IV.

The Postclassical Period

After 1914 the traditional Jewish life of Eastern Europe began to disintegrate under the impact of wars, migrations, revolutions, and persecutions. Many Yiddish writers who survived the succession of catastrophes fled to the United States and settled in New York City, which soon became a Yiddish literary center second only to Warsaw in importance; some migrated to the countries of Western Europe or to Palestine. Others, living in Russia, were affected greatly by the turmoil of the Bolshevik revolution. Among the most outstanding Yiddish authors of this period were Abraham Reisen, who wrote poetry and evocative short stories based on his poverty-stricken childhood; Sholem Asch, who is known to non-Jewish readers for his novels about the beginnings of Christianity; Israel Joshua Singer, author of The Brothers Ashkenazi (1936; trans. 1936), who, along with Asch, helped to perfect the full-length Yiddish novel; and Zalman Schneour, who introduced erotic themes into Jewish writing. The social realists Moshe Kulbak, a poet, novelist, and dramatist, and David Bergelson, a novelist and journalist, were among the many Soviet Yiddish writers liquidated in the purges that were carried out during Stalin's dictatorship.

A group of gifted American Yiddish writers known as the Young Ones, including Leivick Halpern, known under the pen name H. Leivick, and Joseph Opatoshu, rebelled against the emphasis on social problems in many Yiddish works of the period; instead, they stressed individual creativity and pure art. Another group of immigrant poets and writers, including Jacob Glatstein and Aaron Glanz, treated various cosmopolitan themes. The stories of Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer often deal with lofty and tragic themes of the Jewish faith, and they are frequently tinged with fantasy.