Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.044
June 30, 1994

1) Introduction (Brian Zumhagen)
2) Sholem Asch (Joseph Sherman)
3) Philologus (Edward Stankiewicz)
4) Name origins (Martin Davis)
5) Jews of Marienbad (Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch)
6) I.B. Singer and mysticism (Mark Shechner)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed Jun 29 09:36:16 1994
From: Cheeseman9@aol.com
Subject: Introduction

Hello, my name is Brian Zumhagen, I am a 25-year-old public radio
journalist in San Francisco, and my knowledge of Yiddish is
low-intermediate, but as I am fluent in German, I am already able to
understand a great deal. I hope to one day attend one of YIVO's summer
courses. until then, I am gobbling up as much information as I can
through wonderful services like this one. I can be reached at
zipora@aol.com

Brian Zumhagen

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed Jun 29 09:36:20 1994
From: 071JOS@witsvma.wits.ac.za
Subject: Sholem Asch

Ikh probir aykh losn hern fun mir nokh amol. Mayn forige briv iz, nebekh,
loyt der shames, farlorn gevorn. Efsher vet zayn a besere mazl haynt.

First, grateful thanks to you all for your warm welcome, and particular
gratitude to all those who have taken the trouble to write to me
personally. It has been truly heartwarming to have made so many new
friends so quickly. And the recent disaster with _Mendele_ postings has
left me with withdrawal symptoms already! Zol zayn gikh gezunt!

I have been following with great interest the correspondence on Sholem
Asch. As I am doing some research on him just at present, I should be
most grateful to hear from the Asch experts out there what are the latest
critical studies available on him in both Yiddish and English? And who
are the best of his earlier critics and commentators? Exact titles of
books and places/dates of publication are essential. And can someone
supply the name of the institution to which Henne Berliner-Fishtal
submitted her recently-quoted dissertation "The Change in Sholem Asch's
Reputation"?

Lost visn, khevre.

Deepest appreciation to Noyekh Miller for his wonderfully evocative story
about meeeting Asch at the kurort. This was truly a gem. I should like to
repay some of the pleasure I received from that and other recent Aschiana
with two bits of my own gleaned here in South Africa, for those who
perhaps don't know them.

The fine Yiddish poet Dovid Fram, whom I had the privilege to know very
well during the last ten years of his life (he spent most of it here in
South Africa) knew Asch well, and spent some time with him during Asch's
visit to London after the war, where Fram was himself then living. Fram
described to me in moving detail walking with Asch in Hyde Park for
nearly two hours in the late 40s while Asch justified himself endlessly.
At one point, according to Fram's account,  when Asch recalled that the
whole Yiddish/Jewish world was calling him "meshumed", he broke down and
wept, and then violently denounced the lot of them. "A meshumed? Ikh?!"
he apparently kept on repeating.

The second story comes from Dr Moshe Natas, one of our best Biblical
archeologists (he worked with Yigal Yadin on Masada and later with the
Dead Sea Scrolls). Moshe Natas met Zalman Schneour in Tel-Aviv in the
early 50s, shortly before Schneour's death, and he went to this meeting
with great awe and trepidation at the prospect of speaking with this
giant of Hebrew poetry and Yiddish prose. As Dr Natas tells the story, he
was greatly disappointed (perhaps shocked?) to discover that during the
whole time they spent together (perhaps half and hour), Schneour spoke of
nothing else but the rottenness of Asch's work, and kept on and on
reviling Asch and everything he had done. Er hot gemakht fun em ash un
blotes.

And from the jealousy of writers comes out wisdom?

Joseph Sherman

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed Jun 29 17:00:56 1994
From: VBERS@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Subject: Edward Stankiewicz re Philologos

Again, I act as Stankiewicz's conduit. V.B.
=============================================================================
     It seems to me that the linguistic *maven* of the *Forward* shows a
growing lack of responsibility towards his readers and about his
subjects.

     In the last issue of the paper (June 24, 1994) he treats us to a
completely speculative theory about the Hebrew origin of the Yiddish word
*kurve* and its presumed migration from Yiddish into the coterritorial
Slavic languages.  Had he consulted any Slavic etymological dictionary,
he would have learned that (1) the word occurs with the same meaning in
all Slavic languages, and that (2) it has a perfectly respectable (if
this is the right word) etymology (related, as in so many languages, to
the sexual prowess of the birds, especially the cock and the chickens).

     It seems that in his attempt to entertain, Philologos is ready to
shortchange the public on reliable linguistic information.

Edward Stankiewicz

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu Jun 30 05:49:27 1994
From: davism@litp.ibp.fr
Subject: name origins

Cal Pryluck writes:

> "Americanization" of immigrant names was a common practice on the part of
> the immigration agents (many I suspect themselves the children of
> immigrants).

For whatever interest it may have, my father's family name in Poland was
Hershel Davidowicz. In the US it became Harry Davis. I believe this was
his own decision. "Davis" had been chosen by my father's younger brother
who had immigrated somewhat earlier.

Martin Davis

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu Jun 30 06:46:38 1994
From: SZ0435@daphne.rrze.uni-erlangen.de
Subject: Jews of Marienbad

I am currently working on a documentation on the Jews of Marianske Lazne
(Marienbad) for the local museum there. Marienbad is a western Bohemian
health resort in the Czech Republic.

I have recently received a note that Sholem Aleykhem has written
something about Marienbad, could anybody help me further? Of course, I
would be glad to receive any other kind of help concerning contacts,
literature and any other relevant information.

A sheynen dank,

Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu Jun 30 09:51:56 1994
From: shechner@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
Subject: On I.B. Singer and mysticism

I need a research favor.  I'm writing something about I.B. Singer and
want to focus on the world of folklore, myth, kabbalah, and mysticism
that was his stock-in-trade, but I don't know enough about that world or
its place in the life of Ashkenazic Jewry.

I'm familiar enough with Gershom Scholem, with whom I draw some rough
parallels, and Moshe Idel, but I'm not sure what the 'state of the art'
thinking is about this lore: its origins (autochthonous or derivative),
its importance in Ashkenazic life, and particularly its relation to
Rabbinic Judaism.

I've had some help from some of you already, but I thought it might be
wise at this point to just broadcast my question and see what came in.

Thanks in advance,

Mark Shechner

______________________________________________________
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