This feuilleton was written by Yankev-Azriel Davidzon, a Yiddish journalist and prose stylist active in Johannesburg in the early 20th century. Published in “Der Afrikaner” (“The African”) on November 24, 1911, this piece exemplifies Davidzon’s wit and style, which he based on Yiddish press models grounded firmly in the Eastern European Jewish media landscape. Davidzon’s feuilleton gives us a glimpse of Yiddish-speaking immigrant life in a colonial African society riven with class-based and racial divisions.

A Bundle of Tkhines

א פעקיל תּחינות: א תּחינה פֿאַר אַן איינגעלשען רב, שקורין בלע"ז א רעוורענד

A pekl tkhines: A tkhine far an Eynglishn rov sh’korin b’la’az “a reverend”

November 24, 1911

Feuilleton

Veronica Belling

Eli Rosenblatt

Jewish tradition, non-Jews, immigration, immigrants, Russian Jews