The Dybbuk / Between Two Worlds

THE DYBBUK (BETWEEN TWO WORLDS)YIDDISH-ENGLISH EDITIONx, 192 pp. Yiddish and English on facing pages.The Dybbuk, by S. An-sky (1863-1920) is the crown jewel of the Jewish theatre, themost renowned, most beloved, most translated, and most performed of all Jewish plays.It was first performed in Yiddish by the Vilna Troupe in Warsaw in 1920, and by theHabima Theatre in Moscow in 1922. It has subsequently been performed thousands oftimes all over the world in a score of languages. It is still being performed well into the21st Century.As an agnostic Socialist, An-sky enigmatically wrote this play which favorablydepicts a late 19th Century Hasidic community. A young maiden in love with one youthbeing forced to marry another is the kernel of the play around which the rest is developed:the dybbuk himself. A dybbuk is usually defined as a malevolent spirit that inhabitsthe body of a living person. An-sky’s dybbuk is unique in that the spirit of the unsuccessfullover inhabits the body of the hapless bride. That is, the two love each other.This is the nature of the tragedy.ABOUT THE TRANSLATORFernando Peñalosa, born in 1925 in Berkeley, California, is Professor of Sociology,Emeritus, California State University, Long Beach. He has carried out research inCalifornia, Hawaii, Mexico, Guatemala, Israel, and Macedonia, and has written andpublished books in a number of fields. A convert to Judaism in 1965, Peñalosa is selftaughtin Hebrew, Yiddish, and Jewish studies. He has published translations fromYiddish, Hebrew, German, Akatek Mayan, and from and to Spanish. A more remoteconnection to Judaism is documented by the frequent occurrence of the surnamePeñalosa in the archives of the Spanish Inquisition. His family is descended from aConverso who came to Mexico with Hernán Cortés and the other Spanish invaders in1520.