SOURCE: "Universal and Jewish Components in Y. L. Peretz's Folktales," in Yiddish, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1991, pp. 81-8.

In the following essay, Adler discusses Peretz's blending of traditional Jewish tales with his own modern world view.

Y. L. Peretz invigorated Yiddish and Hebrew writings with cadences from world literature. At the same time he sought to discover and reproduce an authentically Jewish voice. He collected folktales and held folklore evenings at his home and even paid money to obtain folksongs. (In view of this commitment, it is not surprising that it was the young Polish-Jewish folklorists who translated his works into Polish.)

In his life and in his works Peretz interacted constantly with the old and the new, the Jewish and non-Jewish. Europeanized, but proud Yiddishist, he advocated the new yet maintained contact with tradition. The gefilte fish he ate every Friday night and the secular literary evenings at his...