The Jewish Pope Myth, Diaspora and Yiddish Literature THE EUROPEAN HUMANITIES RESEARCH CENTRE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Director: Martin McLaughlin Fiat-Serena Professor of Italian Studies The European Humanities Research Centre of the University of Oxford organizes a range of academic activities, including conferences and workshops, and publishes scholarly works under its own imprint, LEGENDA. Within Oxford, the EHRC bridges, at the research level, the main humanities faculties: Modern Languages, English, Modern History, Classics and Philosophy, Music and Theology. The Centre stimulates interdisciplinary research collaboration throughout these subject areas and provides an Oxford base for advanced researchers in the humanities. The Centres publications programme focuses on making available the results of advanced research in medieval and modern languages and related interdisciplinary areas. An Editorial Board, whose members are drawn from across the British university system, covers the principal European languages. Titles currently include works on Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Yiddish literature. In addition, the EHRC co-publishes with the Society for French Studies, the Modern Humanities Research Association and the British Comparative Literature Association. The Centre also publishes a Special Lecture Series under the LEGENDA imprint, and a journal, Oxford German Studies. Further information: Kareni Bannister, Senior Publications Officer European Humanities Research Centre University of Oxford 76 Woodstock Road, Oxford 0x2 6le [email protected] www.ehrc.ox.ac.uk LEGENDA Chairman of the Editorial Board Professor Martin McLaughlin, Magdalen College STUDIES IN YIDDISH Editorial Committee Professor Malcolm Bowie (General Editor) Christ’s College, Cambridge Professor Marion Aptroot Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf Dr Gennady Estraikh Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Dr Mikhail Krutikov Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Professor David Roskies Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York Dr Joseph Sherman Oriental Institute, University of Oxford Volume Editor Professor Ritchie Robertson, St John’s College Published in this series: i. Yiddish in the Contemporary World 2. The Shtetl: Image and Reality 3. Yiddish and the Left 4. The Jewish Pope: Myth, Diaspora and Yiddish Literature 5. The Yiddish Presence in European Literature: Inspiration and Interaction (forthcoming) LEGENDA/STUDIES IN YIDDISH are published with support from the Mendel Friedman Fund LEGENDA European Humanities R esearch Centre University of Oxford @ Taylor & Francis - Taylor & Francis Group http://taylorandfra ncis.co m Title page of the original edition of R. Shimen Barbun, der rabinerfun maynts, oder der drayfakher troym (Vilna: Romm, 1874) by Ayzik-Meir Dik (see p. 90). From the Harvard College Library Judaica Collection, with the permission of the Harvard College Library The Jewish Pope Myth, Diaspora and Yiddish Literature J oseph Sherman LEGENDA European Humanities Research Centre University of Oxford Studies in Yiddish 4 2003 First published 2003 Published by the European Humanities Research Centre ef ef the University Oxford 47 Hidlington Square Oxford ox1 2JF ef I.EGENDA is the publications imprint the European Humanities Research Centre Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OXl 4 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business ef ef © European Humanities Research Centre the University Oxford 2003 ISBN 13: 978-1-900755-77-1 (pbk) ISSN 1474-2543 ef All rights reserved. No part this publication may be reproduced or disseminated or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system, or otherwise used in any ef manner whatsoever without the express permission the copyright owner British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library LEGENDA series designed by Cox Design Partnership, Witney, Oxon Copy-Editor: Nigel Hope CONTENTS 1 Why? i 2 The Master-Narrative and its Ambiguities 26 3 The Mayse-bukh and the Debut of the Myth 67 4 Ayzik-Meir Dik, Reformer through Fiction 83 5 Y. Y. Trunk and the Myth after the Holocaust 106 6 Radical Subversion with Isaac Bashevis Singer 121 7 The Case of Israel Zangwill 137 8 A Kind of Closure 157 Appendix: R. Shimen Barbun, the Rabbi of Mainz 167 Select Bibliography 195 Index 199