Erev — Mediated Wiki

{{Short description|Novel}} {{about|the novel by Eli Schechtman|other uses|Erev (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox book | name = EREV | image = File:EREV Yid Full 83.jpg  | caption = | title_orig = ערב | author = Eli Schechtman | country = Israel | language = Yiddish | publisher = Farlag Yisroel-bukh Tel Aviv | release_date = 1983 | pages = 1222 }}

{{Infobox book | name = EREV first edition | image = File:EREV YID 2Parts 66.jpg  | caption = | title_orig = {{lang|yi|ערעוו}} | author = Eli Schechtman | country = USSR | language = Yiddish | publisher = Sovetski Pisatel | release_date = 1965 | pages = 236 }} '''''Erev''''' ({{langx|yi|ערעוו||eve}}) is a 1983 novel by Eli Schechtman. The first edition of ''Erev'' is the beginning of Eli Schechtman's novel written in the Soviet Union and contained four books. The novel was published in the ''Sovetish Heymland'' magazine from 1961 to 1968 and in book form in 1965. It describes the life of Russian Jews of the early twentieth century. The "full ''Erev''," which was written and published in Israel in 1983, contains seven books and describes the life of Russian Jews in the early twentieth century until the end of World War II.

==Overview and publication history== ''Erev'' is central Schechtman's literary work and was the first Yiddish-language novel published in the Soviet Union after the Stalin death.<ref name=yivo>{{cite encyclopaedia|url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Shekhtman_Eli|title=Shekhtman, Eli|encyclopaedia=The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe|first=Gennady|last=Estraikh|access-date=17 January 2020}}</ref><ref name=ej>{{cite encyclopaedia|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/shekhtman-elye|title=Shekhtman, Elye|encyclopaedia=Encyclopaedia Judaica|first=Jerold C.|last=Frakes|access-date=17 January 2020}}</ref> The first four parts of the novel were serialised in ''Sovetish Heymland'' from 1961 up to 1968.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/sh1967/0513?sid=00773254d117043ce6803df568d1b242|title = Soweṭiš heimland: Liṭerariš-kinsṭlerišer choideš žšurnal (1967)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/sh1968/0066?sid=00773254d117043ce6803df568d1b242|title = Soweṭiš heimland: Liṭerariš-kinsṭlerišer choideš žšurnal (1968)}}</ref> and only two parts were published in censored form as a book in Moscow in 1965. In 1964 first two books of the novel were translated into French by Rachel Ertel under name ''À la vielle de...''. In 1967 the same two books of novel were translated into English by Joseph Singer<ref>Joseph Singer is son of Israel Joshua Singer and nephew of Isaac Bashevis Singer</ref> under name ''Erev'', where author has been compared in stature to Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anton Chekhov.<ref>''Erev'' translated by Joseph Singer, [New York],1967, Book cover</ref> Four books were translated in Hebrew in Israel in 1975 by Zvi Arad under name ''Beterem''.<ref name=yivo/><ref name=estraikh>{{cite book|first=Gennady|last=Estraikh|title=Yiddish in the Cold War|publisher=Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge|year=2008|page=95}}</ref>

Started after Eli Schechtman released from prison in 1953, the full text of ''Erev'' novel, consisting of seven books, was completed after thirty years in 1983 and published in Israel. The novel was translated into Russian by Alma Shin and appeared in 2005. A French translation by {{ill|Rachel Ertel|fr|Rachel Ertel}} appeared in 2018.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ingeveb.org/blog/the-latest-yiddish-translations-2018|title=The Latest Yiddish Translations, 2018|first1=Maia|last1=Evrona|first2=Jessica|last2=Kirzane|first3=Daniel|last3=Kennedy|work=In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies|date=14 January 2019|access-date=17 January 2020}}</ref>

==Plot summary== The novel tells the story of a Jewish family in Eastern Europe over four centuries, from its escape from a blood libel in medieval Germany to Russia in the early twentieth century.<ref>{{cite book|first=Rachel|last=Rokanski|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8U-_DwAAQBAJ|page=259|title=Yiddish in Israel: A History|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2020|isbn=9780253045188}}</ref> On the example of the Boyar's family history, author tells us about the fate of Jewish people throughout the 20th century – from the end of the Russo-Japanese War until the end of World War II and the creation of Israel|the state of Israel. The novel paints a rich and intricate gallery of characters facing consistent persecution, while ideology ranges from Tsarist autocracy to Stalinism and Nazism. The Boyar family, although it suffered heavy losses in the brutal upheavals of the era, never stopped fighting for its spiritual and physical survival.

==Critical reception== Professor Shlomo Bikel has said: "Erev is one of the most important works that Soviet-Yiddish literature has given us."<ref>''Erev'', translated by Joseph Singer, [New York],1967, Book cover</ref> Gennady Estraikh has described ''Erev'' as "one of the most accomplished novels in postwar Yiddish literature".<ref name=estraikh/> Writing in the ''Jewish Quarterly'' in 1978, Elias Schulman argued that "If Soviet Yiddish literature could still produce a novel of the stature and quality of ''Erev'' and [Nathan] Zabare's two-part masterpiece [''Unter der heyser zun fun Provans'' and its sequel ''S'iz nokh groys der tog''], we can assuredly assume that Russian Jewry has not yet exhausted its resources, and that Soviet Yiddish culture can yet be revived."<ref>{{cite journal|first=Elias|last=Schulman|page=35|title=Can Soviet-Yiddish Culture Be Revived?|journal=Jewish Quarterly|volume=26|issue=1|year=1978|doi=10.1080/0449010X.1978.10703477|doi-broken-date=1 July 2025}}</ref>\

==Translations of novel Erev== '''Eli Schechtman''' <gallery> File:A la vielle de esh.jpg|Name: '''a la vielle de...''' Language: French Translator : R. Ertel Date: 1964 File:Erev fr.png|Name: '''Erev, a la vielle de...''' Language: French Translator : R. Ertel Date: 2018 {{ISBN|978-2-283-02859-9}} File:EREV I&II.jpg|Name: '''Эрев''' Language: Russian Translator : Alma Shin Date: 2005 {{ISBN|((965-7272-02-3))}} {{ISBN|965-7272-02-5}} File:Erev eng.png|Language: English Translator : J. Singer Date: 1967 Congress Catalog : 67-17706 File:Baterem.png|Language: Hebrew Translator : Zvi Arad Date: 1975 </gallery>

<!-- descr

File:Baterem.png|thumb|center|Language: Hebrew Translator : Zvi Arad Date: 1975

File:EREV I&II.jpg|thumb|center|Name: '''Эрев''' Language: Russian Translator : Alma Shin Date: 2005 {{ISBN|((965-7272-02-3))}} {{ISBN|965-7272-02-5}}

File:Erev fr.png|thumb|center|Name: '''Erev, a la vielle de...''' Language: French Translator : R. Ertel Date: 2018 {{ISBN|978-2-283-02859-9}}

File:EREV Yid Full 83.jpg (en)

File:EREV fr ash.jpg File:EREV I&II esh.jpg

File:Erev(novel) 1964.jpg Beterem esh.jpg -->

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * Itshe Goldberg, "Eli Shekhtman, 1908—1996," ''Yidishe kultur'' 11–12, (1996)

==External links== * {{Internet Archive|nybc210498|''Erev'' (in Yiddish)}}

Category:1965 novels Category:1983 novels Category:20th-century Israeli novels Category:Yiddish-language literature Category:Novels by Eli Schechtman