feature selections in <strong>Yiddish</strong> as well as English and Hebrew.<strong>Yiddish</strong> names are also given to some contemporary instrumentalpieces, an indication that this music is heymish – as arelabels warning listeners not to play recordings on the Sabbath andJewish holidays, and that duplication of the recording is “againsthalacha”as well as a violation of copyright law.<strong>Yiddish</strong> Titles <strong>for</strong> the Haredi ReaderTwo blocks from Mostly Music is another important destination<strong>for</strong> the <strong>Yiddish</strong> consumer: Eichler’s bookstore (5004Thirteenth Avenue). Claiming to be “The Largest JudaicaStore in the World,” Eichler’s is certainly the largest of theneighborhood’s several Jewish bookstores (and there appearsto be no other kind of bookstore inthe area). A visit to Eichler’s providesan overview of Jewish literacyas it is understood in Boro Park.The store’s vast inventory has littlein common with the Judaica sectionof a Barnes & Noble or other mainstreambookstore or, <strong>for</strong> that matter,with many an American synagoguelibrary. You will not find the novelsof Cynthia Ozick or Philip Roth atEichler’s, nor the philosophical writingsof Heschel or Levinas; likewise,there are no works of modern secular <strong>Yiddish</strong> or Hebrewauthors (in original or translation). The store’s most extensiveofferings are s<strong>for</strong>im, including handsomely bound sets of theTalmud and makhzorim. Secular books include kosher cookbooksas well as a few familiar titles dealing with theHolocaust or Israel. Biographies, though, appear to deal exclusivelywith the lives of Hasidic and rabbinic sages.Like other Judaica bookstores (not to mention the itinerantmoykher-s<strong>for</strong>im of bygone days), Eichler’s also offersother goods, ranging from ritual objects and clothing torecordings and children’s games. The ritual items in Eichler’stestify to the elaborate haredi domestic culture that hasevolved in Boro Park. The store boasts a wide selection o<strong>for</strong>nately decorated boxes <strong>for</strong> storing bentsherlekh (smallbooklets with the text <strong>for</strong> grace after meals) at the dinnertable, all manner of ewers and basins <strong>for</strong> ritual handwashing,and kiddush fountains, which allow one to bless onelarge goblet of wine and then pour it simultaneously intoeight or more small cups <strong>for</strong> family and guests (morehygienic, if less traditional, than passing one wine gobletfrom person to person around the table, notes Jochnowitz).Though these ritual items are much more likely to bearHebrew inscriptions, some are labeled in <strong>Yiddish</strong>.For the <strong>Yiddish</strong> reader, Eichler’s offers titles that testify tothe language’s role in maintaining traditional cultural literacyamong haredim. One can find <strong>Yiddish</strong> anthologies of Biblecommentaries, selections from the Shulhan Arukh, andinstructional volumes on Jewish holidays and sages of the past.Some works maintain the long standing association of <strong>Yiddish</strong>with the pious female reader. For example, Der kroyn fun tsnies(The Crown of Modesty, published in Brooklyn in 2000), a guideto conduct <strong>for</strong> the modern Hasidic woman, explains the moresof proper dress and restrictions on activities ranging fromriding a bicycle to talking on a cell phone in public.A very recent development – apparently only within thelast few years – is a spate of entertainment literature writtenin <strong>Yiddish</strong> that meets the haredi community’s exactingconcerns. Some of these worksare suspense novels – such asDer shpion vos iz antlofn (The SpyWho Escaped) by F. Royz, publishedin Monroe, New York,in 2000; the book’s title pagedescribes it as “a suspenseful story,with many stormy moments anddramatic descriptions, with livelyscenes of a Russian spy underCommunist rule.” Other titles fallinto the category of historical fiction,such as Antdekt Amerike(America Discovered) by Y. Sh. Gros,“a suspenseful, dramatic,and instructive story that takes place during the time of thesearch <strong>for</strong> America by the explorer ‘Columbus the Jew,’” publishedin Kiryas Joel, New York, in 1997. Typically, these booksopen with haskomes, letters of endorsement from rabbinicauthorities; some include prefaces from the publisher offeringa rationale <strong>for</strong> this new literary genre. The introduction to Dershpion vos iz antlofn explains that “dramatic books” such asthis are a product of modern times, and that reading fictionhas become an important part of life not only <strong>for</strong> gentiles, but<strong>for</strong> Jews as well. It goes on to describe how these Jews – assimilationistsand followers of the Jewish Enlightenment – turnedat first to books in other languages, but then began readingsecular books in <strong>Yiddish</strong>. Such works by “<strong>Yiddish</strong>ists,” withtheir “false knowledge,” created upheaval among traditionallyobservant Jews, we are told. And now there are similar booksin modern Hebrew and English to contend with as well. Toalleviate this problem, rabbis have turned to “trustworthyauthors” to write works of fiction in <strong>Yiddish</strong> that are “worthyof being brought into respectable Jewish homes.”To the scholar of <strong>Yiddish</strong> literature, this argument soundsstrangely familiar. Centuries ago, similar prefaces appeared insome of the first published <strong>Yiddish</strong> books, such as vernaculartranslations of the Bible and compendia of morally instruc-24 FALL 2002