Blume Lempel Explained

Blume Lempel (May 13, 1910–October 20, 1999) was a Yiddish-language writer.

Biography

Lempel was born in Khorostkiv, where she was educated at a cheder and a Hebrew elementary school.^[1] Her father was a kosher butcher.^[2] In 1929, she left Ukraine for Paris where she stayed until 1939, when she immigrated to New York.^[3] During her time in France, she was involved in efforts to establish Yiddish literary culture in interwar Paris.^[4] Lempel's writing career in America began in 1943 with a short story published in Der Tog.^[5] She lived in Long Island, where she hid her literary career from her neighbors and went by the name Blanche.^[6]

In 1947 she serialized a novel about the Occupation of Paris in Morgn Frayhayt, called Tsvishn tsvey veltn (Between Two Worlds).^[7] The novel was an unusual treatment of the Occupation, featuring a romantic relationship between a Nazi and a Jewish woman.^[8] In 1954, under the name Blanche Lempel, she published Storm Over Paris, a translation of the 1947 novel.^[9] While not widely reviewed, it was positively received, with the Pasadena Independent describing it as having "some of the bitter elements of a great novel".^[10] Lempel's stories were known for their treatment of controversial themes such as incest, abortion, and suicide.^[11]

Binem Heller served as Lempel's literary editor and agent for her first volume of short stories, A rege fun emes, published in 1981.^[12] She also established a friendship with Chava Rosenfarb in 1982, after Rosenfarb read one of Lempel's short stories in Di goldene keyt.^[13] Their friendship ended in 1989, when Lempel falsely accused Rosenfarb of having been a kapo, after she read Rosenfarb's story Edgia's Revenge, a fictional first-person narrative from the perspective of a former kapo.^[14]

In 1985, Lempel was the recipient of the Atran Prize for Yiddish Literature.^[15]

Bibliography

Works in English

• Storm Over Paris. New York: Philosophical Library, 1954.
• Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories. Translated by Ellen Cassidy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub. Takoma Park: Mandel Vilar Press, 2022.

Short story collections:

• A rege fun emes. Tel Aviv: Y.L. Perets, 1981.
• Balade fun a holem. Tel Aviv: Yisroel-bukh, 1986.

Notes and References

1. Book: Beautiful as the moon, radiant as the stars : Jewish women in Yiddish stories : an anthology . 2003 . Grand Central Publishing . 9780446510363 . Bark . Sandra . 301.
2. News: Berger . Joseph . 2022-02-06 . How Yiddish Scholars Are Rescuing Women’s Novels From Obscurity . 2024-07-07 . The New York Times . en-US . 0362-4331.
3. Book: Found treasures : stories by Yiddish women writers . 1994 . Second Story Press . 9780929005539 . Forman . Frieda . 359.
4. Underwood . Nick . January 2023 . Women Writers and the Postwar Remaking of Yiddish Paris . Journal of Jewish Identities . en . 16 . 1-2 . 199–215 . 10.1353/jji.2023.a898146 . 1946-2522.
5. Web site: Handler . Troim Katz . February 27, 2009 . Blume Lempel . 2024-04-28 . The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women . en.
6. Web site: Feldman . Jim . Wexler . Natalie . 2017-01-20 . Dozens Gather In D.C To Celebrate New Yiddish Translation of Blume Lempel’s Work . 2024-07-07 . The Forward . en.
7. Web site: Kagan . Berl . Lempel, Blume (May 13, 1910–October 20, 1999) . 2024-04-28 . Leksikon Fun Der Nayer Yidisher Literatur.
8. Book: Taub, Yermiyahu Ahron . Women Writers of Yiddish Literature . Cassedy . Ellen . McFarland . 2015 . 9780786468812 . 107 . To Dive into the Self: The Svive of Blume Lempel.
9. News: Anderson . Phoebe C. . August 10, 1954 . No Pause For Beauty: Storm Over Paris by Blanche Lempel . St. Louis Post-Dispatch . 28.
10. News: July 18, 1954 . Books in Brief . Pasadena Independent . 86.
11. Web site: Kennedy . Daniel . 2017-11-15 . Trauma Ballads: Blume Lempel’s Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories, translated by Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub . 2024-07-07 . Reading in Translation . en-US.
12. Cassedy . Ellen . Taub . Yermiyahu Ahron . Fall 2018 . Modern in Autumn: The Belated Discovery of Blume Lempel . Pakn Treger . 78.
13. Cassedy . Ellen . Spring 2019 . "I Feel a Connection to You" . Pakn Treger.
14. Web site: Morgentaler . Goldie . July 5, 2022 . Feminism, Creativity and Translation: Chava Rosenfarb Translates Jewish-Canadian Women Writers into Yiddish . 2024-07-07 . In geveb . en.
15. Jones . Faith . April 2007 . Yiddish Fiction in Translation: Blume Lempel. Introduced by Faith Jones. . Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal . en . 12 . 1 . 96–97 . 10.2979/BRI.2007.12.1.96 . 1046-8358.