The first in a series of Yiddish polemical pamphlets (Diskursn)
appeared one week before the elections to the second National Assembly
in the Republic of the Netherlands on August 1, 1797. Inspired by the
expanded freedom of the press and the satirical and often vulgar
Spectatorial writings which were popular at the time, a small but
energetic group of enlightened Jews in Amsterdam decided the previous
summer to publish a periodical. These Yiddish polemical pamphlets would
serve as an informative and propagandistic vehicle through which members
of the new community could anonymously persuade the Jews of Amsterdam to
choose the party of progress and enlightenment. The author or authors
inveighed strongly against the alleged abuses in the established
community and those they held responsible, the parnosim (board of
directors) and their officials.
In order to reach the Jewish masses in a city with about 20,000
Ashkenazic Jewish inhabitants, the reformers chose to write the
Diskursn in Amsterdam Yiddish. Their efforts were so successful that
the established community thought it necessary to enter the fray by
publishing its own version of a thirteenth installment shortly before
the thirteenth installment of the original series was due to appear.
From then on, two series of Diskursn competed for public favor. Using
criticism, salacious gossip, slander, and accusations, the same three or
four main characters and a few secondary ones railed against the
excesses and foibles of the other community.
Both series ended after the parnosim of the old community were deposed
in the early spring of 1798. By then, 24 Diskursn from the new
community and 11 from the established community had appeared, together
more than 500 printed pages. Of course we cannot judge the two
communities fairly based on the texts of the Diskursn. Both sought to
discredit their opponents with stories of whores, sexual scandals,
illegitimate children, hypocrisy, religious violations, bankruptcy, and
fraud. Nevertheless, the pamphlets describe the environment of Amsterdam
Jewry and reveal what interested those Jews and how they responded to
revolutionary changes. All of this is depicted by inventive authors who
came up time and again with different, often humorous settings for their
volleys of curses and torrents of abuse.
These Yiddish polemical pamphlets are a rare phenomenon, not just in the
history of Jewish communities in the period of emancipation, but in the
histories of Yiddish literature and satirical/polemical periodicals as
well. This is the first-ever bilingual edition of a major portion of
this collection of documents and the first time any of them have been
published in English translation. A lengthy introduction and five
appendices help the reader understand and appreciate these colorful
Dutch Jews and their often impassioned arguments.
