The Publication and Dissemination of the Yehoash Bible, 1922–1942

Abstract

At Czernowitz Conference on Yiddish Language in 1908, Isaac L. Peretz called for the translation into Yiddish of all our cultural treasures from our free, golden primarily translation into Yiddish of Bible.1 As Peretz was speaking these words, a translation attempt was already underway on other side of Atlantic. The famed Russian-American translator and Solomon Bloomgarden (1870-1927), better known by his pen name Yehoash, published his Yiddish translation of books of Isaiah, Esther, Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Ruth in 1911. However, Yehoash, who had immigrated to America in 1890 and was described in a 1923 New York Times book review as greatest living poet of Yiddish language,2 was unsatisfied with these translations. He redoubled his translation efforts, relocating with his wife, Flora, and daughter, Evlin (Chava), to Palestine in 1913. There, he intended to absorb into his sensitive soul atmosphere of country which produced Bible, as well as learn classical Arabic and Syriac, which contributed to his linguistic understanding of Hebrew Bible text.3 (Alternative reasons for trip included Yehoash's long-held dream of living in Land of Israel, and need to improve his fragile health, a result of previously suffering from tuberculosis.)4 The outbreak of First World War forced Bloomgardens to leave Palestine, and they returned to United States in 1915. in New York, in addition to publishing a lengthy, three-part memoir about his journey, From New York to Rehovot and Back (1917), Yehoash continued and at last completed his Yiddish Bible translation. Critics hailed work as a masterpiece, first modern, literary translation of Bible into Yiddish, and this Bible translation remains project for which Yehoash is best remembered today.The Yehoash Bible went through three main stages of publication and dissemination, mostly during interwar period: partial serialization in Yiddish-language New York daily newspaper Der Tog (1922-1925); appearance in book form (Yiddish only), first as eight-volume set released incrementally from 1927 to 1937, then as a two-volume set (1938); and, finally, release of a two-volume, bilingual Hebrew-Yiddish edition in February 1940 (reprinted in 1942, 1946, and 1957). The work of publication and dissemination ultimately turned out to be a family affair. Yehoash himself only lived to see first two Yiddish volumes of his translation (the Pentateuch) in book form. After his death, his widow continued work of editing and seeing books to print. Flora Bloomgarden-or Flora Yehoash, as she was also known-edited and released additional four volumes (two volumes of Early Prophets, two volumes of Later Prophets) before she too passed away in 1934. Following Flora's death, Bloomgardens' only child, Evlin, took over reins of organization responsible for continuing her father's legacy, Yehoash Publication Society, wresting it legally from hands of its indifferent stockholders. She renamed operation Yehoash Farlag Gezelshaft, exact Yiddish translation of its original name (hereafter referred to as YFG).5 Over next seven years, she and her husband, Ben Dworkin, tried, dedicatedly and often desperately, to complete work that her parents had left unfinished.Recently, scholars have explored Yehoash's literary and cultural motivations for his Bible translation work, noting that translation was intended to contribute to a burgeoning modern secular Jewish culture as well as to make Bible accessible to Yiddish-speaking masses.6 Shlomo Berger has argued that Yehoash wish[ed] to be modern, secular, and progressive, and nevertheless [felt] that Yiddish could not escape its religious Jewish past, describing translator's approach as an act of poetic betrayal.7 Ultimately, Yehoash not only preserved a significant number of Hebrew words within Yiddish translation, but he also did not do away with religious writings or Yiddish dialects. …