Бен Яков (Калмен Зінгман). Еденія: У місті майбутнього. Харків: Їдиш, 1918. [Переклад із мови їдиш Тетяни Батанової та Наталії Риндюк, передмова Йоханана Петровського-Штерна]

In Edenia, a City of the Future. Kharkiv, Yiddish, 1918

By Ben-Yakov (Kalman Zingman)

Translated from Yiddish by Tatiana Batanova and Natalia Rindyuk, with introduction by Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern

Source: Judaica Ukrainica 3 (2014): 231-255

Publication date: December 1, 2014

Publication type: source publication

Language: Ukrainian

Full text:

Abstract

In the wake of the 1917 revolutions, Kalmen Zingman (born in Kovno, residing in Kharkiv) established the frst Yiddish printing press in Kharkiv where he published his utopian technocratic novel In der tsukunft-shot Edenya (In Edenya, the City of the Future, 1919; published under pen-name Ben-Yaakov). Zingman’s novel argued against Theodor Herzl’s vision of the Jewish future expressed in his utopian novel Altneuland (Leipzig, 1903), particularly against Herzlian negation of the diaspora revivalism and of the centrality of Yiddish. On the contrary, argued Zingman, in the distant future (his utopian Edenya is dated around mid-1940s) Jewish life would be centered in the diaspora cities such as Kharkiv, where Jews would celebrate their participation in the communal and technological revival, their traditional yet secularized values, and their Yiddish culture. Particularly important for Zingman is the blurred barriers between the two peoples, Jews and Ukrainians, and their confict-free co-existence in urban space. This is the frst commended and prefaced edition of Zingman’s utopian novel commissioned by and prepared for Judaica Ukrainica.

Keywords: Ben Yakov, Kalmen Zingman, Edenia, Yiddish luterature

DOI 10.14653/ju.2014.12