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mistake invade the wrong town: instead of the neighboring
Gorshkov, they go to Mazelborscht, where a wedding party happens, and Mazelborschters, annoyed by the disruption, beat up Chelmers. As the story goes, "a lost war sooner or later is followed by a revolution, that is what happened in Chelm."
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The Sages of Chelm headed by Gronam Ox convene to figure out how to deal with the crisis and put forth a series of stupid suggestions, such as get rid of the word "crisis" or tax only the poor, culminating in the suggestion to go to war, which gets an approval. The war is lost because
Chelmers by
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At the end of the book Gronam Ox says: "We do not wish to conquer the world, but our wisdom is spreading throughout it just the same. The future is bright. The chances are good that someday the whole world will be one great Chelm" - a parody on the idea of the victory of
154:"They learned to read and write, and such words as 'problem' and 'crisis' were created. The moment the word 'crisis' appeared in the language, the people realized there was a crisis in Chelm."
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jokes, though the full appreciation of the humor therein requires a considerable knowledge of Jewish history, culture, and religion, as well as general political issues.
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The rest of the tale is a sequence of
Chelmer's attempts to deal with poverty, which are parodies on various socialist and communist ideas, and none of which worked.
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in the arguments about the origin of Chelm. Eventually The
Chelmers learn to read and write, create the word "crisis", and suddenly understand their miserly state.
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Table of contents: "How Chelm came to be" -- "Who is the enemy?" -- "The war" -- "The revolt" -- "Chelm without money" -- "Feitel's reign" -- "The future is bright"
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43:, signed by the pen name D. Segal, in 1966 and was an evolution of his previous story, "The Political Economy of Chelm", published in the
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on March 10, 1966. It was translated in
English in 1973, by the author and Elizabeth Shub, illustrated by
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218:, "Fools and Sages: Humor in Isaac Bashevis Singer's 'The Fools of Chelm and Their History' ",
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The final words of Gromal Ox resonate with the words at the end of another Singer's story,
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Ruth von
Bernuth remarks that the above is a reflection of author's skepticism towards
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How the Wise Men Got to Chelm: The Life and Times of a
Yiddish Folk Tradition
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75:"How Chelm came to be" is a brief history of Chelm, a parody on the
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Why Isaac
Bashevis Singer’s Chelm Stories Aren’t Just For Children
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about a fictional town of Chelm (not the real Polish town of
130:(although describing a different situation):
60:. It is a light read, in essence a series of
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274:Two Chelm Stories: Translator’s Introduction
163:"Gorshkov" is derived from the Russian word
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278:In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies
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16:Humorous book by Isaac Bashevis Singer
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220:Studies in American Jewish Literature
91:sees this as a parody of a tale from
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256:THE FOOLS OF CHELM AND THEIR HISTORY
21:The Fools of Chelm and Their History
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95:: the source of all evil is the
137:All the world is one big Chelm.
339:Books by Isaac Bashevis Singer
182:"Mazelborscht" is a pun with "
1:
222:, 1981, no. 1, pp. 107-111,
127:When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw
380:
56:The book was published as
24:is a humorous book by
344:Jewish comedy and humor
134:All roads lead to Chelm
364:Political satire books
359:Children's literature
216:R. Barbara Gitenstein
89:R. Barbara Gitenstein
81:and the tradition of
58:children's literature
32:) inhabited by naive
26:Isaac Bashevis Singer
39:It was published in
280:, December 21, 2020
246:, December 30, 1973
314:Ruth von Bernuth,
244:The New York Times
240:The Fools Of Chelm
354:Wise Men of Chelm
349:Jewish literature
305:, August 12, 2017
272:David Stromberg,
97:tree of knowledge
34:Wise Men of Chelm
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68:Plot summary
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302:The Forward
293:Anne Roiphe
121:societies.
333:Categories
198:References
184:mazel tov
112:Communism
62:slapstick
318:, 2016,
228:41205546
46:Forverts
188:borscht
119:utopian
93:Genesis
41:Yiddish
226:
166:горшок
84:pilpul
320:p. 41
224:JSTOR
171:crock
142:Notes
30:Chełm
169:, "
335::
299:,
295:,
285:^
276:,
258:,
242:,
206:^
190:".
114:.
99:.
53:.
36:.
322:.
173:"
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