Not since the Limelighters, early 1960s folkies, has Simferopol made its way to the centre of art that is wild and smart. Of that old central Crimean city, where Jews set up farming colonies in the 1920s, the Limelighters sang out in proudly stentorian Yiddish: “Az men fort kine Sevastopol, Iz nit veit fun Simferopol, dortn iz a stantziye a faran” (When you to go to Sevastopol, not so far from Simferopol, there is a station not so far away).
In David Bezmozgis’s second novel, The Betrayers, Simferopol is a station on the way to Yalta, the Russian coastal getaway where much of the novel’s action takes place. But a wonderful scene is set in Simferopol, where the book’s key figure, a major Israeli political figure, is recognized:
—But are you?
—I am, Kotler confirmed.
—Redstu Yiddish...
Norman Ravvin’s recent novel is The Joyful Child (Gaspereau Press, 2011). Previous books include a story collection, Sex, Skyscrapers and Standard Yiddish (Paperplates Books, 1997), and a volume of essays entitled A House of Words: Jewish Writing, Identity and Memory (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997). He lives in Montreal.
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