A forgotten Yiddish children's fantasy, at last in English
Binele comes from a world of Yiddish literature that spoke to children with seriousness, tenderness, and high hopes. First serialized in 1938 in Kinder Tsaytung, a Yiddish socialist children's magazine, B. J. Bialostotzky's tale follows Binele, a young boy who cannot accept that joy should be brief and suffering ordinary. Instead, he sets out to find the Land of Endless Holiday.
What follows is at once a wonder tale, a moral quest, and what Professor Michael Weingrad, in his afterword, calls "a fantasy for very dark times." Guided by Eliyahu haNovi, the Prophet Elijah, through a landscape of beauty, sorrow, and danger, Binele pursues his dream of a world remade on gentler and more just terms.
Drawing on Jewish folklore, messianic longing, and the ideals of Yiddish socialist culture, Binele reveals a little-known chapter in the history of twentieth century fantasy. Weingrad's afterword, "Bialostotzky's Neverending Story," places the tale in conversation with the more famous contemporary works of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.
This new edition restores a distinctive Yiddish classic to new life for readers of English and Yiddish alike: a deeply Jewish fantasy of courage, longing, and the hope that somewhere beyond the horizon, a better world still waits.
"The illustrations and translation of this classic Yiddish children's book reveal it to be a tale of inspiration and adventure suitable for all ages. It's a reader's holiday."
-Zackary Sholem Berger, Yiddish translator of The Cat in the Hat and Curious George.
"Binele is, quite simply, magic, and magic of a particularly Jewish sort. Its images and its protagonist will linger with you long past its haunting ending."
-Jeremy Dauber, author, Jewish Comedy: A Serious History and The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem
