Jewish literature includes works written byJews on Jewish themes, literary works written inJewish languages on various themes, and literary works in any language written by Jewish writers.[1] Ancient Jewish literature includesBiblical literature andrabbinic literature. Medieval Jewish literature includes not only rabbinic literature but alsoethical literature,philosophical literature,mystical literature, various other forms of prose including history and fiction, and various forms of poetry of both religious and secular varieties.[1] The production of Jewish literature has flowered with the modern emergence ofsecular Jewish culture. Modern Jewish literature has includedYiddish literature,Judeo-Tat literature,Ladino literature,Hebrew literature (especiallyIsraeli literature), andJewish American literature.
Prominent examples of medieval Jewish fiction included:
Liturgical Jewish poetry (Piyyut) flourished in theByzantine Palestine in the seventh and eighth centuries with the writings ofYose ben Yose,Yannai, andEleazar Kalir.[1]
Later Spanish, Provençal, and Italian poets wrote both religious and secular poems. Particularly prominent poets wereSolomon ibn Gabirol andYehuda Halevi.
Little writing by Jewish women survives from this period. One Arabic stanza is attributed to the seventh-centurySarah of Yemen, who may have been Jewish; one stanza in Hebrew by the wife ofDunash ben Labrat survives from the tenth century; and three poems in Arabic attributed to the Andalusian womanQasmuna survive from the twelfth.[2][3] The first female Jewish poet to write poetry in German wasRachel Akerman (1522–1544), who wrote a poem titled "Geheimniss des Hofes" (The Mystery of the Courts), in which she described the intrigues of courtiers.[4] A female Jewish poet writing in Yiddish during the same period wasRebecca bat Meir Tiktiner, author of a poem about Simchat Torah in forty couplets.[5]
Most medieval Hebrew poetry was mono-rhymed with quantitativemetre influenced by the style of Jewish poets from fallenAl-Andalus. One noted exception are two passages fromSefer Hakhmoni byShabbethai Donnolo (sometimes classified as rhymed prose "saj" according to theprosodic classifications borrowed from Arabic tradition) because they are not quantitatively metered.[6]
Medieval Jewish literature also includes:
Modern Jews continued to write standard forms ofrabbinic literature:Jewish philosophical literature,mystical (Kabbalistic) literature,musar (ethical) literature,halakhic literature, andcommentaries on the Bible.
The modern era also saw the creation of what is generally known as "modern Jewish literature," which emerged from the writings of theHaskalah and broke with religious traditions about literature. Therefore, it can be distinguished from rabbinic literature which is distinctly religious in character.[7] Modern Jewish literature also contributed to the national literatures of many of the countries in which Jews lived.
It was withMoses Hayyim Luzzatto (1707–1746) thatHebrewpoetry shook off the medieval fetters which hindered its free development. His allegoricaldrama "La-Yesharim Tehillah" (1743), which may be regarded as the first product of modernHebrew literature, has been described as "a poem that in its classic perfection of style is second only to the Bible."[8] InAmsterdam, Luzzatto's pupil,David Franco Mendes (1713–92), in his imitations ofJean Racine ("Gemul 'Atalyah") and ofMetastasio ("Yehudit"), continued his master's work, though his works are not as respected as were Luzzatto's. In Germany, the leader of the Haskalah movementNaphtali Hartwig Wessely (1725–1805) has been regarded as the "poet laureate" of his era.[8] Luzzatto and Wessely also wrote works of ethicalmusar literature, and Luzzatto'sMesillat Yesharim gained particular prominence.
(See also:Revival of the Hebrew language)
InGalicia, important literary artists included:Nachman Krochmal (1785–1840);Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport (1790–1867); and thesatirical poet and essayistIsaac Erter (1792–1841); and lyric poet and translatorMeir Halevi Letteris (1815–1874). Writers in Amsterdam included the poetSamuel Molder (1789–1862). Writers inPrague included the haskalah leader Jehudah Loeb Jeiteles (1773–1838), author of witty epigrams ("Bene ha-Ne'urim") and of works directed againstHasidism and againstsuperstition. Writers inHungary included: the poetSolomon Lewison of Moor (1789–1822), author of "Melitzat Yeshurun"; the poetGabriel Südfeld, father ofMax Nordau; and the poetSimon Bacher.Romanian writers of note included Julius Barasch.[9] Italian Jewish writers included:I. S. Reggio (1784–1854); Joseph Almanzi; Hayyim Salomon; Samuel Vita Lolli (1788–1843);Rachel Morpurgo (1790–1860), whose poems evince religious piety and a mystic faith in Israel's future; andSamuel David Luzzatto (1800–65), who has been described as the first modern writer to introduce religiousromanticism into Hebrew.[9]
Hebrew writers in the Russian empire included: the poet Jacob Eichenbaum; the Haskalah leaderIsaac Baer Levinsohn;Kalman Schulman (1826–1900), who introduced theromantic form into Hebrew; the romantic poetMicah Joseph Lebensohn (1828–52); the "father of prose,"Lithuanian authorM. A. Ginzburg; and "the father of poetry,"Lithuanian poetAbraham Baer Lebensohn, whose poems "Shire Sefat Kodesh" were extraordinarily successful. The creator of the Hebrew novel wasAbraham Mapu (1808–67), whosehistorical romance "Ahabat Tziyyon" exercised an important influence on the development of Hebrew. The poetJudah Leib (Leon) Gordon was asatirist who has been characterized as "an implacable enemy of theRabbis."[9]
Hayim Nahman Bialik (1873–1934) was one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew poetry and came to be recognized asIsrael'snational poet. Bialik contributed significantly to the revival of the Hebrew language. His influence is felt deeply in all subsequent Hebrew literature. Another prominent Hebrew poet of Bialik's era wasShaul Tchernichovsky (1875–1943), who is especially well known for his nature poetry and for his interest in the culture ofancient Greece.
Among Israeli writers,Shmuel Yosef Agnon won theNobel Prize for Literature for novels and short stories that employ a unique blend ofbiblical,Talmudic and modern Hebrew. Other Israeli authors whose works have been translated into other languages and who have attained international recognition includeEphraim Kishon,Yaakov Shabtai,A. B. Yehoshua,Amos Oz,Irit Linur,Etgar Keret andYehoshua Sobol.
ModernYiddish literature is generally dated to the publication in 1864 ofSholem Yankev Abramovitsh’s novelDos kleyne mentshele (“The Little Person”). The most important of the early writers to follow Abramovitsh were Sholem Rabinovitsh, popularly known by his alter-ego,Sholem Aleichem, andI. L. Peretz. Later Yiddish writers of note includeS.L. Shneiderman,Abraham Sutzkever,Isaac Bashevis Singer, who won the Nobel Prize in 1978, andChaim Grade.
American Jewish literature written inEnglish includes the works ofGertrude Stein,Henry Roth,Saul Bellow,Merrill Joan Gerber,Norman Mailer,Bernard Malamud,Alicia Ostriker,Chaim Potok, andPhilip Roth. The poetry ofAllen Ginsberg often touches on Jewish themes (notably the early autobiographical works such asHowl andKaddish). Recent Jewish-American literature includes the writings ofPaul Auster,Michael Chabon,Joshua Cohen,Jonathan Safran Foer andArt Spiegelman.
Jewish authors who wrote inGerman and made outstanding contributions to world literature include the German poetHeinrich Heine and the Bohemian novelistFranz Kafka.
Other significant German-Jewish poets and essayists includeBerthold Auerbach,Paul Celan,Else Lasker-Schüler,Ernst Lissauer,Jacob Raphael Fürstenthal,Siegfried Einstein,Karl Marx,Nelly Sachs,Karl Kraus,Egon Friedell, andErich Mühsam.
German-Jewish novelists includeLion Feuchtwanger,Edgar Hilsenrath,Alfred Döblin,Arthur Schnitzler,Anna Seghers,Hermann Broch,Franz Werfel,Joseph Roth,Jakob Wassermann, andStefan Zweig.
TheBibliographia Judaica, published byElazar Benyoëtz and Renate Heuer, the largest encyclopedia on ethnic Jewish authors who wrote in the German language, contains around 5,000 names.[10]
Isaak Babel (1894–1940) was aSoviet journalist, playwright, and short story writer acclaimed as "the greatest prose writer of Russian Jewry."[11] Other Russian writers of Jewish descent includeBoris Pasternak (who never wrote on Jewish themes);Joseph Brodsky, a poet who won the Nobel Prize in 1987;Osip Mandelstam, another famous poet, wooer ofAkhmatova, and victim of the Soviets.Vassily Grossman's experiences in WWII provide the main material for his novels.
The primary forms of modern Ladino literature have been fables and folktales.[12] Ladino fables and folktales often have Jewish themes, with biblical figures and legendary characters, and many of them feature the folk character "Ejoha" (also "Joha"). In 2001, theJewish Publication Society published the first English translation of Ladino folk tales, collected by Matilda Koén-Sarano,Folktales of Joha, Jewish Trickster: The Misadventures of the Guileful Sephardic Prankster.
Modern Ladino poets includeMargalit Matitiahu,Ilan Stavans,Avner Peretz, Victor Perera,Rita Gabbai Simantov, andSara Benveniste Benrey.
A connoisseur of the Judeo-Tat folklore,Hizgil Avshalumov created a folklore image of the witty (Juhuri:Шими Дербенди) - Shimi fromDerbent.[13][14] (Mountain Jewish analogue ofHershel of Ostropol)[15]
A number of poets of the 20th century created their works in theJudeo-Tat language, such asSergey Izgiyayev, creates (Juhuri:Иму гъэлхэнд шолуминим) - "We are the defenders of the World" (1952), (Juhuri:Фикиргьой шогьир) - "Thoughts of the Poet" (1966), (Juhuri:Муьгьбет ве гьисмет) - "The fate and love" (1972) and a number of other works. Shimshun Safonov, in 1968, created a collection of poetry (Juhuri:Парза, ма‘ни ма) - "Fly, my verse." PoetessZoya Semenduyeva has released a collection (Juhuri:Войгей дуьл) - "The Command of the Heart". In 2007, her book was published (Juhuri:Духдер эн дуь бебе) - "Daughter of two fathers".[16]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Richard Gottheil, N. Slouschz (1901–1906)."LITERATURE, MODERN HEBREW". InSinger, Isidore; et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
