Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 09.006 May 23, 1999 1) Yiddish in today's America (Michael Zylberman) 2) Janet Hadda's letter in Mendele (Sholem Berger) 3) Dark thoughts on the fate of Yiddish? (Louis Fridhandler) 4) nokh a mol vegn "toytn" Yiddish (Shmuel Batt) 5) Is Idish dead? (Hershl Goodman) 6) Yiddish today (Sylvia Schildt) 7) Professor Hadda and the Death of Yiddish (Daniel Goodridge) 8) A Reaction to Janet Hadda's Article (Brukhe Lang Caplan) 9) death of Yiddish (Miriam Isaacs) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 03:25:24 -0400 (EDT) From: Michael Zylberman Subject: Yiddish in today's America Another "Yiddish is dead" article and no doubt endless responsa. Oi gevalt! If only we spent the same energy in analysing the possibilities that the world of Yiddish offers and to use that knowledge to work towards a new understanding of what could be. When the founders of the Sholem Aleichem College in Melbourne, Australia in 1975 were proposing the establishment of a Yiddish Secular Day School they were roundly criticised with "Farvos darf men dos". They persisted and today it stands as a practical contributor to the future of Yiddish. Yiddish is not and cannot be what it was. That is not something to bemoan, it is simply an observation. Yiddish will have a future as long as we want it to have a future and in a form that we determine. Michael Zylberman Melbourne, Australia 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 10:07:36 -0400 (EDT) From: Sholem Berger Subject: Janet Hadda's letter in Mendele Janet Hadda's essay about Yiddish in America was enlightening, if only for the further glimpses it provides into an unreflective anti-Yiddishism. In her letter in response to Iosif Vaisman, she writes: ...[T]he Hasidim will certainly somehow contribute to the future of Yiddish in America. Those communities, however, while Yiddish-speaking, are resolutely separate from the world I discuss. Their relationship to non-Hasidic Jews lacks the common idiom that made conversation in Yiddish natural before World War II. When Hasidic renegades arise, as they surely must, will they use Yiddish to communicate their modernism, as did their rebel counterparts a century ago? ... Strange that Hasidim and non-Hasidim lack a common language! Wouldn't it be nice if there were a common idiom that would serve as a connection? Something like -- Yiddish? Whoops, never mind. You see, the Hasidim speak Yiddish, but since their literary rebels might not "use Yiddish to communicate their modernism," they don't count. That is to say (as far as I can make out) there's no possibility of Hasidic communication with non-Hasidic, Yiddish speaking Jews, since Monsey lacks a Moyshe-Leyb. Or maybe an Arn Tsaytlin would be enough? Keep me posted as to the stylistic requirements for linguistic survival. Later on in her letter Hadda even repeats the canard that Yiddish lacks a reading and writing public among the Hasidim: "And who will read [these Hasidic authors]: other alienated Hasidim? If they do write in Yiddish, and if they do capture an audience, I will be delighted, but these questions are unanswerable at present." These questions are unanswerable only because Hadda refuses to answer them -- much as she sees only the Yiddish speakers (or the lack thereof) which she wishes to see. Is this research? It no longer comes as a surprise that the most prestigious bagrober fun yidish come from the circle of literary critics: if the language no longer boasts a Sholem Aleykhem, it's dead. (And the current literary productivity in Yiddish? Among Hasidim, even? Again: never mind.) This kind of thing doesn't make me angry anymore, just annoyed, which explains (I hope) the tone of this letter. Sholem Berger New York 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 14:33:03 -0400 (EDT) From: Lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Dark thoughts on the fate of Yiddish? I'd like to join the discussion that is sure to be stimulated by Janet Hadda, and Iosif Vaisman (8.153). "The ego is a bodily ego." So said Sigmund Freud. I hope I quote him correctly. Protection of our bodily existence is a most vigorous expression of our mental health. Devotion to life beyond our own is also healthy, a way to cushion awareness of our own mortality. Yiddish was given to us, and most of us wish we could pass it on to the future. To contemplate the idea that this may be impossible, is to contemplate devastating personal losses. The thoughts may go like this: not only will my bodily existence cease, my professional legacies will be rejected and will be for nought. At least, that is how I read Janet Hadda's sentence (8.153, 3): "Certainly, some have missed my pain." Of course it hurts to witness those murders of people whose loss may mean the murder of a language, one we love. Of course it hurts to feel that no matter how deep our devotion, how vigorous our efforts, people don't join our wonderful and redemptive cause. But does it matter? It doesn't stop me. Studying and then talking to as many people as possible about some aspect or other of Yiddish literature and culture is worthwhile. This is my faith. Although the evidence is thus far rather tentative, I occasionally find objective support and justification for my faith. For a group of about 80 Jews, most elderly, I recently read my English translation of a piece by Sholem Aleichem that none in the audience had read. I was confident of that, because it is not included in the 28-volume American edition mislabeled Ale Verk fun Sholem Aleichem. It touches on several aspects of Russian social and political history. My point was to emphasize the breadth and worldly sophistication of that icon of Yiddish literature still mistakenly viewed by some as shtetl-bound. By way of introduction, and to make the point of Sholem Aleichem's current relevance, I quoted Sholem Aleichem from 99 years ago: Lakhn iz gezunt. Doktoyrim heysn lakhn. I quoted this while showing an article from the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) magazine which celebrated the healing power of humor, with references to Norman Cousins and Patch Adams. Sholem Aleichem was not mentioned although he had written, "Laughing is healthy. Doctors tell you to laugh" 99 years ago. Of course, I said it in Yiddish. You should have heard the cries of "Translate!" I was not surprised that some did not understand. I was surprised (and a little disheartened) by how many shouted. My dismay was alleviated later. One couple approached me later to say they heard the Yiddish style and intonation in my translation. In imagination, they could interpolate the original language as I read the English. That was a breath of fresh air. That does not by itself prove that my faith is justified. But it helps. However, I imagine dark thoughts are conjured by some in response to the fact that both my audience and I were elderly. We live! Our lives are simply too short to pronounce verdicts of "death" or "irrelevance." All we can do is exert ourselves because there is no time to lose. I suspect we all are familiar with the parable of the old man sweating on a hot day while planting a seedling. A passing young couple derisively tells the old man that he is foolish for working so hard on a hot day planting something neither he nor they can ever hope to see in flower. "Why?" asks the old man. "Because it will take a hundred years." "Well then, there's no time to lose!" asserts the oldster as he digs all the harder. Although I am impatient with pronouncements on the fate of Yiddish, I find the seed of worthwhile discussions in a few of them. At least useful facts are sometimes dug up in response, as illustrated by Iosif Vaisman in 8.153. However, I suggest we keep in mind the personal stake of each pessimistic discussant, and understand the disorientation the discouraged writer may experience when he or she bumps against the horrifying notion that their current work is useless, that both their bodily existence and their legacy will go for nought. Dark, painful emotions may take over, and may distort thinking. Louis Fridhandler 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 20:12:22 -0400 (EDT) From: samuel batt Subject: nokh a mol vegn "toytn" Yiddish Khob gemeynt az di heyse diskusye arum Rut Wisse un ir baveynen Yiddish far der tsayt, hot zikh shoyn farendikt, un az ale hobn maskim geven az s'iz tsu fri ibertsukhazern di alte oysgedroshene "neviyes" vegn "toyt" fun Yiddish. Ikh vil nit baleydikn keynem, un zol keyner fun di "neviyem" nit nemen perzenlekh dem kumendikn folks-zog: " a nar iz a halber novi." oyb azoy iz a gantser novi - tsvey mol nar. un vifl azoyne "neviyem" zenen shoyn avek funem lebn in meshekh fun dem yorhundert vos endikt zikh bald? iz ober, neyn. tsu zey hot zikh tsugegebn nokh eyner. khmeyn do prof. Hadda fun los angeleser universitet. s'iz take a groyser fardros vos davke di ale vos makhn parnose mit Yiddish, - khotsh, vi ikh farshtey,kenen zey nit redn un nit shraybn Yiddish, (oyb kh'hob a toes - bet ikh m/khile,-) vos davke zey baveynen Yiddish fritsaytig. vos hot geton in ir nor vos obgedrukter arbet prof. Hadda? nisht mer un weyniker: zi firt durkh a Froydishn psikho-analiz iber di ale wos badoyern un baveynen ( mit veytik un tsorn) di Yiddishe velt vos is oysgeshokhtn gevorn, di velt fun shafers, groyse un klenere, un deriker di opnemers fun der Yiddisher kultur, say durkh di nazi- merders, say durkh di stalinishe talyonem. Un lomir nit fargesn az oykh Medinas Isroel hot tsugeleygt a hant az di Yiddishe shprakh un di groyse oytsres vos zenen in der shprakh geshafn gevorn zolln nit dergeyn tsu jene doyres vos hobn geboyt un farteydikt dos land, doyres vos shtamen fun di Yiddish reydndike poylishe un rusishe, in zeyer royv, khalutzin un shomrim. un zi, prof. Hadda, kumst tsum oysfir inem oybn dermontn analiz, az mir troyern un baveynen epes azoyns vos egzistirt shoyn nit, un iz toyt. un a sof zol es nemen. fun di ale Yiddishe shrayber, dikhter, literatur kritiker eseyistn, dramaturgn, un andere shafer in Yiddish,vos hobn gelebt un geshafn inem un nokhn khurbn, hot zi derzen nor Bas-Shevis Zingern, glaykh di ale andere vos lebn nokh i shafn oyf Mame-Loshn rekhenen zikh bikhlal nit ( zey zenen nit k'n nobel prise treger). un nokh a zakh. prof. Hadda vil farzorgn di tsukunft fun Yiddish shtelndig in sfeykes dem haynt, aribershpringndik, azoy tsu zogn, tsum nekhtn. Zi farglaykht dem nekhtn funem Mizrekh Europeyishn Yiddish mitn haynt, makhndik zikh kloymersht nit visndik vegn Khurbn Yiddish in Europe, in Amerike,in Argentine un andere dorem amerikanishe lender, inem gevezenem SSSR, un in Isroel. Un zi vil nit zeyn, khotsh zi faruft zikh ertervayz oyf im (dem khurbn), di bamiyungen fun a gantser makhne kemfer far der shprakh un kultur. zi lost zikh arayn in azelkhe khkires vegn kultur, beser gezogt beygl-kultur, glaykh vi di Yiddishe tzaytungen vos geyen nokh aroys in Poyln, Isroel, in Amerike,un ergetz andersh,zenen ibrik. Zi rekhnt zikh nit mit dem az take in Isroel iz oyfgetsvungen gevorn a gezets vegn ophitn un farshpreytn Yiddish un Yiddishe kultur, az dort lebn un arbetn un shafn a sakh Yiddishe shrayber un dikhter, eseyistn un kritiker velkhe drukn zeyere verk in Yiddishe farlagn, un az oykh in Amerike zenen faran a sakh tsaytshriftn in Yiddish, un az in di lender funem amolikn Sovetn-Farband zenen shoyn faran eynike tsaytshriftn ( nokh shvakhe vi di friling grezelekh) un az oykh in Amerike hobn nokh nit ale vos kenen shraybn, avekgeleygt di pen. zol si nor nokhkukn di meldungen "ongekumen in redakcje". Oyb dos alts is nit kultur, take Yiddishe kultur, to vos-she is kultur bikhlal? oyb m'zol tsugebn di seminarn far Yiddish in gevise europeyishe lender,dem interes far Yiddish fun a sakh visnshaftler in Amerike, Europe un afile in Japan, - zet men boylet az s'iz a bisl fritzaytig tsu bagrobn Yiddish un di kultur funem Yiddishn folk. A groysn sheynem binyen kon men farnikhtn in einike minutn. tsurik im oyftsuboyen nehmt a mol a sakh khadoshim un yorn. Dos iz shayekh oykh tsu undser Yiddish. zol di khosheve prof. Hadda dermonen zikh di geshikhte fun der tsveyter shprakh fun undzer folk - fun Ivrit (Hebreish, Loshn Koydesh). vifl tsendliker, un efsher nokh mer, yorn hot es genumen biz di heylike shrakh fun undsere ureltern hot derleybt tsu vern a melukhe shprakh? volt men dem Yiddish fun haynt geshafn khotshbi a helft fun di koykhes un materyele resursn vos m'hot opgegebn oyftsulebn Hebreyish (Ivrit), volt prof. Hadda nit baveynt di Yiddishe kultur, velkhe lebt nokh, un kemft far ir doyer, far ir morgn. ikh bin nit k'n profesor, nit k'n visnshaftler. ikh bin a posheter Yiddisher shrayber vos tut far Yiddish dos vos er ken, er shraybt, un azoy tuen mayne pen-fraynt in los angeles - di dikhter Moyshe Szklar, Pinie Plotkin, Sore Moskovitz,in di publitstin un shrayberin Lilke Mayzner, vos shteyt oykh b/rosh fun a prominentn Yiddish kultur klub. anshtot tsu baveynen far der tzayt dos lebedike Yiddish un di Yiddishe kultur, volt geven a sakh beser ven prof. Hadad farkatshet di arbl un leygt tsu etlekhe tsigl tsum oyfkumendikn nayem bihjen fun Yiddish. Shmuel Batt 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 14:27:08 -0400 (EDT) From: harold goodman Subject: Is Idish dead? I have just finished reading Janet Hadda's article on the state of Idish as well as Iosif Vaisman's response. I would like to add a few words as well. Dr. Hadda implies that Idish as it existed in pre-khurban Europe is THE authentic language and that since that situation and population is basically gone except in a hothouse atmosphere of assorted idishisten that Idish is dead. Dr. Vaisman, among other groups, mentions the Khasidim. I would also like to mention them. While it is true that the secular world of Idish is miniscule compared to what it was in, say, 1939, one cannot say the same of the frum community. For better or worse, many thousands (and we're talking about well over 100,000 people in frum communities worldwide) use Idish as their primary mode of communication. Their model is decidedly different from that of secular Idish. It is true, they are less likely to utilize secular modes of expression and reaching out to secular Idish speakers (though I could point out many exceptions to this as well) but they do exist and exist exclusively in Idish. Because of their value system they are not fixated on writing the great Idish novel, on being the next Velvel Dostoyevsky. They produce a prodigious amount of printed and audio material and, recently, even a CD-ROM all in Idish. Lemoshl. I subscribe to a monthly magazine, Maylos, which comes out of New Skver, New York. The current issue, vol. 3, number 8 is 50 pages, color cover, totally in Idish and is subtitled, "Monatlikhe oysgabe far di idishe heym." In the section " Briv tsu der redaktsye" is a letter from Shmuel Hayle, London, who complements the magazine for its column "Berayker dayn verter oytser" which is designed to help readers improve their Idish vocabulary. Mr. Hayle complains that many of the words selected come out of Vainraykh's dictionary which, he notes, doesn't reflect current Idish usage in the frum communities. He suggests that Harkavy's 1928 dictionary is much more a propos in this sense. He notes that he has been documenting frum Idish for a long time but has only published a small portion of his findings. In the same issue one will find a comic strip in Idish, new, khasidic poetry, several sections for children (" Shtayg hekher" over 10 pages) in easy Idish complete with vowels (nekudes), a very interesting article on European Jewish history, a section where readers present personal problems and ask for help (and receive practical advice), four pages with photographs on the psychology of animals, Khokhmos noshim: this issue is devoted to strategems and tricks to remember telephone numbers (now, this is useful in any language, dead or not!), and the aforementioned section (p.45) "Mame loshon" which is subdivided into four sections devoted to Idish vocabulary enrichment, etymology of words, beloved folk sayings and, in this issue, humor in Idish. There are many ads all in Idish. Page 50 is an ad for a method of treating attention deficit disorder, chronic fatigue and dyslexia ... all in this dead language. So maybe, Dr. Hadda, the secular Idish that we all knew and loved is largely gone or, at best, on the wane. However, something is very much alive in the frum communities that may not be all that terribly hard for you and other idishisten to relate to if you would only make the effort to seek it out. B'ahavas yisroel, Hershl Goodman Burtonsville, Maryland 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 14:33:25 -0400 (EDT) From: Sylvia Schildt Subject: Yiddish today Janet Hadda wrote: Yiddish culture in America - like Gaul - is divided into three parts: erudite, informed and popular. Although my experiences at the university level are fundamental to all my ideas about Yiddish, I will focus on informed and popular cultural manifestations. Yiddish culture is not divided into three parts -- it is a whole organism, encompassing gaon and amoretz,including nebekh those who are content with the shallow yiddish-keyt of bagels and yox, as well as the poets and the scholars. Hasn't it always been that way? The fact that our numbers were reduced by the Holocaust doesn't mean that we're down for the count. I quote I.B. Singer's noble Nobel lecture, "There are some who call Yiddish a dead language, but so was Hebrew called for two thousand years. It has been revived in our time in a most remarkable, almost miraculous way. Aramaic was certainly a dead language for centuries, but then it brought to light the Zohar, a work of mysticism of sublime value.It is also a fact that the classics of Yiddiash literature are also the classics of the modern Hebrew literature. Yiddish has not yet said its last word. It contains treasures that have not been revealed to the eyes of the world. It was the tongue of martyrs and saints, of dreamers and Kabbalists-- rich in humor and in memories that mankind may never forget. In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us all, the idiom of frightened humanity. " Contrast Singer's exalted, hopeful level of Yiddish appreciation with Hadda's anguished concern for the relevancy of the Yiddish equivalents for 'marshmallow' and 'stereo'. Re Hadda's remarks about Mendele. I regret Ms. Hadda's lack of vision -- the inability to see that a natural kind of Yiddishland is evolving on the Internet, with room for the silly and the sublime, a place of community for those who love Yiddish. And that includes Mendele and Virtual Shtetl and Bavebter Yid, and so much more. Janet Hadda asserted: I think that the Mendele controversy illuminates the current situation. Some Mendelyaner feel compelled to defend not only the existence of Yiddish but also its growth. Yet the very argument is flawed; the need to assert that a language is thriving implies doubt. No one makes comparable pronouncements about Spanish, Chinese, or even Flemish. While our erudite shames demolished her argument far better than I, I would like to add parenthetically, that Yiddish is the only language and literature which inspires its writers to write songs about it, from virtually every point of view -- and continues to do so. Not even the landless Rom, have such a rich treasure trove of love songs to a language. Hadda, then goes on to say: At issue is the future.... Yiddish did not die out because of television or the European Economic Community - it was murdered. Like the survivors themselves, Yiddish is tenacious and plucky, filled with insight and information. But tenacity and pluckiness do not bestow immortality; only speakers can do that, and only as long as they and their culture are one. My response: She is right about the murders, but seems not to grasp the whole situation. As a secularist with a rich traditional background, I must say that in this post-Holocaust era, although we Jews will always mourn the tragedy of the 6 million and the culture that went into the flames with them -- there is much to rejoice about -- in all these flawed yearnings and efforts, from papercutting to foods, to poetry and song, to webzines and learned journals. 10-15 years ago, the average folksong repertoire of Yiddish songs consisted of Tumbalalaika and a few other sentimental favorites of Yiddish theatre. The klezmer groups she so decries, mostly young people, now are expanding their repertoires, and singing songs half-forgotten, thanks to Klezkamps and similar "festivals". And they bring these back to their own groups, and sing it for others. Young people reaching out and taking Yiddish classes because the music speaks to their longing for roots. And some of it is even intelligent and sensitive, going far being marshamllows and stereos. And then there is the vitality of Yiddish in the world of Orthodoxy -- to experience this one can listen to Yiddish in Boro Park, Williamsburg, Munsey,(or see the Yiddish shop signs, so reminiscent of turn of the century Delancey Street) or eavesdrop on any Tower Airlines flight headed for Eretz Yisroyl. Or one can subscribe, as I did, to Der Yid, spelled the non-YIVO way as the Forward did until very recently, and sense the vitality that goes into not only the articles, but the ads -- it's a fully lived Jewish life (maybe not our brand) expressed by men, women and children in our thousand year old and young Mame Loshn. So maybe the grammar isn't so perfect, but the Yiddishkeyt shines. And speaking of Eretz Yisroyl, am I the only one that has noted that from a population of 300,000 at the birth of the Medina, we are now inching our way up in Israel to that very 6 million figure -- the number killed by the Nazis and their helpers? Would this were as true of Khutz L'Aretz. While I do honestly believe Ms Hadda does feel real pain at the supposed death of Yiddish, and the shallow way some of its advocates mishandle it, she and her "Yiddish is Dead" colleagues display a certain kind of shortsighted intellectual arrogance. They see the individual pieces but not the whole picture. And they believe that the decision rests with them. It does not -- they are not scripting the scenario. Let me take you all back to the so-called Golden Age of Yiddish literature. Where did all of these revolutzyonern/apikorsim writers come from if not from frum, even Khasidic homes. At the core even of their revolt was Torah. The past and present both are prologue. It is not inconceivable that from these burgeoning Orthodox Yiddish speaking homes will come new rebels and a flourishing new literature we can't even begin to dream of, interacting with Klezmer, and University students, and Mendelyaner and Virtual Shtetlniks, and Yugntrufniks and Yiddish Clubbers, to bringing Yiddish into a new Golden Age for the 21st century and beyond. A personal note: I recall in the era when I was finishing Lerer Seminar, there was much sad talk in my circles about the eminent demise of the Forvertz, particularly centered around the dying off of the vibrant Yiddish intellectuals who wrote for it, edited it, etc. Isn't it amazing that somehow a whole new crop of writers has emerged, from America, Israel, the former Soviet Union that light up its pages week after week. It could not have been foreseen from the state Yiddish was in at that time -- decimated by war, moribund from assimilation and lack of idealistic vigor, rendered seemingly irrelevant by the growing impact of Medinas Israel. Hadda's Psychoanalysis of Yiddishists I find just plain silly. As is the attempt to say that the survival of Yiddish is in bawdlerized English? Bu I agree with, Ms. Hadda when she wrote: Like the bagel, Yiddishkeyt has entered the American mainstream, although its cultural translation scarcely resembles the original. But I can report that the love of Yiddish, vulgarized and filled with error though it may be, continues unabated and right up to the minute. Here she is right. This too I bewail and bemoan: This vulgarization of Yiddish and Yiddish culture is bad enough among those who know little Yiddish and are happy in their ignorance, but when I read or hear such stuff among so called Ahavey Yidish, I weep blood. I can only call on such folk, as I often do on Mendele, to render Yiddish the respect it so richly deserves, and learn more about it. Explore the literature -- push the envelope beyond kloles and vitzn (curses and jokes). Does Yiddish have any longevity? Yiddish will be alive and changing and growing and relevant long after petrified marshmallows and rusted stereos are dug up as curious artifacts of the previous millennium. In her response to shames Vaisman's letter, Hadda, on a softer note, acknowledges that: ...there are those who continue to teach and to speak Yiddish. The families of Drs. Mordkhe Schaechter and Joshua Fishman, and the generation that follows them, speak Yiddish to their children. Others -- and here I include myself -- continue to dedicate themselves to teaching and research. They, we, can be considered a source of hope, however measured. But Ms. Hadda forgets that they are not the only ones. Here, there on 6 continents, new lights of Yiddish are igniting almost by themselves. A magazine here, a new university department there, here a new poet, there a writer of essays or novels, a songfest here, a theater performance there. Ms. Hadda and her colleagues, who earn their livelihood from Yiddish, would be perhaps more credible, if they switched to a line of work they believed in. Or at least, be a little more humble.The survival/revival of Yiddish is a natural phenomenon due to some very complex reasons inextricably bound to the continuation of Ashenazi Jewry. It is not the result of a committee of professors sitting around over Perrier, saying, "Hey guys and gals, let's have a Yiddish Renaissance." It's far more profound than that. And finally, I offer one of these little gleams of hope I found on the Internet this very day from the former Soviet Union where Yiddish culture was murdered, suppressed, sanitized, de-Judaized. It says it all far better than I can. ENTUZIASTN Yo, dos zenen take emese entuziastn. Un oyb ir vilt, kon men zey onrufn riters. Riters fun undzer mame-loshn, fun yidish. Es hobn zikh tsunoyfgenumen in Odes etlekhe azelkhe farerer fun yidish: Aleksander Royzin, Dmitri Tishtshenko, Semyon Vaynblat un nokh, oykh azelkhe entuziastn, un zey hobn bashlosn shafn a yidishe tsaytshrift. Gezogt un geton. Un geshafn. Un dertsu nokh zorgzam akhtung gegebn, az dos "kind" zeyers zol vaksn, zol beser vern, zol shener un kliger vern fun numer tsu numer. Der ershter numer hot basheydn geheysn "almanakh", in velkhn zaynen geven gedrukt bloyz lider. Der tsveyter iz oysgevaksn af zekhtsn zaytlekh, un khuts di lider iz oykh geven an inhaltraykher artikl fun eynem fun di hoypt-entuziastn Dmitri Tishtshenko "Vu un ven iz geboyrn gevorn di yidishe shprakh?" Un der driter numer iz i oyserlekh shener, kolirter, i inerlekh ongezetikter, farsheydnartiker, faran lider, dertseylungen, fartseykhenungen, un dos iz shoyn nit keyn almanakh, nor a literarish-kinstlerisher zhurnal. Ober der nomen zayner hot zikh farhit - "Mame-loshn". Vorem s'iz a simbolisher folks-nomen. Vos kon zayn tayerer fun a mamen? Un vos kon zayn ziser fun a muters yidisher viglid? Do nit lang iz grod farefntlekht gevorn a proyekt fun der antviklung-program fun der yidisher kultur in Ukraine. Eyner fun di vikhtike punktn fun der doziker program iz shafn a yidishn zhurnal. Iz klor, az aza min zhurnal vet take vern "Mame-loshn", vayl er iz shoyn do, vayl er iz shoyn faktish gevorn aza. Di odeser entuziastn hobn nit gevart af der program, vos hot, agev, shtark farshpetikt, un ver veyst, ven un viazoy di program vet bashtetikt un, deriker, farvirklekht vern. Un di shafer fun "Mame-loshn" hobn nit gevart. Zey hobn tikhtik, ibergegebn geshafn mit groyse tsores dos, vos zey hobn gekont, handlendik loytn bavustn deviz: "im eyn ani li - mh li? veim loy akhshov - eymosoi?" - "oyb ikh aleyn bin nit far zikh, to ver iz far mir? un oyb nit itst, ven den?" Vayl zey zaynen entuziastn. Vayl zey gleybn beemune shleyme, az der vidergeburt fun yidish nokh a fuftsikyorikn anabioz iz nit bloyz vidergeburt fun yidish, nayert ufrikhtung fun yidishkayt, fun dem yidishn folks-oytser fun minhogim, traditsies, fayerungen, lider, vertlekh, fun yidishn gayst, fun yidisher neshome. Nokh mer: zey zaynen zikher, di riters fun der yidisher shprakh, az zey zetsn for dem mesiresnefeshdikn kamf mit Hitlern un Stalinen, mit zeyer sheydim-fartrakht tsu farnikhtn dos yidishe folk: Hitler - fizish, Stalin - gaystik. Iz rum di entuziastn! Zey zaynen veynik, ober zey zaynen a sakh. Veynik - loyt dem tsol, a sakh - loyt zeyer badayt... Aleksander LIZEN Lemberg, 28.9.1995 Sylvia Schildt Baltimore, Maryland 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 00:14:47 -0400 (EDT) From: "Dan Goodridge" Subject: Professor Hadda and the Death of Yiddish I sincerely hope that Professor Hadda is wrong, but whether she is or she isn't, whether Yiddish is moribund or undergoing a rebirth, the important question for lovers of Yiddish is: what can we do to help it blossom once again? One pathway, of course, is that taken by professor Hadda, ie., to teach it to all comers. Another is by way of "shmuz krayzn", conversation groups of people with similar interests. Here, in Australia, Yiddish has had a chequered history: introduced by early immigrants in the twenties and reinforced by Holocaust survivors and their predecessors in the thirties, it flourished in Australia, and particularly in Melbourne, both through publications and a very successful theatre. After a decline because of the age of the early enthusiasts, it is now beginning to regain its former status among the Jewish communities. Conversation groups are springing up throughout the suburbs, where Jews reside, and a university course is being offered as part of a Graduate Diploma in Language Studies at the University of Sydney. We can speculate about the future, but in Australia, at any rate, we are trying to keep the flag flying. Daniel Goodridge 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 13:14:46 -0400 (EDT) From: Beatrice Lang Subject: A Reaction to Janet Hadda's Article Engish version follows. Ikh hob geleyent Janet Haddas artikl vegn yidish in hayntikn Amerike mit groysn interes--a dank, vos ir hot im ibergedrukt af Mendele! Ikh vil nisht haltn ken makhloyke mit di faktn vos Hadda shtelt for--avade iz der matsev fun yidish gor andersh vi mit fertsik yor tsurik, un avade zaynen mer nishto di umshtendn in velkhe yidish iz gevorn a kulturshprakh af gor a hoykhn nivo. Oyb me vil nitsn dos vort "shtarbn," iz gut, dos iz zikher an oyfn kukn af di faktn. Der "toyt" fun yidish iz alts klerer far Haddan, vayl ken emeser hemshekh iz nishto: bloyz nostalgye un a por kultur-simboln shtark amerikaniziert. Mir dakht zikh ober, az an ander min hemshekh, a nayer gilgul fun der yidish-kultur iz haynt oykh do. Far undz yunge yidn, vos hobn davke nisht gekent dem hoykhn punkt fun der yidish-kultur, ken di raykhe yerushe fun ot der kultur zayn a vikhtiker teyl fun a mamoshesdiker hayntiker yidisher identitet. Dos heyst nisht bloyz beygl un klezmer-muzik, nor di yidishe shprakh aleyn in ir kultureln un historishn kontekst. Far vos zoln mir troyern nokh epes, vos mir hobn nisht gekent? Mir kenen dokh shepn derfun oytsres, zey tsurik oneygenen ("reclaim") far zikh. Aza meglekhkayt vil ikh opmoshlen durkh mayn eygener oytobiografye. Ikh hob zikh bakent mit yidish mit knape tsen yor tsurik, ven ikh bin shoyn geven 20 yor alt. In der heym redt men in gantsn nisht ken yidish, un ufvaksndik in Cambridge, England, zaynen afile beygl un klezmer-muzik mir geven fremd. Ongeshtoysn hob ikh zikh af yidish in Oksford, vu ikh hob zikh gelernt daytshish un frantseyzish: ikh hob genumen di dortike zumer-program af tshikaves, un es hot zikh geefnt far mir a velt. Daytshishe literatur iz mir zeyer gefeln, ober mit yidishe tekstn hob ikh zikh gefilt in der heym. Mayn vaksndiker interes in yidish hot mikh mit a por yor shpeter gebrakht ken New York, vu ikh lern zikh itst yidishe kultur af a doktorat in Kolumbye-Universitet. In tsvishn bin ikh gevorn aktiv in der yidisher yugnt-organizatsye, Yugntruf; ikh lern in der zuntik-shule far yidish-redndike kinder, Priptshik; un ikh hob khasene gehat mit nokh a student, vos hot zikh oysgelernt yidish, un mir redn yidish tsvishn zikh. Yidish iz far mir mamesh a lebedike shprakh. Un vos ikh hob in onheyb gefilt intuitiv--az yidish un yidishkayt zaynen shtark farbundn--farshtey ikh alts beser: kenen yidish hot zikher farshtarkt in mir dos pintele yid. Ikh bin troyerik, az ikh hob nisht gekent di yidish-kultur in ir blitsayt, ober ikh troyer nisht nokh ir. Leheypekh--alts vos hot tsu ton mit yidish vos ikh hob arayngenumen in mayn lebn iz far mir a gevins, un yedes mol ven ikh gefin a remez fun vos iz geven--an altn yidish-briv, oder an eltern mentsh vos ken yidish fun der heym--frey ikh zikh mit der farbindung tsu der velt vos ikh hob keyn mol nisht gekent. Dos heyst, der azoy gerufener "toyt" fun yidish iz geven far mir a fakt fun onheyb on. S'iz mir nisht ayngefaln az ikh zol troyern: ikh hob zikh genumen tsum ufdekn un tsurik onnemen dos ashires vos s'iz di yidish-kultur. Ikh veys, az ikh bin an oysnem, ober ikh gleyb, az an ernste un gut informirte farbindung mitn yidish-over ken shtark baraykhern di yidishe identitet fun hayntike yunge yidn, un az hayntike yunge yidn kenen baraykhern di yidish-kultur. Yene "toyte" kultur hot azoy fil tsu gebn, lomir take vayter lernen vi di frierdike doyres hobn geredt, un take tsugebn undzere verter vi "shney-kishele" un "stereo." Ot di naye verter farbindn undz mit der shaferishkayt un dos shtendike banayen zikh, vos yidish un yidn shteln mit zikh for, un dertsu helfn zey undz zikh oystsulebn mit der raykhkayt fun der amerikaner kultur--vi yidn. Brukhe Lang Caplan I read Janet Hadda's article, "Yiddish in Today's America," with much interest: thank you for reprinting it on Mendele! I do not want to argue with the facts that Hadda discusses: it is clear that the state of Yiddish is very different than it was forty years ago, and it is clear that the circumstances in which Yiddish became a language of high culture no longer exist. If one wants to use the word "die," fine, it is certainly one way of looking at the facts. The "death" of Yiddish is all the clearer for Hadda since no real continuity exists: only nostalgia and highly Americanized cultural symbols. It seems to me, however, that today there exists another kind of continuity, a new transformation of Yiddish culture. We young Jews, who never knew the high point of Yiddish culture, can draw on the rich heritage of that culture in forming a bone fide, modern Jewish identity. This consists not merely bagels and klezmer music, but of the Yiddish language itself in its historical and cultural context. Why should we mourn for something we never knew? On the contrary, we can explore its treasures and reclaim them for our generation. I'd like to illustrate this possibility with my own life. I encountered Yiddish scarcely ten years ago when I was already twenty years old. At home nobody speaks Yiddish, and growing up in Cambridge, England, even bagels and klezmer music were almost unheard of. I came upon Yiddish in Oxford, where I was studying German and French; I took the Yiddish summer program there for fun, and a world opened up before me. I enjoyed reading German literature very much, but with Yiddish texts I felt at home. A few years later, my growing interest in Yiddish brought me to New York where I'm now studying for a Ph.D. in Yiddish Studies at Columbia University. Meanwhile I have become active in the Yiddish youth organization, Yugntruf; I teach at Pripetshik, a Sunday school for Yiddish-speaking children; and I recently got married to a fellow student who has learned Yiddish as an adult, and we speak Yiddish to each other. For me, Yiddish is truly a living language. And that which I intuited at the outset--that Yiddish and yiddishkeit are strongly connected--I understand better and better: knowing Yiddish has certainly strengthened the "pintele yid" in me, my Jewish essence. I am sad that I did not know Yiddish culture at its height, but I don't mourn for it. On the contrary, everything that has to do with Yiddish that I have taken into my life is a gain, and every time I find a hint of what was--an old Yiddish letter, or an older person whose first language was Yiddish--I am delighted with the connection to the world that I never knew. The so-called "death" of Yiddish was a fact for me from the very beginning. It did not occur to me that I should mourn: I got down to the work of discovering and recovering the richness that is Yiddish culture. I know that I am an exception, but I believe that a serious and well-informed connection with the Yiddish past can really enrich the Jewish identity of today's young Jews, and that today's young Jews can enrich Yiddish culture. This "dead" culture has so much to give, let us indeed continue to teach what previous generations said and add our new words, such as "marshmallow" and "stereo." These new words connect us with the creativity and the unceasing renewal that Yiddish and the Jewish people represent, and in addition they help us to live out our lives in the richness of American culture--as Jews. Brukhe Lang Caplan 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 10:12:46 -0400 (EDT) From: miriam isaacs Subject: death of Yiddish On the death of Yiddish, I keep meaning to write about it and I collect all kinds of references to it, but for a dead language it keeps me so busy being alive that I don't have time to consider its death much. I speak it daily, teach it, write in it, sing in it. And if it is dead then it is haunting me. But, in reality, language cannot die because they are not alive. They exist only in people's use of them. And one can only mourn people, not their failure to use a given language. Perhaps what we are really mourning, where mourning is real is the terrible losses of those who lived and wrote in Yiddish as a result of Hitler. This is all in reaction to Janet Hadda's remarks, which I believe miss the mark in part because it deals with personification of a language. I don't know that the field of psychology has dealt at all with human reactions to the loss of their culture, but I believe that is what is really at issue. Miriam Isaacs ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 09.006 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://metalab.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html