Itche Goldberg
Encyclopedia
Itche Goldberg was a Yiddish writer of children's books, poet, librettist, educator, literary critic, camp director, publisher, fundraiser, essayist, literary editor, Yiddish language and culture scholar, and left-wing political activist. He devoted his life to the preservation of the Yiddish language and secular Yiddish culture.
, Poland
, and moved to Warsaw
in 1914, attending Poznanski Teachers Seminary. In 1920 he moved to Toronto
, Canada
, studying philosophy
, German
and political science
at McMaster University
. While in Toronto, he taught Yiddish at The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring
school; it was in Toronto that his leftist/pro-communist sympathies matured. He moved to New York City
in the late 1920s, and continued teaching Yiddish there as well as in Philadelphia, but left the socialist Workmen's Circle
schools for the more radical
Arbeter Ordn Shuln. The education schism, with Goldberg and many schools leaving the Arbeter Ring to form the Ordn network, was part of an exceedingly vituperative break within the leftist Yiddish community between the communists and socialists (who the communists sometimes called "social fascists").)
, Yidishe Kultur. The frequency of publication went down during this period, as Yiddish writers and speakers gradually died off. The final edition was published in 2004. Yet, he clung to the notion that Yiddish can still be a living language.
He saw in the Yiddish/Jewish culture of Eastern Europe humanistic and progressive values. He felt that these were important, not religious ritual. He even criticized Nobel Prize winning author I.B. Singer for not portraying these ideals in his writings.
Shortly after moving to New York City
, he became director of the Arbeter Ordn Shuln, and helped set up a nationwide network of these schools, reaching a peak number of 140. Best described as supplemental schools, they aimed at promoting Yiddish identity, as well as inculcating the concepts of class consciousness
and social justice
. Goldberg saw two function of the shuln; "to revolutionize Yiddish education and to separate religion from education for the first time in Jewish history; and on the other hand to ensure that progressive secularism is carried forward from generation to generation." For decades beginning in the 1920s, including two as director, he was associated with Camp Kinderland
, known as a red diaper baby
camp. From 1937 to 1951, he was national school and cultural director of the Jewish People's Fraternal Order, http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/49/05reiter.html a branch of the pro-Communist International Workers Order
. At its peak after World War II
the JPFO had 50,000 members. When the IWO was about to be liquidated during the Red Scare in 1954 by the Department of Insurance of New York State (IWO was a fiscally sound fraternal benefit insurance company with close 200,000 members in its peak years, 1946–1947), Itche withdrew the Yiddish shules from the JPFO in order to preserve them, creating the independent Service Bureau for Jewish Education so that the schools could continue to function. In the anti-left atmosphere of the period, this effort was only partially successful.
Over time he made a transition to democratic socialism
, eventually seeing the Soviet Union
as an anti-model. By the 1950s his enthusiasm for the Soviet Union had completely evaporated, particularly after the Soviets executed Jewish writers in 1952. Beginning in 1957 Yiddishe Kultur co-sponsored an annual public remembrance
of the 12 August 1952 murders. Nevertheless, he remained a central figure in the Jewish left
for decades. In contrast to literary critics on the right who saw in Soviet Yiddish literature enforced or servile obeisence to Soviet ideology, Goldberg wrote and lectured frequently on the proud Jewish content he found in the works of such Soviet Yiddish writers as Perets Markish, Dovid Hofshteyn, and Dovid Bergelson. The Yidisher Kultur Farband (YKUF) in whose leadership Goldberg served for many years published numerous works by these authors when other Yiddish publishers in the west rejected them as outside of the Yiddish canon.
"[He] has devoted his adult life to ensuring the 1,000-year-old Yiddish language and culture survive."
"Over the decades he grew as an innovative literary researcher and a beloved teacher of
Yiddish language and literature, from elementary school level to the university."
"A leading cultural figure; he was part of an ideological movement that used the Yiddish language to teach and convince Jews about the international proletariat struggle."
"It is rare to encounter a man who has achieved as much as Itche has, but that is not what truly makes Itche unique. What sets Itche apart from those few who can match his accomplishments is his continued passion to learn, explore and delve further into the subjects he studies."
"A titan, a brilliant scholar of literature. A master teacher of generations."
"One of the most foremost scholars of Yiddish culture."
"Erudite head of the erstwhile communist Yiddish cultural world."
"A passion for an ancient Jewish language that threatens to slip into obscurity."
His writing has been described as "imbued with understanding and compassion, and possessed of the rarest ingredients, a subtle, sparkling, and heart-warming sense of humor."
"Today's eldest left-wing Yiddish pedagogue."
"Master Yiddish editor, educator, scholar, and writer"
"Itche Goldberg has pretty much single-handedly kept the Yiddish Left going for the last 30 years."
"The oldest writer ever to have published a new book."
"Mir shatsn op ayer vunderlekhe arbet l'toyves der yidisher kultur vos hot baraikhert dem gontsn Yidishn yishev. (“We honor your wonderful work for the benefit of Yiddish culture which enriches all of Yiddish heritage.”)
"For a century, [he] was a living link to the Yiddish culture of East European immigrants."
Regarding Yiddishe Kultur: "Itche Goldberg is the dynamic force behind this publication."
"A champion of Yiddish who wrote and edited and taught his beloved language in the face of all those who said keeping Yiddish alive was a lost cause."
"A fixture in the communist struggles of the 1920s and 30s." "Veteran of the communist heyday of the 1920s."
"Embraced then rejected Communism during a lifelong dedication to the preservation of Yiddish culture."
's "Oyb Nit Nokh Hekher", with libretto
by Itche Goldberg. In another 100th tribute, Jerrold Nadler
honored him in the United States House of Representatives
by saying: "Mir shatsn op ayer vunderlekhe arbet l'toyves der yidisher kultur vos hot baraikhert dem gontsn Yiddishn yishev." (English
translation ``We honor your wonderful work for the benefit of Yiddish culture which enriches all of Yiddish heritage.)
He died at 102 years of age with, still, a very sharp mind. His last book was "Essayen Tsvey" ("Essays Two"), in 2004, at age 100. In honor of this publication, a commemoration of his life was held 25 July 2006, sponsored by YIVO and League for Yiddish. A Josh Wiletsky documentary was made of his lfe at age 101, "Itche Goldberg, A Century Of Yiddish Letters", and was shown at this event.
“Never, never in history, did we produce so many poets and so much poetry in such a short period of time, barely one century. It is rare to find so much creativity in the entire history of our involvement with other languages. Look at the Tanakh—you have any number of splendors put together by various writers over the course of centuries. But here, they weren’t given any time. Time was so short for all of us. And we’re speaking only of poetry. But the prose that was produced! ... It was a time of exceptional, history-making creativity. And if we don’t understand this, we will perhaps not understand how to inherit or what to inherit.” (Speaking of Yiddish literature in first half of 20th century)
“Just because I’m secular doesn’t mean I’m antireligious.”
"The need to keep Yiddish alive in one shape or another is very basic. And after what we went through -- the loss not only of six million but also Eastern Europe
-- do you allow a culture to drift away and stop existing?"
"You can't possibly see a future Jewish life with the disappearance of a 1,000-year-old language and with it a 1,000-year-old culture. Somehow it has to be there."
"There was no question about our Jewishness or Jewish consciousness
and the Jewish consciousness led us very naturally to the Soviet Union
. Here was Romania
, anti-Semitic; here was Poland
, which was anti-Semitic. Suddenly we saw how Jewish culture was developing in the Soviet Union
. It was really breathtaking. You had the feeling that both the national problem was solved and the social problem was solved. This was no small thing. It was overpowering and we were young."
"We're dealing with a language that is about 1,000 years old and a literature that is 600 or 700 years old. What developed was an extraordinary and profound modern literature
which would become the equivalent of French
and German
literature."
"I only have two dreams. One dream is that someone will knock on the door and I will open it and they give me a check for $150,000 for the magazine. Second dream is that someone knocks at the door and I open it up and he gives me a corned beef sandwich. Those are my only two dreams. I'm not asking for much. Really, I'm not. And I think they're both reachable."
"They were killed simply because they were Jewish intellectuals. Their Jewishness was the reason. They were all stamped as spies." (Re' 1952 Stalin victims)
At age 100: "The question of where we go from here is on my mind a lot. What’s happened to socialism? What is the future of Yiddishism? When I came, at age 21, into the Workmen’s Circle shule in Toronto, I had so much eagerness, energy, and faith in socialism and in Yiddishism. Now I have insecurity. But I am used to insecurity. For over forty years I have published Yidishe Kultur without ever being able to secure its existence!"
"So a generation passes."
"Nu, far vos a bissel? Lernst du!" ("So, why just a little? Learn!", response to someone who knew only a little Yiddish)
On Eruv Yom Kippur, 2006, three months before dying, Goldberg's secretary claimed that he had asked to put on Teffilin. A Lubovitsher hasid was found and obliged; a photo taken, and printed in the Algeminer Zhurnal. When Itche saw the photo he was outraged. "They printed that?" he asked his son. The orthodox press made much of his "conversion," but it had no basis in reality. A mezuzzah that had been attached to his door was removed. Itche had loved and honored what he understood as Jewish religious folkloric traditions his entire life, and he relished every aspect of Jewish culture, ritual, and liturgy, at the same time that he maintained a respectful but profound and complex scepticism to all matters of faith until his last clear days.
"There will... be a full ‘transfer of power’ to the new emerging generation. I stress emerging, because I do not anticipate a Venus-like birth of a new Jewish Homo Americanus flowing out of the foam of the Sea of History. It will be a slow process of continuity and change.... The historic challenge for us will be: can we carry over and implant our secular and humanist national values into the Jewish cultural patterns of the ‘80s? I am not going to define secularism here. However, I want to make a very broad statement: secularism is for us the only point of entry into Jewish life. We have ideologically and philosophically rejected for ourselves religion as the point of entry. Zionism—despite our positive stand on Israel—is not our link, either. National negation we eschew and reject. We therefore have no alternative whatsoever except a historic-cultural secular tie which binds us with the people. Realistically and historically we have no alternative. However, to influence others—yes, and to give identity to ourselves—we must raise secularism to a meaningful expression and link with the people.... Meaningful implies depth, knowledge, commitment, involvement, renewal and—yes, of course—tradition."
"Nonsense" (his response to the idea that Yiddish is dying)
"I sometimes feel that we were wrong in failing to incorporate more Jewish values in our Yiddishkayt. I’ve always enjoyed reading the Bible, particularly the prophets, and I wonder at times if we were a bit too dismissive, or ignorant, of our Jewishness.... I would not now permit so much to be brushed aside." (See also http://www.algemeiner.com/generic.asp?id=2495)
“As the medieval walls around Jewish life collapsed, the role of religion as the sole expression of national connection dwindled.” [Religion became] “a branch of the Jewish tree but not its trunk.” This thesis, writes Goldberg, “was a significant act of historical liberation. The branch-stem concept became the groundwork for the ventures of Jewish secularism. Secularism rests on two notions: on the one hand accepting religion as an important form of expression for a certain sector of the people, and, on the other, proclaiming secularism as a branch of the same stem with equal rights and values—immersed in tradition and a natural outgrowth of the people’s past. For the first time, the concept of pluralism became acceptable within the Jewish community—not according to economic class, but according to beliefs and ideas of nationhood. Although secularism continued to rely on the lower layers of society—the workers, middle-class folks, and large parts of the modern intelligentsia—for the first time the basic idea was confirmed that every segment of the people, so long as it remains tied to the stem, has a right to shape its own national connections and its national destiny according to its perception of its history.”
1981 Yiddish musical play: "Tevye
's Hodl"
Musical adaptation of I.L. Peretz
's "Oyb Nit Nokh Hekher"
Early years
Goldberg was born in OpatowOpatów
Opatów is a town in Poland, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. It is the capital of Opatów County. Its population is 7,833 .Tourist attractions include a 12th century Collegiate Church of St...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, and moved to Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
in 1914, attending Poznanski Teachers Seminary. In 1920 he moved to Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, studying philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at McMaster University
McMaster University
McMaster University is a public research university whose main campus is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land in the residential neighbourhood of Westdale, adjacent to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens...
. While in Toronto, he taught Yiddish at The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring
The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring
The Workmen’s Circle or Arbeter Ring is a Yiddish language-oriented American Jewish fraternal organization committed to Social Justice, Jewish Community, and Ashkenazic Culture...
school; it was in Toronto that his leftist/pro-communist sympathies matured. He moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the late 1920s, and continued teaching Yiddish there as well as in Philadelphia, but left the socialist Workmen's Circle
The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring
The Workmen’s Circle or Arbeter Ring is a Yiddish language-oriented American Jewish fraternal organization committed to Social Justice, Jewish Community, and Ashkenazic Culture...
schools for the more radical
Radicalization
Radicalization is the process in which an individual changes from passiveness or activism to become more revolutionary, militant or extremist. Radicalization is often associated with youth, adversity, alienation, social exclusion, poverty, or the perception of injustice to self or others.-...
Arbeter Ordn Shuln. The education schism, with Goldberg and many schools leaving the Arbeter Ring to form the Ordn network, was part of an exceedingly vituperative break within the leftist Yiddish community between the communists and socialists (who the communists sometimes called "social fascists").)
Yiddishist
Passing on the Yiddish tradition to future generations was a mainstay of his life. From 1937 to 1951 he was editor of Yunvarg, a children's magazine. He wrote many children's stories, and his book, Yiddish Stories for Young People, is still being used at Workmen's Circle schools. From 1970 to 1985 he was professor of Yiddish language and literature at Queens College (C.U.N.Y.). He may be currently best known as editor from 1964 to 2004 of the longest running journal of Yiddish literatureYiddish literature
Yiddish literature encompasses all belles lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus for centuries in Eastern Europe, is evident in its literature.It is generally described...
, Yidishe Kultur. The frequency of publication went down during this period, as Yiddish writers and speakers gradually died off. The final edition was published in 2004. Yet, he clung to the notion that Yiddish can still be a living language.
He saw in the Yiddish/Jewish culture of Eastern Europe humanistic and progressive values. He felt that these were important, not religious ritual. He even criticized Nobel Prize winning author I.B. Singer for not portraying these ideals in his writings.
Leftist
Goldberg, a secular Jew, had been closely associated with left-wing causes for many years. There were probably several threads to his attraction to a radical cause. His close associates in Toronto were Communists, including his brother-in-law, who shared his revolutionary world view of social justice. He saw the Soviet Union as the salvation for the Jewish national and social problems. Also, he described an embedded rebelliousness in the those doubly alienated, "suffering and benefiting from 'rejection [and persecution] by the Gentiles, but also their own rejection of the narrowness of the rabbi and merchant dominated shtetl life'".Shortly after moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, he became director of the Arbeter Ordn Shuln, and helped set up a nationwide network of these schools, reaching a peak number of 140. Best described as supplemental schools, they aimed at promoting Yiddish identity, as well as inculcating the concepts of class consciousness
Class consciousness
Class consciousness is consciousness of one's social class or economic rank in society. From the perspective of Marxist theory, it refers to the self-awareness, or lack thereof, of a particular class; its capacity to act in its own rational interests; or its awareness of the historical tasks...
and social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
. Goldberg saw two function of the shuln; "to revolutionize Yiddish education and to separate religion from education for the first time in Jewish history; and on the other hand to ensure that progressive secularism is carried forward from generation to generation." For decades beginning in the 1920s, including two as director, he was associated with Camp Kinderland
Camp Kinderland
Camp Kinderland is a summer camp located in Tolland, Massachusetts for boys and girls aged nine through sixteen. The camp's motto is summer camp with a conscience since 1923. The main topics of the curriculum are: equality, peace, community, social justice, activism, civil rights, Yiddishkeit,...
, known as a red diaper baby
Red diaper baby
Red diaper baby describes a child of parents who were members of the United States Communist Party or were close to the party or sympathetic to its aims.-History:...
camp. From 1937 to 1951, he was national school and cultural director of the Jewish People's Fraternal Order, http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/49/05reiter.html a branch of the pro-Communist International Workers Order
International Workers Order
The International Workers Order was a Communist Party-affiliated insurance, mutual benefit and fraternal organization founded in 1930 and disbanded in 1954 as the result of legal action undertaken by the state of New York in 1951...
. At its peak after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the JPFO had 50,000 members. When the IWO was about to be liquidated during the Red Scare in 1954 by the Department of Insurance of New York State (IWO was a fiscally sound fraternal benefit insurance company with close 200,000 members in its peak years, 1946–1947), Itche withdrew the Yiddish shules from the JPFO in order to preserve them, creating the independent Service Bureau for Jewish Education so that the schools could continue to function. In the anti-left atmosphere of the period, this effort was only partially successful.
Over time he made a transition to democratic socialism
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
, eventually seeing the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
as an anti-model. By the 1950s his enthusiasm for the Soviet Union had completely evaporated, particularly after the Soviets executed Jewish writers in 1952. Beginning in 1957 Yiddishe Kultur co-sponsored an annual public remembrance
Remembrance
Remembrance is the act of remembering, the ability to remember or a memorial. It may refer to:-Events:*:Category:Remembrance days**Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, a commemorative day observed by Argentina...
of the 12 August 1952 murders. Nevertheless, he remained a central figure in the Jewish left
Jewish left
The term "Jewish left" describes Jews who identify with or support left wing, occasionally liberal causes, consciously as Jews, either as individuals or through organizations. There is no one organization or movement which constitutes the "Jewish left," however...
for decades. In contrast to literary critics on the right who saw in Soviet Yiddish literature enforced or servile obeisence to Soviet ideology, Goldberg wrote and lectured frequently on the proud Jewish content he found in the works of such Soviet Yiddish writers as Perets Markish, Dovid Hofshteyn, and Dovid Bergelson. The Yidisher Kultur Farband (YKUF) in whose leadership Goldberg served for many years published numerous works by these authors when other Yiddish publishers in the west rejected them as outside of the Yiddish canon.
Reputation
"Itche Goldberg is priceless.""[He] has devoted his adult life to ensuring the 1,000-year-old Yiddish language and culture survive."
"Over the decades he grew as an innovative literary researcher and a beloved teacher of
Yiddish language and literature, from elementary school level to the university."
"A leading cultural figure; he was part of an ideological movement that used the Yiddish language to teach and convince Jews about the international proletariat struggle."
"It is rare to encounter a man who has achieved as much as Itche has, but that is not what truly makes Itche unique. What sets Itche apart from those few who can match his accomplishments is his continued passion to learn, explore and delve further into the subjects he studies."
"A titan, a brilliant scholar of literature. A master teacher of generations."
"One of the most foremost scholars of Yiddish culture."
"Erudite head of the erstwhile communist Yiddish cultural world."
"A passion for an ancient Jewish language that threatens to slip into obscurity."
His writing has been described as "imbued with understanding and compassion, and possessed of the rarest ingredients, a subtle, sparkling, and heart-warming sense of humor."
"Today's eldest left-wing Yiddish pedagogue."
"Master Yiddish editor, educator, scholar, and writer"
"Itche Goldberg has pretty much single-handedly kept the Yiddish Left going for the last 30 years."
"The oldest writer ever to have published a new book."
"Mir shatsn op ayer vunderlekhe arbet l'toyves der yidisher kultur vos hot baraikhert dem gontsn Yidishn yishev. (“We honor your wonderful work for the benefit of Yiddish culture which enriches all of Yiddish heritage.”)
"For a century, [he] was a living link to the Yiddish culture of East European immigrants."
Regarding Yiddishe Kultur: "Itche Goldberg is the dynamic force behind this publication."
"A champion of Yiddish who wrote and edited and taught his beloved language in the face of all those who said keeping Yiddish alive was a lost cause."
"A fixture in the communist struggles of the 1920s and 30s." "Veteran of the communist heyday of the 1920s."
"Embraced then rejected Communism during a lifelong dedication to the preservation of Yiddish culture."
Age 100
In honor of his 100th birthday the Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus had a concert which included a musical adaptation of I.L. PeretzI.L. Peretz
Isaac Leib Peretz , also known as Yitskhok Leybush Peretz and Icchok Lejbusz Perec or Izaak Lejb Perec , best known as I.L. Peretz, was a Yiddish language author and playwright. Payson R. Stevens, Charles M...
's "Oyb Nit Nokh Hekher", with libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Itche Goldberg. In another 100th tribute, Jerrold Nadler
Jerrold Nadler
Jerrold Lewis "Jerry" Nadler is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1992. He is a member of the Democratic Party.The district includes the west side of Manhattan from the Upper West Side down to Battery Park, including the site where the World Trade Center stood...
honored him in the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
by saying: "Mir shatsn op ayer vunderlekhe arbet l'toyves der yidisher kultur vos hot baraikhert dem gontsn Yiddishn yishev." (English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
translation ``We honor your wonderful work for the benefit of Yiddish culture which enriches all of Yiddish heritage.)
He died at 102 years of age with, still, a very sharp mind. His last book was "Essayen Tsvey" ("Essays Two"), in 2004, at age 100. In honor of this publication, a commemoration of his life was held 25 July 2006, sponsored by YIVO and League for Yiddish. A Josh Wiletsky documentary was made of his lfe at age 101, "Itche Goldberg, A Century Of Yiddish Letters", and was shown at this event.
Quotes
"The split in the Socialist ranks was very powerful, and harmful and it was about attitudes to the Soviet Union".“Never, never in history, did we produce so many poets and so much poetry in such a short period of time, barely one century. It is rare to find so much creativity in the entire history of our involvement with other languages. Look at the Tanakh—you have any number of splendors put together by various writers over the course of centuries. But here, they weren’t given any time. Time was so short for all of us. And we’re speaking only of poetry. But the prose that was produced! ... It was a time of exceptional, history-making creativity. And if we don’t understand this, we will perhaps not understand how to inherit or what to inherit.” (Speaking of Yiddish literature in first half of 20th century)
“Just because I’m secular doesn’t mean I’m antireligious.”
"The need to keep Yiddish alive in one shape or another is very basic. And after what we went through -- the loss not only of six million but also Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
-- do you allow a culture to drift away and stop existing?"
"You can't possibly see a future Jewish life with the disappearance of a 1,000-year-old language and with it a 1,000-year-old culture. Somehow it has to be there."
"There was no question about our Jewishness or Jewish consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
and the Jewish consciousness led us very naturally to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Here was Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, anti-Semitic; here was Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, which was anti-Semitic. Suddenly we saw how Jewish culture was developing in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. It was really breathtaking. You had the feeling that both the national problem was solved and the social problem was solved. This was no small thing. It was overpowering and we were young."
"We're dealing with a language that is about 1,000 years old and a literature that is 600 or 700 years old. What developed was an extraordinary and profound modern literature
Modern literature
Modern literature can either refer to*modernist literature *modern literature ....
which would become the equivalent of French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
literature."
"I only have two dreams. One dream is that someone will knock on the door and I will open it and they give me a check for $150,000 for the magazine. Second dream is that someone knocks at the door and I open it up and he gives me a corned beef sandwich. Those are my only two dreams. I'm not asking for much. Really, I'm not. And I think they're both reachable."
"They were killed simply because they were Jewish intellectuals. Their Jewishness was the reason. They were all stamped as spies." (Re' 1952 Stalin victims)
At age 100: "The question of where we go from here is on my mind a lot. What’s happened to socialism? What is the future of Yiddishism? When I came, at age 21, into the Workmen’s Circle shule in Toronto, I had so much eagerness, energy, and faith in socialism and in Yiddishism. Now I have insecurity. But I am used to insecurity. For over forty years I have published Yidishe Kultur without ever being able to secure its existence!"
"So a generation passes."
"Nu, far vos a bissel? Lernst du!" ("So, why just a little? Learn!", response to someone who knew only a little Yiddish)
On Eruv Yom Kippur, 2006, three months before dying, Goldberg's secretary claimed that he had asked to put on Teffilin. A Lubovitsher hasid was found and obliged; a photo taken, and printed in the Algeminer Zhurnal. When Itche saw the photo he was outraged. "They printed that?" he asked his son. The orthodox press made much of his "conversion," but it had no basis in reality. A mezuzzah that had been attached to his door was removed. Itche had loved and honored what he understood as Jewish religious folkloric traditions his entire life, and he relished every aspect of Jewish culture, ritual, and liturgy, at the same time that he maintained a respectful but profound and complex scepticism to all matters of faith until his last clear days.
"There will... be a full ‘transfer of power’ to the new emerging generation. I stress emerging, because I do not anticipate a Venus-like birth of a new Jewish Homo Americanus flowing out of the foam of the Sea of History. It will be a slow process of continuity and change.... The historic challenge for us will be: can we carry over and implant our secular and humanist national values into the Jewish cultural patterns of the ‘80s? I am not going to define secularism here. However, I want to make a very broad statement: secularism is for us the only point of entry into Jewish life. We have ideologically and philosophically rejected for ourselves religion as the point of entry. Zionism—despite our positive stand on Israel—is not our link, either. National negation we eschew and reject. We therefore have no alternative whatsoever except a historic-cultural secular tie which binds us with the people. Realistically and historically we have no alternative. However, to influence others—yes, and to give identity to ourselves—we must raise secularism to a meaningful expression and link with the people.... Meaningful implies depth, knowledge, commitment, involvement, renewal and—yes, of course—tradition."
"Nonsense" (his response to the idea that Yiddish is dying)
"I sometimes feel that we were wrong in failing to incorporate more Jewish values in our Yiddishkayt. I’ve always enjoyed reading the Bible, particularly the prophets, and I wonder at times if we were a bit too dismissive, or ignorant, of our Jewishness.... I would not now permit so much to be brushed aside." (See also http://www.algemeiner.com/generic.asp?id=2495)
“As the medieval walls around Jewish life collapsed, the role of religion as the sole expression of national connection dwindled.” [Religion became] “a branch of the Jewish tree but not its trunk.” This thesis, writes Goldberg, “was a significant act of historical liberation. The branch-stem concept became the groundwork for the ventures of Jewish secularism. Secularism rests on two notions: on the one hand accepting religion as an important form of expression for a certain sector of the people, and, on the other, proclaiming secularism as a branch of the same stem with equal rights and values—immersed in tradition and a natural outgrowth of the people’s past. For the first time, the concept of pluralism became acceptable within the Jewish community—not according to economic class, but according to beliefs and ideas of nationhood. Although secularism continued to rely on the lower layers of society—the workers, middle-class folks, and large parts of the modern intelligentsia—for the first time the basic idea was confirmed that every segment of the people, so long as it remains tied to the stem, has a right to shape its own national connections and its national destiny according to its perception of its history.”
Librettist
1953 - "The first annual concert of the Jewish Cultural Clubs and Societies features the sister chorus of the JPPC, the Jewish People's Chorus of New York (JPCNY) conducted by Maurice Rauch, performing the first of many dramatic chorales written by Itche Goldberg in collaboration with Rauch as composer" More than 20 works were done with Rauch.1981 Yiddish musical play: "Tevye
Tevye
Tevye the Dairyman is the protagonist of several of Sholem Aleichem's stories, originally written in Yiddish and first published in 1894. The character became best known from the fictional memoir Tevye and his Daughters , about a pious Jewish milkman in Tsarist Russia, and the troubles he has with...
's Hodl"
Musical adaptation of I.L. Peretz
I.L. Peretz
Isaac Leib Peretz , also known as Yitskhok Leybush Peretz and Icchok Lejbusz Perec or Izaak Lejb Perec , best known as I.L. Peretz, was a Yiddish language author and playwright. Payson R. Stevens, Charles M...
's "Oyb Nit Nokh Hekher"
External links
- "Stubborn as His Kultur, the Old Man Lives" by Dan Barry, New York Times, 27 May 2006.
- Vilnius University Award
- "Editor Strives to Save Yiddish Journal"
- NYTimes Conversation With Goldberg
- http://www.kinderland.org/sylvanlake/pictures/hopnobbing/1949paulrobeson1.htmGoldberg and Paul RobesonPaul RobesonPaul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
] - Goldberg's Canadian Intro to Communism
- Nadler's Speech
- "Fight To Save Yiddish"
- Kinderland Hymn
- NYU oral history archives of Itche Goldberg interviews; available to public
- Baltimore Sun interview
- Paul Buehle on Goldberg, superb read
- Goldberg on Khayim Zhitlovsky