Weekly Reader: Yiddish Bohemians
Published on August 18, 2024.
Like so many modern cultural concepts, the idea of bohemianism was invented by the French. Originally used to describe mid-nineteenth-century artists and intellectuals in Paris, the word “bohemian” quickly became generalized to refer to any vaguely creative person or group that embraced an unconventional or countercultural lifestyle. Self-described bohemians quickly popped up in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America, particularly in New York City. While they didn’t always use the term, Yiddish writers and artists from the period were undoubtedly bohemian. Many of them had rejected their conservative upbringings and were exploring new social and creative possibilities in urban centers. They also were often quite poor. And in some cases they embraced the title—and the idea—with gusto.
—Ezra Glinter, Senior Staff Writer and Editor
Bronx Bohemians
While it’s theoretically possible to be a single, solitary bohemian, the idea of bohemianism conjures a social group, often centered around a central figure or meeting place. In early twentieth-century New York, that person was Bertha Kling and the place was her home in the Bronx. For several years we’ve had a blog dedicated to Kling and her circle, a group that included dozens of novelists, poets, composers, klezmer and classical musicians, painters, satirists, actors, singers, puppeteers, and journalists, as well as their friends and relatives.
Watch a presentation by David Mazower about the Bronx Bohemians
Downtown Jews
Even if Bertha Kling and her circle formed one of the most important groupings of Yiddish artists and writers in New York, when we think of bohemianism we’re more likely to think of lower Manhattan than the Bronx. In particular, we’d probably think of Greenwich Village, which was home to communities of American bohemians from the early twentieth century onward. And given how close the Jewish East Side was, it’s no surprise that Yiddish bohemianism flourished there too. In this oral history interview, Jory Miller, grandson of Yiddish actress Anna Beck, describes his grandmother’s affinity for the leftist, Jewish subculture around Greenwich Village—from the music and art scene to the Cafe Royal, a meeting place for Yiddish artists.
Kibbitzers and Coffee
Speaking of the Cafe Royal—is it possible to have a bohemian scene without a café, or some common meeting place? For most Yiddish bohemians, the answer was a resounding no. And since café life was essentially about talking, eating, and being seen—activities for which Jews seemed almost genetically predisposed—Jews and cafés were a natural match. Jewish patrons had their regular seats in the fashionable cafés of Budapest and Berlin, just as they did in the heymish kosher restaurants. From Odessa to Buenos Aires, it was the same story: the one place where you could be sure to find the local Yiddish writers and journalists was at a café table. (Illustration by A. Richard Allen)
On Her Own Two Feet
For translator Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, the word “bohemian . . . conjured an inherent, indeed vibrant, sociality: Greenwich Village in the early twentieth century. Mabel Dodge. The Bloomsbury circle in London. The Dada group in Paris. The Beat gatherings at Gallery Six in San Francisco.” Given these associations, he wondered, was the writer Frume Halpern, whose stories he had translated into English, a bohemian? While he found no evidence that she participated in salons or dressed in an offbeat way, if you go by strict definitions, he concluded, she definitely was.
Read an essay by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub on Frume Halpern as a bohemian
Old Country Style
If communities of Yiddish-speaking bohemians flourished (or at least got by) in New York, the model for those groups was always European. In fact, an argument could be made that the original Yiddish bohemians were the circle of writers surrounding I. L. Peretz in Warsaw, who himself led something of a bohemian lifestyle. As David Mazower writes, “Peretz offered a blueprint for how to live a bohemian intellectual life. Everything about his home seemed individual, distinctive: the large plants filling his study, the Oriental rug covering his desk . . . and the man himself—helping the maid press clothes, humming folk songs, or startling neighbors by appearing bare-chested.”
Bohemians of Montparnasse
While we can point to groups of Yiddish-speaking bohemians in cities like New York and Warsaw, they also flourished in the original home of bohemianism, Paris. That group, and its visual artists in particular, were lovingly documented in a book titled Bilder un geshtaltn fun monparnas (Scenes and Figures of Montparnasse), a monumental tome the size of a small suitcase. The work of a Polish Jewish art critic named Chil Aronson, it offers a unique perspective on the École de Paris—the extraordinary constellation of Jewish artists who flocked to Paris in the early decades of the twentieth century.
Read about the Jewish artists of Montparnasse
Read Aronson’s book in the Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library