Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.010 May 22, 1995 1) Lebns Fragn (Hanna Luden) 2) Tsar Nikolai (Meyshe-Yankl Sweet) 3) Yidish terminologiye vegn milkhome (Meylekh Viswanath) 4) Oyf di Idishe Felder fun Ukraine (Ben Alpers) 5) A Sholem-Aleykhem series: One (Louis Fridhandler) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 15:09:52 +0200 (MET DST) From: hanna@cs.vu.nl Subject: Lebns Fragn Lebns Fragn is haynt tzu tog eyner fun di interesantste un fun di bestn redagirte Yidishe zjurnaln oyf der velt. Der Merz-April 1995 nummer fun dem Yisroeldikn zjurnal is gevidmet dem tog fun hurbn un widershtand, tsum 25tn yortog fun dem oyfstand in Warshever Getto (19-ter april 1943). Tzvishn di artiklen gevidmet der getto tematik, is bazunders interesant dos artikl fun M. Shayn i.n. "Religieze un literarishe tfiles in der khurbn-tkufe". Der nummer anthalt a raykn material mit artiklen un oych a sach informatzies fun Yiddishn kultur-gezelshaftlechn lebn - derunter a gor vikhtike revelatzie fun a yunger forsherin vegn di tzvey firers fun dem far-milkhomedikn poylishn Bund, Erlich un Alter, in der sovyetisher tfise in Moskve un vi-azoy zey zenen gevorn umgebrakht oyf Stalins bafel. Dem zjurnal kan men bashteln oyf dem folgndikn adres (er geyt aroys yede tzvey khodoshim): Lebns Fragn 48 Kalisher st. Tel Aviv 65165 Israel (tel: +792-3-5714010). Hanna Luden 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 09:45:00 -0600 (CST) From: msweet@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Tsar Nikolai (oder Aleksandr) To Bob Rothstein: Zayt azoy gut un shemt zakh nit, un lozt undz visn di yidishe verter fun dos "lidele" vegn dem tsar---mir zaynen do alle dervaksene, un hobn aza verter frier gehert. Ir hot afile dos derloybenish fun undzer Shames. Wonder if this ditty was orginally about the horrible and extremely antisemitic Tsar Alexander III, and later applied to Nicholas? Meyshe-Yankl Sweet 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 May 95 12:43:17 EDT From: pviswana@andromeda.rutgers.edu Subject: Yidish terminologiye vegn milkhome Reb Bach dertseylt a mayse fun Maurice Samuelsn: > "...My Uncle Berl was profoundly shocked by the use [of Yiddish in the > service of training soldiers]. He was also puzzled: Where did I get > the military terminology? He had never heard of such a thing in Yiddish. > Jews had never fought in that language... Ikh gedenk mer nisht pinkt vi, ober dr. shekhter hot an artikl af ot di teme, dh yidishe milkhome terminologiye. Meylekh Viswanath 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 May 95 14:34:05 EDT From: blalpers%pucc.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Oyf di Idishe Felder fun Ukraine A woman recently gave a Yiddish reading group I am in photocopies of a book which has been in her family's possession for decades. Entitled, _Oyf di Idishe Felder fun Uukraine_," it is from a limited, numbered edition of 50 copies published in Paris by "A. Simon & Cie" in 1926. The book has a short text about the salutory effects that moving from stetls to new collective farms on the steppes had on Ukrainian Jews. The text is followed by pages of prints, some of them apparently hand-colored. Oh yes, the author's name is I.B. Ribak (he is also apparently responsible for the art). This particular copy of the book is #1 of the edition. The owner of this book, who does not know Yiddish, is trying to figure out exactly what it is, how much it is worth, etc. Our modest reading group can do a fine job translating the text, but none of us have any real insight into who Ribak was or what this book is. Anyone out there know anything about _Oyf di Idishe Felder_? Ben Alpers 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 00:06:33 -0400 From: lfridhan@aol.com Subject: A Sholem-Aleykhem series: One This should be the first of three posts. First: an introduction. Second: a Yiddish article by Sholem-Aleykhem in transcription. Third: a translation. Introduction: Yiddish literature flowered and won its place against great odds. The big picture is generally understood, but the niggling details are not although they comprised obstacles as difficult. These posts focus on aggravations, conflicts, antipathies that afflicted not only Sholem-Aleykhem but other Yiddish authors at times critical to Yiddish social and cultural development. In 1892 (age 33) Sholem-Aleykhem was living in Odessa, still trying to recover from his 1890 Kiev bankruptcy, still hoping to issue a third volume of his successful, ground-breaking Yiddish anthologies, Di Yidishe Folks-Bibliotek (The Jewish People's Library) of 1888 and 1889. He scraped enough money together to issue a pamphlet claiming to announce that third volume: Kol Mevaser tsu der Yidisher Folks-Bibliotek (Voice Heralding the Jewish People's Library). Sholem-Aleykhem wrote every bit of it, partly unsigned, partly over various pseudonyms. There were ads in it, too, such as for Equitable Insurance, to help pay for the pamphlet. There never was a third volume, but Sholem-Aleykhem took the opportunity in this 1892 pamphlet to vent anger toward Peretz. My focus now, however, is on an item entitled _Nekrolog_ (Obituary). In it, Sholem-Aleykhem revealed with bitter humor (gelakht mit yashtsherkes) debilitating aggravations he had suffered in the past at the hands of the second publisher of Dos Yidishe Folks-Blat, the paper in which his first publications appeared over the pseudonym, Sholem-Aleykhem. By the late 1880s, a new publisher had maneuvered to take the paper over from aging Alexander Zederbaum who had started it in 1881. Sholem-Aleykhem does not name that new publisher, but it was Israel Levy. As publisher (and de facto editor) Levy drove contributors to distraction with his eccentric, autocratic ways. He would arbitrarily alter contributed items based on hostility to Yiddish and fatuous notions about the language. Imagine, Levy ran a Yiddish paper, but was an enemy of Yiddish (then generally called Zhargon). The paper closed in 1891, hence the obituary. I don't know whether it was stopped by the tsarist government. It was probably bound to be driven into the ground, anyhow, by Levy. [Yiddish publication was indeed stopped in Russia for much of the 1890s.] What resilience, persistence, leadership, vision, etc. possessed by Sholem-Aleykhem. Those qualities were as important as his ear for the music of Yiddish. Louis Fridhandler Irvine, CA ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.010 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu ****Getting back issues**** 1. 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