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Sarajevo Jews celebrate a second Purim. For centuries, they weren’t alone.
(JTA) — Starting tonight, many Jews around the world will celebrate Purim in the same ways: by reading the story of the heroic Queen Esther, dressing in festive costumes and drinking alcohol.
For many of the 900 or so Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it will be the first of two annual Purim celebrations.
Since 1820, locals have also observed the Purim de Saray (Saray being a root of the word Sarajevo) early in the Hebrew calendar month of Cheshvan, which usually falls in October or November of the Gregorian calendar.
In that year, the story goes, a local dervish was murdered, prompting the corrupt Ottoman pasha of Sarajevo, a high-ranking official, to kidnap 11 prominent Jews, including the community’s chief rabbi, a kabbalist named Moshe Danon. The pasha accused them of the murder of the dervish — who had converted from Judaism to Islam — and held them for ransom, demanding 50,000 groschen of silver from the Jewish community.
But the pasha, who was a transplant from elsewhere in the Ottoman empire, deeply offended the multiethnic populace of Sarajevo, who considered the Jewish community — then around one-fifth of the city’s entire population — an essential part of their home. So local Jews, Muslims and Christians rebelled together, storming the pasha’s palace and freeing the imprisoned community leaders.
Ever since, Bosnian Jews have celebrated that story by visiting the grave of the Sarajevan Jewish historian Zeki Effendi, who was the first to document it. Dozens also take part in a pilgrimage every summer to the grave of Rabbi Danon, who is buried in the south of Bosnia, not far from the Croatian border, where he died on his way to what was then Ottoman-controlled Palestine.
For centuries, several other Jewish communities around the world observed their own versions of Purim based on stories of local resistance to antisemitism, inspired by Esther and her uncle Mordecai, who in the original holiday story save all of Persia’s Jews from execution in the 5th century BCE.
Here are the stories behind some of those traditions.
Ancona, Italy
An aerial view of Ancona in 2006. (Wikimedia Commons)
Jews settled in and around Ancona on Italy’s Adriatic coast in the 10th century, and by the 13th century they had established a flourishing community, which included figures such as the Jewish traveler Jacob of Ancona — who may have beaten Marco Polo to China — and famed poet Immanuel the Roman, who despite his title was born in a town just south of Ancona.
Though the city’s Jewish community was largely spared by the Holocaust, it has slowly declined over the years and is believed to have fewer than 100 members today. What it is not short on, however, are local Purim stories — the city is known for multiple celebrations that were established over the centuries.
The first, marked on the 21st of the Hebrew month of Tevet (usually in January) was established at the end of the 17th century and marks an earthquake that nearly destroyed the city.
“On the 21st of Teveth, Friday evening, of the year 5451 (1690), at 8 and a quarter, there was a powerful earthquake. The doors of the temple were immediately opened and in a few moments it was filled with men, women and children, still half-naked and barefoot, who came to pray to the Eternal in front of the Holy Ark. A true miracle then took place in the Temple: there was only one light, which remained lit until it was possible to provide for it,” wrote Venetian Rabbi Yosef Fiammetta in 1741, in his text “Or Boqer,” meaning “the light of the morning.”
Other Ancona Purims were established a half and three-quarters of a century later, respectively. The story for the first commemorates fires that nearly destroyed the local synagogue but miraculously did not, and the next tells of a pogrom that nearly destroyed the community as Napoleon marched through Italy during the French Revolutionary Wars.
Today, these stories have largely faded into memory. But a few centuries ago, Italy had a high concentration of communities that celebrated local Purims — including in Casale Monferrato, Ferrara, Florence, Livorno, Padua, Senigallia, Trieste, Urbino, Verona and Turin — some into the 20th century.
“It would be hoped that the local Purims are not forgotten or that they are restored in the communities that have not completely died out,” the late Italian Rabbi Yehuda Nello Pavoncello once wrote, according to the Turin Jewish Community, “so that the memory of the events reconnects us to the infinite links of the chain of the generations that have preceded us, who have suffered.”
North Africa
An illustration shows King Sebastian of Portugal being fatally wounded at a battle in Morocco in 1578. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
The extra Purim phenomenon was not confined to Europe.
In Tripoli, Libya, local Jews established the so-called Purim Barghul after the deposition of a local tyrant in the late 18th century. Ali Burghul, an Ottoman officer who was installed after the downfall of the Qaramanli dynasty, ruled the region brutally for two years, treating minorities particularly harshly. After factions of the Qaramanlis were reconciled, Burghul was driven out. Jews would go on to celebrate that day, the 29th of Tevet (usually in January).
(Centuries later, in 1970, dictator Muammar Gaddafi established his own holiday, the Day of Revenge, which celebrated the expulsion of Italian officials from Libya; some say it also celebrated the exodus of Jews since the formation of the state of Israel. Within a few years after Gaddafi’s decree, Libya’s Jewish community had dwindled to less than two dozen, effectively ending the nearly 3,000-year history of Jews there.)
In northern Morocco, Jews commemorated the defeat of a Portuguese king, Don Sebastian, who attempted to take over parts of the country but was defeated in a battle in August 1578. Jews had believed that Sebastian would have tried to convert them to Christianity if he had prevailed.
Today only around 2,000 Jews remain in Morocco, but some Moroccan communities marked the day into the 21st century.
Saragossa
A view of an 11th-century palace in Zaragoza, Spain. The Purim of Saragossa story is set in either Zaragoza or Syracuse, Italy. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Scholars still debate which city was the origin of the Purim of Saragossa story — it could have been Zaragoza in Spain or Syracuse in southern Sicily, which was often referred to in the medieval era as Siragusa. Both cities were part of the Spanish empire in 1492 and were depopulated of Jews following the Inquisition.
Either way, Sephardic descendants in places around the world, including Israel and the Turkish city of Izmir, observed their own Purim story by fasting on the 16th of the Hebrew month of Shevat — generally in February — and feasting on the 17th.
The story tells of an apostate named Marcus who slandered the Jewish community to a non-Jewish king, putting their status in jeopardy. But at the last minute, Marcus’ deception is revealed, and he is executed while the community is saved.
The story could have been entirely fabricated. According to Jewish historian Elliot Horowitz, the establishment of this second Purim story may have been a way for the descendants of Saragossan Jews, whether they are originally Spanish or Sicilian, to maintain a unique identity in the larger Sephardic diaspora.
“The Jewish communities of the eastern Mediterranean in the early modern period were often composed of émigré subcommunities, each of which was distinguished by the customs and liturgy of its place of origin,” he wrote in his 2006 book “Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence.” “The ‘Purim of Saragossa,’ the earliest manuscript evidence for which dates only from the mid-eighteenth century, may well have been ‘invented’ by former ‘Saragossans’ eager to maintain their distinct identity in the multicultural Sephardi Diaspora of the eastern Mediterranean.”
Regardless of its origins, the Megillah of Saragossa text continued to be published through at least the end of the 19th century. It was well known enough that an American Reform rabbi from New York would publish a stage play based off of it in the 1940s.
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The PA Just Made More ‘Pay-for-Slay’ Payments; Here’s How the US and EU Could Stop It
The opening of a hall that the Palestinian Authority named for a terrorist who killed 125 people. Photo: Palestinian Media Watch.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported yesterday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is continuing its Pay-for-Slay payments outside the PA areas, beyond US and EU donor oversight.
Families in Jordan and Syria confirmed the salaries were paid earlier this week. Yesterday, families in Lebanon also reported receiving their Pay-for-Slay payments. Families in Egypt were told to expect the payments, “Thursday or the beginning of next week.”
So, how is the PA keeping these monthly terror salaries flowing without triggering EU and US scrutiny?
The PA’s own budget exposed the foreign Pay-for-Slay payments
The PA’s 2017 budget book included a breakdown of how many “Martyrs and wounded” families receive monthly allowances — both inside and outside PA-controlled areas. (The PA has not published the figures about the number of Martyr family recipients since 2017.)
Although the file is no longer available online, PMW downloaded it at the time.
The relevant section on page 622 states:
13,500 families of Martyrs and wounded received monthly allowances. The Institution [for Care of the Families of the Martyrs and the Wounded] pays monthly allowances to the families of the Martyrs and the wounded through the institution’s branches abroad.
The budget continues:
21,500 families of martyrs and wounded inside the homeland (the PA areas and Israel) received allowances. Providing financial allowances to the families of the Martyrs and the wounded inside the homeland through the institution’s branches.
This was the PA admitting — in its budget — that it maintained an organized foreign-branch system to pay 13,500 terror “allowances” outside the “homeland.”
The minimum foreign Pay-for-Slay total: NIS 18.9 million per month
Under PA regulations, the minimum monthly payment to “Martyrs’ families” is 1,400 shekels.
The 2017 figure for overseas recipients:
- 13,500 families × 1,400 shekels = 18,900,000 shekels per month
This figure of 18.9 million is clearly a minimum for 2026:
- Payments rise based on family status (+400 shekels for a wife and +60 shekels for each child). For simplicity, PMW has ignored the extras.
- The number of eligible “Martyrs” families has certainly increased since 2017.
- PMW did not calculate the exiled Palestinian released terrorist prisoners who have continued to receive monthly payments.
The method: The PA hides foreign payments under the PLO heading
This money avoids EU and US donor scrutiny because the PA does not pay terrorists’ families outside the country through the PA’s local Commission of Prisoners. Instead, the PA routes payments through the PLO, where donors are not demanding transparency.
Donors scrutinize PA payments; donors do not scrutinize PLO payments. The PA exploits that gap.
Looking at the PA transfers to the PLO in 2025 confirms PMW’s analysis.
In 2025, the PA reported transferring to the PLO 269,434,600 shekels, averaging 22.5 million shekels per month, listed as “transfer expenses” — the budget category used to describe the terrorist payments.
That number aligns cleanly with what the PA already documented in 2017:
- Foreign terror payments in 2017 were NIS 18.9 million/month (minimum)
- A 2025 monthly transfer average of NIS 22.5 million/month to cover these “transfer expenses” reflects an expected increase over eight years
Case study: Ahlam Tamimi — paid in Jordan, protected from scrutiny
This month, Ahlam Tamimi should have received 6,000 shekels, bringing her total PA salary since arrest to 1,158,800 shekels.
Tamimi is one of the most notorious freed terrorists. She orchestrated the Sbarro restaurant bombing, in which 15 people — including 8 children — were murdered. Two victims were US citizens. After being released in the Gilad Shalit deal, Tamimi was exiled to Jordan.
According to PA law, released prisoners continue receiving monthly salaries. Tamimi has therefore continued receiving her PA salary while living outside PA areas. As a celebrated PA figure, there is no reason her payment would have stopped, meaning she certainly would have received her salary this week with the thousands of other Jordanian Pay-for-Slay recipients.
If the US and EU want to seriously eliminate Pay-for-Slay, they must stop ignoring PA transfers to the PLO.
PMW recommends that the US and EU demand full disclosure of the recipients of “transfer expenses” in the PLO’s budget, including the names and countries of where the PA is paying terrorists and their families beyond donor oversight.
As long as the donors turn the other way and ignore the foreign payments, even the PA “reform” of Pay-for-Slay will remain a sham, and Pay-for-Slay will continue, on schedule, every month.
The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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Chabad attack suspect had previously sought ‘spiritual guidance’ from rabbi
The 36-year-old man arrested after repeatedly crashing into the entrance of the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn on Wednesday night has a history of engaging with Chabad.
Rabbi Levi Azimov, who leads Chabad of South Brunswick in New Jersey, said the suspect, who has not yet been identified by police, attended a Purim service at Chabad in March of last year. He visited there twice more, seeking spiritual guidance, Azimov told the Forward.
“I was able to talk to him for a few minutes and see that he’s not exactly stable,” Azimov said.
Video confirmed by eyewitnesses shows the suspect repeatedly ramming his grey Honda sedan into the doors at 770 Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights neighborhood, the main headquarters of the Chabad movement and one of the most recognized Jewish buildings in the world.
The video shows the driver yelling at bystanders to move out of the way before he drove down a ramp leading to the doors.
Video from Daniel David Yeroshalmi via Storyful:
Police arrived at the scene around 8:45 p.m. and arrested the individual. There were no reported injuries. A bomb squad conducted a sweep of the vehicle and found no explosive devices, police said.
According to Chabad spokesperson Yaacov Behrman, the suspect had arrived at 770 Eastern Parkway earlier in the night and removed two metal bollards that block cars from going down the driveway toward the building.
The incident took place on the 75th anniversary of the date that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson became the leader of the Lubavitch movement. Thousands were gathered Wednesday night at the movement’s headquarters — Schneerson’s former home.
Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesperson for the movement, said on X that the ramming “seems intentional, but the motivations are unclear.” The evening’s festivities would carry on elsewhere undeterred, he said. Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, Chabad’s social media director, said in a post on X that the attack did not appear to be antisemitic.
The attack follows a rash of antisemitic incidents across the city. On Tuesday, a rabbi was punched in Forest Hills, Queens, and last week, a playground frequented by Orthodox families in the Borough Park neighborhood in Brooklyn was graffitied with swastikas two days in a row. In both incidents, the suspects have been arrested. Antisemitic incidents accounted for 57% of reported hate crimes in New York City in 2025.
The incident is being investigated as a hate crime, said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Additional reporting by Jacob Kornbluh and Louis Keene.
The post Chabad attack suspect had previously sought ‘spiritual guidance’ from rabbi appeared first on The Forward.
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Shiri Shapira’s Yiddish stories reflect the anxieties of millennials
שירי שאַפּיראַס ליטעראַרישע שאַפֿונג איז שױן באַקאַנט די לײענערס פֿון „פֿאָרװערטס“. די העלדן פֿון אירע דערצײלונגען, װאָס זײַנען אַרײַן אינעם בוך „די צוקונפֿט“, זײַנען ישׂראלדיקע מענער און פֿרױען פֿון אַ גאַנץ יאָר, די מחברטע בתוכם. זײערע דאגות זײַנען װעגן פּרנסה, משפּחה, געזונט און וכּדומה. אָבער הינטער אָט דעם טאָג־טעגלעכן שטײגער שטעקט אַ נײַע פּערזענלעכע דערפֿאַרונג, װאָס אַנטפּלעקט זיך אין אַ קריטישן מאָמענט און עפֿנט אָפֿט מאָל אַ נײַע תּקופֿה אין זײער לעבן.
בײַם 13־יאָריקן מײדל אין דער דערצײלונג „די צוקונפֿט“, װאָס עפֿנט דאָס בוך, האָט זיך די נײַע תּקופֿה אָנגעהױבן אין 2001. די טעראָר־אַטאַקע אױף ניו־יאָרק האָט זיך צונױפֿגעפֿאַלן מיט אַ טעראָר־אָנפֿאַל אין איר שטאָט:
„אין יאָר 2001 איז געקומען דער ערשטער טעראָר־אָנפֿאַל אין אונדזער שטאָט. די השפּעות אויפֿן טאָג־טעגלעכן לעבן זענען געווען גרויס. מע האָט אָנגעפֿירט אָנסופֿיקע שמועסקרײַזן צום אָנדענק פֿון איין קרבן פֿון אונדזער שול, וועמען איך האָב ניט געקענט; יעדן פֿרימאָרגן האָב איך געדאַרפֿט קוקן אויף זײַן שמייכלענדיק, פּרישטשעוואַטע פּנים אויפֿן בילד, וואָס מע האָט געהאַט פֿאַרגרעסערט און אויפֿגעהאָנגען לעבן דעם שולטויער.“
אַזױ האָט דאָס יאָר 2001 אַרײַנגעבראַכט די „טעראָר־אָנפֿאַלן פֿון דער צוקונפֿט […] הױך ביז אין הימל אַרײַן, גלאַנציקע, זילבערנע“, װאָס זײַנען געװאָרן אַ באַשטאַנדטײל פֿון דער נײַער טאָג־טעגלעכקײט אי פֿאַר שאַפּיראַ אי פֿאַר מדינת־ישׂראל אי פֿאַר דער גאַנצער װעלט.
דאָס װאָרט „צוקונפֿט“ איז סײַ דער טיטל פֿונעם גאַנצן בוך און סײַ דאָס קעפּל פֿון דער ערשטער און דער לעצטער דערצײלונג. דער דאָזיקער באַגריף דינט װי אַ שליסל צו שאַפּיראַס שאַפֿונג. בײַ דער מחברטע און אירע העלדן איז די צוקונפֿט געפֿערלעך און אומזיכער. אַזאַ מין געפֿיל שפּיגלט אָפּ די אַלגעמײנע שטימונג פֿונעם „מילעניאַל“ דור (געבױרן צװישן די 1980ער און 1990ער יאָרן), צו װעלכן זי געהערט.
„די צוקונפֿט“ איז אױך דער נאָמען פֿון אײנער פֿון די װיכטיקסטע ייִדישע צײַטשריפֿטן, װאָס איז פּובליקירט געװאָרן אין ניו־יאָרק צװישן די יאָרן 1892 און 2010. אין אַ קאַפּיטל זכרונות דערצײלט שאַפּיראַ װעגן דעם, װי זי האָט קאַטאַלאָגירט אַרטיקלען פֿונעם דאָזיקן זשורנאַל פֿאַרן ייִדישן ביבליאָגראַפֿישן פּראָיעקט אינעם העברעיִשן אוניװערסיטעט אין ירושלים. אַזױ בױט זי אַ טעמאַטישע בריק צו ייִדיש, װאָס פֿאַרנעמט אַ חשובֿן טײל פֿון איר לעבן.
לכתּחילה האָט זי געהאָפֿט, אַז זי װעט קענען לײענען די צײַטשריפֿט און „זיך לערנען אָן אַ שיעור וועגן ייִדישער געשיכטע.“ אָבער אַנשטאָט דעם האָט זי געלײענט די טאָגלעכע נײַעס װעגן טעראָריסטישע אָנפֿאַלן אין ישׂראל בעת דער אַזױ־גערופֿענער „יחידים־אינטיפֿאַדע“. די ישׂראלדיקע הײַנטצײַטיקײט מאַכט בטל דעם שײנעם צוקונפֿט־חלום פֿון די אַמאָליקע ייִדישע סאָציאַליסטן: „ווער רעדט נאָך וועגן עפּעס אַ צוקונפֿט? די צוקונפֿט איז שוין אַ געוועזענע זאַך.“
שירי שאַפּיראַ פֿאַרמאָגט אַ שאַרפֿן חוש פֿאַר צײַט און הײַנטצײַטיקײט. די צײַט אין אירע מעשׂיות פֿליסט כּסדר מאָנאָטאָן אָבער צומאָל ברענגט זי אַרײַן בײַטן אינעם לעבן פֿון יחידים און פֿונעם כּלל. די סתּירה צװישן דעם גלײַכמעסיקן צײַטגאַנג און דעם פּלוצעמדיקן צײַטבראָך פֿילט מען ספּעציעל שאַרף אין ישׂראל. יעדער טאָג טראָגט אין זיך אַ פּאָטענציעלע סכּנה.
װי אַזױ קען אַ פּשוטער בשׂר־ודם זיך געבן אַן עצה אין דעם הײַנטיקן פּאָליטישן װירװאַר? װאָס איז טאַקע די נאַטור פֿון דער צײַט?
שאַפּיראַ דערמאָנט זיך: „מיידלווײַז האָב איך געהאַט אַ רושם, אַז פֿאַר דער פֿאַרגאַנגענהייט בין איך אָנגעקומען צו שפּעט, און אַז פֿאַר דער צוקונפֿט טויג ניט קיין מענטש, וועמענס פֿאַרגאַנגענהייט איז אים פֿאַרווערט.“ אַ סבֿרא, אַזאַ מין קשיות האָבן זי געשטױסן צו שטודירן פֿילאָסאָפֿיע אינעם אוניװערסיטעט.
דער פֿילאָסאָפֿישער יסוד איז װיכטיק פֿאַרן פֿאַרשטײן שאַפּיראַס ליטעראַרישער שאַפֿונג. אָבער װי אַ געניטע שרײַבערין קען זי קונציק אַרײַנפֿלעכטן די פֿילאָסאָפֿישע חקירות אינעם נאַראַטיװן לײַװנט פֿון אירע דערצײלונגען.
שאַפּיראַס העלדן לעבן אין ישׂראל און רעדן העברעיִש. לרובֿ קענען זײ ניט קײן ייִדיש. זי אַלײן איז אַ העברעיִשע שרײַבערין װאָס האָט איבערגעזעצט אַ היפּשע צאָל ליטעראַרישע װערק פֿון דײַטשיש אױף העברעיִש. איז אױף װאָס דאַרף מען ייִדיש? אַן ענטפֿער אױף אַזאַ פֿראַגע לאָזט זיך געפֿינען אין אירע דערצײלונגען.
דאָס עלטערע פּאָרפֿאָלק בני און דליה, אין דער דערצײלונג „ערדציטערניש“, האָט איבערגעלעבט אַן ערדציטערניש אין ירושלים. זײער מאָדערנע דירה איז ניט געשעדיקט געװאָרן, אָבער אַ סך געבײַדעס אינעם פּאַלעסטינער פּליטים־לאַגער שואַפֿאַט אינעם מזרחדיקן טײל פֿון דער שטאָט זײַנען יאָ חרובֿ געװאָרן און אַרום 700 מענטשן זײַנען אומגעקומען. זײער אַראַבישע אױפֿראַמערין איז פֿאַרפֿאַלן געװאָרן און קײנער װײסט ניט, װאָס עס איז מיט איר געשען.
בײַ דעם פּאָרפֿאָלק גייט דאָס לעבן װײַטער װי פֿריִער. זײ האָבן אין גיכן פֿאַרגעסן אָן דער אױפֿראַמערין, בפֿרט אַז זײ האָבן אַפֿילו ניט געװוּסט, װי אַזױ מען זאָל אַרױסרעדן איר נאָמען. ייִדן און אַראַבער זײַנען תּושבֿים פֿון דער אײגענער שטאָט אָבער באַװױנען פֿאַרשײדענע װעלטן.
יעדן אָװנט עסן בני און דליה װעטשערע, קוקן אַ טעלעװיזיע־פּראָגראַם און כאַפּן בעת־מעשׂה אַ דרעמל. אָבער עפּעס נײַס קומט טאַקע פֿאָר אין זײער לעבן. זײ פֿאַרשרײַבן זיך אױף ייִדיש־קורסן. כאָטש זײ געדענקען כּמעט גאָרנישט פֿון ייִדיש, װאָס זײערע עלטערן האָבן אַ מאָל גערעדט האָפֿן, אַז „זיי וועלן זיך לערנען כאָטש עפּעס, איידער סע קומט דאָס קומעדיקע ערדציטערניש.“
דאָס ערדציטערניש דינט װי אַ מעטאַפֿאָר פֿאַר דראַמאַטישע און טראַגישע געשעענישן, װאָס טרעפֿן זיך אין ישׂראל. אַזוינע אומגליקן רײַסן איבער דעם מאָנאָטאָנעם צײַטגאַנג אָבער אין גיכן גײט דאָס לעבן װײַטער װי פֿריִער. און אין די דאָזיקע מאָמענטן קומט ייִדיש אַרײַן װי אַ מין געשפּענסט פֿון דער ייִדישער געשיכטע, בײַ װעמען מען קען אָנלערנען „כאָטש עפּעס“ פֿאַרן קומעדיקן איבערבראָך.
שאַפּיראַ דערמאָנט זיך װעגן אַ געפֿיל, װאָס האָט זי מײדלװײַז באַאומרויִקט: „איך בין געווען גאָר יונג און האָב געמיינט, אַז אַלע מענטשן אַחוץ מיר געבן זיך אַן עצה אין אַלע פֿאַלן, אַז אַלע זענען גוט פֿאַרוואָרצלט אין זייער לעבן, און נאָר איך שוועב אין דער לופֿטן, ניט וויסנדיק וווּ זיך אַהינצוטאָן.“ און דװקא ייִדיש שאַפֿט אַ מין גײַסטיקן מקום־מלקט װוּ מען קען „זיך אַהינטאָן“ און געפֿינען היסטאָרישע װאָרצלען.
צומאָל װערט שאַפּיראָס טאָן ביטער־איראָניש, בפֿרט װען ס׳גײט װעגן דעם לײדיקן גורל פֿונעם שרײַבער אין דער הײַנטיקער געזעלשאַפֿט. די העלדין פֿון דער דערציילונג „זעלבסטפּאָרטרעט װי אַ העברעיִשע שרײַבערין“ חלומט װעגן אַן אידעאַלן לײענער:
„ער קומט צום אָוונט לכּבֿוד מײַן ערשט בוך, מײַן דעביוט. […] דאָ זיצט אַ מאַן, שיין ווי די וועלט, און הערט זיך צו צו מײַן פּלאַפּלערײַ וועגן דער שווערער,
אויסגעצויגענער אַרבעט אויפֿן טעקסט, אַפּלאָדירט ענערגיש, ווען די מוזיקערס ענדיקן זייער טייל.“
דער מאַן האָט צװײ מאָל איבערגעלײענעט איר בוך און האָט טיף פֿאַרשטאַנען איר נשמה. זײער באַגעגעניש ענדיקט זיך אין בעט: „דערגרייכנדיק צום שפּיץ, לאָזט ער אַרויס אַ זיסן זיפֿץ, אַ זאַטן געזאַנג, ווי אַן ענטוזיאַסטישע, שאַרפֿזיניקע רעצענזיע.“
שאַפּיראַס דערצײלונגען זײַנען פֿײַנע מוסטערן פֿון דער עכטער ערנסטער ליטעראַטור, װאָס זוכט ענטפֿערס אױף די הײסע פֿראַגן פֿונעם מענטשלעכן קיום. זײ שפּיגלען אָפּ די איצטיקע צײַט װי אַ פֿליסיקער מאָמענט פֿונעם גרױסן היסטאָרישן איבערבראָך.
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