EBOOK
About
When young Zalmen Itzkowitz steps off the train on a dark, dreary day at the close of the nineteenth century, the residents of Miloslavka have no idea what's in store for them. Zalmen is a freethinker who has come to the rural town to earn his living as a tutor. Yet, rather than teach Hebrew, he plans to teach his students the Russian language and other secular subjects. Residents of the town quickly become divided, with some regarding Itzkowitz as the devil's messenger and others supportive of his progressive ideas. Set during the time of the Haskalah, the great Jewish Enlightenment that was sweeping through Europe, Pioneers is a charming tale of one ambivalent young man's attempt to join the movement and a compassionate portrait of one shetl on the brink of transformation.
Related Subjects
Reviews
"The Pioneers contains essential ethnographic material on the lost world of shtetl Jewry-a society about to be irrevocably transformed-in a classic Yiddish stories-within-a-story form. Waldman's great pleasure in bringing it to English, and delight in its humor, is evident on every page of this skillful translation."
Aviya Kushner, The Forward's language columnist, and author of The Grammar of God
"A compelling narrative about struggles for personal and social transformation among ordinary young Jewish men and women in late nineteenth-century Russia. Waldman's translation makes a valuable contribution to the growing body of An-sky's works available in English. It will be a source for all scholars, teachers and students of East European Jewish history and literature."
Polly Zavadivker, assistant professor of history, University of Delaware
"A smart, capacious, and original novel, exploring how the Jewish enlightenment movement called Haskala functioned on the ground, in traditional small towns, in the lives of imperfect, inconsistent individuals. Rose Waldman's translation of the novel is what a translation should be: full, precise, and literate."
Lawrence Rosenwald, Anne Pierce Rogers Professor of English, Wellesley College