Transatlantic Literary Import: Soviet Book-Length Translations of American Yiddish Authors

The article aims to contribute to better understanding, first, of the changing relations between Soviet and American Yiddish literary circles, and, second, of Soviet publishing policy and practice concerning foreign authors. The focus is on American Yiddish writers’ books, published in the Soviet Union in Russian and Ukrainian. The prime attention is paid to the cultural and historical context rather than to the lexical and stylistic peculiarities of the translations. Books by Sholem Asch and Joseph Opatoshu dominated the translations. In various years, Soviet readers also had access to works by Abraham Reisen, Peretz Hirschbein, Baruch Glasman, Moyshe Olgin, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Lon Chanukoff. Characteristically, the Yiddish originals of the translated books usually did not appear under Soviet imprints.