The Teacher Zaminski and his Pupil Rifkele
Published in Issue #10 Translated from Yiddish by Vivian Felsen subscribe to unlock the full storyWhether or not Zaminski was a teacher by profession, no one knew and no one thought to inquire. Whether he had students in the city where he lived was of no concern to the Jews in the shtetl. For them it was enough that under his tutelage a servant girl, who had never so much as held a pen in her hand or lifted the cover of a book, had learned to write a proper letter and read almost fluently. It was sufficient to establish his pedagogical prowess.
Sheyne Broche had told the women that the teacher Zaminski had performed a miracle for the servant girl at the dry goods store who looked older than her years. Since childhood, her hand had trembled from hard work whenever she tried to put pen to paper. Evenings, after she finished her work, he taught her to write smoothly without a tremor. In short, his reputation as a teacher was indeed illustrious.
There were mothers who quietly lamented the fact that the teacher spent only three months each summer at his dacha in their shtetl. As soon as his vacation was over, he disappeared. While some were sorry to see him leave, others thanked God to be rid of an apostate, and none more than Rifkele’s father, Reb Abraham, the most prominent Hasid in the shtetl.
And what a tiny shtetl it was, tucked away and as big as a yawn. Scoffers would joke that its one long street, without even a name, stretched out like a noodle. But make no mistake: that was not the whole shtetl. Scattered behind...
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