"Stempenyu: A Jewish Romance" by Sholem Aleichem (Solomon Rabinowitz), Translated by Hannah Berman, 1913 (Melville House Publishing, 2008; First Published in Yiddish, 1888 by Folksbibliotek).Also in Hebrew: Dvir Publishing, Tel-Aviv, Israel, 1915 (תשכ"ח) 3rd printing ; Translated by I. D. BerkwitzOriginally written in Yiddish, Sholem Aleichem used this pen name, which means "Peace Be unto you", and is a typical Jewish greeting.
Background
Stempenyu is the amazingly funny story of a young village girl who falls for a wildly popular [1]. And yet it is music that catches the soul. It is music that can make you laugh and weep all at the same time. Typically, a klezmer piece will start out slow and tragic sounding, enough to make you, the listener, cry. And then without realizing it, the music catches you up in a frenzy of sound, your feet cannot control themselves and you find yourself dancing away and out of control. Klezmer music, like the Jewish soul, covers a wide gamut of emotions and sometime very quickly.
Klezmer Language
One aspect of the klezmer is the special professional klezmer language, called "Klezmer-loshn" or literally "klezmer tongue" that developed among klezmer musicians. This is a language based on Yiddish, but with other languages adapted to its usage or simply made up words, but special to klezmer musicians. This secret argot, or jargon, was used only by klezmer musicians. Interestingly, Klezmer-loshn is almost identical to "ganovim-loshen" the argot of thieves. In fact, in our story of "Stempenyu" the fiddler is not considered much better than a common thief, although he is clearly not really much of a thief, perhaps a thief of love.Stempenyu uses this argot while performing at a wedding as he has an eye on a woman and asks his band assistant to find out who this beautiful woman is. But Stempenyu speaks to his assistant using klezmer-loshn, as he knows that the people at the wedding will not understand what he is talking about. It turns out that the woman is married, but this does not stop the "lady killer" Stempenyu.
Sholem Aleichem understood the impact and importance that music played on the daily life of Jewish people; he even tells us this in the first chapter. Stempenyu was a very well-respected musician, as people would travel far to attend a wedding at which he was playing. Sholem Aleichem says at the very beginning of the story, "From time immemorial, we Jews have loved music, and have understood what it really is. Even our worst enemies could not deny this." But he goes on to say that the music must be sad by preference and we like to weep and cry and hear the music in a minor key and feel depressed and ". . . every single one of us is plunged into the profoundest melancholy."
Jewish Life and Music in the Shtetl
To set the novella's mood and background, Sholem Aleichem devotes nearly two whole chapters at the beginning of the novella to Stempenyu as a musician. He also presents an interesting narrative about the significance of music in the Jewish cultural life during the mid to late 19th century, but presents it in a way that is at the same time humorous and most profound.
Jewish life in the shtetls was difficult. Most people were poor, but the community spirit generally, but not always, transcended personal wealth. Much social awareness depended upon the specific community. But a major form of release from this poverty was music and music crossed the boundary between rich and poor; educated and non-educated, young and old. In spite of this, klezmer standing in the community was low. Hence marrying a klezmer, if your family was not part of the klezmer tradition, would be considered a serious cultural deviation. So, it might be possible that since klezmer musicians usually belonged to a long line of musicians, who tended to intermarry within the klezmer sub-culture, that some kind of genetic reinforcement took place, in which a musical gene become dominate. An interesting question that I am not qualified to explore.
As an aside, Marc Chagall's paintings of "Fiddler on the Roof", and his fiddler drawings have nothing to do with the Sholem Aleichem's story of "Tovye's Daughter", made into the musical"Fiddler on the Roof". Chagall probably took his inspiration for his drawings from the "Stempenyu" story. Sholem Aleichem used musical motifs in many of his stories, another indication of how important music was in shtetl life.
Conclusion
Although a fairly simple story "Stempenyu" speaks to us through a universal language. We develop a feeling for the people involved, especially the three main characters. But the daily life that revolves around the "leading lady", Rochella gives us not only an interesting and hilariously funny insight into the lives of ordinary people but also gives us an insight into ourselves. What do I mean, by this? We can view ourselves through the various characters and situations in this novella and by how we react to "normal" occurrences. Life is never a straight line; that would be boring. But things happen to us and we react. Following the characters in this story can give us insights into how we ourselves react and develop over time.
As the story comes to an end and as our personal life changes and develops, do we find ourselves in a prison of our own actions as does Stempenyu? At the end of this penetrating novella, we must ask ourselves if we have created our own walls of isolation.