My Odessa

It suited my dignity to sit in Panconi's coffee house... at the white marble tables, and order an ice cream; because that is our custom in Odessa: as soon as you sit down, a waiter in a frock coat comes over and invites you to order an ice cream. You mustn't be a pig -- you have to place an order. And when you finish eating the ice cream, he invites you to order another dish. If you don't -- you can't keep sitting there and have to walk the streets...

Shalom Aleichem, lived in Odessa 1891-1893. From Menachem Mendel, translated from Yiddish Lenn Schramm

Odessa is an awful place... All the same, I think there's a lot to be said for this great city, which has more charm than any other in the Russian Empire. Just think how easy and straightforward life is in Odessa. Half the population consists of Jews, and Jews are people who are very clear about a few very simple things: they marry so they won't be lonely, they make love so their tribe will live forever, they make money so they can buy houses and give their wives astrakhan jackets. . . .

Isaac Babel (1894-1941?), Odessa-born. From Odessa, translated from Russian Max Hayward

I have never seen such a flighty city... No place can compare with Odessa for the gentle gaiety and mild intoxication that float in the air... I would never say that I have found great depth or nobility in this atmosphere. The very source of its caressing lightness is the absence of any tradition: the city was created ex nihilo about a century before my birth. Its residents chattered in a dozen tongues, none of which they knew perfectly. Among my many acquaintances there was only one whose father had also been born. in Odessa...

Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky (1880-1940), Odessa-born. From Autobiography, translated from Hebrew Lenn Schramm

One summer Friday night, the two of us [Bialik and the author] sat on the boulevard near the harbor ...Jews were walking up and down the boulevard, their hands behind their back, looking at Bialik and swelling with pride. Their Bialik. They spoke both Russian and Yiddish. The Yiddish of Odessa... How invigorating it was! As they passed us they left behind them a sort of tranquility that enfolded us. Jewish Odessa. The Jewish sea. A Jewish sky above our heads. Even the warm night was Jewish...

Peretz Hirschbein, lived in Odessa 1908-1910. From On the Path of Life (Yiddish), translated from Hebrew Lenn Schramm

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