person
Finkel
also: Финкель
A dentist and converted Jew (vykrest), a former admirer of Wanda's who once gave her a bracelet and endured her pouring beer on his head at the German Club; when she calls on him hoping to borrow money, he fails to recognize her in her plain dress and, unaware of her real purpose, extracts a perfectly sound tooth she falsely claims aches, for which she pays him the ruble she came to borrow. Introduced via the ethnic marker "vykrest" and a caricatured physical description, he is written as an antisemitic stock figure rather than an individualized character -- see the glossary entry at znakomyy-muzhchina §6 for context; this is preserved in translation per policy, not softened.
Reading notes
- A Man I Know §6 зубном враче Финкеле, выкресте
"Vykrest" (выкрест): a Jew who had converted to Christianity, typically Russian Orthodoxy. In Imperial Russia, conversion was frequently a precondition for civil rights otherwise denied under the Pale of Settlement and professional quotas -- practicing medicine or dentistry in the capital, owning certain property, or moving freely often depended on it. The label followed a convert for life as a social marker, carrying an accusation of expedient self-interest from antisemitic contemporaries regardless of sincerity.
- A Man I Know §17 черномазый выкрест
"Chernomazyy" (swarthy/dark-complexioned) reinforces the antisemitic physical stereotyping applied to Finkel; combined with "vykrest," it marks him from his first full description as an ethnically coded caricature rather than an individualized character -- see the note at §6 for the historical context of "vykrest" and the translation policy on preserving such language.
- A Man I Know §38 выкресту
Finkel is referred to a final time simply as "the convert" (vykrestu) rather than by name, as Wanda hands over the ruble -- the label displacing his name at the moment of payment underscores how thoroughly the narration reduces him to the ethnic marker; see §6.