Acknowledgments

It took a multilingual village of individuals spread across the globe to produce this book. I am deeply grateful to all of you.

I start by thanking Sheva Zucker, who read early drafts of my translations of each of the stories in this collection, except for “Vladek,” word by word, checking for accuracy of translation, making suggestions as to appropriate English usage, and engaging in discussion about translation theory and practice. I learned important fundamentals of translation from Sheva. With the gift of her teaching, I also greatly improved my Yiddish language skills.

Translating these stories brought me great joy. While never swerving from the truth, Abraham Karpinowitz answered genocide with love: love for his characters and love for his craft as a writer.

Dr. Sarah Lapickaja granted me permission to bring the work of her late husband into English. Simon Lapitsky and Anna Karpinowitz Gelbart facilitated the permission granting process. Anna also shared information about her uncle, Abraham Karpinowitz, and family photographs.

Liba Augenfed, Fania Brancovskaja, and Shulamis Zhabinskaia shared their detailed memories of life in di amolike Vilna and their knowledge of Karpinowitz’s idiomatic Lithuanian Yiddish. When all efforts to understand the author’s idiomatic usage failed, I turned to Eliezer Niborski, who always found the key to solve the translation challenge. Meir Shapiro shared his unpublished manuscript of Vilna Yiddish expressions and his extensive knowledge in this area.

Abraham Karpinowitz’s good deeds and reputation have greatly benefited the look of this English language publication of his stories. Samuel Bak and the Pucker Gallery gave permission for the use, without charge, of Bak’s painting Soutine Street for the cover. Yosl Bergner allowed us to use, without charge, his three drawings as they appeared in the original Yiddish publication of Karpinowitz’s book Baym Vilner durkhhoyf (I. L. Peretz, 1967). Bak’s painting and Bergner’s drawings are the perfect accompaniment to Karpinowitz’s stories. Thank you also to Reina Kambayashi for her evocative photograph of Abraham Karpinowitz, also given without charge.

Thank you to Solon Beinfeld and Harry Bochner for your wonderful and appropriately named Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary.

I began this translation project in a class taught by Rivke Margolis at the YIVO Summer Program in New York. Katherine Silver, as part of the 2014 Yiddish Book Center translation fellowship program, helped me to find my own voice as a translator.

Benjamin Mintz created the perfect work space for me.

I would like to thank Dara Culhane, Michael Kaufman-Lacusta, Rachel Mines, Kian Mintz-Woo, David Mivasair, Rachel Mines, Elliot Palevsky, Ruth Portner, Nancy Richler, Leah Robinson, and Marna Sapsowitz, who read the translations of various stories and memoirs, providing valuable feedback. Thank you Meyer Grinshpan and Irvin Rivkin for your skilled and open-hearted teaching. Shimon Joffre and I shared some of our translations with each other. For the introduction: Dara Culhane encouraged me to express my own voice and Rachel Mines made valuable editorial suggestions.

The notes at the end of this book were made possible by the hard work and bibliographic talents of the librarians and archivists at the Jewish Public Library, in particular Eddie Paul and Eiran Harris. I would also like to thank Leo Greenbaum (YIVO), Amriel Kissner (independent archivist), and Eddie Stone (Jewish Public Library) for their research help. Also Ilisia Kissner, who donned an archivist’s hat for a day.

Michael More synthesized information from many sources to create the map, repeatedly working under great time pressures. Laimonas Briedis shared his extensive knowledge of Vilna, particularly its urban geography.

Kian Mintz-Woo, Rachel Mines, and Faith Jones helped me to troubleshoot challenges as they arose. Kian offered much needed technical support.

Dara Culhane and Nancy Richler offered emotional and intellectual comradeship throughout. Justin Cammy was a great support in the crunch at the end.

Many people generously shared their knowledge of specific subjects including Sheila Barkusky, Rahel Halabe and David Mivasair (the Hebrew language and traditional Jewish religious practice), Ri Turner (the transliteration of Hebrew words), Dan Gillis and Leonard Freedman (fishing), Harold Perloff (the Yiddish bird kingdom), Carl Wong (construction of musical instruments), and Konstantin Beznosov (the Russian language). Seymour Levitan helped me compose letters in Yiddish.

Many people at Syracuse University Press helped to bring the initial manuscript to book form. Ken Frieden, Jennika Baines, and Deborah Manion offered the encouragement and wisdom I needed to refine the manuscript. Deb was determined enough to get me to finally release these wonderful stories for publication. Thank you to Brendan Missett, Victoria Lane, and Kay Steinmetz, who shepherded this book through the production process. Thank you, Lynn P. Wilcox, for the cover design.

Lastly and most importantly, I want to thank my parents, Esther Freedman Mintz and Benjamin Mintz, who instilled in me a love of learning, intellectual curiosity and independence, and a joyful pride in the Yiddish language and Yiddish culture.

If I have failed to mention anyone, please accept my apologies and gratitude.

Helen Mintz