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{{Short description|Belarusian Jewish author, playwright, scholar, and activist}} {{Expand Russian|topic=bio|date=February 2021}} {{expand Ukrainian|topic=bio|date=May 2023}} {{Infobox writer | embed = | honorific_prefix = | name = S. An-sky | honorific_suffix = | image = Semyon_Akimovich_An-skiy.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | native_name = ש. אַנ-סקי | native_name_lang = Yiddish | pseudonym = S. An-sky | birth_name = Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport | birth_date = {{Birth date|1863|10|27}} | birth_place = [[Chashniki]], [[Russian Empire]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|1920|11|08|1863|10|27}} | death_place = [[Warsaw]] or [[Otwock]], [[Poland]] | resting_place = | occupation = Writer, journalist, ethnographer | language = [[Yiddish]], [[Russian language|Russian]] | education = | alma_mater = | period = | genre = <!-- or: | genres = --> | subject = <!-- or: | subjects = --> | movement = | notable_works = | spouse = <!-- or: | spouses = --> | partner = <!-- or: | partners = --> | children = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website = <!-- {{URL|example.org}} --> | portaldisp = <!-- "on", "yes", "true", etc.; or omit --> }} '''Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport''' (1863 – November 8, 1920), also known by his [[pen name]] '''S. An-sky''',{{efn|also An-ski, Ansky, Anski}} was a [[Jewish]] author, playwright, researcher of [[Jewish folklore]], polemicist, and cultural and political activist. He is best known for his play ''[[The Dybbuk]]'' or ''Between Two Worlds'', written in 1914, and for [[Di Shvue]], the anthem of the Jewish socialist [[Bundism|Bund]]. In 1912-1914, he led the [[Jewish Ethnographic Expedition]] to the [[Pale of Settlement]]. In 1917, after the [[Russian Revolution]], he was elected to the [[Russian Constituent Assembly]] as a [[Socialist-Revolutionary Party|Social-Revolutionary]] deputy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jhom.com/personalities/ansky/index.htm|title=S. Ansky (1863-1920)|publisher=Jewish Heritage Online Magazine|accessdate=2009-11-04}}</ref> ==Biography== [[File:Ravnitzki An-ski Mocher Sforim Bialik Frug.jpg|thumb|250px|Odessa writers. From left to right: Y. Ravnitzki, An-sky, [[Mendele Mocher Sforim]], [[H. N. Bialik]], S. Frug. Published in [[Simon Dubnow]]'s newspaper in 1916]] Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport was born in [[Chashniki]], [[Vitebsk Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Belarus]]), but spent his childhood in [[Vitebsk]]. He was from a poor religious family, and he had only a [[heder]] education. His mother ran a tavern. He left his home and moved to [[Liozno]] in his late-teens, and worked as a tutor; he was ostracised by his community for "disseminating radical ideas".<ref name="yivo">{{cite web |title=YIVO {{!}} Rapoport, Shloyme Zaynvl |url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Rapoport_Shloyme_Zaynvl |website=yivoencyclopedia.org |access-date=17 June 2024}}</ref> He wrote his first novel, "History of a Family", in Yiddish, it was translated and published in Russian in 1884.<ref name="yivo"/> Rappoport was actively involved in revolutionary movements, initially as a populist (known as [[narodniki]]) and later as a member of the Socialist Revolutionary (SR) Party. At this time, he changed his name from Jewish to Russian, Semyon Akimovich. In 1880s, in the spirit of [[Going to the People]] movement,<ref>{{cite web |title=Jewish Heritage Online Magazine |url=https://www.jhom.com/personalities/ansky/peasantry.htm |website=www.jhom.com |access-date=19 June 2024}}</ref> popular among populists, he moved to [[Ekaterinoslav]] region, where he worked as a tutor and in the "salt- and coal-mining industry". He believed in the importance of the education of Russia's peasants and participated in activities such as collecting workers' songs and giving public readings, which led to his arrest in 1888. In 1892, he was introduced to the literary circles of St. Petersburg, where he started writing under the pen name S. An-sky. He moved to Paris in 1892 and lived in Europe until 1905. He mainly wrote in Russian, but eventually started to write in Yiddish too. He also worked as a secretary for Russian philosopher [[Petr Lavrov]] in Paris. He had a short marriage to a "French-Russian woman". After Lavrov's death, An-sky moved to Switzerland, where, together with [[Viktor Chernov]], he founded a populist Agrarian Socialist League. In 1904-1905, he was an editor of the Yiddish socialist journal ''Kampf un kempfer'' (The Fight and the Fighters).<ref name="yivo"/> An-sky returned to Russia in 1905, after the revolution. He debated prominent figures like [[Simon Dubnow]], [[Chaim Zhitlowsky]], and [[Shmuel Niger]] on various issues, including Jewish revolutionary dedication, Christian imagery in Jewish literature, and the trilingual vision of modern Jewish literature. An-sky also became active in Jewish publishing, editing and contributing to several Jewish journals and encyclopedias. From 1908 to 1918, he traveled extensively, lecturing on Jewish cultural topics while remaining involved in Socialist Revolutionary politics. He published works on anarchism and revolutionary plays, and was arrested in 1907 "for disseminating revolutionary propaganda". He had another failed marriage in 1908, to Esther Glezerman.<ref name="yivo"/> In 1912-1914, An-sky with a small team went for an ethnographic expedition to the Pale of Settlement, collecting thousands of photographs, folk tales, songs, and artefacts. {{sfn|Deutsch|2011|p=11-14}}<ref name="yivo"/> Based on the collected materials, An-sky wrote his most famous work, the play ''[[The Dybbuk]]''. It was soon translated to Yiddish, and is now regarded as one of the most famous plays of the [[Yiddish theatre]]. During the World War I and until the October Revolution of 1917, An-sky worked for Jewish Committee for the Relief of War Victims; in 1920 he published his memoir of this times, ''Khurbn Galitsye'' (The Destruction of Galicia).<ref name="yivo"/> After the revolution, he escaped to [[Vilnius|Vilna]] and then to Warsaw, where he died of a heart attack<ref name="yivo"/> on November 8, 1920.{{sfn|Deutsch|2011|p=12}} ==Ethnographic work== [[File:An-ski 1910.jpg|thumb|S. An-sky, 1910]] Under the influence of the Russian [[narodniki]] movement, An-sky became interested in [[ethnography]], as well as socialism, and became a political activist. Between 1912 and 1913, An-sky headed the [[Jewish Ethnographic Expedition]], financed by Baron Vladimir Günzburg and named in honor of his father [[Horace Günzburg]], which traveled through [[Podolia]] and [[Volhynia]] in the [[Pale of Settlement]]. They documented the oral traditions and customs of the native Jews, whose culture was slowly disintegrating under the pressure of modernity. According to his assistant Samuel Schreier-Shrira, An-sky was particularly impressed by the stories he heard in [[Myropil (urban-type settlement)|Miropol]] of a local sage, the [[Rebbe|hasidic rebbe]] Samuel of Kaminka-Miropol (1778 – May 10, 1843), who was reputed to have been a master exorcist of ''[[dybbuk]]'' spirits. Samuel served as the prototype for the character Azriel, who is also said to reside in that town.{{sfn|Deutsch|2011|pp=47-48}} Historian [[Nathaniel Deutsch]] suggested he also drew inspiration for ''The Dybbuk'' from the [[Maiden of Ludmir]], who was also rumored to have been possessed, thus explaining her perceived inappropriate manly behavior.{{sfn|Deutsch|2003|pp=9, 15-16}} He composed a detailed ethnographic questionnaire of 2,087 questions.{{sfn|Deutsch|2011|pp=11-14}} An-sky's ethnographic collections were locked away in Soviet vaults for years, but some material has come to light since the 1990s.{{sfn|Avrutin|2009}} The State Ethnographic Museum at St. Petersburg holds a good deal of it.<ref name=Tracing>Tracing An-sky: Jewish Collections from the State Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg, Amsterdam 1992</ref> Some of his vast collection of cylinder recordings made on these expeditions were digitized by the [[Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine]], which holds the collection.<ref name=Wax>Materials of J. Engel Ethnographic Expedition 1912 (The Historic Collection of Jewish Music 1912-1947, vol. 1) (Kiev: National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine; Institute for Information Recording, 2001)</ref> Deutsch compares the An-sky's expedition materials to [[genizah]], particularly to the [[Cairo genizah]].{{sfn|Deutsch|2011|pp=11-14}} His ethnographic report of the deliberate destruction of Jewish communities by the Russian army in the First World War, ''Khurbn Galitsiye'' (The Destruction of Galicia), has become a major source in the historiography of the war's impact on civilian populations.{{sfn|Ansky|2003|p=253}} ==Literary career== [[File:Mauzoleum Trzech Pisarzy 4.JPG|thumb|Mausoleum of the Three Writers ([[I. L. Peretz|Peretz]], [[Jacob Dinezon|Dinezon]], and An-sky) in Warsaw]] Initially he wrote in [[Russian language|Russian]], but from 1904 he became known mainly as a [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] author. He is best known for his play ''[[The Dybbuk]]'' or ''Between Two Worlds'', written in 1914. The play was first staged in the Elyseum Theatre in [[Warsaw]], on December 9, 1920, one month (at the end of the 30-day mourning period) after the author's death.<ref>Zylbercweig, Zalmen (ed.). "[https://archive.org/stream/nybc201089#page/n52/mode/1up An-ski, Sh.]", in ''Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater'' (Lexicon of Yiddish Theater). Vol. 1. New York: Elisheva, 1931. col. 71-78; here: 74.</ref> It was subsequently translated into a dozen or more languages and performed thousands of times all over the world. It is still being produced, along with numerous adaptations, as well as operas, ballets, and symphonic suites. (For example, in 2011 there were seven different productions.) It is considered the jewel of the Jewish theatre.<ref>1. Fernando Peñalosa, ''The Dybbuk: Text, Subtext, and Context''. Tsiterboym Books, 2012.</ref> In the early years ''The Dybbuk'' was considered so significant that parodies of it were written and produced.<ref>Fernando Peñalosa, tr., ''Parodies of An-sky’s The Dybbuk. Bilingual Edition''. Tsiterboym Books, 2012.</ref> Although ''The Dybbuk'' is An-sky’s best-known work, he published many works of literature, politics and ethnography. His ''Collected Works'', which do not include all his writings, comprise fifteen volumes.<ref>S. An-sky. ''Gezamelte Shriften''. Vilna, Warsaw, New York: Wydawnistwo “AN-SKI,” 1922. Reprinted 1926 and 1929.</ref> An-sky wrote a number of other plays, four of which are included in this collection, long out of print. One (''Day and Night'') is, like ''The Dybbuk'', a Hasidic Gothic story. The other three plays have revolutionary themes, and were originally written in Russian: ''Father and Son'', ''In a Conspiratorial Apartment'', and ''The Grandfather''. All four have recently been republished in a bilingual Yiddish-English edition.<ref>''S. An-sky. Four Plays. Bilingual Edition,'' tr. Fernando Peñalosa. Tsiterboym Books, 2013.</ref> An-sky was also the author of the song ''[[Di Shvue]]'' (The Oath), which became the anthem of the Jewish Socialist [[General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia|Bund]] party. He was the author of the poem (later made into a song) "[[In Zaltsikn Yam]]" (In the Salty Sea), which was also dedicated to the [[General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland|Bund]]. == Selected publications == * Sketches on Folk Literacy, 1892/1894 * Hungry, 1892 * Mendel the Turk, 1892 * Pioneers, 1904–1905 * On a New Course, 1907 * Jewish Folk Art, 1908 * The Folk and the Book, 1913 * ''[[The Dybbuk]]'', 1914 * The Destruction of Galicia, 1920 * Album of the Jewish Artistic Heritage (published posthumously) == Notes == {{notelist}} ==References== {{reflist}} ==Sources== * {{cite book |last1=Ansky |first1=S. |editor1-last=Neugroschel |editor1-first=Joachim |editor1-link=Joachim Neugroschel |title=The Enemy at His Pleasure: A Journey Through the Jewish Pale of Settlement During World War I |date=2003 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-8050-5945-8 |language=en}} * {{cite book |editor1-last=Avrutin |editor1-first=Eugene M. |title=Photographing the Jewish Nation: Pictures from S. An-sky's Ethnographic Expeditions |date=2009 |publisher=Brandeis University Press |isbn=978-1-61168-683-8 |language=English}} * {{cite book |last1=Caplan |first1=Debra |last2=Moss |first2=Rachel Merrill |title=The Dybbuk Century: The Jewish Play That Possessed the World |date=2023 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |doi=10.3998/mpub.11522250 |jstor=10.3998/mpub.11522250 |isbn=978-0-472-07643-7 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.11522250 |access-date=19 June 2024}} * {{cite book |last1=Deutsch |first1=Nathaniel |title=The maiden of Ludmir: a Jewish holy woman and her world |date=2003 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=9780520231917}} * {{cite book |last1=Deutsch |first1=Nathaniel |author1-link=Nathaniel Deutsch |title=The Jewish dark continent: life and death in the Russian pale of settlement |date=2011 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass |isbn=978-0674047280}} * [[Eleanor Mlotek|Mlotek, Eleanor G.]] '' S. Ansky : (Shloyme-Zanvl Rappoport) 1863-1920 : His Life and Works : Catalog of an Exhibition.'' [New York]: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 1980. OCLC 10304171 * {{cite book |editor1-last=Neugroschel |editor1-first=Joachim |editor1-link=Joachim Neugroschel |title=The Dybbuk and the Yiddish Imagination: A Haunted Reader |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=msFeBYSIJtoC&pg=PA1 |access-date=16 June 2024 |language=en |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=2000 |isbn=9780815628712}} * {{cite book |last1=Rechtman |first1=Abraham |title=The lost world of Russia's Jews: ethnography and folklore in the pale of settlement |date=2021 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington, Indiana |isbn=9780253056948}} * {{cite book |title=The Worlds of S. An-sky: A Russian Jewish Intellectual at the Turn of the Century |date=2006 |publisher=Stanford University Press |doi=10.1515/9781503620247 |isbn=978-0-8047-4527-7 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781503620247/html?lang=en#contents |editor1-first=Gabriella |editor1-last=Safran |editor2-first=Steven J. |editor2-last=Zipperstein |editor2-link=Steven J. Zipperstein}} * {{cite book |last1=Safran |first1=Gabriella |title=Wandering Soul: The Dybbuk's Creator, S. An-sky |date=2010 |publisher=Harvard University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctvjghv5w |jstor=j.ctvjghv5w |isbn=978-0-674-05570-4 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvjghv5w |access-date=19 June 2024}} ==External links== {{Commonscat}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160101175909/http://www.jhom.com/personalities/ansky/index.htm Jewish Heritage Online article on Ansky], archived from the [http://www.jhom.com/personalities/ansky/index.htm original] on 2016-01-01 *[http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Rapoport_Shloyme_Zaynvl YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:An-sky, S.}} [[Category:1863 births]] [[Category:1920 deaths]] [[Category:People from Chashniki]] [[Category:People from Lepelsky Uyezd]] [[Category:19th-century Jews from the Russian Empire]] [[Category:Belarusian Jews]] [[Category:Narodniks]] [[Category:Bundists]] [[Category:Socialist Revolutionary Party politicians]] [[Category:Russian Constituent Assembly members]] [[Category:Yiddish theatre]] [[Category:Yiddish-language dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:Dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire]] [[Category:Folklorists from the Russian Empire]] [[Category:Jewish folklorists]] [[Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers]] [[Category:Jewish writers from the Russian Empire]]
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