, not only a Talmudic scholar but also a friend of magic and mysticism, has a vision during the midnight intercession: he will mould a giant golem out of clay that can save the Jews from mortal danger.
After fulfilling the golem's mission, the rabbi is unable to destroy the golem again. The golem increasingly developed human traits, which led to certain situations becoming absurd.
I like legends and this one also had its charm and humour, even if the subject is very serious.

The master story is dedicated to "the persecuted and oppressed in the world, in the hope against all hope that the time of false accusations will one day end".… (more)