“The Soul of Raw Materials:” Jewish Mysticism in Debora Vogel’s Modernist Poetics
East European Jewish Affairs May 1, 2026 Yael Levi
ABSTRACT This paper examines the literary prose of the Yiddish poet Debora Vogel (1900–1942) and shows that her modernist poetry was deeply informed by Jewish mystical traditions. Through close analysis of Vogel’s 1935 collection Akatsyes Blien (Acacias Bloom), I show that Vogel’s systematic use of Hebrew-derived terms reveals a deliberate engagement with Jewish mystical concepts. Crucially,...