Oyfn Sheydveg

In continuation of the first issue of the Yiddish journal Oyfn sheydveg (At the Crossroads) from April 1939, this volume presents both the second issue, published in August 1939, along with the reconstructed third issue, which was slated for 1940 but could no longer be completed and which is printed here for the first time. In 27 essays, rendered in their original languages Yiddish, German, and Russian and translated into English, the contributors—predominantly Eastern European Jewish intellectuals—reflected on Jewish existence in the face of the increasingly darkening situation. They continued the political and social debates from the first issue, while also introducing new topics such as Zionism, Arab nationalism, the significance of the British “White Paper,” Jewish Emancipation, and models of coexistence between Jews and Christians. These two issues offer a rare insight into the state of the European-Jewish intelligentsia immediately before and after the onset of World War II.