Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport

October 15, 1863 (age 57)

Chashniki, Vitsyebskaya Voblasts', Belarus

In his late teens, Rapoport left home. He worked as a tutor in Liozno, Belarus, until Jewish community leaders discovered that he was disseminating radical ideas; he was consequently dismissed in 1882. When he was 21, his first novel, History of a Family, was translated from Yiddish into Russian, and appeared in the magazine The Dawn in 1884. Rapoport’s literary career began in earnest after he traveled to Saint Petersburg in early 1892. There he got to know the editors of the Russian Wealth, where he published stories and articles as S. Ansky, a name he would use for the rest of his life to sign his literary works and personal documents. July 1892–December 1905 Ansky spent in Western Europe, where he continued to work for radical political and cultural causes and to write in Russian, and eventually also in Yiddish. After the revolution of 1905 Ansky returned to Russia and under the influence of the Russian narodnik movement plunged into Jewish and Russian politics. He also became interested in ethnography, as well as socialism. Between 1911 and 1914 he headed ethnographic expeditions to various Jewish towns of Volhynia and Podolia, composing a detailed ethnographic questionnaire of more than 2000 questions. Apparently inspired by the expedition’s findings, Ansky drafted The Dybbuk in Russian in late 1913. From 1914 untill 1917 Ansky worked for the Jewish Committee for the Relief of War Victims, distributing aid to Jews in war-torn Poland, Galicia, and Bucovina. After February 1917 Ansky was elected to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly as a Socialist Revolutionary, representing Vitebsk; following the Bolshevik takeover, he fled to Vilna in September 1918. In April 1919 Ansky left for Warsaw. He spent his last months translating his Russian works into Yiddish and planning a collection of his complete works in Yiddish.

Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport

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also known as Semen Ansky

playwright polemicist author

Background

Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport was born on October 15, 1863 in Chashniki, Vitsyebskaya Voblasts', Belarus in a merchant family.

Education

Rapoport’s formal education stopped after heder - elementary educational institution among East European Jewry, - but he read Russian literature which helped him learn Russian at the age of 17. He was engaged in hard self-education and gave private lessons.

Career

In his late teens, Rapoport left home. He worked as a tutor in Liozno, Belarus, until Jewish community leaders discovered that he was disseminating radical ideas; he was consequently dismissed in 1882.

When he was 21, his first novel, History of a Family, was translated from Yiddish into Russian, and appeared in the magazine The Dawn in 1884.

Rapoport’s literary career began in earnest after he traveled to Saint Petersburg in early 1892. There he got to know the editors of the Russian Wealth, where he published stories and articles as S. Ansky, a name he would use for the rest of his life to sign his literary works and personal documents.

July 1892–December 1905 Ansky spent in Western Europe, where he continued to work for radical political and cultural causes and to write in Russian, and eventually also in Yiddish.

After the revolution of 1905 Ansky returned to Russia and under the influence of the Russian narodnik movement plunged into Jewish and Russian politics. He also became interested in ethnography, as well as socialism. Between 1911 and 1914 he headed ethnographic expeditions to various Jewish towns of Volhynia and Podolia, composing a detailed ethnographic questionnaire of more than 2000 questions. Apparently inspired by the expedition’s findings, Ansky drafted The Dybbuk in Russian in late 1913.

From 1914 untill 1917 Ansky worked for the Jewish Committee for the Relief of War Victims, distributing aid to Jews in war-torn Poland, Galicia, and Bucovina.

After February 1917 Ansky was elected to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly as a Socialist Revolutionary, representing Vitebsk; following the Bolshevik takeover, he fled to Vilna in September 1918.

In April 1919 Ansky left for Warsaw. He spent his last months translating his Russian works into Yiddish and planning a collection of his complete works in Yiddish.

Achievements

S. Ansky is best known for his play The Dybbuk or Between Two Worlds, written in 1914.

Works

A Shtetl and Other Yiddish Novellas A Shtetl and Other Yiddish Novellas

The Enemy at His Pleasure: A Journey Through the Jewish Pale of Settlement During World War I The Enemy at His Pleasure: A Journey Through the Jewish Pale of Settlement During World War I

Four Plays: Bilingual Edition Four Plays: Bilingual Edition

The Dybbuk (Between Two Worlds) The Dybbuk (Between Two Worlds)

book

Politics

In 1917, after the Russian Revolution, he was elected to the Russian Constituent Assembly as a Social-Revolutionary deputy.

Views

As a populist, Rapoport believed that Russia’s rural population was central to the country’s future and that intellectuals needed to repay a moral debt to the poor, especially to peasants.

Interests

theatre
Music & Bands

folk

Connections

In February 1900, Ansky married a French-Russian woman, but their relationship soon ended. Then in 1908 he married Esther Glezerman, a much younger Jewish woman, but the marriage soon foundered.

Wife:: Esther Glezerman

Main Photo