STUDY QUESTIONS

I.J. Singer, "Sender Praguer, The River Breaks Up, A Volume of Stories Translated from the Yiddish by Maurice Samuel (New York, 1966)

 

1) What was Sender Praguer's socioeconomic status? As a "self-made man," did he have standing in the community?

2) Why was Praguer's failure to marry so irksome to many? What did marriage signify to the community at large?

3) What were some of the "community figures" portrayed in the story? Does the tale suggest there was one Jewish community in Warsaw at the time or several?

4) What did the epithet "a good Jew" used by some of the characters mean?

5) What significance does Singer appear to have attributed to the varying levels of learning with which he imbued his characters (e.g., Sender Praguer, Yartchev Rabbi, and the "pious men in the satin gaberdine")?

6) Which character or characters in the story would you describe as the more "modern" and "urban"?

7) In your opinion, does the unimpressive and, at times, negative portrayal of women in the story reflect their low standing in the Jewish community, prejudice on the part of Singer himself, or simply the main character's projection of his own self-loathing?

8) Why was the main character's brief flirtation with piety so easily crushed?