"
THE JEWISH ENX'YCLOPEDIA
125 twenty he went
only for a sliort a revolutionary movement, he «a.>< lianishcil tirst to the j;"^'ernnient of In 1S8T he Areliani;el, then to Samara anil Kazan. pradualcd at St. l'cliTsl)urir. wlu-re in I'.KIl he jiniclis earliest poems appeared in " Vostiseil law. time.
IJeing
to St. Petersburg,
inii)li(iileil
in
I
"Xedyelya."
kliod."
an<l oilier jieriodieals,
and were
Exeepting those published in book form in INMll. devoted to .Judaism or that treat of IJililieal subjects his poems do not e.xhibit mueli originality. BiULiiKiR.ipuv
Venirerov, Kritiko-BingraflcheKki Slnvar.
s.
v.
H. R.
ABRAMOWITSCH, SOLOMON (SHALOM) JACOB, the
name
The
of his work.
"Mendele
known
also by Moelier Seforiin "
.h-wisli (.irvanles,"
A
Hebrew and .Judaci(.Meiidele the liookseller) German writer; born at Kopyl. Lithuania, in lH;i(l. He studied Talmud at the heder and bet lia-mi<lrash until the deatli of his father, which oeeurred in 1K49.
he wandered from town to town, visitinj; Slutsk and Vilna, and learninj; Hebrew literalure in Early in life the rabliinie eoUeires of those towns. the poetic side of his nature asserted itself, and he wrote several Hebrew lyrics, but withoit much suecess. Through family circumstances he was compelled to remove from Lithuania and to go to VolDuring hynia and thence to Podolia. Wander- his wanderings he became thoroughly aci|Mainted with the conditions of ings. .Jewish life iu Russia. At the age of eighteen he settled in the city of Ivamcnetz-I'iKlolsk, where he made the nciiuaintanee of the Hebrew poet Abraham Gottlober, and began the study of
Asa youth
modem
l{us.sian
German
and
literalure,
under the guidance of Gottlober's elder daughter. In 1M.")() he became a teacher in the Jewish Boys' College of the government in Kamenel/.. and in the
same year he published his tirst essay,
imder the
title
Education. " perio<lical "
in
Ha
"On the Jlag-
At this lime gid." a strong progressive movement took possession of the cultured Jews in Russia J. .bnitMuv'lt,Hi-h. in eonsei|Uenee of the Abramoreformsof .Mexatiderll. (see nsKAl..Ml). wilsch inlered into the light, and wrote political artichs for the periodicals and likewise published many essjiys in Hebrew on natural science. Two volumes, inadi' up of coUeeled articles on politics, were pulilishecl by him undir the tillis " >Iishpal Shalom") Peaceful .ludirmeiil), isiio. and "'En .MishIn |H(>',> Abmmowilseh pat " (Crilieal Eye). IMCifi. l)egan the publiealion of his work "Toledol haTeba' " (Natund History ). adapted from the"Nalur gesehichli' " of II () Len/ Three volumes of this work weri' linishi-d befnre 1M7','. They aroused grc'at interest in Ihi' study of natural science among the younger generation. Hut it was not in this line of literalure that the talent of Abraniowilseh reached its fullest develop inent. lie was by nature an artist, a novelist who pcnelmted thedeplhsof Ihi' great mass of the peo pie and their customs. In lM(i.S he published a novel .
Abrahaznson^ Abraham Abramowitsch, Solomon Jacob
under the title "Ha-Al)ot wc-ha-Banim" (Fathers and Sons) a descriptive tale of life among the Russian Jews of his generation, iu which he pictured the struggles between the orthodox parents and ,
their progressive sons. This work has been translated into Russian. Abramowitseh's talent mainfested itself especially in his tales of the life of the
common
people, written in the Ju(heo-German dia-
His tirst novel in this line, entitled "Das Kleine Menschel," was written iu HIJ'> an<l publect.
Novels.
lished imder the pseudonym " Mcndele Mocher Seforim" (Jlendele the liookseller). It was a biting satire on an
unworthy province. tlueutial Oder die
Jewi.sh favorite of the governor of his Xot content with attacking such an inperson, he published in IWi!) "Die Ta.xe
Bande Stadl-Baale-Tobot " (The Gang of City Benefactors), translated into Russian b}' Joseph PetVikovski (Byelaya Tzerkov, 1SS4), a very sharp satire on the Russian puriiiiKiiii who nianagcil the allairs of the congregalion in their own interest. This work provoked the wrath of the zealots at the head of the congregalion of Berditehev, where .Vbraniowilsch lived, and he was forced to move to Jitomir, which was then the center of the MaskUim (Progressists). In 18T3 he ludjlislied " Die Kliat.sche," partly translated by 'Wiener under the title " Dobbin" "(" Yiddish Literalure" pp. 2T7-281), an allegory which describes the life of the Jews in their exile, both iu the past and present, with a remarkable psychological thoroughness. This book was later translated into Russian, but the censor interdicted its circulation after the iniblication of the tirst few chapters. A few years later the novel " Kiz/.ur JIas'ot Binyamin ha Slielishi " (An Abridged Account of the 'Tmvels of Benjamin HI.), of which a specimen is translated by Wiener, pp. i?8.')-'20.'5, gave a satirical pictmi^ of the life in the small towns of Vol by Ilia. Bolh " Klialsehe"an<l " .Masot were translated into Polish by the Christian author, Clemens Junosza of Warsjuv. The translation of the sect)nd book bears the title "The Jewish Don Quixote." From 1888 to 18S)0 he imblished two remarkable novels: "Fischke der Krunnner," describing the life of waniUriug Jewish beggars and soot hsjivers with considerable psyclmlogical skilland subtlety, and " Wi'inschlingerl." of a more historical cast, dealing with the limes of Nicholas I. and .lexander II. In 1881 Aliramowitscli removed to Odessa, where he became principal of the Talnunl Tonih School. In 1884 the twenty-fifth anniversary of his literary activity was celebrated. In later years Abnimowilsch was again inclined to write in the classical Hebrew, to which, through his literary talent, he gave a new shajie and which In this laii.iruage he publie enriched by new terms. lished his books, "Sliem we Yaphit ba'Agalah" (Shem and Ja|diet in the Chariot), 18i)(); "Bi-Yeme ha Ra'a.sli " (In the Days of Storm), 181M; "Bi Yeshibah shel .Maalah " "(In Celestial Councils), jnihlished inSokolows".hia.saf," 18!l.'i; anil " Be'Emelj ha Baka"(In the Vale of Ti-ars"), in " Ha Sliiloal.i," l.S!»7-!)8.
brew with
The
last
novel was the aulhor's
own He-
tnuislalioii of his book, " Wllnschlingerl." but many addilioiis and correclioiis. In recent
years Alirainowilsch has become a eonlribulor to the jndao Herman paper, "Der Juil," which is edited In in Russia and published al Cracow, Austria. this i)aper he published a novel with an aulobiograi>liic notice under the title "Shelomoh Rabbi llavvim's." The inlliience of such a literary talent as llial of .bnimowiis<h on his contemporaries has been very great, and he has more limn any other helped to shape the style adopted in Yiddish litem-
