Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.063 September 25, 1998 1) Introduction (Maxine Gold) 2) Rosh Hashone on Mendele (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 3) Feygele (Joachim Neugroschel) 4) yiddish in israel (Sylvia Schildt) 5) Yiddish in Israel as a foreign language (Bob Hoberman) 6) Sholem Asch on tape (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 7) Yiddish theater in N.Y. - 1939-1945 (Shloyme Zalmen Millman) 8) libe tsu yiddish in Amsterdam (Willy Brill) 9) The _Forverts_ (Al Grand) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 18:04:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Goldimax@aol.com Subject: Introduction thank you for subscribing me to your list. i was born in paterson, new jersey, a town of lodz immigrants, although they say my maternal grandmother actually came from noveradomsk. i do not speak a fluent yiddish, but have a great passion for and interest in the language. recently, my mother died, and i am trying to find out the meaning and origin of certain expressions that she used often. is this the right place for this kind of thing? Maxine Gold 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 13:37:24 -0400 (EDT) From: SHirshan@aol.com Subject: Rosh Hashone on Mendele Haynt iz Rosh Hashone. Born and bred in Yiddishland, davening was not in our curriculum, and my experiences in shul were limited to climbing the steep stairs to visit my zise bobes and tantes; I was blind to the ritual or sidur. Yet, the memories are sweet, filled with wet kisses and Yiddish terms of endearment - mame sheyne, oytser, Mirele zis kind..... Oyf der elter, in my daughter's Reconstructionist shul, after kadish is recited, we are called upon to call out names of people we hold dear and wish to be remembered and blessed. So for Rosh Hashone on Mendele, I call out, loud and clear -- Zellig Bach -- dear friend to many of us, whose sight sadly is diminished. For years, he lit up our sky, enhancing Mendele and Der Bay (Remember The Best of Bach?) with so much Yiddishkayt - anecdotes, mayselekh, definitons, derivations, insights galore. We all learned from him and grew deeper and breyter vi lenger with his postings. He cannot see to read Mendele anymore, but his caretaker can read cards to him (the address will be sent by request). Start the year with a mitzve.... I also call out Dvosye Seidman Bilik whose book and articles can never replace her well of knowledge and feeling, her panache and dynamic beauty. And Shleyme Axelrod - so sincere a libhober and leader of the perpetuation of Yiddish. Aza guter, ziser Litvak! May we all go forward into the New Year in good health and enjoy life's treasures, Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 17:29:08 -0400 (EDT) From: ACHIM1 Subject: Feygele In regard to the discussion of the origin of the female name "Feygele", I can offer some further suppport for Mikhl Herzog's etymology: the regional Austrian and Bavarian term for violet is still "Veigerl" (the V being pronounced F ). I've been using it all my life -- as do most people of Austrian or Bavarian backgrounds. Joachim Neugroschel 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 18:46:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Pcreativa@charm.net (Sylvia Schildt) Subject: yiddish in israel Lucas Bruyn queries my tiresome comments about Yiddish in Israel and Yiddish as a Foreign language. Most earnest Yiddishists in Israel feel exactly as I do -- that there is something wrong with the very idea of Yiddish being treated as a foreign, therefore alien language. (The example of English as a lingua france in India/Pakistan is lopsided. English was a superimposed Colonial language brought by the conquerors. Yiddish was the mother tongue of most of the founders of the modern state of Israel and of the literature that galvanized many of the early Pioneers and supporters of a Jewish State -- even those who chose later to develop Hebrew as the only language.) The complaint about the status of Yiddish was a running refrain at the conference in Israel this summer (8th Annual Conference for Yiddish and Yiddish Culture - Ashkelon/Jerusalem). We see Yiddish as the soul of Ashkenazic Jewry for arguably 1000 years, give or take a few -- the language of 5 million who perished in the Holocaust -- certainly worthy of better treatment. As to the more concrete issues -- I provided Mendele with an abstract from a new study on language policy and reality in Israel which delineates the shift from essentially unilingual to mutilingual policies and this takes in Yiddish as well. But -- thanks to my computer problem - I must ask the moderator to provide the publication number on Mendele. As to the money in question, it was not handed over to the designated authorities. I also provided to Mendele the name of the Minister of Education, Culture and Sport - Itzkhak Levi, from the Orthodox community which runs its own independent schools, not covered by the law. The Ladino matching funds were handed over to the parallel authorities. Ask Minister Levi where the money mandated for Yiddish secular education is, my friend -- that's the burning question !!!! Happy New Year, Sylvia Schildt Baltimore, Maryland 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 13:17:05 -0400 (EDT) From: "R. Hoberman" Subject: Yiddish in Israel as a foreign language I just happened to be looking at this book: Language, Identity, and Social Division: The Case of Israel, by Eliezer Ben-Rafael (Oxford, 1994), and I want to suggest that anyone interested in the questions that've been being discussed on Mendele will find lots of concrete, interesting, and relevant information in it. For instance, in surveys conducted in Israel in the late 1980's (I think), Yiddish was ranked lower than English, French, Arabic, Spanish, and German in answer to the question, "What are the three languages you would like your child to know?". Yiddish ranked higher in "beauty" than all languages except French and Spanish (excluding Hebrew from consideration). The book contains many (tons!) other statistical and anecdotal types of information. Any suggestions as to how Yiddish should be taught and promoted in Israel are pointless without reference to what Israelis actually think about it. Bob Hoberman 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 12:16:37 -0400 (EDT) From: SHirshan@aol.com Subject: Sholem Asch on tape Sylvia is on target about Moe Asch and Folkways. Going a step further, there exists a Folkways Record Album #35505, 1977, The Smithsonian Institute - Sholem Asch Statement - Lecture at Columbia University, 1952 It is exciting to hear his voice, to hear him speak - passionately and honestly. He addresses the condemnation of him, for writing The Nazarene, The Apostle, at the hands of the readers who had loved and honored him. One quote from the tape: "I wanted to show Jew and Christian alike, the kinship, the relationship, the brotherhood. You are not a stranger to me; I am a relative of yours; you are a relative of mine -- and thank God I succeeded! I succeeded among Jews and among Christians....." Marjorie Schonhaut HIrshan 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 15:21:08 -0400 (EDT) From: MILLPERSON@aol.com Subject: Yiddish theater in N.Y. - 1939-1945 Between 1939 and 1945, I appeared in several Yiddish theater productions in N.Y.C. These included: Fall 1939 - Goldele dem Beker's, produced by Herman Yablokoff, and starring Yablokoff, Menashe Skulnick, u.a.v. ; Fall 1940 - Der Mensh Fun Morgn, produced by Samuel Goldenberg, and starring Goldenberg, David Opatoshu, u.a.v. ; Fall 1942 - Oy, iz Dus a Leben, produced by Molly Picon and her husband, Yakob Kalich, starring the two of them; Spring 1943 - Der Reikher Feter, produced by Menashe Skulnick, and starring Skulnick, Miriam Kressyn, Mikhal Mikhalesko, u.a.v.; Fall 1943 - Dos Goldene Land, produced by Yehudah Bleikh, and starring Leo Fuchs, Ludvig Zatz, Aaron Lebedeff, Dina Halpern, u.a.v.; Fall 1944 - A Guter P'sireh, produced by Skulnick, and starring Skulnick, Kressyn, Max Kletter, u.a.v. Unfortunately, my parents did not think to keep a scrapbook, a folder, or anything to record my stage experience. I was a young boy at the time, between 8 and 14 years of age. Frankly, it didn't strike me until years later that I had had the unique privilege of performing with the "greats" of the Yiddish theater of my time. I have been trying for some time to locate memorabilia of these shows. I travelled to N.Y. ( I live in Florida), where I found nothing helpful at YIVO, nor at the theater branch of the N.Y. Public Library in Lincoln Center, and I was told by the president of the Jewish Actors Union that they don't maintain archives. What I am hoping is that, tzvishn di mendelyaner, di emise yidishistn, there must be someone who has, or knows where to find, memorabilia ( such as a program, a still photograph, a newspaper review) of those shows, or is that period of Yiddish theater farloyren oyf eybik? Shloyme Zalmen Millman 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 11:36:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Willy Brill <101737.3473@compuserve.com> Subject: libe tsu yiddish in Amsterdam Fun tsayt tsu tsayt farnemen mayne shilers in der yiddisher shprakh zikh mit iberzetsn hollendisje moderne poemes oder fablen oyf yiddish, b'kivn tsu genitn zikh in der teve fun der shprakh. Nokh mayn meynung iz di-o-tetikeyt a vikhtiker un balerndiker aroysfoder: men fartift zikh in di verter fun beyde shprakhn mer fun an ibergegebenem leyener un tsu glaykh pruvt men oys tsu forshn dem emesdik yiddishn idiom. A khideshdikn fal fun iberzetsn wil ikh aikh vayzn, vayl es iz der poyel-yoytse fun a tsuzamentref tsvishn tsvey `fremde shprakhn' in Holland. Eyne fun mayne shilers hot gemakht a yiddishe iberzetsung fun a servishe poeme, in tsuzamen-arbet mit der yunger servisher poetese gufe, vos voynt zayt kurtser tsayt in Holland: Nepostojana pesma Na papiru koji ce istruliti, slovima koja ce izbledeti ja, koja cu umreti, pisem, o nekoj ljubavi koja ce nestati, tebi, koji nisi besmrtan. (Aleksandra Mihailovic) A poeme oyf hinershe fis Oyf papir vos vet tseshtoybn zikh, mit oysyes vos veln bliakeven shrayb ikh, vos vel nifter vern, vegn libe, vos vet nelm vern, tsu dir vos iz umshtarbik nisht. mit a hartsikn grus Willy Brill, Amsterdam 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 14:36:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Savoyid@aol.com Subject: The _Forverts_ On page 10 of the current issue of the Yiddish _Forverts_ (Friday, Sept. 25th) there is a cryptic heading to the main article in the section called "In Der Velt fun Yidish." The heading reads as follows: "Vegn dem festival fun 1010U?." The "U" has an umlaut over it and there is a rather large space between the "fun" and the "1010U?." I'm rather poor at cryptanalysis and would be grateful if any reader of the _Forverts_ who was able to decipher this would let me know if this is indeed a cryptogram. Al Grand ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.063 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://mendele.commons.yale.edu http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html