Friends - A Short Story by Hersh Dovid Norberg- first published in The Forward February 24, 1912 - translated from Yiddish by Seymour Levitan

I read "Friends" by Hersh Dovid Norberg in the anthology, Have I Got a Story for You: 100 Years of Stories From the Forward, edited by Ezra Glints with an introduction by Dana Horn.  There are 41 stories in this collection, with a very good introduction and consise well done biographies of each author.  This book is a valuable resource to all into Yiddish literature and would serve as a good first book for those interested in this great reading life area.

Hersch Dovid Norberg

1876 - Wszchzonous, Poland

1927 - Warsaw, Poland

Hersch Dovid Norberg was a very prolific author and a  world traveler.  With the encouragement of I. L. Peretz, he began to write in Yiddish. He was fluent in Russian, Polish, German as well as Hebrew.  

(See the article linked below from The Yivo Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe for information on his career and life history.

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Nomberg_Hersh_Dovid

There are three characters in "Friends", a married couple and the husband's close friend of many years.  We see how deeply the husband loves his wife.  He has not seen his friend since he married and he insists on an extended visit.  He  soon becomes concerned his wife and his friend are having an affair.  He has no proof but he is consumed by jealousy.  The ending is very moving and takes us many years into the future.  Some will say the story is a bit schmaltzy, certainly worth the ten minutes reading time.

Mel u