Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 09.036 October 24, 1999 1) Old Yiddish and Judeo-Deutsch (Cheryl Tallan) 2) I.B. Singer (Fred Sherman) 3) recent history of Yiddish newspapers (Steve Jacobson) 4) New Publication: Yiddish in the Contemporary World (David Brown) 5) "Voyages", film by Emmanuel Finkiel (Estelle Souche) 6) word on a jar (Gilad J. Gevaryahu) 7) word on a jar (Perets Mett) 8) Word on a jar (Arnie Kuzmack) 9) Word on a jar (Paul Pascal) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 13:12:49 -0400 (EDT) From: Cheryl Tallan Subject: Old Yiddish and Judeo-Deutsch Can anyone tell me what are the differences (if any) between Old Yiddish and Judeo-Deutsch. Are the differences in time, place, form of the language, or predilection of the person naming the language used? I am working with some writings by women in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, mostly in Germany, but some in Bohemia. Most people who have looked at them state that they are written in Judeo-Deutsch. I wonder what the experts on MENDELE would call the language used? Cheryl Tallan 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 14:27:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Fred Sherman Subject: I.B. Singer Many thanks for Golde Gross' response to attacks on I.B. Singer (The Mendele Review Vol. 03.017). As a casual reader of Singer, I think there is little to fear from his critics. If you took a survey of reactions to his name, "What a wonderful writer" would far outnumber those comments about craziness, woman-hating, etc. The delicious irony is that the instrument of his detractors is psychoanalysis. Now you're really talkin' crazy, woman-hating, primitive and bewildering. Fred Sherman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 23:39:30 -0400 (EDT) From: JACOBSON STEVEN A Subject: recent history of Yiddish newspapers Does anyone know of an article or book, popular or scholarly, that deals with the history of Yiddish newspapers around the world, especially in recent times? I know that in recent decades once thriving Yiddish papers have closed down on all continents, but I'd be curious to know how many papers there were at various different times, in various places, with how large circulations, and with what political/religious orientations. A few years ago I received "Global Yiddish" which had a nice listing of Yiddish periodicals worldwide, but not too many details. I wonder too whether orthodox (or ultra-orthodox) papers are published anywhere but in the US where I know of at least four, plus small local Yiddish papers in Kiryas Joel and in Monsey. It would seem hard to believe that no such Yiddish papers exist in Israel or elsewhere outside of New York state. Thanks in advance for information or recommendations of where to look, Steve Jacobson 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 18:04:28 -0400 (EDT) From: David Brown Book Company Subject: New Publication: Yiddish in the Contemporary World TITLE: Yiddish in the Contemporary World:Papers of the first Mendel Friedman International Conference on Yiddish EDITORS: Gennady Estraikh and Mikhail Krutikov DESCRIPTION: In August 1908, a few prominent Jews - socialists, liberals, non-political writers and cultural organizers - came together in the town of Czernowitz, then in Austria-Hungary. At this historic meeting they worked out a programme for promoting Yiddish as the official language of Ashkenazic Jews. Ninety years later, the Univeristy of Oxford European Humanities Research Centre and the Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies organized 'Yiddish in the Contemporary World' (19-21 April 1998) to celebrate the anniversary of the Czernowitz Conference and to review academic work in universities in Europe, Israel and North America. Leading scholars came to Oxford to present their research, collected here to provide a remarkable panoramic view of Yiddish at the end of the twentieth century. This annual international gathering provides ongoing analysis of Yiddish language and culture. FORMAT: Paperback, 155pp ISBN: 1 900755 33 5 PRICE: $49.50 PUBLICATION DATE: 1999 PUBLISHER: Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies and the European Humanities Research Centre US DISTRIBUTOR: The David Brown Book Company PO Box 511, Oakville, CT 06779 Phone: 800-791-9354; 860-945-9329; Fax: 860-945-9468 E-mail: david.brown.bk.co@snet.net David Brown 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 12:37:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Estelle Souche Subject: "Voyages", film by Emmanuel Finkiel I would like to recommend the recent French movie "Voyages" ("Travels") to all the Mendelyaner. It is the first film of Emmanuel Finkiel, and was released at the end of September in France. A significant part of its dialogues are in Yiddish (the rest mostly is in French, with a bit of Polish, Russian and Hebrew too). The plot is centered on three elderly Jewish women: Riwka (Shulamit Adam), who visits Poland (and especially the death camps) with a group of French Jews and tries to deal with the painful memories of her murdered family and also with her conflicts with her husband; Regine (Liliane Rovere), who lives in Paris and is contacted by a very elderly man from Lithuania who claims to be her father, while she thought he had been killed in Auschwitz 55 years before, and 85-years-old Vera, who has just emigrated from Russia to Israel, and gets lost in the suburbs of Tel-Aviv while searching her cousin whom she hasn't seen for nearly 30 years... This film received a wide appraisal from the French press, and I found it especially moving and beautiful. Estelle Souche 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 09:30:38 -0400 (EDT) From: Gevaryahu@aol.com Subject: word on a jar-"zangvil" Marc Agronin asks [Mendele Vol 09.032] for the meaning of <> Zangvil is the spice 'ginger' according to Dov Ben-Abba _Hebrew/English English/Hebrew Dictionary_ but it is cinamon according to the _Milon Ivri_ of Yehuda Gur. Even Shushan _Hamilon Hachadash_suggests 'Zingiber' based on the Greek dzingiberi. Gilad J. Gevaryahu 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 11:01:35 -0400 (EDT) From: Percy Mett Subject: word on a jar zangvil is used in Hebrew for the root spice 'ginger'. In Yiddish it is called ingber. Perets Mett 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 21:44:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Linda & Arnie Kuzmack Subject: Word on a jar "zayin-nun-gimel-bet-yud-lamed" is zangwill, or ginger. Gut shabes to all, Arnie Kuzmack 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 00:20:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Rohn/Pascal Subject: Word on a jar Regarding the query about the inscription on the jar from Hungary: zayin-nun-giml-beyz-yud-lamed (and I'm not sure how a lamed can be "lamed sofit", as the questioner put it), it looks to me like a Hebrew (not Yiddish) spelling of the name "Zangvil", sometimes rendered "Zangwill", a well-known surname and given name. The beyz is a veyz, hence the V sound. The name is a form of "Samuel". Paul Pascal Toronto ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 09.036 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