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JewishPolandwithhimacrosstheoceanandbecame,especiallyinhislateryears,an
Americanwriterparexcellence.AlthoughhewroteinYiddish,healsowantedtoreach
English-speakingandinternationalreadersandcarefullycontrolledthetranslationsof
hisworks.ShmuelYosefAgnon,a1966NobelPrizelaureate,wasborninBuczacz,Gali-
cia,duringthereignofFranzJosephI.HedebutedintheHebrewpressinKraków,left
forOttomanPalestine,livedforafewyearsinGermany,andbecamefamousinIsrael.
Agnondevotedtwoofhisnovels,severaldozenshortstories,andamemorialbookto
Buczacz,inwhichhereflectedonJewishreligiousandexistentialconditionsinhundreds
ofpagesofprose.HealsodevotedmanypagestoPoland,writingseverallegendsabout
Polin,andwascelebratedbytheGermanJewishintelligentsia.MartinBuber,Gershom
Scholem,andFranzRosenzweig,amongothers,consideredhimanauthorityonJewish
life.Whowashethen?APolish,Israeli,German,orperhapsAustro-Hungarianwriter?
AgnonvisitedtheSecondPolishRepublicjustonce-inthesummerof1930,
arrivingwithapassportissuedinBritishMandatePalestine.Hewasalreadyamas-
terofHebrewliterature.Thistriplaterservedasan
inspirationforhisnovelOreahnatalalun(Aguest
forthenight),whichtheNobelCommitteedeemed
thewriter’sgreatestachievement.
1
However,Ag-
nondidnottraveltonewlyindependentPoland.
Aboveall,hewishedtorevisitthelandofhischild-
hood,formerGalicia,andvariouscentersofHasi-
dismandtraditionalJudaism.
Thebio-geographyofpoetKadyeMolod-
o
wskyisequallycomplex.ShewasborninBiaroza
(Pol.:BerezaKartuska),todayinBelarus.Herfather
educatedherinHebrewathome.Sheabsorbed
Russiancultureatschool.Shemadeherdebutin
KievwithKheshvndikenekht(NightsofHeshvan),
whichopenswithapowerfulseriesofpoemsenti-
tleduWomen-Poems,”afeministmanifestoofsorts.
ShemovedtoWarsawin1921andpublishedthe
threesubsequentvolumesthere,includingDzika
Street.Fourteenyearslater,inthewakeofgrowing
antisemitism,MolodowskyemigratedtotheUnited
States-herfamilyhadsettledthereearlier-andbe-
cameanactivememberofAmericanJewishliterary
ShmuelYosefAgnon,1960s.
circles.ShelivedforatimeinIsrael.Today,Israelis
AgnonHouse
knowherprimarilythroughHebrewtranslationsof
herpoemsforchildrenbysuchmastersofmodernHebrewpoetryasNathanAlterman
andLeahGoldberg.FewareawarethatshewrotethesepoemsoriginallyinYiddish.
Agnon,Singer,andMolodowskyallleftPoland.Whataboutthosewhoresidedin
Polandforalongperiod,orfortheirentirelife?Whatwasthewiderculturetowhichthey
wereexposed?Duringthenineteenthcentury,anindependentPolishstatedidnotex-
istbecausethePolish-LithuanianCommonwealthhadbeenpartitionedbetweenthree
powers:theKingdomofPrussiaandtheRussianandAustrianempires.Thepartitions
exertedamassiveefectontheculturalheritageandworkofmodernJewishwriters.
1
SeeDanLaor,Sh.Y.Agnon:HabayetimHahadashim(TelAviv:SifriatPoalin,1995).QuotedafterthePolish
translationofthechapterofthebookinEugeniaProkop-JaniecandMarekTuszewicki,eds.,Polskietematy
ikontekstyliteraturyżydowskiej(Kraków:WydawnictwoUniwersytetuJagiellońskiego,2014),189-190.
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