Arguing with the Storm: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers

In 2000, a group of senior Jewish women in Winnipeg, intrigued by the large Yiddish collection at the Winnipeg Public Library, decided to form a reading circle for discussion of these works. Concerned that these works would be lost, they began to translate the stories and memoirs, and this book is the result. Although the women represented here are all Eastern European, they led varied lives, some active in the worlds of literature and journalism, others not so much. Some emigrated, to the United States, to Canada, to Palestine (as it was then); others were lost in the Holocaust. All had something to say. The works of the nine writers represented here range geographically from the shtetl to Miami Beach, in time from the 1905 Revolution to the present. The characters are young women and old, country and city dwellers, immigrants, Holocaust survivors, and their children and grandchildren. Some are funny, some somber, some in between. If your idea of the shtetl was formed by "Fiddler on the Roof", read Rochel Broches devastating account of the short life of mamzers in "Little Abrahams" or Sarah Hamer-Jacklyn's "No More Rabbi!" Hamer-Jacklyn and Frume Halpern write movingly of the plight of older women, the search for stability and love. Bryna Bercovitch and Paula Frankel-Zaltzman are represented by their memoirs, the one of life in the Ukraine, the other of the Dvinsk ghetto. We owe the Winnipeg Women's Yiddish Reading Circle a debt of gratitude for rescuing these stories from the library's dusty shelves, and making them available to a new audience.

The translated stories that are compiled in this book show the strength and determination and spirit of women who faced major life obstacles. These stories would have been lost forever if not for the author's search to have then translated and then compiled in this wonderful book. Thank you Rhea Tregebov! The book is a short one, the reading is easy, the stories are very poignant.

I grew up in the sentimental Jewish tradition where Yiddish stories expressed the community's hopes and romanticized its characters. Every rabbi was wise, every Jew pious and long-suffering, and every fool was holy. So this ground-breaking collection of 14 stories by 9 women authors was a revelation for me. Gritty and fresh, the writers share the rawness of their immigrant experience and the dislocation they encountered as their old world collapsed. With a clear and unflinching eye, these stories focus on life inside the Jewish community, rather than the normative storyline of Jews united against the common challenge of an anti-semitic world. Instead, we discover previously untellable tales of abandoned orphans, blind prejudice, family conflicts, and complex love triangles inside an old folks' home. The collection was lovingly translated by the Winnipeg Yiddish Women's Reading Circle under the direction of editor Rhea Tregebov, who also provides a brief biographical sketch of each author. An eye-opener for lovers of Jewish writing - this collection will re-draw the map of Yiddish literature.

I was very moved by this book. Beyond the evident literary quality, there was a sense of really entering into the lives of these women, whose stories have been obscured for so many decades by neglect and bias. I think this anthology will resonate for readers from many backgrounds and of many ages. Read it, buy it for your friends, mothers, grandmothers.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the authentic lives of our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. If you want to see beyond the stereotype of the Jewish mother, this is the book to read. It's a no-schmaltz-allowed zone, and the stories are rivetting. Great gift for the holidays, Mother's Day, birthdays. The translations are beautifully done, and the bios included tantalizing glimpses into these women's lives.