Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.271 March 7, 1996 1) Gordin's _Mirele Efros_ (Steven Cassedy) 2) Az me git, nem (Leonard Prager) 3) Kemp Nitgedayget (Hershl Hartman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 08:57:22 -0800 From: scassedy@ucsd.edu Subject: Gordin's _Mirele Efros_ In the film version of Jacob Gordin's _Mirele Efros_ there is a comic scene in which Mirele's mekhutn tries to explain to a group of peasants, in Russian, why he lost a crop of flax and has nothing to sell them. The peasants either don't understand his Russian or don't understand his explanation, and he feels he has no choice but to repeat his speech twice, word for word, but shouting it more loudly each time. Does anybody know if this scene was included in stage productions of _Mirele Efros_ in the years when the play was a standard part of the Yiddish repertory? Steven Cassedy 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 06 Mar 96 20:06:48 IST From: rhle302@uvm.haifa.ac.il Subject: "In Yiddish it sounds better" revisited, or "Az me git, nem!" A short while ago I allowed myself a small tantrum [5.247] directed against Dalya Yairi (not Meiri, apologies for the error), a popular Israeli radio interviewer. Her attitude toward Yiddish as expressed in her few remarks was clearly patronizing, though she herself might be surprized at the accusation. The expression "It sounds better in Yiddish" is an Israeli commonplace, a deeply entrenched segment of Israeli folklore one might say. In most contexts, the claim is that the joke/anecdote/proverb/saying/story/expression is "funnier" in Yiddish, or at the least, "juicier" (_yoter asisi_). One unfortunate effect of repeatedly assigning to Yiddish the quality of humourousness is to stereotype a language which, like all languages, operates in numerous registers. But it can be objected that Yiddish humor is rich and that the Yiddish language itself as well as the culture of which it is an integral part, has specific humor-enrichening strategies, devices, forms, etc. In a recent review of the week's television programs in the prestige morning paper, _Ha-Arets_ (p. 8B, I believe the issue of 1 March 1996), Yoram Brunovski makes a witty and telling use of the "It sounds better in Yiddish" gambit that is far from expressing condescension towards Yiddish. He thus provides me with an opportunity to modify my possibly strident attacks on what I have called "ludicizing Yiddish" -- trivializing it (see my earlier _Mendele_ notices on "Ludic Yiddish"). For those of you who do not know of Yoram Brunovski, I can first of all assure you that he is no "Yoram" ('nerd'). He is in fact an intellectual powerhouse. In the course of refuting the novelist A.B. Yehoshua's foolish notion of discouraging American Jewish financial support to Israel, Brunovski wrote: "Chochma yehudit atika more lanu: 'Im notnim lecha, kach'. Beyidish ze nishma mamash tov, veyitachen lechora sheze shoresh hainyan: Kechol sheheyvanti, mekave a"b yehoshua, al yedey dechiyat trumoteyhem shel yehudim -- ach hayitachen? -- laasot lechizuka shel halashon haivrit!" ('Ancient Jewish wisdom teaches us: 'If someone gives you something, take it!' This really sounds good in Yiddish, and apparently that is the root of the matter: As I understand it, A.B. Yehoshua hopes that rejecting Jewish gifts -- could he be serious? -- will contribute to the strengthening of the Hebrew language!') This remark is intelligible if you know that 1) in a recent letter to _Ha-Arets_ A.B. Yehoshua suggested (at least half-seriously) that American Jews keep the several hundred million dollars normally raised for Israel at home and spend them on teaching Hebrew and 2) Yehoshua is of Sefardi background. (Such a program conceivably might start a major exodus from Israel by Israelis hungry for lucrative jobs teaching Hebrew to American Jews who are dying to learn Hebrew in order to read Yehoshua in the original!) Actually, even a fraction of several hundred million dollars spent on Yiddish language instruction in America would yield gratifying results -- would teach students to read a Sholem-Aleykhem story in Yiddish in a single semester; moreover, the serious Yiddish student invariably goes on to study Hebrew. But those who agonize about the Future of the Jewish People -- an occupation fast becoming an industry these days -- seem incapable of accepting so simple a pedagogic reality. But to return to less somber matters. What is the precise form of the Yiddish expression that Brunovski recognizes as somehow more tangy, more racy, more biting than its Hebrew correlate? Yiddish has scores of expressions on the subjects of giving and taking. Is Brunovski thinking of something as simple and brusque as "Az me git, nem!" or of one of its many elaborations (e.g. "Az men git nem, az men nemt -- shray gevald!"). [in Stutchkoff, "Nemung", No. 481 and in I. Bernstein, Warsaw 1908, p. 57]. If one prefers the assistance of rime, he can choose something more tart like "Ruf mikh yoshke, ruf mikh moshke -- abi gib di groshke!" [in Stutchkoff, "Gebung", No. 479]. If you wish to assist Yehoshua you can sabotage the UJA with: "A nar git, a kluger nemt" [in Stutchkoff, No. 481]. Yiddish turns of phrase on the themes of giving and taking are as various as Yiddish itself; they can be cynical and smartalecky and they can be serious and heartwarming. One of my favorites is the first listed by Bernstein under "geb(e)n": "Az men git nit yankevn, git men eysevn" (What you don't give to Jacob, you give to Esau). Leonard Prager 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 13:16:01 -0500 From: hershl@aol.com Subject: Kemp Nitgedayget Located on the shores of the Hudson in Beacon, NY, kemp nitgedayget was an adult "resort"--a tent city, actually, for many years--that continued into the 1950s (I believe) as "Camp Beacon." S. J. Perelman, in a hilarious 1930s piece that was republished in an anthology of _Esquire_ magazine, had a line that went something like: "I love you," he said, "like...like...like a two week vacation in Camp Nitgedayget!" (BTW: Itsik Goldenberg should be aware that in addition to the children's camps boyberik and hemshekh, there were two other Yiddishist camps, both of which still exist, though with less emphasis on Yiddish: Camp Kinderland in Toland, MA and Circle Camp in Hopewell Junction, NY.) Hershl Hartman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.271 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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