ARTS&LIFE
BOOK REVIEW C
hana Blankshteyn
had amassed a world
of experience in the
1920s, when, in her 60s, she
took up writing fiction in
Yiddish. Born in Vilna around
1860, she had traveled to France
and Germany as a young girl
to further her education, had
married and divorced and then
married again, moved to Kiev
with her second husband, and,
after her second divorce, lived
with a married daughter in St.
Petersburg.
Blankshteyn served as a nurse
in the Russian army during
WWI, before returning to her
native Vilna to a career as a
social worker, political can-
didate, founder of a women’s
rights organization, publisher
and, eventually, fiction writer.
Her fiction first appeared in
Yiddish periodicals in Vilna;
nine of the stories were repub-
lished in a collection titled
Noveles (Novelas). The book
appeared in July 1939, two
weeks before the author died,
and a couple of months before
the Germans conquered Poland.
Blankshteyn, a sensitive observ-
er of the change in Jewish Vilna,
was thus spared encountering
what would happen. Most of the
book’s intended readers were
murdered; the book almost
totally disappeared; likewise any
memory of the author.
STORIES GET A NEW LIFE
But Anita Norich, professor
emerita of English and Jewish
Studies at the University of
Michigan, came across a sur-
viving copy at the Center for
Jewish History in New York
City. Norich now presents
Blankshteyn’s book of short
stories in English translation as
Fear and Other Stories (Wayne
State University Press, 2022).
In these stories, we meet a
variety of Jews and non-Jews in
modern Europe.
In Paris, an artist’s model
keeps a painting by her late
husband, depicting Jewish men
praying in a synagogue in his
distant birthplace. She explains
her sentimental attachment
to that painting to her daugh-
ter. As her career wanes, the
woman sells the painting and
eventually abandons her daugh-
ter. Memory of that painting
remains the daughter’s one weak
connection to her Jewish roots,
until . . .
In another story, a studious
young woman celebrates her
graduation — first in her class
in mathematics — by allowing
herself to attend a graduation
picnic with other university
students. She feels flattered by
the attention of a handsome
and confident male student, but
when she drowses, her subcon-
scious discomfort surfaces in
fantastic dreams.
In another, an up-and-com-
ing communist leader has a
problem: His fiancée, a plain
and quiet girl, insists on marry-
ing under a chuppah. She has
promised that to her Chasidic
grandfather. Her fiance has been
giving speeches in favor of the
new decree against religious
wedding ceremonies. He could
certainly find a more glamorous
match, but . . .
A resourceful young woman
deals with strained circum-
stances: Her husband went
off to war and then chose not
to return to her. As a single
mother, Sheyndele used a small
fund from her uncle in Africa
to finance her university educa-
tion in biology and now works
A review of Fear and Other
Stories by Chana Blankshteyn,
translated by Anita Norich.
Rescued
Yiddish
Stories
LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
104 | MAY 19 • 2022
Anita Norich