Itzik Manger

Itzik Manger (May 30 1901 - February 21 1969) ( _yi. איציק מאַנגער) was a prominent Yiddish poet and playwright, a self-proclaimed folk bard, visionary, and ‘master tailor’ of the written word.

Early life

Manger was born in Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary (later Romania and now Ukraine) in 1901. [A trickster at heart, Manger was fond of creating fictional biographies for himself and passing them off as truth. In his most famous fake biography, submitted to the editors of the "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre", printed as fact, and widely believed, Manger writes that he was born in Berlin in 1900 and did not learn Yiddish until the age of fourteen. A. A. Roback, "The Story of Yiddish Literature" (New York: Yiddish Scientific Institute, 1940), 329.] His father, Hillel Manger, was a skilled tailor in love with literature, which he referred to as ‘literatoyreh’ (a portmanteau of the Yiddish words "literatura" and "Toyreh"). As a teenager, Manger attended the Kaiser Königlicher Dritter Staats-Gymnasium, where he studied German literature until he was expelled for pranks and bad behavior. [David Roskies and Leonard Wolf, "Introduction to Itzik Manger, The World According to Itzik: Selected Poetry and Prose." Translated and edited by Leonard Wolf (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002), xiii.] He exchanged this traditional education for the backstage atmosphere of the Yiddish theatre.

Young poet

In 1921, Manger began publishing his early poems and ballads in several new literary journals founded in the aftermath of World War I. Soon afterwards, he settled in Bucharest and wrote for the local Yiddish newspapers while giving occasional lectures on Spanish, Romanian, and Gypsy folklore. [Manger, "The World According to Itzik", xix ]

In 1927, Manger came to Warsaw, the spiritual and intellectual center of Ashkenazi Jewry and “the most inspiring city in Poland.” [ Itzik Manger, "Shriftn in proze" (Tel Aviv: Farlag Y.L. Peretz, 1980), 445.] Manger lived in the capital of the Yiddish cultural world for the next decade, which became the most productive years of his entire career. In 1929, Manger published his first book of poetry, "Shtern afn dakh" (Stars on the Roof), in Warsaw to critical acclaim. By the following year, Manger was so well known that he was admitted to the select Yiddish P.E.N. club, along with Isaac Bashevis, Israel Rabon, and I. Papiernikov. [ Manger, "The World According to Itzik", xx. It was around this time that Manger changed his name from the formal sounding "Yitzkhok" to the childlike diminutive Itzik, thus actualizing his self-transformation from poet to folk bard.]

Literary success

Between 1929 and 1938, Manger took the Warsaw literary world by storm. He gave frequent readings of his own poetry at the Writers' Club, was interviewed by all the major Warsaw Yiddish papers, published articles in the prestigious journal "Literarishe Bleter" (Literary Pages), issued his own literary journal called "Chosen Words" filled with his poetry, fiction, and artistic manifestos. At the same time, Manger continued to publish his own works, including a series of modernist poems inspired by the Oral Torah ("Itzik's Midrash", 1935), a dramatic rewriting of the Purim story ("Songs of the Megillah", 1936), a loose adaptation of Abraham Goldfaden's "The Witch of Botoşani" ("Hotzmakh's Shpiel", 1937), a series of fictional vignettes on the history of Yiddish literature ("Familiar Portraits", 1938), and three more volumes of poetry ("Lantern in the Wind", 1933; "Velvl Zbarzher Writes Letters to Malkele the Beautiful", 1937; and "Twilight in the Mirror", 1937).

Working with Biblical themes

Manger's "Itzik's Midrash" and "Songs of the Megillah" deserve special mention, as they represent his first attempts to re-write old, familiar material through a modernist lens. In "Itzik's Midrash", Manger presents a modern commentary on the classic Bible stories by anachronistically placing his characters in contemporary Eastern Europe. Manger's playful attitude towards the original text is self-evident; in the introduction he writes, “As I wrote this book, the rogue's cap of the Yiddish Purim play hovered always before my eyes.” [ Ibid., 3.] Inspired by the "Purimshpiel" genre, which used a traditional story to mock the norms and expectations of Jewish religious life in previous centuries, Manger's Midrash radically revises traditional portrayals of Biblical characters by requiring them to justify their actions according to modern norms and values. Traditionally valued characters such as Abraham and Sarah are harshly critiqued, while underrepresented characters like Hagar and Ishmael are given a voice at last.

In "Songs of the Megillah", Manger uses a similar technique to politicize and de-sacralize the Biblical text read aloud on Purim. Once again, Manger's introduction classifies the book as “a kind of mischief-making on the model of Purim players in every age.” [Manger, "The World According to Itzik", 30.] Like "Itzik's Midrash", "Songs of the Megillah" is a modern, radical retelling of the story of Esther set in contemporary Eastern Europe. Manger even introduces a new character into the narrative: Fastrigosso, Esther's jilted lover and a member of the Needles and Thread Tailors' Union, who conspires to assassinate King Ahashverosh in order to win back Esther's affections. Combined with his 1937 play "Hotzmakh's Shpiel", these three revival texts secured Manger his international reputation as “the master recloaker of the oldest and the newest literary traditions.” [ David G. Roskies, "The Last of the Purim Players: Itzik Manger." Prooftexts 13 (1993), 232. ]

From Warsaw to Tel Aviv

With widespread anti-Semitism in the highest levels of Polish government and society, Jewish life in Warsaw became increasingly dire. Manger decided to leave for Paris in 1938, an exile from his creative homeland. However, Paris was not safe for long. In 1940, Manger fled to Marseilles, Tunis, Liverpool, and finally London, where he became a British citizen and remained unhappily for the next eleven years. [Manger, "The World According to Itzik", xxi.] Disillusioned and unproductive, Manger immigrated to Israel in 1958, where he remained until his death in Tel Aviv in 1969.

Acclaim in Israel and elsewhere

Unlike most other exiled Yiddish writers, Manger was able to achieve significant success in Israeli literary and theatrical circles. In 1965, Dov Seltzer directed a highly popular production of Manger's "Songs of the Megillah", breaking the Israeli taboo on Yiddish theatre. "Songs of the Megillah" was a great success, setting a new record in Israeli theatre with its more than 400 performances. Prominent members of Israeli society, including politicians Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, and Teddy Kollek, made highly publicized appearances at the performances. When he died in 1969, Manger was mourned as an Israeli national poet.

Romanian Jewish playwright Israil Bercovici adapted a collection of Manger's poems into a two-act stage piece, "Mangheriada", which premiered April 6, 1968 at the Romanian State Jewish Theater in Bucharest. [Bercovici, Israil, "O sută de ani de teatru evreiesc în România" ("One hundred years of Yiddish/Jewish theater in Romania"), 2nd Romanian-language edition, revised and augmented by Constantin Măciucă. Editura Integral (an imprint of Editurile Universala), Bucharest (1998)]

books

* ISBN 3-633-54198-5
style/yid|yid=ייִדיש: איציק מאַנגער, טונקל־גאָלד, לידער, ייִדיש און דײַטש, צונויפֿגעשטעלט, איבערגעזעצט און מיט אַ נאָכװאָרט פֿאַרצאָרגט פֿון אפֿרת גל־עד, מיט טראַנסקריפּציע, מיט בילדער און מיט צעדע, ייִדישער פֿאַרלאַג אינעמ זורקאַמפּ פֿאַרלאַג
IPA2|ɪtˢɪk mɑŋgɛʁ, tʊŋkl̩-gɔld, lidɛʁ, yidɪʃ ʊn dɑjtʃ, tˢʊnɔjfgɛʃtɛlt, ibɛʁgɛzɛtˢt ʊn mɪt ɑ nɔxvɔʁt fɑʁtˢɔʁgt fʊn efʁɑt gɑl ed, mɪt tʁɑnskʁɪptˢyɛ, mɪt bildɛʁ ʊn mɪt tˢɛdɛ, yidɪʃɛʁ fɑʁlɑg inɛm zʊʁkɑmp fɑʁlɑg

References

External links

*ibdb name|id=6478|name=Itzik Manger
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/yiddish/ygw/mw-progr.html Itisk Manger Centennial Celebration]
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/yiddish/ygw/koln-mang.html Portraits of Manger] by Arthur Kolnik
* "Di mayses fun hershl zumervint" by Itsik Manger: [http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/PDF%20Stories/Hershl%20Zumervint.pdf pdf] , [http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/audio/Zumervint.wax .wax] , [http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/audio/Zumervint.ram .ram] , [http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/audio/audioStories/Hershl.mp3 .mp3]
* [http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/khulyot/khulyot7.html "Khulyot: Journal of Yiddish Research" No. 7 Autumn 2002] : Articles on Manger by Shalom Cholawski and Dov Sadan (in Hebrew)
* [http://www.itzikmanger.com/ Itzik Manger Ballads]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAOAm8xj9Bs Oyfen Weig Steit A Boym] - Clip from the film Homeland