ABSTRACT
The recurrence of the pope myth in Yiddish literature strikingly delineates not only the changing socio-political circumstances under which Jews have pursued their quest for self-identity, but also the constraints of the discourse the Yiddish language is obliged to use in order to define the quest. Jewish existence in Germany may be seen as prototypical of Jewish existence everywhere in the Diaspora. There, more prosperously than elsewhere, Jews built up successful communities unwanted and barely tolerated; there they survived and flourished; there they were repeatedly turned upon; and thence they were expelled—ultimately, from existence itself. Rejecting Christian hegemony and the identity Christians have forced upon Jews, Isaac Bashevis Singer chooses his setting precisely to disidentify his tale's concerns from all Christian evaluations of what is important. He insists on measuring values exclusively according to Jewish criteria.
