A.M. Sharkansky. A Shpitzel fun a Purim-Shpieler ["A Prank of a Purim Player": Purim parody]

(PARODY)

Katzenellenbogen

New York

1899

We find in the present Purim parody an echo of the recent Dreyfus Affair: Q. "Vo iz dermont di Dreyfus Case in der Megillah?" ("Where is there mentioned in the Megillah the Dreyfus Case?") A. "…vet shpeter heisen di Dreyfus Geschichte 'Megilas Esther-Hazy' (Esterhazy)" ("…later the Dreyfus Affair will be referred to as Megillath Esther-hazy [Esterhazy]") (bot. p.4). The poet and dramatist A.M. Sharkansky (1869-1907) is celebrated for his parodical Hagadah, Die Neie Amerikanischer Hagadah, a satire on the Jewish immigrant experience in America. See Davidson, Parody in Jewish Literature, p. 246; Leksikon fun der Nayer Yidisher Literatur (1981) Vol. VIII, pp. 556-58.