Opgang

Opgang, a novella published in 1920, is set against the background of Jewish life in Russia and Ukraine during the turbulent period leading up to the October Revolution of 1917, a period characterized by the rise of secularism, the rejection of old traditions, the alienation of intellectuals, and the attempt of different generations to find a place for themselves inside and out of the shtetl.

The novella centers on the mystery of the suicide of a young pharmacist in Rakitne, a provincial town. Did his death have anything to do with the two women who loved him? Was it the result of despair or an act of protest? And if protest, against what? His old friend seeks answers but finds none. The prose is immaculately crafted, the narrative indirect, and the mood poignant, dark, and disquieting.

Among Yiddish prose writers of the early twentieth century, Dovid Bergelson (1884-1952) was a unique modernist voice. Born in Russia, he lived and traveled in Europe and the United States, but he finally moved to Moscow: in a world of conflicting ideologies and political unrest, he threw his lot in with Communism and the Soviet Union. He was executed in a post-World War II Stalinist purge of Jews. Joseph Sherman was a scholar of Yiddish literature. His publications include The Jewish Pope: Myth, Diaspora and Yiddish Literature and Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 333: Writers in Yiddish.