Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 7.012
June 3, 1997

1) Whence Mendele's Pen Name? (Zellig Bach)
2) Der Kalever in ingern (Percy Mett)

1)----------------------------------------------------
From: Zellig@aol.com
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 21:17:21 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Whence Mendele's Pen Name?

Far Noekhn,
tsu der gelegnhayt fun zayn vern 
_Mendele's_ ershter Shames Emeritus!       

     Further to Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan's interesting post "Mendele's 
Pseudonym"  (6.224,6) where she cited from Ken Frieden's book _Classic 
Yiddish Fiction_ his assertion that Mendele Moykher Sforim is "sometimes
erroneously called Abramovitsh'es pseudonym" because, according to Frieden, 
the family name Abramovitsh was itself a fictitious one, and his actual name 
was Khayim Moyshe Broyde.  

     Marjorie goes on to explain that such changes of family names were in 
those days an artful dodge among Jews to avoid a 25-year military stint in 
the Czar's army.  One creative subterfuge was to pose as an eldest son (who 
was exempt from military service) of a fictitious family. This supposedly 
would explain the switch from Broyde to Abramovitch, but such "metamorphosis" 
of the parental name for socio-political reasons has nothing to do with the 
_literary_ pen name of the writer as he has become known and revered.

1.  WHENCE THE PEN NAME MENDELE (MOYKHER SFORIM)?

     What follows was originally published in the English _Forward_,  in 
the section "Der Yiddish Vinkl" - "A Weekly Briefing on the Mother Tongue" 
(April 4, 1997, p. 11), and is reprinted here by special permission:   

     Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh'es pseudonym "Mendele Moykher Sforim" 
(Mendele, for short) became so enmeshed with its creator that it quickly 
eclipsed the name of the author himself.   

     This is the story of Mendele's pen name according to the late Nakhmen 
Mayzl,  literary historian of the modern Yiddish literature, in his Foreword 
to _dos kleyne mentshele_ (Warsaw, 1928, p. 1):
                            
     When  Sh. Y. Abramovitsh, submitted his first work in Yiddish _dos 
kleyne mentshele_ (the little person) for publication (until then all his 
books and essays were in Hebrew), the pseudonym he chose for it was 
Senderl Moykher Sforim (Senderl the Book Seller), after a book seller he
apparently remembered from his youth with a measure of envy and admiration 
for his ease and freedom to move about, to travel, to visit various Jewish 
k'hiles [communities], and to mix with all manner of people. 

     The name of the editor to whom he submitted this work was Alexander 
Tsederbaum, a well-known publisher in his days but oversensitive to 
criticism.  

     Since the informal Yiddish name of Alexander is Sander, or Sender, he 
feared that the pseudonymous Senderl, the diminutive form of Sender, was 
in some way intended to mock him, so he changed it, without asking the 
author's permission, from Senderl Moykher Sforim to Mendele Moykher
Sforim, and thus the name "Mendele" entered the modern Yiddish literature 
as one of its founders and is often referred to lovingly as the "zeyde" 
of the new literature. 

     The name Mendele is revered and respected all over the world among 
lovers of Yiddish and the modern Yiddish culture.

     In the United States there is a very active computer list called 
"Mendele: Yiddish Literature and Language." It has about 1200 subscribers 
in many countries outside America, such as Argentina, Australia, Belgium,   
Canada, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, and 
many other countries.

2.   TENTATIVE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  REASONS FOR THE CHOICE OF "BOOK SELLER" IN 
THE PEN NAME:    

     Abramovitsh'es choice of book peddler as part of his pseudonym 
(Moykher Sforim is Hebrew and means "seller of books") is in itself of 
some imaginative poetic significance:

     Since literacy was practically a universal given in Jewish life -- 
there was no home without one or more religious books -- the appearance of 
a book peddler in a town or shtetl was truly a festive occasion: 

     Old and young, of both genders, quickly gathered around the tables 
where the books were displayed -- to check the newest publications and 
reprints.  

3.  BOOKS IN HEBREW AND BOOKS IN YIDDISH:

     Most of the books were in Hebrew, of a strictly religious content; but 
so too were the books in Yiddish, of a devotional or moralistic nature, 
especially for women.

     The extent of the great interest and book sales can generally be gauged 
from the multiple reprints.  The famous book for women _Tsene U'rene_, a 
free paraphrase in Yiddish of the Bible (the title comes from the book _Song 
of Songs_, a call to women to "Go Forth and See") underwent more than 200
reprint editions, with many expanded revisions.  So were the famous _Tkhines_, 
special prayers in Yiddish for women.  

     And the _Sider_, the obligatory daily prayer book, came in many reprint 
editions for adults, as well as in special shorter editions, with big 
letters, for boys of different ages. 

     There was usually also a small portion of books in Yiddish of a 
non-moralistic nature, undemanding books of stories and medieval romances 
for women;  also _brivn-shtelers_, collections of sample texts of letters, -- 
all in Yiddish -- correspondence between spouses, between a bride-to-be 
to her intended and a groom-to-be to her, to current and future "mekhutonim" 
(in-laws), esc., also forms of business letters in Yiddish.

         Having thus placed himself in the position of a book seller, 
Mendele could imaginatively observe the characteristics of his buyers and 
browsers, and listen to the cadences and colors of their Yiddish, all of 
which he made such singularly artistic uses in his many works.

Zellig Bach,
Lakehurst, NJ         

2)----------------------------------------------------
From: Percy Mett <p.mett@open.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 1997 18:08:58 +0000
Subject: Der Kalever in ingern

s'iz geve'n take a mchaye tsu leynen vegnm kalever rebn shlite. s'kumt tsu
nuts mendele - bay uns in tsaytung hot men nisht geshribn vegn dem vizit.

>Lag b'oymer 5757
>
>Der kalever rebe, reb Mendl Taub, vos voynt in Bne Brak, Yisruel, iz
>ongekumen in Budapest mit a por teg tsurik. Er hot farbrakht shabes in
>Budapest, gegebn a tish inem restoran 'Khane' lebn ortodoksishn shul
>in Kazinczy gas. Motse shabes iz er gekumen af a lag b'oymer simkhe,
>vos me hot gemakht in der Masoret Avot ortodoksisher shule fun
>Budapest. Er hot gezungen, getantst, gegebn a droshe. Zayne vareme

ober ikh vinder abisl vi azoy di shraybrin nutst dos vort 'gegebn'

ikh volt kaynmol nisht gezogt 'gegebn a tish' nor 'gefirt tish' oder efsher
'gepravet a tish'.
oukh nisht 'gegebn a droshe' nor 'gehalten a droshe' oder 'gezugt a droshe'.

vos zogn dertsu andere?

derekh agev, khmeyn az der kalever rebe voynt nisht in bney brak, nor in
rishen letsien.

Perets Mett

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End of Mendele Vol. 7.012