Never-Ending Tales

An anthology of European and American short stories from the 1870s through the 1930s in which Jewish writers respond to antisemitism with humor, satire, irony, and hope

Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Jewish writers in Europe and America published countless stories addressing “the Jewish Question”—the intense debate about the treatment of Jews following their so-called emancipation. In Never-Ending Tales, Jack Zipes presents more than two dozen of these stories, which attempted to subvert the antisemitism that the debate represented. Humorous and bittersweet, and filled with ironic reversals, these are stories of fantasy, magic, and transformation—tales about little people who assert their humanity; about the Golem, the gargantuan savior of Jews; about rabbis who use wisdom and patience to protect their people; and much more. While illuminating the problems faced by Jews of the period, from assimilation and conversion to pogroms and fascism, these stories offer hope about surviving and overcoming antisemitism.

Bringing together brilliant stories by well-known authors such as Sholem Aleichem, Karl Emil Franzos, Mynona, I. L. Peretz, and Israel Zangwill, and tales by lesser-known writers that deserve more attention, Never-Ending Tales also features a short novel, Hugo Bettauer’s The City without Jews: A Novel about the Near Future (1924), a satire in which the gentiles of Vienna rid the city of Jews only to find themselves hopeless without them. In addition, the anthology includes, for historical and literary context, an antisemitic story, “The Operated Jew,” by Oskar Panizza, to which another story in the collection—Mynona’s “The Operated Goy”—is a direct reply; important historical essays on the Jewish Question by Theodor Herzl and Leo W. Schwarz; and brief biographies.