When The Menorah Fades

"When the Menorah Fades" is a translation from Hebrew, the first time that any of Zvi Preigerzon’s works are being published in English. The translation was done by Binyamin Shalom, who made every effort to preserve the spirit of Zvi Preigerzon’s writing, his religious context, his irony, the wide usage of Hebrew and Yiddish expressions and songs, as well as metaphors from the Bible.

 

The name of the book “When the Menorah Fades” restores the original Hebrew title given by Preigerzon –"בדעוך המנורה". The plot was inspired by the summer vacations that Preigerzon’s family spent before World War II in Hadiach, the small town in the Poltava region of Ukraine, where the gravesite of Schneur Zalman, the Alter Rebbe and founder of the Chabad movement, is located. The town was occupied by the German army during the war and the majority of its Jewish population perished. After the war, Preigerzon came back and conducted numerous interviews with survivors to reconstruct the story of the Hadiach Jewish community, giving it the Kabbalistic spiritual touch. The Perpetual Flame of the menorah at the grave of the Alter Rebbe symbolizes the very spirit of Jewish life, which it is said will persist so long as the flame is burning.       

 

This book was written in 1962 and originally published in Hebrew in 1966  by  the Israeli publishing  house  “Am Oved”,  under  the title "אש התמיד"  (Perpetual Fire). The author’s name was given as  א. צפוני   (A. Tzfoni) – literally, 'a man from the North' – a pen name chosen by the publishing house. At that time the author was living in the Soviet Union, and a handwritten copy of the book was illegally smuggled into Israel. It was impossible to publish the book in the Soviet Union at that time, and the very fact of its existence had to be kept secret from the authorities, due to the danger facing the author. Nevertheless, Preigerzon was able to hold the Hebrew edition of his first book in his hands while he was still alive, which was of great significance to him. Most of his other works were only published later, after his death, in 1969.

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                          When The Menorah Fades                               Download PDF: 

                          Translation from Hebrew to English by Binyamin Shalom      

                          Publisher: Academic Studies Press, USA 2020.                                          

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               אש התמיד                                                       Download PDF: 

                          Eternal flame - When The Menorah Fades                                                                      Hebrew  Original Publication

                     Publisher: Am Oved, Israel 1966.

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                          Когда Погаснет Лампада                             Download PDF: 

                          Translation from Hebrew to Russian by Aleks Tarn

                          Publisher: Knizhniki, Moscow, Russia, 2014

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