Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.202 January 17, 1994 1) Grade vs. Singer (Mark Flumerfelt) 2) Introduction (Holger Nath) 3) Learning Yiddish (Khayem Bochner) 4) National Yiddish Book Center (Arn Abramson) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jan 17 14:10:22 1994 From: Mark Flumerfelt Subject: Grade vs. Singer My Yiddish teacher gets very passionate about the fact that I.B. Singer re- ceived the Nobel Prize rather than Chaim Grade. She argues that Grade was a far superior author to Singer and that Singer received the Nobel Prize for political reasons. She also suggests that Singer catered to a more general audience than Grade. What do you make of her argument? I'm not sure what to think because I don't know enough about either author. I have to admit that Grade's work appeals to me more than Singer's. Mark Flumerfelt 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jan 17 14:50:39 1994 From: Holger Nath Subject: introduction; re: query by K.Weiser I have been receiving Mendele for a couple of months and I think it's time to introduce myself: My name is Holger Nath and I am a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia U. I am currently working on my thesis which deals with the standardization of Yiddish in the Soviet Union between the two World Wars. I intend to compare the planning of Soviet Yiddish with its co-territorial languages, Ukrainian and Belorussian. I am generally interested in language contact (in particular with Slavic languages) and in language revival, especially of Yiddish and Catalan. re: Kalmen Weiser's query: I am not familiar with Western publications, but I came across some Soviet books/articles/references during my research. Some, if not all of them should be found at YIVO, the New York Public Library, Columbia, or Harvard: Ukrainishe Visnshaft Akademye. (1935). Matematishe terminologye. Rusish-ukrainishe-yidishe, mit a yidishn indeks. Kiev-Kharkov: Ukrmelukhenatsmindfarlag Vaysrusishe Vinshaft-Akademye. institut far yidisher proletarisher kultur. (1926). Yidishe terminologye, num. 2: Matematishe terminologye. proyekt. Minsk: Institut far vaysruslendisher kultur. Zaretski, A. (1920). "Yidishe elementar matematishe terminologye" Kultur un Bildung 25-26: 29-38. Zaretski, A. (1923). Treminologisher [sic!] materyal: [Review] M. Zabludovski. Aritmetike: praktisher kurs far dervaksene: ershter bukh. Byalistok. In Yidish (Kharkov) 1: 23 Zaretski, A. (1923). "Yidishe elementare geometrishe terminologye" In Yidish (Kharkov) 1: 15-19. I also remember a reference to a math-textbook at Harvard, translated, I believe, by Zaretski. I'll look it up when I get a chance to go to Widener next week. Holger Nath 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jan 17 17:07:31 1994 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: Re: Learning Yiddish "College Yiddish" is the best we've got, for students who are comfortable with grammatical terminology. Unfortunately that's a problem for many people, especially if they're trying to use it without a teacher. Other possibilities: 1) "Learning Yiddish in easy Stages" has already been mentioned. 2) "Der yidisher lerer" by H. E. Goldin, 1939. Still pretty readily available. 3) "Yiddish for Beginners" by Jean Joffen, revised edition 1982. 4) Yudel Mark once put out a nice tape+booklet combination called "Invitation to Yiddish", if I remember correctly. If this is still available somewhere, I'd like to hear about it: my copy of the booklet has disappeared, and I'd like to buy another one! I also am in interested in hearing the status of Sheva Zucker's long awaited new book, which Pierre Lewis has mentioned. Perhaps Mottel Lakin could ask her, and report back to us? Khayem 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jan 17 17:20:14 1994 From: "Arthur S. Abramson" Subject: National Yiddish Book Center To Pierre P. Lewis: Yes, the National Yiddish Book Center still exists! I don't know why you have had no answer to your two letters. The address is indeed 48 Woodbridge St., South Hadley, MA 01075. Telephone: (413) 535-1303 FAX: (413) 535-1007 Arn Abramson ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.202 To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files