The origins and the mission of l’Antilope
Les Editions de l’Antilope was born in 2014 in Paris by two creators: Anne-Sophie Dreyfus and Gilles Rizier. The first had already worked for twenty years in the publishing sector, with a particular interest for the scholastic field, also as a translator from English. The latter is a translator of Yiddish and Hebrew, author of novels (Par delà les monts obscurs, Denoël, 1999, La Promesse d’Oslo, 2005 …) and director of the house of Yiddish culture between 1994 and 2004.
Their intent is to make young Israeli literature known. The first books appeared in 2016. They gave us the opportunity to read Rachel Shalita or Eran Rolnik. However, the field of interest soon widened.
Major publications
First, the publishers chose unknown books by Sholem Aleikhem, certainly the greatest writer in the Yiddish language of the late nineteenth century, already published throughout Europe. They chose a curious title, Les Mille et une nuits de Krushnik. Before then we had no idea of the volume of Aleikhem’s literary production.
They also chose to publish a book by Isaël Joshia Singer, the brother of the Nobel laureate Isaac Babel Singer, who wrote, like him, in Yiddish when he was in exile in America, Et Wolffilsde Hershdevint Willy and then Printemps et autres saisons.
Among the most curious and historically important books published, it is worth noting Dans les bagnes du tsar by H. Leivich, which tells what he experienced in the terrible Russian prisons from 1906 to 1912.
Among the most moving books, there is Entre les murs du ghetto de Wilno, 1941-1943, written by Yitskhosh Rudashevski. The author was killed in October 1943 in Ponar. His notebooks were found by his cousin after the war in the ruins of this ghetto. The French translation was awarded the SGDL (Société des Gens de Lettres) prize.
In a short time, publishers have enriched their catalog beyond Jewish culture. However, the desire remains in them to continue to let us discover great authors of the high Yiddish tradition, such as Histoires des temps passes et àvenir by Y.L. Peretz, an unknown masterpiece, but also young Israeli writers, such as Yonatan Sagiv, who wrote a very funny detective story, Secret de Polichinelle.
Success and new projects
The catalog of Editions de l’Antilope, in less than four years, has become very rich and diversified, but always supported by the idea of following the red thread of Jewish culture. The discoveries of great authors of the past alternate with the translations of new writers, such as Sabyl Ghoussoub, who in Le Nezjuif shows the recent reality of Israel, with all its increasingly great and disturbing contradictions.
Les Editions de l’Antilope was also lucky enough to have the favor of the French cultural press. Thanks to the support in this difficult period, the publisher was able to reach an audience that goes beyond the Jewish community, avoiding confinement in a ghetto.
Today, the diversity of its editorial proposals does not deny its foundations. On the other hand, they have seduced educated readers through the presence of original talents. This was certainly one of the modern French publishing initiatives that had the greatest success since the beginning of the new millennium. Its editorial policy will allow it to grow and thrive further.
