Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.083 October 17, 1996 1) Introductions (Eitan Lallouz) 2) Zamenhof and Yiddish (Tsuguya Sasaki) 3) Alexander Pomerantz (Arn Abramson) 4) Yiddish vegetarian writers (Leybl Botvinik) 5) Yiddish vegetarian writers (Goldie Morgentaler) 6) Is Yiddish a fading language? (Jordan Lack) 7) "Meyerke mayn zun" (Michelle Van Den Berg) 8) Mendele fort avek (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 15:17:52 -0400 From: yiddish5@bialik.netaxis.qc.ca Subject: Introductions We are a senior high school class at Bialik High School in Montreal, Canada. As many of you know, Bialik High School is the only one of its kind in North America, where Yiddish is part of the core curriculum. There are 700 students in the school, approximately 130 in the senior class. Some of the students in the school have been learning Yiddish since grade 1 in the Jewish Peoples' and Peretz School, the elementary branch of the High school. Others only began studying Yiddish at the high school Level. Our particular class of 18 students are relative newcomers to the language. Our teacher, Anna Gonshor, has embarked on a project with us entitled, "Why Yiddish?" We have already studied the history of the Yiddish language and the beginnings of modern Yiddish literature in order to be able to understand the role of Yiddish in the shaping of modern Jewish identity. Part of our project also includes interviews with individuals who are involved in some way with Yiddish. This brings us to you. We would like to have you participate in our project by responding to our invitation via Mendele. It is our hope that we will meet people from various backgrounds and ages with varied interests and reasons for being interested in and committed to Yiddish. We hope to find approximately 20 interested individuals to respond with on an ongoing basis. We plan to post a summary of the project on the list for all Mendelyaners to enjoy. We are quite excited about this project and hope that you share some of our enthusiasm. If you do, please respond to the list. We will then choose from among the responders to ensure as varied a sampling as possible, and then communicate with you individually. A groysn dank. Please respond in English, as some of us are still only learning Yiddish. Eitan Lallouz 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 10:13:07 +0900 From: tsuguya@gol.com Subject: Zamenhof and Yiddish The following two bibliographies of Zamenhof in Esperanto give a short but reliable account of his knowledge of Yiddish: Holzhaus, A. 1969. Doktoro kaj lingvo Esperanto. Helsinki. (pp. 19-34) Maimon, N. Z. 1978. La kashita vivo de Zamenhof. Tokyo. (pp. 71-78) By the way, Zamenhof, under the pseydonym of Dr. X, wrote an article entitled "Vegn a yidisher gramatik un reform in der yidisher shprakh" in _Lebn un visnshaft_, no. 1 (1909). On a possible Yiddish influence on Esperanto, see, for example, the following articles: Gold, D. L. 1980. Towards a Study of Possible Yiddish and Hebrew Influence on Esperanto. In: Miscellanea Interlinguistica, ed. by I. Szeldahelyi, Budapest, pp. 300-367. Piron, C. 1984. Contribution a l'etude des apports du yidiche a l'esperanto. Jewish Language Review 4: 15-29. Tsuguya Sasaki 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 22:29:18 -0400 From: abramson@uconnvm.uconn.edu Subject: Alexander Pomerantz Ron Robboy's interesting information about the late Alexander Pomerants leads me to announce that immediately upon reading Kathleen Rose's query, I sent word that I had known Pomerants for the last ten or so years of his life, becuase he was my former wife's beloved uncle by marriage to a sister of her mother. The good shames, Noyekh, simply forwarded my message to Kathleen, thinking that that had been my real intent; in the meantime I had sent her a copy anyway. I promised to try to get more information from Ruby Heller, my former wife, who has indeed let Kathleen know, through me, that she could be approached and that an aunt of hers might have even more information. Ron's information, as far as I can recall, seems quite accurate. Most of the time that I knew him, Uncle Alex was working as a book-cataloguer in the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. I always found him to be a kind, gracious man whose conversation and company I enjoyed very much. I was greatly saddened by his final illess and death. Arn Abramson 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 06:46:47 +0200 (IST) From: leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il Subject: yidishe vegetaryaner shraybers der montrealer yiddisher shrayber un poet meylekh ravitsh iz geven a vegetaryaner. oyf vifl ikh gedenk, iz der yunger dr. hirshe-dovid kats in oxford oykh a vegetaryaner. leybl botvinik netanya 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 21:05:20 -0400 From: 105341.3550@compuserve.com Subject: Yiddish vegetarian writers In answer to Pawel Dorman who wanted to know which Yiddish writers were vegetarian, I can think of two, I. B. Singer and Melekh Ravitch. I'm curious about the reason for the question. What might be deduced from the conjunction of vegetarianism with authorship in Yiddish? Goldie Morgentaler Montreal 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 15:29:29 -0400 From: jordan.lack@bialik.netaxis.qc.ca Subject: Is Yiddish a fading language? I am a High School student attending Bialik High School in Montreal Quebec. My Yiddish class has a project about the current position of the Yiddish language in today's literature and school system. This is a very serious topic and I would like to see some well thoughout comments about the issue. Jordan Lack Montreal, Quebec 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 16:02:35 -0500 From: mevanden@students.wisc.edu Subject: "Meyerke mayn zun" My name is Michelle. I'm a student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. I am majoring in Vocal Performance and Semitic Studies. I have a problem that I hope someone can help me with. I am currently working on a piece of music composed by Maurice Ravel for my Senior Recital. This piece, titled "Hebrew Song" (Mejerke, main Suhn),is from his group "Four Folk Songs." My problem is that Ravel wrote the text in the vernacular French. I was told by my Rabbi that this piece is a traditiional Yiddish folk song. I would love to perform this piece in Yiddish. However, I cannot find the Yiddish text anywhere. Could someone please help me either locate a copy of this song in Yiddish, or (if possible) send me a copy of the words if they have them on hand? Thank you so much for taking the time to read this message. I would appreciate any responses that I receive. Michelle Van Den Berg 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 10:09:51 -0700 (PDT) From: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu Subject: Mendele fort avek Tayere mendelistn: Higiye hazman shel b'dikes hagendz. Yedn yor in der tsayt fort der shames tsuzamen mit der shameste ontsukukn etlikhe milyon gendz vos zenen zikh tsunoygefloygn (azoy hoft men) af zeyer yerlikhn banket. (Ven di republikaner veln zikh dervisn az dos fresenish kumt for in mkoymes vos gehern tsum federaler regirung --heyst es af zeyer khezhbn-- vet zikh nokh tun khoyshekh.) Farvos gor gendz un nisht andere un shenere foygl? Vayl tsu derkenen a feygele darf men shoyn hobn i oygn i a zikorn; a gandz ken afile a blinder derkenen. Zogt aleyn: tsi hot ir in lebn gehert a ziseren nigen vi dem fun a tcherede gendz? Gekent amol a khazen mit aza zis kol, ober dos is shoyn anandere mayse.. Mendele vet mirtseshem vider dershaynen dem 27ten Oktober. Zayt mir gezunt un hert nisht oyf tsu shraybn. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.083