Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.206 January 3, 1996 1) Introduction (Barbara Epstein) 2) Is Yiddish dying? (Zachary Baker) 3) Is Yiddish dying? (Ruvn Millman) 4) Is Yiddish dying? (David Sherman) 5) Is Yiddish dying? (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 00:44:51 -0800 (PST) From: bepstein@nature.berkeley.edu Subject: Introduction In response to the request from our shames, I would like to introduce myself (actually, I had been meaning to anyway; I've been on Mendele for several months and have been enjoying it greatly). I'm a historian; I've written about women's movements and movements of the left, in the US. I teach at UC Santa Cruz. I began learning Yiddish on my own, as a teenager, from the Weinreich textbook, which I found in a bookstore on New York's Lower East Side. My father, whose first language had been Yiddish, refused to teach it to me, and I wanted access to the culture that he wanted to leave behind. I am now trying to actually become literate in Yiddish; following Mendele is very helpful. I am enormously impressed by the level of the discussion, not only the erudition and wit, but also the warmth and generosity - in fact, comradeliness - of exchanges. I hope that at some point I will know enough to be able to participate. Barbara Epstein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Jan 96 09:18:15 PST From: bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu Subject: Yiddish publishing and 'language death' Is Yiddish a dying language? Not from where I sit. I'm in the middle of writing an article for the National Yiddish Book Center's "Pakntreger/Book Peddler," on "Yiddish Book Publishing Today," and will be devoting a significant amount of space to the burgeoning Yiddish publishing "industry" (40 to 50 titles per year, probably an underestimate) in the Hasidic sector. I believe that publishing can serve as one indicator of a language's vitality -- it is certainly one of the more visible such indicators. In any event, perhaps the most striking thing about the "Hasidic Yiddish" genre is that it is primarily aimed at young people, even toddlers, who possess a native command of the language. There is some evidence that those who write these books are aware of the need to reinforce the quality of their readers' Yiddish. I believe that Joshua Fishman has discussed the sociolinguistic side of this issue, though I do not have a ready reference for that. Demographically speaking, one can posit that the number of native Yiddish speakers, far from declining, though small, may actually be increasing. Consequently, I hardly believe that what goes on in Jerusalem, Bene Berak, Antwerp, Williamsburgh, Borough Park, New Square, Monsey, Outremont/Mile End, Boisbriand, and elsewhere, is of no significance, as we contemplate the present and future of Yiddish. In short, on the basis of today's publishing trends in Yiddish, I suspect that future generations of doomsayers will continue to be baffled by the tenacity of mame-loshn and its speakers. Zachary Baker 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 23:52:39 -0500 From: ruvn@aol.com Subject: Is Yiddish dying? Dan Leeson git undz iber an onzug fun eyner a Stan Goodman vegn vi toyt iz undzer shprakh, Yidish. Goodman lozt undz visn vos Yidish vert veyniker un veyniker farshpreyt un vet oysgeyn far dem vos es feln reders. Er zogt vayter az dos vos blaybt iber fun Yidish iz shoyn nor artifitsyel. Dan, zayt ir maskim mit Goodmanen tsi nisht? Zayt ir nisht keyn mitglid fun Mendele, a "population" (abi a klener) vos nitst Yidish vi a shprakh? Mendeleyeners voynen in lender fun iber der gantser velt - faran mistame di vos far zey iz English veyniker bakveym vi Yidish - af Mendele kenen zey zikh tsunoyfkumen durkh Yidish. Un oyb azoy, volt es nisht geven beser volt ir geshribn ayer onzug af Yidish (afile a tsehakte Yidish vi mayns). Dos volt gut geentfert Goodmanen. Ruvn Millman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Jan 96 18:16:00 EST From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca Subject: Is Yiddish Dying? How amusing. As I sit here reading Stan's assertion that the survival of Yiddish is artificial, I'm in my kitchen and my four kids (ages 11 down to 4) are eating supper. Except that instead of eating, they're yammering away at each other at high speed, in Yiddish. I guess Yiddish is dead, but we never noticed. Yiddish is the first language of each of them. And no, we are not among those "who demonstrate in every possible way their attachment to Jewish life in 16th-century Poland". But Stan's description of chassidim as "rather pathetic groups" is uncalled-for, insulting and inaccurate. Quite apart from whether one admires their lifestyle, it's a fact that there are thousands of chassidim in Brooklyn alone (leaving aside Jerusalem and Bnai Brak) who use Yiddish as a daily language of life and family. These are large communities, growing larger exponentially (averaging perhaps 6-8 children per family), and this community of Yiddish speakers, rather than "pathetic", is growing. (Simple evidence is found in the market: the number of kids' books, tapes and board games available in Yiddish, for this community, is steadily increasing.) David Sherman Toronto, Canada 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Jan 1996 21:09:06 -0500 From: shirshan@aol.com Subject: Is Yiddish Dying? Here, in golis in Boynton Beach, which less than thirty years ago was Yudenreyn, (now inundated with Jewish and Yiddish culture - a miracle?) it behooves me to answer an Israeli on Mendele about the state of Yiddish, with a cherished quotation by his earliest prime minister. "Any Jew who does not believe in miracles is not a realist." An article in the Forward by Michael Skakun, "Yiddish Will Rise Again" tells of the changes (miracles?) we know so well where this despicable "jargon" has risen to academic study status in universities worldover. Another miracle is the 10-year old Rena Costa Chair for Yiddish Studies at Bar Ilan University. For many years, Israel was the least hospitable place for the acceptance and growth of Yiddish. When the chair was established, only three grade schools in our Jewish homeland taught Yiddish. Today, 52 schools have 24 separate courses taught only in mameloshn. 3,000 students are learning Yiddish in Israel's grade schools, and its director, George Cohen, speaks of the Center's presence in Russia and Ukraine via seminars for teacher training in regional schools. (Another miracle in view of Stalin's murders and murderous policies?) "Yet even amid these lively stirrings of educational restoration, one can still hear the naysayers who nurse an active malice toward Yiddish or the soothsayers cum-undertakers who, sounding a one-note dirge over and over again, cannot bury the language quickly enough." Perhaps, the reports of its imminent death, are greatly exaggerated. Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan Boynton Beach, Florida ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.206 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. 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