Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.109 November 28, 1996 1) Yiddish in Israeli schools (Leybl Botvinik) 2) Saying "please" in Yiddish (Dovid Yosef Herskovic) 3) "Lebns-Fragn" November-December 1996 (Hanna Luden) 4) Why Yiddish? (Itzhak Luden) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Nov 1996 15:21:54 +0200 (IST) From: leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il Subject: Yiddish in Israeli schools tayere khaveyrim oyf mendele. ikh hob bavizn dem i-brivl fun mendele V.6104 fun Mechel Asheri tsu a bakanter, brayne bogotsh. zi hot mir bald tsugeshikt a kurts brivl, un gebetn ikh zol dos ibergebn oyf mendele. brayne greyt itst tsu an arbet far der dertsiyungs ministeryum in yisroyl vegn dem banuts un dem limud fun yidish in di yisroyl shuln. a groyse teyl fun di interesantste antplekungen zaynen take in dem shtreng frumen sektor. ikh vart mit umgeduld, az es zol aroysgebn der fuler barikht. leybl botwinik brayne shraybt: You may be right about your shul, but you are off the mark when it comes to yiddish among children, at least as far as girls are concerned. Since the 1960's there has been a tremendous increase of girls schools that use yiddish as the language of instruction (there are now 12 girls schools, within the jurisdiction of the ministry of education and another 8 at least that have no connection with the government at all, the kanoyim, who also teach in yiddish.) Also, more and more girls schools are offering yiddish as a second language in the schools in the haredi sector. While you may hear hebrew on the street when these kids play, they still speak yiddish at home, it is the language of the most important institutions in their society: the home and the school. Bryna Bogoch Jerusalem 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 27 Nov 96 20:52:58 EST From: 100114.750@compuserve.com Subject: Saying "please" in Yiddish With all due respect to Joachim Neugroschel, who presumably is something more than a 'self styled yidishist', he completely misses the point. He complains about yidishistn who do not actually use yidish but then ignores the needs of people who do want to use the language. While I respect the grammar of yiddish and correct myself where I am aware of my follies, I still would prefer to pass on to my sons a fluent yidish while mixing up the di's, dos'es and der's than be a boki in all of hilkhes yidish but not be able to communicate in yidish to those near and dear to me. Of course, in a ideal world I would be able to do both and it would be toyre igdile bemokoym eykhod but the way it is I am a pragmatist and not a puritan. As for his model sentence, I think many more yidish speakers would say 'er hot zikh geniben dos leyben' than 'er iz zelbst toyt bagangen'. And as for his complaint of imperfect English, perhaps he would like to revise his message and capitalise the first letters of sentences, move and remove some of the commas and add an apostrophe where needed. Mr Neugroschel keeps referring to the French language but even the French with all their institutes have words like la brainstorming. To Mr Neugroschel, yidish seems to be a museum shpowpiece which, in order to preserve history, can never be tampered with. No wonder that to those with similar views yidish does indeed have cobwebs all over it. Now to the specifics: When my son says to my wife, to whom he speaks English, 'I want a drink', my wife adds 'please', and he follows 'please' and he gets what he asked for. When he says to me, 'ikh vil a trink', I can leave it at that and have an impolite child. On the other hand I can make him rephrase his sentence, 'za azoy git in ge'mikh a trink', and result equals pedant. I can also say 'bite' which he will repeat and next thing I'll be asked tsi ikh bin an oberlender. I stick to please and can proudly say that my son speaks a lovely yidish and in my household borikh hashem yidish rules O.K.! Dovid Yosef Herskovic 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 14:05:58 +0100 From: h.luden@research.kpn.com Subject: "Lebns-Fragn" November-December 1996 Es is norvos dershinen in Isroel a nayer fargreserter numer fun dem journal "Lebns-Fraghn" far di khadoshim Nowember-December 1996, mit a raykhn un fil-tematishn inhalt. Der leyt-artikl ("Tzurik tzu di koshmarn fun milkhome, pakhed un syneh") un di notitzn "fun khoydesh tzu khoydesh" zenen gevidmet di aktuele politishe un social-gezellshaftlekhe inyonim fun Isroel; Prof. Arthur Lermer - artikl fun zayn serie vegn der "kompiuter-revolutzie oyfn shvel fun a nayer epokhe"; Chaim Landau (kibutz Mesilot) vegn dem nayem numer "Khuliot" - a forshung-journal fun Yiddish-literatur in Hebreish; "Di fargeterte biblishe Dina fun Shkhem" - fun der hebr. prese; Chaim Sawikin, N.Y.: "Der kenig fun Mizrekh-Eirope"; Mendl Wajsmen, Kopenhagen, vegn di groyse enderungen in Poyln; A.. Shapiro, Haifa: "Bletlekh geshikhte"; J. Sheykin, Kiev: Shimon Frug (80 yor nokh zayn toyt); Chaim Piekarz, Tel-Aviv: Sholem-Aleikhems briv (2); Dr. Chariton Berman, Bielotzerkowsk - vegn dem kiever shraiber H. Polianker; A. Gharon, Tel-Aviv - Tzum 100stn geboyrnyor fun Itzik Kipnis; I. Fater, Tel-Aviv, vegn dem dikhter S. Simchowicz; Ber Gutman, Phenix Arizona: "Der vint hot mir dertzeylt"; J. Kara, Jass, Rumenie - vegn der historiozofie fun rumenishn Yidntum; Vegn di norvos geshtorbene shrayber Sh. L. Shnaydermanh, Hanna Luden 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 14:03:51 +0100 From: h.luden@research.kpn.com Subject: Why Yiddish? [Re Eitan Lallouz's post (Mendele 6.094):] A short answer to the question "why Yiddish?", and a short definition of modern and secular yiddishkeit - "in order to understand the role of Yiddish in the shaping of modern Jewish identity" can be found, as I hope, in my article "Farvos take yidish?" ("and really,why Yiddish?") in the monthly "Lebns-Fragn" Nr. 533-534 (Sept.-Oct. 1996). The word Yiddishkeyt expresses the undeniable belonging to the Jewish Nation, which is inherent to the very word (Yid - Yiddish - Yiddishkeyt). Yiddish is therefore the real identity card of this belonging. You cannot say it in any other language! Yiddishkeyt is not Jewishness, and not Yahaduth or Yehudiuth as in Hebrew, or Yahudischkeyt as in German, Yewreystwo in Russian, Zydowstwo in Polish; this is allso not Judaism, and it can not be expressed by any other word, or in any other language, but only in Yiddish, in this Yiddish word; and - Yiddishkeyt is not necessarilly religious Jewishness. Only in Yiddish you can express the secular global character of modern Jewish identity. Itzhak Luden Tel-Aviv ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.109