Jacob Dinezon

rdf:langString Jacob Dinezon

rdf:langString

rdf:langString Jacob Dinezon

rdf:langString Jacob Dinezon

rdf:langString Sholem Aleichem

rdf:langString Alter Kacyzne

rdf:langString S. Ansky

rdf:langString Dinezon, late 19th century

rdf:langString Yiddish novels, short stories

rdf:langString Writer

rdf:langString “He was always with those who suffered, for whom things were going badly, who needed something, who needed help. He gave away everything to them, he was not concerned about himself, he allowed nothing for himself. . . . Whenever you saw a smile on his face it was not about something done for him, but because he had given something to someone else. . . . Perhaps the most precious gift that God gave him, his talent, he also gave away. This is how much he was devoted to others and not himself.”

rdf:langString “If I tried to tell you a hundredth part of the way I feel about you, I know that that would be sheer profanation. If I am fated to live a few years longer than I have been expecting, I shall doubtless be able to say that it’s your fault, yours and that of all the other friends who have done so much to carry out your idea of ‘the redemption of the imprisoned.’”

rdf:langString We had two true folk writers: Dinezon and Sholem Aleichem. No one imagines putting these two writers on the same plateau. Yet it is this way: in the main achievement of their artistry, they are comparable. Dinezon, the weeper, and Sholem Aleichem the clown. Both move us with the same theatrical method. Both wrinkle the face of the folk and force it to play along. The first—to weeping. The second—to laughter. Don’t discount the sentimentality of the art. Real sentimentality is just as warranted as real humor. Both methods are primitive ways to create an effect. If they emerge from an artist’s natural characteristic, then their effect is—art. And as this is the shortest way to an effect, it is folk-artistry.

rdf:langString Jacob Dinezon, also known as Yankev Dinezon (c. 1851-1919), was a Yiddish author and editor from Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire). There are various spellings of Dinezon's name in both Yiddish and English transliteration. Early in his career, Yiddish publications spelled his name דינעזאהן (Dinezohn). Later publications removed the ה and spelled his name דינעזאן or דינעזאָן (Dinezon). In English, his name has been spelled Dienesohn, Dinesen, Dineson, Dinezon, Dinesohn, Dineszohn, Dinezohn, Dynesohn, and Dynezon. Most of his career was dedicated to promoting the literary status of the Yiddish language, supporting and collaborating in the creation of early Yiddish prose, poetry, journals, and anthologies. He was part of an active group of Yiddish authors, including his colleagues and friends I. L. Peretz, Sholem Aleichem, and Sholem Abramovitsh (Mendele Moykher Sforim), considered the classic writers of modern Yiddish literature. He is credited as the author of the first bestselling novel in Yiddish and the first realistic Jewish romance. During his lifetime, he wrote several novels and short stories about Jewish life in the Russian Empire with scenes from urban environments as well as from shtetl life. Dinezon was a keen observer of the social changes spreading throughout Jewish communities in his time. His stories often depicted the emotional conflicts arising from the encounter between traditional religious and social norms and the modern ideas of Jewish Enlightenment.

rdf:langString Yiddish realism, Haskalah