Passover gets a ‘Chelm’ makeover in Mark Binder’s new book

Mark Binder still remembers the first “Chelm” story he ever published. The year was 1991, and Binder was the editor of the Jewish Herald newspaper.

“It was a Wednesday,” Binder recalls, “and somebody didn’t turn in their assignment, so we had a hole in the paper.”

Thinking quickly, Binder wrote a short tale called “How the Cantor Lost His Voice.”

This would be the first of many such stories – so many, in fact, that Binder doesn’t know the full tally. Some have appeared in the Jewish newspaper The Forward, in the children’s magazine Cricket and in periodicals overseas.

The stories are thematically linked, sharing characters and plot points, but each can stand alone.

“It doesn’t matter what order you read them in, because they’re fractal,” says Binder.

Binder’s latest publication is “The Village Feasts,” a 104-page short-story collection released in February. The new paperback marks a sea change for the longtime author and raconteur: Binder has started writing under the pseudonym Izzy Abrahmson, and he has rebranded his series from “the Chelm stories” to “The Village Life.”

“When people hear ‘Chelm,’ they think of silly stories for kids,” says Binder, who borrowed the village from a 400-year-old tradition of snarky Jewish folktales. “They don’t think of stories with depth and character.”

Binder is a literary Renaissance man, having published a small library of books under his own imprint, Light Publications, of Providence. His repertoire is wide-ranging, from the family-friendly “Bed Time Story Book” to the earthy coming-of-age novel “The Groston Rules.”

In addition to being a prolific author, Binder has worked as a professional storyteller for many years, performing in schools and other institutions across the region and even overseas.

Binder traces his narrative impulse to his earliest years, growing up in the suburbs around Washington, D.C., and attending temple in Silver Spring, Maryland. Binder, who now lives in the East Side of Providence, with his wife, Heather, says he felt a strong connection to the millennia-old Jewish tradition of “writing things down.”

“I didn’t learn a lot of Torah and prayer [in temple], but I did absorb a lot of stories and history,” he says.

Under the Abrahmson pen name, Binder put together “The Village Feasts” as a good-humored homage to Jewish celebrations, Passover in particular. The book is packed with Jewish inside jokes and cultural ephemera, from the evolution of matzah to the Maxwell House Haggadah. In one story, he embellishes a real-life anecdote by Mark Twain, in which the 19th-century humorist stumbles into a house in Chelm. Each story is a gauntlet of plot twists and misunderstandings.

In addition to “The Village Feasts,” “The Village Life” series currently includes two novellas, “A Village Romance” and “The Village Twins,” along with the short-story collection “Winter Blessings.” Binder is continuing to write, alongside his many other creative projects, including “The Village Life” podcast.

After so many years churning out Chelm stories, Binder/Abrahmson has created a world of his own – one he hopes has wide appeal.

Binder quotes his own central character, the baker Reb Gold: “Visiting the Village is like eating warm rye bread. You don’t need to be Jewish to enjoy it.”

“The Village Feasts” is available at local bookstores and at Amazon.com. For more information, visit IzzyAbrahmson.com.

ROBERT ISENBERG (risenberg@jewishallianceri.org) is the multimedia producer for the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and a writer for Jewish Rhode Island.