Book Reviews
A Mediocre Volume
The Jewish Publication Society has issued a volume containing two stories by Ulrich Frank, entitled “Simon Eichelkatz” and “The Patriarch.” From a literary point of view, the stories lack directness, dramatic interest, and are prolix to an unendurable degree. The author moves along at a slow pace, and points out as evidences of the superiority of his characters trivial observations that are devoid of any interest. If Simon Eichelkatz were left to tell his story, it coukl be reduced to about thirty pages, and would have made an interesting character study. The presence of the doctor on the lookout for deep philosophy where none exists becomes tiresome. In the second story, what might have been a good short story is carried along by means of conversation which gradually loses point as the interest in the narration increases.Few of the characters emerge out of the tedious, prolix and colorless conversation. The Zionism in the story is lost in the mazes of du. romance. There are fifty good stories of German Jewish life that would have made better reading. But the Publication Society, in the multitude of its advisers. manages to rcach a level of mediocrity which is astonishing when one considers that so many able men are on its publication committee.
"The Yiddish Kaempfer"
The first number of the second volume of the “Yiddisher Kaempfer” offers a surprising and a welcome change in the policy of this excellent periodical, which is a credit to those self-sacrificing Zionists whose devotion has made so good a Yiddish magazine possible. The “Kaempfer” assumes the magazine form and eliminates much of the
trivial news features which formerly were part of its composition. The articles in this first number are all, in their way, go00d, entertaining and informing. Dr. H. Solato- rov contributes an article on “Socialism in Palestine;” Mr. Antin, the dramatic critic, has his first. article on a review of Gordin’s plays, which are in the nature of a reply to a Russian critic, whose undue eulogy of Mr. Gordin Mr. Antin resents. Other writers whose work appears in this number are by K. Marmor, L. Schapiro, H. Rosenblatt, G. Lubetsky, A. Wolhener and H. Orditscheff. In lieu of a general Zionist Yiddish weekly, Zionists who want Yiddish literature written from the point of view of nationalism need look no further; the “Yiddisher Kaempfer,” serves the purpose very well. A one years subscription costs $1.50, single copies, three cents. The office of the publıcatıon ıs ı2 Jefferson street, New York.
New Jewish Dramas in Russia
A number of dramas treating of Jewish life have just been published in Russia. The most important of these are: "The King," by S. Yushkevich, author of "The Jews;" "The Bush of Thorns," by David Eizman, and "Shema Thorns," by David Dymov. All these plays were written in Russian. A German version of Sholem Ash's drama, entitled "El Nekomos," (The God of Vengeance) has just been produced in Berlin; it is a depressing and morbid study of Jewish life, of such a nature as to make it impossible of representation in America.
THE MACCABAEAN will shortly offer its readers an excellent story by Korolenko, the Russian writer, treating of the Jews under the Roman supremacy. The story will probably run through three or four numbers.