Page:Nine Yiddish Writers.djvu/7



In the assembling and publication in book-form of these appreciations of Yiddish writers by there is an appropriateness that is especially marked at this time: the old gods of Yiddish writing are securely enthroned; the new are yet enshrouded in uncertainty.

At such a time it is well to turn back these interesting pages of Yiddish literary history in America. Random though these notations may be, they are peep-holes through which the observant eye may gather some estimate of the scope and liveliness of that literary activity which engaged the lover of Yiddish literature a decade or two ago. In these pages, taken out of the short-lived journal "," of which Mr. Rogoff was the editor, the student no less than the casual reader may find instruction as well as pleasure.

In these brief essays, filled with intimate observations on the lives and work of representative Yiddish writers, we are brought into contact with a mind that