
Poyln
My Life within Jewish Life in Poland, Sketches and Images
Yehiel Yeshaia Trunk(Author)
University of Toronto Press
Published on 27. October 2007
Book
Hardback
167 pages
978-0-8020-9330-1 (ISBN)
Description
Originally published between 1944 and 1953, Poyln (Poland) is one of the treasures of Yiddish literature. Despite its reputation, the book has not been fully translated into English until now. Written by Yehiel Yeshaia Trunk, a prominent Polish Jewish writer, Poyln is a colourful epic, a moving testimony, and an important primary historical source that presents a portrait of Polish Jewry against the backdrop of the Nazi genocide. The undisputed hero of the story is the national community of Polish Jews. To portray this community, Trunk creates a rich gallery of characters - Hassidic patricians, timber merchants, rich landowners, brilliant Talmudists, Orthodox rabbis, and Hasidic tsadikim. He also depicts ordinary village and small-town Jews, artisans, shopkeepers, workers, and Luftmenschen, all of them members of one extended family. Particularly valuable aspects of Poyln are its examination of different trends in the Hasidic movement and the author's attempt to bridge the gap between his secular generation and its religious ancestors. In short, Trunk's work aims to show Jewishness as a way of life.
This is the first instalment of a multi-volume edition of Poyln, the first English translation to be published. Here begins a story of the beauty and pathos of the world of Polish Jewry, a world that was almost totally destroyed by the Nazis.
This is the first instalment of a multi-volume edition of Poyln, the first English translation to be published. Here begins a story of the beauty and pathos of the world of Polish Jewry, a world that was almost totally destroyed by the Nazis.
Reviews / Votes
'The editors of Poyln: My Life within Jewish Life in Poland have produced a volume both accessible and original in its approach ... the value of the memoirs lie primarily in their portraits of the Jewish elite - of the grimy, sexual, foul-smelling realities of everyday life in the nineteenth century.' -- Yedida Kanfer Canadian Slavonic Papers 'Trunk's evocative sketches of pre-war Poland throb with emotion and are redolent of the bygone epoch, destroyed by the Nazis.' -- Sheldon Kirshner Canadian Jewish NewsMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
420 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8020-9330-1 (9780802093301)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Yehiel Yeshaia trunk(1887-1961) was a Yiddish essayist and writer. Piotr J. Wrobel holds the Konstanty Reynert Chair of Polish History at the University of Toronto. Robert M. Shapiro is an associate professor in the Department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College. Anna Clarke is a professor emeritus of Carleton University.
Author
Volume editor
Translation
Content
Editor's Preface Introduction Map of Poland Family Tree Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Seven Chapter EightVerso Running Head v Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-one Chapter Twenty-two Chapter Twenty-three