Re: Musicals/Jewish content : Esterke

[Robert A. Rothstein <rar...>]

Trudi Goodman wrote:

> There is a connection between Esterke and King Kazimier. Thus the town
> Kazmierze, where many Jews, including my Grandfather lived in the Last
> Century. I believe that Esterke was the mistress of King
> Kazimier...not his wife.
>

There are several places named Kazimierz in Poland.  The two best known
from Jewish history are Kazimierz Dolny (on the Vistula River in Lublin
Province), a favorite summer place for the Polish intelligentsia and for
Polish Jews, and Kazimierz, the former Jewish quarter of Cracow.  Both
were named after Kazimierz III (known as "the Great"), king of Poland
from 1333-1370, who according to legend had a Jewish mistress named
Esterke.  (See Chone Shmeruk, _The Esterke Story in Yiddish and Polish
Literature: A Case Study in the Mutual Relations of Two Cultural
Traditions_,  Jerusalem, 1985.)  Among the tourist attractions in the
restored Kazimierz in Cracow is a hotel called "Esterka."
   The Yiddish journalist Sh. L. Shnayderman, who, if I remember
correctly, was born in Kazimierz Dolny, wrote about it in his 1970 book
_Ven di vaysl hot geredt yidish_ (When the Vistula Spoke Yiddish),
published in 1978 in English as _The River Remembers_.

    Bob Rothstein

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