Dumb Minyan

Haim Grade (1910-1982), Yiddish poet and novelist, was born in Vilna, lived in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, Poland, France and the United States in exile actively promoted the revival of Jewish cultural life and literature in Yiddish. "Dumb minyan" - a later collection of short stories Castle, united by a common chronotope - Vilna in the late 1930's - and the general characters, including the main character - a carpenter Elokumom Papom, a dreamer and loser, despise earnings and other duties of head of family for the sake of the great ideas - the revival abandoned Beit Midrash.

Castle inherent simplicity of the stories are plain and minimalist art in general are typical of classical Yiddish literature, and perfectly conveys the originality and flavor of everyday life of the Jewish shtetl, with its joys and sorrows, fun and quarrels and typical inhabitants: butterfingers-carpenter, "a long, thin and dry As a stick from a broom, "babusyami in wigs, gall-ascetic rabbi, kindly hostess bakery, a blind preacher and avid synagogue warden.