(Author: Cedric Ginsberg, Vol. 65 #1, Pesach 2010)
It is now almost a year since the untimely passing of Joseph Sherman, scholar, translator, lover of Yiddish, raconteur. In 2001, he left South Africa to take up the position of Woolf Corob Professor of Yiddish at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. His years there were exceptionally creative. Apart from scores of journal articles, he published several major studies and the translation of Dovid Bergelson’s novel Descent.
From 1991-1999, Joseph edited Jewish Affairs. He was the first external editor of the journal and the first incumbent who was also a fulltime academic. Previous editors included Henry Katzew (1946-1952), Amelia Levy (1952-1968), Chaim Lewis (1968-1977) and Hadassah Sacks (1977-1991). All of these able individuals contributed in their own way to the establishment of a quality journal which came to be recognised as the cultural mouthpiece of South African Jewry. When Joseph assumed the role of editor in 1991, the journal thus already had a proud legacy of over forty years of publication of quality articles dealing with literary, historical and philosophical matters.
However, Joseph added a dimension to the journal which had previously not been present. He introduced an academic essence that transformed the journal. Through him, the editorial board was expanded to include academics of varied background but with a common concern with Jewish interests. Many of these members became regular contributors. A few years into his editorship, he attempted to have Jewish Affairs accepted as an academically accredited journal. This would have meant that articles published in the journal by academics would have been subjected to peer-review and would thus be recognised as academic papers by the Ministry of Education. He believed that if Jewish Affairs could gain academic accreditation, it would be easier to solicit articles from the academics, but he was unsuccessful in this quest. The Ministry ruled that while some articles were thoroughly researched, substantiated and peer-reviewed, others were of a more popular nature and interest. For the purposes of accreditation, all articles had to be peer-reviewed.
Jewish Affairs has become an indispensable resource for any study of the South African Jewish historical or literary experience. It provides a central forum for the expression of the rich diversity of South African Jewish life, encapsulating the essence of this vibrant community, and it has an immense cultural impact and importance. There is no doubt that the years during which Joseph Sherman stood at its helm, contributed immensely to the enhancement of this fine image.
Joseph was passionate about literature and the theatre. It was in the field of Yiddish literature, however, that his primary focus lay, and he became a world-renowned expert on the writings of Isaac Bashevis Singer. His training ground was South African Yiddish literature. His uncle J. M. Sherman was a Yiddish writer who was immersed in the South African Yiddish literary world. Joseph translated many stories written in Yiddish by local writers and published them in From a Land Far Off in 1987. He worked with Woolf Levick and Dovid Fram on these translations and learnt a great deal from them about the rich Lithuanian backdrop against which the stories were set. This book was a pioneering work because it introduced local Yiddish writing to the English reader for the first time.
Joseph expressed his regard for the importance of the local Yiddish literary output by introducing new contributors to the journal who wrote on the topic. Three articles have been chosen and reprinted in this issue to give readers a glimpse of the extent of his interest in this concern and the importance of this literature for Jewish culture in South Africa. The first is Astrid Starck’s South African Yiddish Literature and the Problem of Apartheid, an important essay in that it gives an overview of the extent of South African Yiddish writing. The essay reviews an anthology (called Doremafrikanish) of local writing published as part of an extended series of nearly 100 volumes encompassing world Yiddish literature. The editor of Doremafrikanish, Shmuel Rozhansky, selected the works of South African Yiddish writers which appeared in Yiddish newspapers and journals from 1904 until 1971, when the anthology was published. Most English readers were amazed to discover the richness of the poetry and prose writing. These writings reflect discussion of identity, racial discrimination and the alienation of the griner (new immigrant) in a new and seemingly hostile environment. Joseph also published in Jewish Affairs several new translations of South African Yiddish stories in order to extend and reinforce the knowledge and interest of the readership.
The second article is the text of an interview Joseph conducted with Levi Shalit (‘South Africa’s Last Yiddish Newspaper: An Interview with Levi Shalit’), editor of the Afrikaner Idishe Tsaytung over a period of thirty years, from 1954-1985. Shalit was a Holocaust survivor, and was strongly pro-Zionist. Despite the fact that many secular Yiddish cultural activists were ambivalent towards Israel (particularly up to the late 1950s), the Yiddish weekly appeared regularly. The paper contained news from the Jewish world as well as frequent editorial comment from Shalit on the issues of the day. The third article (‘The Irony of Faith: Sholom Aleichem’s Dreyfus in Kasrilevke’) expresses the concern with a broader interest in the classic writings in Yiddish. The trials of Alfred Dreyfus, an officer in the French army who in 1894 was charged with treason, reverberated throughout Europe. In this story, Sholom Aleichem describes in his inimical way how news of the trial reached the fictitious shtetl of Kasrilevke. Only one person in town subscribed to the Hebrew-language newspaper Ha-Tsfirah, and he was thus the source of all the international news. The Dreyfus trial, with its intrigue, subterfuge, cover-ups and libellous and baseless accusations against the accused, was difficult for sophisticated city people to fathom. How much more confusing was the ‘Affair’ in the shtetl, where there was but one incomplete source of news? In this article, Sherman brilliantly and perceptively analysed the impact the trial had on these small-town Jews who understood so little about international politics.
These articles were selected because it was considered that they were representative of the broad spectrum of Yiddish activity in South Africa. They reflect the editor’s deep interest in these matters and demonstrate an important way in which his influence on the journal manifested itself. A select bibliography of articles related to aspects Yiddish interest published during Joseph’s term as editor has also been appended at the end of this introduction. This list gives a fuller picture of the variety and extent of the importance of the role that Yiddish played in the journal.
Bibliography of selected articles of Yiddish interest appearing in Jewish Affairs during the editorship of Joseph Sherman
Boiskin, Jonathan, Beinkinstadt’s 1903-1993, Spring, 1993 pp. 39-42.
Chai, Solly, “Mit harts un gefil” – An appreciation of Mordkhe Gebirtig (1877-1942), August, 1995 pp. 25-31.
Dubb, Lillian, Hidden Treasures: Our South African Yiddish Heritage, Spring, 1993
Elder, Glen S., Decolonising the ‘Kaffir’: a Geographical Analysis of two South African Yiddish Stories, Spring, 1997 pp. 53-57.
Feldman, Richard, The Kaffireatnik, Winter, 1997
28-33 (Translated by Joseph Sherman).
The White Kaffir, Spring, 1997 pp. 58-63 (Translated by Joseph Sherman). Fleisher, Tova, A Hebrew view of South African Blacks in the Thirties, Winter, 1995 pp. 35-38.
Ginsberg, Cedric, Reclaiming a South African Yiddish Text: Shmuel Leibowitz’s ‘Vayse Kaffirs’, Spring 1997 pp. 73-79.
Leibowitz, Shmuel, White Kaffirs, Spring 1997, pp. 64-72 (Translated by Joseph Sherman, presented with the Yiddish text, reconstructed from the original handwritten Ms and the text as first published in Foroys, July 1937).
Levinsky, Nehemiah, The Rains Came Late, Winter, 1995 pp. 46-49.
McCormick, Kay, Yiddish in District Six, Spring, 1993 pp. 29-38.
Sherman, Jacob Mordechai, Usibebu-John Goes Home, Summer, 1990, pp. 56-57, (Translated by Joseph Sherman).
Sherman, Joseph, ‘Singing with the Silence’: The Poetry of David Fram, September/October, 1988, pp. 39-44.
______, South Africa’s Last Yiddish Newspaper: An Interview with Levi Shalit, Spring, 1993 pp. 4954.
______, The Irony of Faith: Sholom Aleichem’s ‘Dreyfus in Kasrilevke’, Summer, 1994 pp. 35-39.
Starck, Astrid, South African Yiddish Literature and the Problem of Apartheid, Winter, 1995 pp. 3945.
______, Apartheid and the Yiddish Novel: Faivl Zygielboim’s ‘The Uhamas’ (1971), Summer, 1996, pp. 49-55.
______, Old Home vs Land of Opportunity:Interrogating ‘Home’ and ‘Exile’ in RakhmielFeldman’s ‘Trayers’,Spring, 1997, pp. 79-84.Zygielbaum, Reuven, Under godless skies,Spring, 1998, pp. 25-27.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
