Читать книгу Storm in My Heart - Helene Minkin - Страница 4

This project would not have been possible without a grant I received from the Fulton School of Liberal Arts at Salisbury University in Maryland. I applied for funds to hire a reputable translator knowing that this was an unusual scholarly pursuit; faculty grants are traditionally awarded for conference travel or lab science projects, not Yiddish translations. I want to thank the School for its generosity and support.

Not until a few years ago did I become interested in having Helene Minkin’s memoir translated from Yiddish into English. I had begun research for writing a biography of German immigrant radical Johann Most. Much of his writings have been published, almost all in German. Only some of his pamphlets are available in English. Few personal records of his remain, and only a handful of recollections by others who knew him closely, like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, are available. What remains of his personal letters has been transcribed (many by the historian Max Nettlau), but not translated. Since I read German I have access to all those records. But what emerges from these records is Most as an activist and writer, not so much Most as a human being with emotions and frustrations, with humor and sorrows. We don’t see Most as a caring partner or devoted father. It was therefor imperative that I unlock the personal memoir of Helene Minkin who knew Most for eighteen years as a friend, partner, and parent. I needed a translator.

Dr. Alisa Braun, the academic director of the Institute for Jewish Learning at the Jewish Theological Seminar in New York City, deserves all the credit for making Minkin’s memoir available to an English-speaking audience. She previously served as the academic coordinator of the Jewish Studies program at the University of California. She studied and taught in the Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture. Several people helped me find her. I must thank my friend Paul Buhle who steered me to Eddy Portnoy at the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University who suggested Dr. Braun for the job. In addition, I’d like to thank Robert Helms, Barry Pateman, Jessica Moran, and Kenyon Zimmer for providing information and feedback regarding the editing of this manuscript.

I particularly salute Zach Blue and the AK Press editorial collective for taking an interest and making this invaluable text a tangible product. I also appreciate Sam Norich and Chana Pollack, publisher and archivist at the Jewish Daily Forward respectively, for their enthusiasm about the project and for agreeing to let us use Minkin’s articles for translation and publication.

Finally, a word about the manuscript. We have preserved, as much as possible, the original language and structure of Minkin’s writing, including the various subheadings of the narrative. We did alter the title of her memoir by using an apt phrase that appears in it. The original 1932 title was: “What She Says: Memories from the Widow of Johann Most.” A few times, Minkin’s narrative “jumps” across time periods usually by way of a flashback. We have preserved this structure, but alert readers to this with footnotes. In a few places, the original text was illegible due to excessive wear of the crease of the newspaper. We have “filled in” some text where the context of the paragraph allowed it; otherwise, we have indicated omitted text with brackets.

Tom Goyens