SHIRIM: A JEWISH POETRY JOURNAL

Over forty years have passed since Stanley Chyet, Of Blessed Memory, and I first sat together in his basement office at the Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. The piles of typed documents and books spoke of a college professor more interested in literature and conversation than finding the right spot for each document. Occasionally he would reach for a small notebook that he kept in his shirt pocket, take out a pencil stub, and scribble down some phrases. This is how his poems began, with a notion or a word or a raw emotion that came from his need to respond to something said to him.

One morning I rushed into his office with an idea that had struck me during my wake-up shower. Always kind, Stanley resisted the temptation to poke fun at the only place I seem to have any inspiration. The idea was a simple one — a Jewish poetry journal. In spite of the numerous poets of Jewish heritage, no journal in this country had ever focused exclusively on their poetry. Stanley was intrigued!

For those of you who knew Stanley, you can well imagine the intensity of the conversations that followed. After several weeks of discussion on how to explain, never mind try to define, the word “Jewish,” we moved on to the word “poetry.” After several more weeks of pilpul, it appeared that the only word we could agree on was the word “journal” (and even that was not completely clear).

What to do? Stanley thought for a moment then took out his small notebook and wrote: “Poetry of Jewish Reference.” After weeks of thought-provoking conversation, Stanley figured out how to capture the essence of the problem while sidestepping all the pitfalls. So, for the last forty years, SHIRIM has published poetry of Jewish reference.

So, back to the present day. What to do to commemorate the 40th year anniversary of SHIRIM? How do you capture forty years of searching for creative Jewish thought through poetry?

What would Stanley have suggested?

Perhaps, he would have suggested creating an issue which incorporates poetry from the very first publication to the present and reflects the extremes of Jewish life. Does the poetry convey the essence of Jewish thought and emotion?

From the beginning, Yiddish poetry has been a cornerstone of SHIRIM. In fact, the first poem here was published in our very first issue in the Fall of 1982. “From the Vilna Ghetto 1964,“ by Rivka Basman, captures our sense of loss, enlightenment and eternal connection:

I turn away from
the forgotten words,
they pierce like arrows
in this wasteland
without light, without tears
their cries resound.

They are calling me
those sleeping eyes,
they are calling with hungry hands.
I didn’t learn
this destiny from books,
only the Jews knew.

In 2017, Seymour Mayne created an issue of SHIRIM entitled Dream the Living into Speech: A Selection of Poems and a Homage to Yiddish (see selections). In the issue, writing about the poetry of Melech Ravitch, Seymour wrote, “Here is Yiddish poetic art at its finest. Passionate, questioning and involved with the deepest searches of the psyche."

What would Stanley have said?

Perhaps something like, “All I could add is already contained in the poems in this 40th anniversary issue.

What more can I say?”

Marc Steven Dworkin
Editor

A later issue on Yiddish poetry, Richard Fein’s Poetry and his Translations of Moyshe-Leyb Halpern was published in 2023-2024. Click here to see essay & poems excerpts.

“One’s religion, one’s Judaism, becomes so much part of the fabric of living that I find it hard to distinguish my Jewishness from my character or temperament, things that are notoriously difficult to identify and describe in one’s self.” – Daniel Mark Epstein

“I am a Jewish writer because that is the path I was born to and because the imagery and the stories both feed me and are my body. Even when I try to cut myself off, I find that Judaism is the knife I use.” – Deena Metzger