Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 3.193
January 6, 1994

1) Kiddy lit (Bob Werman)
2) Taythsn (Jascha Kessler)
3) Preserving Children's Yiddish (Mark H. David)
4) Children's literature and petzele (David Sherman)
5) Picturing Yiddishkayt (Carol Zemel)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed Jan  5 18:05:37 1994
From: RWERMAN%HUJIVMS.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Subject:  Kiddy lit

En passant yiddish kiddy lit.  My wife, Golda Werman, has translated
David Bergelson's Yiddish children's classic, _Feivel's Stories_
into English but cannot find a publisher.  This marvelous book has
been praised by a dozen trade house editors and rejected by an equal
number of marketing people.

Guess who decides?

Ah, well.

__Bob Werman

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed Jan  5 18:42:42 1994
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: re taytshn

But then, German is TUN, and teugt nit would be useless, not to make
or perform in tugende nicht, etc. Kessler.  My German is rusted
away.

Jascha Kessler

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed Jan  5 23:09:53 1994
From: mhd@world.std.com (Mark H David)
Subject: Preserving Children's Yiddish

I appreciate Zachary Baker's providing information on YIVO's efforts
to preserve Children's Yiddish literature.

Is it possible for parents to get access to this collection in order
to preserve their children's Yiddish?

Mark H. David

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed Jan  5 23:30:59 1994
From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca (David Sherman)
Subject: children's literature and petzele

> Was there a children's lit in Yiddish, ca. 1900, in US or Russia?

A bit after 1900, but the books and short stories by Leon Elbe are
definitely aimed at young children and are charming.  "Fun dem
kleyne kinders vegn" is full of short stories that make great
bedtime reading, and our kids love them despite the 75-year culture
gap.  (And they can all chant, from the first story, "Berele
kaperele, lokshn drerele / gey in vald un khap a berele / gey in
gortn un rays oys a merele / gey tsum shnayder un nem a sherele /
berele kaperele lokshn drerele!")

> 3. Ellen: Your "pishy-tushy" analogy is a nice one.  The only
> Yiddish childhood reference to the male organ that I recall is,
> strangely enough, "pipikl". Am I alone in this?

Like Stephen Dubin, we use "petzele".  (The term didn't come up
until our third child was born, since the first two were girls. Then
we asked my in-laws.)

David Sherman

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu Jan  6 10:10:47 1994
From: carol zemel <AHICZ@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>
Subject: Picturing Yiddishkayt

I am an art historian at SUNY-Buffalo and an avid reader of mendele
and its debates. I suppose visual culture is outside the frame of
Yiddish Language and Literature, but in the name of interdiscipli-
narity, i am eager to know of other subscribers interested in the
visual representation of Yiddish culture and eastern European Jews.
Might anyone be planning to attend the conference January 16-18 at
the Jewish Museum in NY on "Defining a Culture"?

My own project centers on the construction of the image of shtetl
Jews through photographs made in the 20s and 30s, including (but not
limited to) the famous picture by R. Vishniac. I am new to the
subject, and so would welcome conversation, discussion.

Carol Zemel

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End of Mendele Vol. 3.193

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