Mapping Urban Cafés and Modern Jewish CultureMain MenuAbout the ProjectSholem Aleichem and Menakhem Mendel travelsThe "Demolished Literature" of Karl Kraus' ViennaSeeing into the Lower East Side CafésOdessa CafesOdessaZoë Wilkinson Saldaña6beb73a90c38e77367b9737ee8e808917759a78eIsabella Buzynski4c5090420af98824ad786b6dac1f314b9e9f95a8
1media/moldavankaa.jpg2017-06-27T12:26:50-07:00Moldavanka4A neighborhood in Odessaimage_header2018-05-15T17:30:48-07:0046.4736, 30.7164Moldavanka is a neighborhood in Odessa where many middle-class and poor Jewish migrants lived. By the late 19th and early 20th century, Moldavanka had become infamous for its destitute Jewish residents and for poverty and crime, which was reflected in the literature about Odessa.
The most memorable depictions of Moldavanka are found in the stories of Isaac Babel, who was born there in 1894. Babel’s most famous Odessan character is the gangster Benya Krik, the self-proclaimed “king of Odessa.” Benya Krik was based on the real figure of Mishka Yaponchik (Moisey Volfovich Vinnitsky), who operated mostly in Moldavanka and whom Babel knew well.
