Roskies is a professor of Yiddish literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Finally, a lengthy excerpt from a four-volume chronicle of WW I, The Destruction of Galicia, offers a grim reminder of the long history and virulence of Eastern European anti-Semitism. Start a free 30-day trial today and get your first audiobook free. The seven stories and novellas collected here focus more intently on tensions between the sacred and the secular, between the pious and the maskilimper book (supporters of the Jewish Enlightenment)-tensions that often border on violence. Ansky’s well-known drama of mystical passion and demonic possession, along with little-known works of his autobiographical and fantastical prose fiction and an excerpt from his four-volume chronicle of the Eastern Front in the First World War, The Destruction of Galacia. As Ansky, he taps a source previously neglected by other great Yiddish writers: ``folklore as the wellspring of Jewish cultural renewal.'' The title work, for example, evokes the mystical underpinnings of shtetl life, with its rituals of possession and exorcism. Part of our series 'A Wandering People: Jewish Journeys, Real and Imagined'The Dybbu.

But as Roskies's unusually informative introduction demonstrates, the author had a turbulent relationship to his Jewish heritage and wrote under a raft of pen names before finding his true literary voice. Edna Nahshon, Professor of of Theater and Drama, JTS. It was first performed in Yiddish by the Vilna Troupe in Warsaw in 1920, and by the Habima Theatre in Moscow in 1922. Ansky, pseudonym of Lithuanian-born Solomon Rappoport (1863-1920), earned a place in literature with his great drama The Dybbuk. An-sky (1863-1920) is the crown jewel of the Jewish theatre, the most renowned, most beloved, most translated, and most performed of all Jewish plays. An altogether excellent anthology, this volume offers a superior introduction to the brilliant, brooding works of a Yiddish master.

The Dybbuk by S. Ansky