Talk:Isaac Bashevis Singer/Archive 1

old

Where are the references for the content in this article? —15:59, 6 January 2006‎ 147.70.154.70

Date of Birth

The date of birth differs from Find-A-Grave. Lincher 12:51, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

His gravestone shows 1904 (no mm/dd). http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1978/singer-facts.html shows July 14, 1904. What is the reference, other than Find a Grave? Thisdaytrivia (talk) 19:51, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

See article: "The often-quoted birth date, July 14, 1904 was made up by the author in his youth, most probably to make himself younger to avoid the draft." Fuxmann (talk) 17:53, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

US Emigration reason

I have recently read Singer's autobiographic novel "Stories of a Boy Growing Up in Warsaw". " and certainly none to them being a reason for Singer's emigration to US. From my understanding there were three major reasons for this decision (which was difficult for the author and left him longing for word he left) 1. Fear of growing in power Nazi movement in Reich and correct assumption that it eventually end up with a catastrophe that will destroy whole Jewish word in Central-Eastern Europe. 2. Economic reasons and following of general movement of seeking “better life” behind the ocean. 3. Joining of elder brother.

I read "Lost in America" and although he doesn't mention antisemitism often, he clearly describes the fear he had when he had to cross Germany by train. I think the trick he uses is not to mention the Nazis too often, whilst making the danger perfectly clear to the reader. I think this is what makes the book so great. 85.2.137.110 12:24, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

He wrote others....

Issac Bashevis Singer also wrote a short story called "The Washwoman" that I cannot find anywhere! 205.188.116.195 15:31, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

It can be found in "In my Father's Court" (NY 1966)

This article contains uncredited material from copyrighted Nobel Prize site

There are several passages in this entry plagiarized from the Nobel Prize site's entry on Singer (http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1978/singer-bio.html), which is copyrighted material and which is not credited (though the page is listed in the external links).

Here is a passage from this Wikipedia entry:

The world of his stories is the world and life of East European Jewry, such as it was lived in cities and villages, in poverty and persecution, and imbued with sincere piety and rites combined with blind faith and superstition. It appears to include everything - pleasure and suffering, coarseness and subtlety. We find obstrusive carnality, spicy, colourful, fragrant or smelly, lewd or violent. But there is also room for sagacity, worldly wisdom and humor.

And the corresponding two passages of the Nobel bio:

It is the world and life of East European Jewry, such as it was lived in cities and villages, in poverty and persecution, and imbued with sincere piety and rites combined with blind faith and superstition. ... Its world, which the reader encounters in Singer's stories, is a very Jewish but also a very human world. It appears to include everything - pleasure and suffering, coarseness and subtlety. We find obstrusive carnality, spicy, colourful, fragrant or smelly, lewd or violent. But there is also room for sagacity, worldly wisdom and shrewd speculation.

Likewise, this passage pasted from this entry:

Among many other themes, it is dealt with in Singer's big family chronicles - the novels, The Family Moskat (1950), The Manor (1967), and The Estate (1969). These extensive epic works have been compared with Thomas Mann's novel, Buddenbrooks. Like Mann, Singer describes how old families are broken up by the new age and its demands, from the middle of the 19th Century up to the Second World War, and how they are split, financially, socially and humanly.

And the corresponding identical Nobel text:

Among many other themes, it is dealt with in Singer's big family chronicles - the novels, The Family Moskat (1950), The Manor (1967), and The Estate (1969). These extensive epic works have been compared with Thomas Mann's novel, Buddenbrooks. Like Mann, Singer describes how old families are broken up by the new age and its demands, from the middle of the 19th century up to the Second World War, and how they are split, financially, socially and humanly.

There may well be additional examples. - —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.89.192.109 (talk • contribs) —17:38, 7 June 2006‎ 131.89.192.109

Yeah, the way this bio reads it sure looks like it was lifted from somewhere....--Tom 17:55, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

There are also passages from the PBS American Masters site. This entry seems to be more or less entirely copied from the external sites linked at the bottom.

Possible copyright infringement

Most of the page is by now clearly and obviously created by Wikipedians. Why not just cut and/or replace those few sentences obviously taken from the Nobe-prize-page? Why wait for an "administrator"? Fuxmann 07:14, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Lost in America

"Lost in America" is not mentioned in the publications.85.2.137.110 12:20, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

"Yentel" or "Yentl" or "Yentel The Yeshiva Boy" - some consistency/fact-checking is needed

It's definitely "Yentl". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.250.196.238 (talk) 22:30, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Ibsinger.jpg

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BetacommandBot (talk) 23:18, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Influences

It would be great if someone were to take up the task of identifying influences on Singer. I have heard of Mahatma Gandhi for one.

Singer was influenced by all aspects of the Jewish tradition, with which he grew up with - religious learning, Chassidic mysticism, rational philosophy, folklore - and by modern thinkers which fascinated him from the time of his early youth: Spinoza, Schopenhauer, the Schopenhauer-pupil Eduard von Hartmann and Otto Weininger, whose philosophy he read with critical interest. Singer was able to fuse and put into context very different and highly divergent world-views without, in the end, giving up on the ethical certainities with which he was raised.

The section on influences stated that Hamsun was Singer's primary influence. This is a very problematic statement. No doubt Hamsun was an influence, but claiming Hamsun as the most important is an act of original scholarship, not encyclopedic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elk2011 (talk • contribs) 20:46, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Literarische Bleter

In first mention, Literarische Bleter is properly rendered capitalized and italicized. In second mention, it is in quotes and lower case. Why?

Sca (talk) 19:33, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

"he read with fourteen"

I don't understand what "he read with fourteen" means, and the punctuation at the end of the sentence needs attention. Unfree (talk) 22:08, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

"In 1935, four years before the German invasion and the Holocaust, Singer emigrated from Poland "

Can anyone back that up as the reason for emigration, or is it just convenient to blame future events for Polish antisemitism? -- Matthead  Discuß   20:44, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Many people emigrated form Poland to the US and the reasons were usually economical. Anti-Semitism in pre war Poland was not the main reason for some Jews and Zionists to leave. Poland, unlike Nazi Germany, was still the best country in Europe for Jews to live in. The 1939 invasion of Poland, the Holocaust - almost %100 successful genocide of the Polish Jews by the Nazi Germany is a historical fact, related to this person becauseof of his Jewish origin. If he stayed in Poland until the German arrival he would be most likely lost in the Holocaust.--Jacurek (talk) 22:39, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Added ref.radek (talk) 23:40, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Thank you.--Jacurek (talk) 00:10, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

While it is absolutely true that Polish Anti-Semitism cannot, by any means, be compared with the genocidal Anti-Semitism of the Nazis, Poland, while being the country where most Jews lived, was, definitely not the "best country for Jews to live in". After Pilsudski’s death, which occurred shortly after Singer had left the country for the States, conditions became quiet bad. The military government, egged on by the radically anti-Semitic party of Roman Dmowski, became very hostile to Jews, whose life was made difficult by government decrees both economically - forbidding sales on Sundays, supporting the cooperatives, which actively tried to break the existence of small Jewish merchants - and politically, by ordering Jews to sit in special benches in university. The Polish government considered the existence of it's Jewish population as it’s greatest internal problem and asked the League of Nations for colonies so it could settle them; in it's last official demand to England, right before the Germans invaded, it asked a) for help against the Nazis, and b) for a possibility to settle it's Jews in Palestine, which, unfortunately, the British did not grant. For further reading see: Celia S. Heller, “On the Edge of Destruction. Jews of Poland between the Two World Wars”, Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1977. Fuxmann (talk) 15:20, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Dear Fuxmann, it is very true what you are saying. Anti-Semitism in pre-pre war Poland was quite strong, however it was not any stronger or different that in other European countries. Anti-Semitism was all over Europe at the time with its wildest version in Nazi Germany. One has to remember however that at the same time Jewish life in Poland flourished like no were else in Europe. Poland was were Jews lived and prospered for generations along with their rich 1000 year old Polish-Jewish culture. This is why (among other things) there was no better country in Europe at the time for Jews to live in. Of course one could escape and isolate himself in small Greek island or northern Island and live there but would that be better than in Poland?? Remember that many Polish Jews were also very patriotic and very loyal to Poland despite all that anti-Semitic elements within Polish society, government or Catholic Church. Just look at how heroically Warsaw citizens, %35 of them Jewish, defended the city from the Germans in 1939. Hope I was able to address your concerns. Thanks.--Jacurek (talk) 16:29, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Dear Jacurek, while I fully agree with your statements about the duration, importance and greatness of the rich Jewish-Polish history - I. B. Singer being but one splendid example -, I am not as convinced by your opinion about all the countries of Europe being equally anti-Semitic between the world wars. Again, Polish state-anti-Semitism at it's worst cannot be compared to what the Nazis did, even before they started murdering people; but it made life for Jews intentionally difficult, as you can see both in historic works about the period and in I. B. Singer's novels which deal with the time - Family Moskat, Sosha, Enemies - to name but a few.Fuxmann (talk) 20:45, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Again, you are so right but I don't think that we will ever find an answer to this question and for sure not from the work of scholars. Anti-Semitism was common and widely accepted in early 20th centaury Europe. If Poland was or was not the best place for Jews to be is all the matter of personal opinion. I had so many long lasting discussions regarding this issue with so many people such as members of my own family as well as people such as Marek Edelman for example. From the information I was able to gather, I came to the conclusion that even with all the anti-Semitism around most people did not imagine to live anywhere else but Poland. In general Poles and Jews (on personal level) lived peacefully with each other with some occasional tensions when it came to the issues of religion. Poles had an upper hand of course, being the majority. One person told me an interesting thing when I asked about it, saying that there is always more car accidents were there is more cars in other words saying that there was more incidents of anti-Semitism in Poland because of the number of Jews living there. I really believe that this was the case. We hear almost no stories of anti-Semitism from Norway or Portugal for example because there was nobody there to tell them...--Jacurek (talk) 22:58, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

It's a complicated discussion but it's not clear that your last argument holds. Soon after the war there were less than 10% of Jews left in Poland. Even so there were several cases of pogroms. More recently, with practically no Jews left, there were anti-semitic incidents (e.g. during the anti-immigrant rally in Wroclaw). It is true, on the other hand, that there were lots of condemning reactions. 201.82.53.84 (talk) 13:31, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Kosher or Not Kosher?

"His vegetarianism, .....can also be seen as a way of avoiding the question of Kosher food." - That's an incredibly cynical statement. Why should his ethical choices be seen as an attempt to avoid anything, especially subjects that he has already confronted quite boldly and openly in his lifetime? The importance of vegetarianism in his thinking, and its relationship to his outlook on the Holocaust, aren't stressed enough. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.250.196.238 (talk) 22:22, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

He read Schopenhauer and may have been influenced by that author's eloquence regarding compassion for animals. How would we know what motivated Singer in the inner recesses of his brain? We can only know what Singer said or wrote.Lestrade (talk) 14:46, 28 May 2014 (UTC)Lestrade

Copyright problem

This article has been reverted by a bot to this version as part of a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. (See the investigation subpage) This has been done to remove User:Accotink2's contributions as they have a history of extensive copyright violation and so it is assumed that all of their major contributions are copyright violations. Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. VWBot (talk) 06:01, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

There were two earlier notices of copyright problems

• #This article contains uncredited material from copyrighted Nobel Prize site (2006)
• #Fair use rationale for Image:Ibsinger.jpg (2008)

I don't know their status. Back in 2007, User Fuxmann reported the former nearly resolved and I have moved that report #Possible copyright infringement (2007) down from the top of the page to its place in chron order (and also moved down some material unrelated to copyright problems). --P64 (talk) 17:49, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Lead section

"Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Jewish American author", is the begining of the article. How about changing it to Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Polish Jewish author and subsequent American citizen? I mean, for someone, who begin his life as an author in Eastern Europe, lived there untill he was 33, moved to US when he was already well formed writer, and his most popular book is The Magician of Lublin (that is small city on the east bank of Vistula) the label of American Jew is not totally appropriate in my opinion, quite hazy and only partially true. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.99.14.6 (talk) 10:56, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Translators

Did Singer publish anything in English language?

Did he work with one or a few translators? Or was he not involved, English language publishers purchasing rights and hiring translators case-by-case? --P64 (talk) 17:56, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Biographical factoid

I just watched the film My Old Lady directed by Israel Horovitz. The "bonus features" consists of an interview with Mr Horvitz (and Kevin Kline) at the 92nd St YMCA in NYC ~3 days prior to the NY opening. According to Horovitz, Singer and Alma were both married at the time they met and fell in love and both left their spouses and children (divorced, I assumed) and married. They were buried side by side (in Florida?) but both bodies were moved (independently) by their respective children and interned next to the children's other parent. Part of the film's plot is loosely derived from these children's failure to come to terms with the divorces. Horovitz met and corresponded with Alma in the last few years of her life. FWIW. Poland (not sure about Russian Empire) is heavily Roman Catholic and the discussion about why Singer immigrated doesn't mention possible issues with divorce and the catholic church (and community). It is possible, although just speculation on my part, that the only way the couple could divorce legally was to leave Poland. Abitslow (talk) 11:46, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

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Date of birth... again

Some new information concerning Singer's date of birth here. It seems like something that should be at least included in the body, if not footnoted in the first sentence and the Infobox. Thoughts? --Виктор Јованоски (talk) 22:33, 13 November 2019 (UTC)