What few Judeo-German books were issued in Russia before the sixties were printed mostly in the printing offices of Wilna and Warsaw. Up to the forties, the books that proceeded from the first place bear the names of the printers Manes and Simel, after which begins the activity of the firm Romm, which is still in existence; but Romm is not the only firm there now as it has been for nearly fifty years. In Warsaw we find in the beginning of our century the office of Levinsohn; in the forties many works were also printed at Orgelbrand's. In the sixties and the seventies, most of the better works were published in the South. The firms of Nitsche, and Beilinsohn in Odessa and of Schadow, and Bakst in Zhitomir printed nearly all the Judeo-German books of the Southern group of writers. The books of the Odessa firms are particularly well printed, and put together in an attractive form. In the last twenty years Berdichev, Kiev, Wilna, Warsaw, have been the leading cities to print such books, while Lublin in Poland, and Lemberg in Galicia, have brought out a mass of religious and legendary literature. The Lemberg chapbooks can hardly be equalled for the miserable way in which they are gotten up and printed.
Anciently Jewish bookstores could be found only in the largest cities. In the towns and villages the books were disseminated by the itinerant bookseller who carried with him a variety of things which did not have anything in common with the book trade, such as candlesticks, show-threads, prayer shawls, and other things necessary in the observance of the Mosaic Law. Even now this wandering bookseller has not gone out of existence. All the stories of Abramowitsch are told in the person of Mendele Mōcher Sforim, i.e. Mendel the Bookseller, of whose part played in the distribution of literature and as a newsmonger many interesting details will be found in his works. It is interesting to note that a few years ago several Russians who had undertaken to spread good books among the people resorted to the same means that for a hundred years, if not longer, had been in vogue among the Jews. The books were hawked about in a wagon from village to village, and to attract the peasants, many other useful things were sold by these itinerant bookstores.
Since the dispersion of the Russian Jews in Europe and America, there has arisen in the diaspora a large number of periodical publications which serve as the medium for the dissemination of all kinds of knowledge. In England there were issued in the eighties the weeklies The Future and The Polish Jew, and in the nineties a monthly The Free World. Some good essays on sociological questions, mostly of a socialistic nature, were issued by the 'Socialistic Library' and 'The People's Library' in London. In Paris there has appeared since 1896 a weekly, The Hatikwoh, under the editorship of Bernas, the former compiler of a calendar. In that city Zuckermann is publishing also a 'Library of Novels,' in which one may find translations of many of the popular French works. Roumania has had a gazette, the Hajōez, ever since the seventies, which has published a number of novels in book form. The most of these are translations; the few original ones that have appeared in that collection are of little value. A few other papers may be found in Jassy and other places. In 1896 H. L. Gottlieb started a monthly in M.-Sziget in Hungary, but it lived only two months. Most of the articles in prose and poetry are by the editor himself, whose style resembles that of Linetzki and Goldfaden. There have also been published a dozen books, mostly farces or parodies, in Judeo-German, but with German letters. Nearly all of these appeared in Austria and Hungary. They add nothing to the store of the Judeo-German literature.
CHRESTOMATHY
As the main intention of the present Chrestomathy is to give a conception of the literary value of Judeo-German literature, and not of its linguistic development, the texts have all been normalized to the Lithuanian variety of speech. The translations make no pretence to literary form: they are as literal as is consistent with the spirit of the English language; only in the case of Abramowitsch's writings it was necessary frequently to depart considerably from the text, in order to give an adequate idea of the original meaning which, in the Judeo-German, on account of the allusions, is not always clear to the reader. The choice of the extracts has been such as to illustrate the various styles, and only incidentally to reproduce the story; hence their fragmentariness. Should the present work rouse any interest in the humble literature of the Russian Jews, the author will undertake a more complete Chrestomathy which will do justice to the linguistic requirements as well.
I. SSEEFER KOHELES
(Chap. I. 1-11)
1. Dās senen die Wörter Koheles, Dāwids Suhn, Melech in Jeruscholaim.
2. Hawel Hawolim, flegt Koheles zu sāgen, Hawel Hawolim, All'sding is Howel.
3. Wās kummt dem Menschen draus mit all' sein Horewanie, wās er derhorewet sich nor unter der Sunn'.
4. Ēin Dor gēht varbei un' ein anderer Dor kummt wieder auf, nor die Erd' bleibt asō ēbig stēhn.