Jewish American fiction, Rebecca Goldstein, memory, shtetl, Yiddish theater, Jewish enlightenment, orthodoxy, feminism, continuity

This paper deals with Goldstein's novel Mazel (1995), which follows three generations of a Jewish family, embodied by its female members. Against the backdrop of their fates, Goldstein portrays the dynamics of Jewish life in the Diaspora. The protagonist's initial revolt against the sleepy and stifling atmosphere of the shtetl where she grew up and her enchantment by modernity in the cosmopolitan milieu of Warsaw does not imply a total rejection of Jewish identity, as can be seen in her artistic career in a Yiddish theatre which pays a tribute to her late sister and her creativity in the shtetl. Yet the protagonist fails to understand her granddaughter's embrace of Orthodox Judaism in America, a step that can be interpreted as a return to the family's roots and a victory for continuity. The reconciliatory tone of the novel's ending is relativized by Goldstein's feminist view of the protagonist's family history.

This paper deals with Goldstein's novel Mazel (1995), which follows three generations of a Jewish family, embodied by its female members. Against the backdrop of their fates, Goldstein portrays the dynamics of Jewish life in the Diaspora. The protagonist's initial revolt against the sleepy and stifling atmosphere of the shtetl where she grew up and her enchantment by modernity in the cosmopolitan milieu of Warsaw does not imply a total rejection of Jewish identity, as can be seen in her artistic career in a Yiddish theatre which pays a tribute to her late sister and her creativity in the shtetl. Yet the protagonist fails to understand her granddaughter's embrace of Orthodox Judaism in America, a step that can be interpreted as a return to the family's roots and a victory for continuity. The reconciliatory tone of the novel's ending is relativized by Goldstein's feminist view of the protagonist's family history.