Writing Yiddish and Hebrew in a German speaking city: Berdichevsky’s cultural translations in Berlin

• In Event: The city as a realm of cultural encounter and translation in Yiddish and Hebrew literature

Abstract

As Karin Neuburger has elaborated, Micha Yoseph Berdichevsky (1865-1921) lived at the margins of Berlin, not only from a geographical and economical point of view, but also on a social level. Moreover, he wrote in Yiddish and mostly Hebrew - although he also translated his and other works into German - and thus, situated himself within the circles of minor literary languages whose centers were, especially before the First World War, in Eastern Europe. I am, however, going to argue that he was not a marginal literary figure and that he acted as a crucial cultural translator between East and West.
It is therefore the aim of this paper to exemplify this process of translation in Berdichevsky’s oeuvre and to contextualise it within the development of the vibrant Hebrew culture that emerged in Berlin in the 1920s. Berdichevsky himself remained, throughout his life, on both sides of the translational process and therefore preserved a rather strong connection to Jewish traditions in Eastern Europe. This is also reflected in the constant change of languages, a phenomenon that will be taken into consideration by asking how texts, written in both Yiddish and Hebrew treat the cityscape as a microcosm of cultural translation. In some cases this happens even from a far, marginal perspective on the character’s path to the West. This path is not only essential to Berdichvesky’s own biography, but, moreover, describes the life he imagined for many of his characters. Hans-Joachim Hahn called migrations like this a move from the Ghetto to Europe, referring thereby to Europe as a metaphor for secularism, university education and Western literature and culture in general.
It will thus become clear, that, although he already died in 1921 and was consequently never part of this scene himself, Berdichevsky, through cultural translation, paved the way and wrote the prelude to the emergence of Yiddish and Hebrew literature in Berlin of the interwar period.

Author

• Judith Müller, University of Basel / Ben Gurion University of the Negev