21 unter 1 dakh: a case study of 21st-century Hasidic children’s literature in Yiddish translation

This article examines the Yiddish translation of the popular series of novels for Haredi children by Ruth Rappaport which was first published in the early 2000s in Israeli Hebrew under the title עשרים ואחד בבית אחד (Twenty-One in One House). English and Yiddish versions of many of the novels in the series have been produced, with a French translation recently launched. Study of the Yiddish version, compared with the English translation and Hebrew original, offers fascinating insights into contemporary Yiddish-speaking Haredi culture and literary practices. While the English version is a close translation with foreignization being the main strategy, the Yiddish one is a heavily domesticated adaptation composed in line with the long-standing Yiddish tradition referred to as fartaytsht un farbesert–translated and improved. Indeed, the Yiddish version contains various kinds of modifications ranging from minor details to substantial elements of the story. Many of these modifications can be interpreted as ways of reframing the text for a strictly “heymish” Hasidic (primarily Satmar) audience as opposed to the more “modern” Haredi readership of the Hebrew and English versions. In other cases, the modifications transform the Yiddish version into a platform for engagement with broader sociolinguistic issues that are of specific relevance to a Yiddish-speaking Hasidic target market, such as changing cultures of literacy and the development of greater female agency within this context.