The Tale of the Ba‘al Shem and the Dybbuk

Sonya the Wise Woman (Sonya Naimark)

1908

This is no fairy tale, it really happened.

In our shtetl, there was a bright young man named Móyshele. He was as smart as a whip, and also a good-for-nothing. Then all at once he disappeared, and no one knew what had become of him. About five or six years later, my dad had to take a business trip to a small shtetl somewhere in Volhynia. Upon…

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Creator Bio

Sonya the Wise Woman (Sonya Naimark)

Mid-19th Century–Early 20th Century

Little is known of Sonya (Naimark) the Wise Woman, whose folktales reflect Jewish life in her home Mogilev province (today in Belarus). A respected khakhome (wise woman), Naimark won recognition—and earned a living—as a practiced storyteller. She also taught tales to badkhentes (female wedding jesters), which they used to entertain guests at weddings and other festivities. Naimark was noted for her deft and theatrical use of language, style, and rhyme in her performance of stories and proverbs. Naimark was a contributor to A. Litvin’s pioneering ethnographic compilations of East European Jewish folk culture.

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