Born in Yonkers in 1923, Avram Davidson embraced strict Jewish observance in his youth, served in World War II and then in the Israeli War of Independence, and briefly wrote for the American Orthodox magazine Jewish Life. He was also a prolific author of science fiction—some of which is peppered with learned and even obscure Jewish references—and earned much acclaim among enthusiasts of the genre, although he never had much success outside it. These Jewish motifs continued to appear in Davidson’s work even after his conversion in the 1960s to the Japanese religion Tenrikyo.
In his review of a recent anthology of Davidson’s stories, Yosef Lindell takes as an example “Goslin Day,” a Lewis Carrollesque bit of horror fantasy which contains passages such as:
The foul air grew fouler, thicker, hotter, tenser, muggier, murkier: and the goslins, smelling it from afar, came leapsniffing through the vimveil to nimblesnitch, torment, buffet, burden, uglylook, poke, makestumble, maltreat, and quickshmiggy back again to gezzle guzzle goslinland.
Lindell explains:
Goslins—an uncommon transliteration of the Yiddish and Hebrew word gazlan, which means “robber”—we learn, are changelings and body snatchers.
The main character in this story recognizes a yeshiva student with “stroobley earlocks” as a goslin when he mangles together two talmudic passages. In other stories, the Jewish themes arrive with a lighter touch:
“Help! I Am Dr. Morris Goldpepper” is about a Jewish dentist abducted by toothless aliens who need help. Far away and at his wit’s end, Dr. Goldpepper writes a secret message to the only people to whom he can turn, the American Dental Association.
Read more on Jewish Review of Books: https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/american-jewry/15542/leapsniffing-through-the-vimveil-avram-davidsons-fantastic-fiction/