Talk:Mendele Mocher Sforim

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Untitled[edit]

A lot of the information I got from my grandfather, whose hobby is Yiddish literature. I also checked Web sites. Minsk is the consensus for his birthplace, but one site says Slutsk. Certainly he was Ukrainian. The reason he switched languages comes from here[1]. The reason he used a pseudonym comes from Leo Rosten. --Calieber 14:53, 7 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Sforim vs. Sfarim[edit]

I think it's Sfarim (books in Hebrew). Am I wrong? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Psychomelodic (talk • contribs) 1 Feb 2006.

"Sforim" wins out on Google (about 5 to 1) but "Sfarim" is obviously used by some. - Jmabel | Talk 19:43, 4 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mendele Mokher Seforim[edit]

It came to my attention that there is an article called Mendele Mokher Seforim which is about the same man as this one. If there is any useful information there (the article is much shorter) I suggest that they be merged. Also to answer the previous discussion about Sforim vs. Sefarim, the spelling in English should be Sforim, because although the words מוכר ספרים would be pronounced Mocher S'farim in today's Israel, this is a Sephardic pronunciation and not an Ashkenazic one (as in Yiddish) which would render his name Moykher Sforim.Eliyyahu 00:34, 17 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mocher or Mokher[edit]

Mokher is the standard YIVO transliteration, and clearer, since English speakers would tend to pronounce "Mocher" as if it rhymed with "poacher."

And I have never seen "Sfarim."

--Leyzer 18:55, 7 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See section immediately above: it's apparently Sephardic. - Jmabel | Talk 16:53, 10 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Former Jew[edit]

Does anything in the text of the article confirm that Sforim was a "former Jew"? P.D. 04:22, 28 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Subject of Article[edit]

The article shouldn't be about "Mendele Mokher Sforim" it should be about Sholem Abramovitsch - Mendele was a persona, and not even close to the same person as Abramovitsch. It sounds really weird and inaccurate to refer to him as "Mendele" throughout the article. Note the YIVO Encyclopedia article, written by a prominent scholar of modern Jewish literature, uses his real name http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/abramovitsh_sholem_yankev . It even includes an explanation:

"Since the Holocaust, critics have insisted on reading Abramovitsh’s novels and stories as artistic constructs rather than as mimetic replicas of historic realities. Thus, for example, Mendele is now understood as a full-fledged fictional character and not as a pen name. Indeed, Mendele is the most elaborate fictional character created by Abramovitsh (who, as such, belied the allegation of some critics that the writer’s realism was devoid of psychological depth), but also a mask and a persona, an in-between and not always reliable narrator and commentator who constantly traverses the distance between the world of the stories and that of the reader. Critics now study the Mendele persona, the reasons for his growth from a mere editor to a major character—the folksy “philosopher” of the writer’s works—and the fictional and supramimetic nature of the “world” made of such satirical abstractions as towns with names like Pauperville, Fools’ Town, Hypocrites’ Village, and Idlers’ Place. Mendele’s cultural and literary role is seen as that of a Janus-faced intermediary between the author and his “other”—the traditional Jew he once was but now rejects."

"Mendele" is not a pen name like "Sholem Aleichem" is. The YIVO Encyclopedia does refer to Sholem Aleichem by his pen name http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/sholem_aleichem but only after he actually started writing under it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.206.175.90 (talk) 19:20, 28 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]