Yikhil Shraybman dies, December 12, 2005
I just found out today that another one of my very important contacts in Kishinev died. What luck. He was 92, after all, but I mean, come on, I was going to call him tomorrow. I really just coudn't believe it. After hearing that my father's cousin Miron suddenly died of a heart attack in Kishinev (see below, Bad News from Kishinev) my family and I had awkwardly joked a bit about other contacts of mine suddenly dying.
Yikhil Shraybman was a very famous character in the world of Yiddish literature. He was apparently also a concert violinist. I had first heard of him from Boris Sandler, editor of The Yiddish Forward, an international Jewish newspaper based in New York. Shraybman was Sandler's mentor in Kishinev. From what Sandler told me about Shraybman, it seemed that he would really be an amazing resource for my project. First off, he had lived through what my grandfather had lived through and he had lived his whole life in Kishinev. Second, Shraybman was apparently very connected with Soviet and post-Soviet Jewish culture and intellectual life. He was going to be my connection to this world. I had never talked to him, but I couldn't wait to meet him. I mentioned to my parents that I was going to call him tomorrow, and they said they had heard something about some famous Yiddish writer dying so I did a Russian google search and found this article -- for those of you who can read Russian: http://www.sedmoykanal.com/news.php3?id=95750.
For those of you who can't read Russian, I'll quote parts of the translation:
- " Today, Jewish literature suffered an irreplaceable loss. In Kishinev at the age of 92 years a classic of Yiddish literature passed away, the laureate of many international literary rewards of Israel, USA and Europe, world acknowledged author and essayist Yikhil Shraybman."
- "The untiring propagandist of native language, Ikhil Shraybman, upto his last hours, did not let his pen out of his hands, working on new miniatures for the cycle "after 90". These essays were being regularly published in the New York newspaper The Yiddish Forward."
It really is a pity that I never got to meet this man. A pity that I was only 2 months away from experiencing snipbits of my grandfather's life through the eyes of this writer. To me, this is a painful reminder of how fragile the people I will be talking to are, and how important it is for me to do this right now and do it well. Soon there will be no one left who remembers what the pogroms of the early 20th century were like in Ukraine and Moldova, and what it was like to be a Jew at that very difficult time during which my grandfather was growing up. Without a doubt, Shraybman would have been an awesome advisor for my project in Kishinev. December 12 was not just a sad day for Yiddish literature, and of course for Shraybman's family and many friends, but it was a sad day for me and for my grandfather.
Yikhil Shraybman was a very famous character in the world of Yiddish literature. He was apparently also a concert violinist. I had first heard of him from Boris Sandler, editor of The Yiddish Forward, an international Jewish newspaper based in New York. Shraybman was Sandler's mentor in Kishinev. From what Sandler told me about Shraybman, it seemed that he would really be an amazing resource for my project. First off, he had lived through what my grandfather had lived through and he had lived his whole life in Kishinev. Second, Shraybman was apparently very connected with Soviet and post-Soviet Jewish culture and intellectual life. He was going to be my connection to this world. I had never talked to him, but I couldn't wait to meet him. I mentioned to my parents that I was going to call him tomorrow, and they said they had heard something about some famous Yiddish writer dying so I did a Russian google search and found this article -- for those of you who can read Russian: http://www.sedmoykanal.com/news.php3?id=95750.
For those of you who can't read Russian, I'll quote parts of the translation:
- " Today, Jewish literature suffered an irreplaceable loss. In Kishinev at the age of 92 years a classic of Yiddish literature passed away, the laureate of many international literary rewards of Israel, USA and Europe, world acknowledged author and essayist Yikhil Shraybman."
- "The untiring propagandist of native language, Ikhil Shraybman, upto his last hours, did not let his pen out of his hands, working on new miniatures for the cycle "after 90". These essays were being regularly published in the New York newspaper The Yiddish Forward."
It really is a pity that I never got to meet this man. A pity that I was only 2 months away from experiencing snipbits of my grandfather's life through the eyes of this writer. To me, this is a painful reminder of how fragile the people I will be talking to are, and how important it is for me to do this right now and do it well. Soon there will be no one left who remembers what the pogroms of the early 20th century were like in Ukraine and Moldova, and what it was like to be a Jew at that very difficult time during which my grandfather was growing up. Without a doubt, Shraybman would have been an awesome advisor for my project in Kishinev. December 12 was not just a sad day for Yiddish literature, and of course for Shraybman's family and many friends, but it was a sad day for me and for my grandfather.
posted by duckie at 6:35 AM
0 comments
