Ringen oyf der Neshome

Ringen oyf der Neshome (Rings on the Soul) is Eli Schechtman's autobiographical novel in two volumes. Volume 1 was published in 1981 and volume 2 was published in 1988. The novel deals with the lives of Jews in Russia and in Israel from the beginning until the end of the twentieth century.

Ringen oyf der Neshome
Rings on the Soul
AuthorEli Schechtman
Original titleרינגען אויף דער נשמה
CountryIsrael
LanguageYiddish
PublisherTel-Aviv, Yiśroel-bukh
Publication date
1981 and 1988

Overview and publication history

The autobiographical novel Ringen oyf der neshome (Rings on the Soul)[1]was written by Eli Schechtman in Israel in two stages. The first two books (Vol 1) were printed in 1981. Then Eli Schechtman had completed work on the 7-volume novel Erev, published in 1983. Only after that, the following two books (Vol 2) were written and published in 1988. The first volume of novel was translated by Y.Gur-Arie into Hebrew and was published twice: the first part was published in 1981 under name Tabaot beneshema, the second one – in 1983 under name Leilot shel kohavim kvuim , and whole volume – in the Classic series in 1992 under name Tabaot beneshema. The novel was translated into Russian by Alma Shin. The first volume was published under the name Кольца на душе in 2001. The second volume was published under the name Вспахать бездну in 2012.

Plot summary

Depicts the life of the Yiddish writer Eli Schechtman from his childhood until his arrival to Jerusalem. Through this autobiographical account, themes of Jewish identity, life under the Soviet regime, as well as culture war between Yiddish and Hebrew are depicted. The novel ends with the words:

"I stand between two worlds and generations,
beth the old wound and the new pain.
Alone,
Completely alone."

Critical reception

This autobiographical novel was not noticed by the authors of the book A Thousand Years of Ashkenazi Culture, which commented about the "inability of the Yiddish culture as a whole ... to write a real autobiography, to reveal your "I" in historical time.[2]

Rose Waldman wrote: "Discovering a Yiddish novel I hadn't known about is always a thrill, but sometimes I find it hard to get into the story. Not so with Ringn Oyf Der Neshome (Rings on the Soul). The moment I started reading it, I was captivated. Stylistically, the novel is a beauty. It's written in a mesmerizing stream-of-consciousness voice with long Proustian sentences that stretch on breathlessly. Each time I came to the end of the page, I found myself hungry for the next. And it wasn't just the gorgeous prose. The story itself is historically fascinating and important—half a century of Jewish life under Soviet rule encapsulated in a novel and written by someone who'd personally experienced it. I don't know of another Yiddish novel that covers this material." [3]

In 1980, Ehud Ben-Ezer had published in the Israeli newspaper Maariv the article about Eli Schechtman under name "Rings of fire in a Jewish soul".[4]

Translations of novel Ringen oyf der Neshome

Eli Schechtman

  • Name:Tabaot beneshama (klassika)
    Language: Hebrew
    Serie: Clasic
    Translator: Y. Gur-Arie
    Date: 1992
  • Name:Кольца на душе
    Date: 2001
    Name:Вспахать бездну
    Date: 2012
    Language: Russian
    Translator : Alma Shin


References
  1. Yidishe Kultur, 58:1–2 (1996), 3–48 (Shechtman issue).
  2. Baumgarten, Jean (1994). Mille ans de cultures ashkénazes. Paris: Liana Levi. ISBN 2-86746-108-1. OCLC 31651619.
  3. "Rose Waldman". National Endowment for the Arts. 2019-11-06. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
  4. Ehud Ben-ezer,"Taba'ot shel esh be'neshama yehudit, al yezirato shel Eli Shechtman", Maariv,October 2, 1980

Further reading
  • USHMM
  • Itshe Goldberg, Eli Shekhtman, 1908—1996, Yidishe kultur 11–12, (1996)
  • Estraikh, Gennady. 2010. Shekhtman, Eli. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
  • Gennady Estraikh, Yiddish in the Cold War, Oxford, 2008, ISBN 9781906540050
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.