Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Jews of Yore

This blog is based on a series of six volumes published in Europe around the time of the outbreak of the First World War. In those days there was a strong feeling that the traditional Jewish way of life in Eastern Europe was rapidly disappearing, and that something needed to be done to preserve its memory. This daunting task was undertaken by a folklorist/historian who wrote under the name of A. Litwin. His "Yiddishe Neshumos" (Jewish Souls) is a priceless window into a world which no longer exists.

In this blog, I am undertaking to transcribe Litwin's writings for the modern reader. The original volumes are of course in Yiddish, and I am keeping true to that format. These stories should be easy to read for anyone with a passing knowledge of German. To start this project, I am transcribing the first paragraph or two of each story. If I find that people are reading the stories, I will translate more, according to which stories are most often accessed.

We will see how far we get with this project.

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