David G. Roskies, “Rabbis, Rebbes and Other Humanists: The Search for a Usable Past in Modern Yiddish Literature”

David G. Roskies, “Rabbis, Rebbes and Other Humanists: The Search for a Usable Past in Modern Yiddish Literature,” Studies in Contemporary Jewry 12 (1996): 55-77

These Zydki, wooden figurines of traditionaal Polish Jews, come in all shapes and sizes. Where once they played a talismanic role for Polish Catholic peasants—as protectors of beehives, of home and hearth, or simply as Easter toys for the very young—they have now been turned into souvenirs. There are gaunt ones, stained a deep brown, from Lodz, and grotesque ones, in gaudy colors, from Nowy Sadz. In the Old Town of Warsaw, lovingly rebuilt from the ruins, sculptors hawk their wares—in English.

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