Yeshiva Boy
A Story of Piety and Young Love
By: Ruth Fisher Goodman

Translated from the Yiddish: Herschele by Jacob Dineson

Herschele, a story of piety and young love, was written in Yiddish by Jacob Dineson (b. 1856-d.1919) and published in Warsaw, Poland in 1928. Herschele, an orphan, is enrolled in a Yeshiva. As it was in that era, boys would be given a day each week at someone’s home to take meals. His Wednesdays were at the home of a wealthy widow. The story takes on the depth of meaning when the teenage boy falls in love with the widow’s daughter, but he doesn’t understand the strange feelings that have possessed him: “Has evil passion grasped me by the shoulder? Or has a magician cast an evil spell upon me?” he asks.