Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 09.065 February 20, 2000 1) Learn about the Yiddish Theater on-line (Caraid O'Brien) 2) An-Sky's Expedition (Naomi Fatouros) 3) An-ski collection (Zachary Baker) 4) An-ski's expedition (Gilles Rozier) 5) An-sky's 1913 Ethnographic Expedition (Harold L. Orbach) 6) An-sky's expedition and Bratslav bibliography (David Assaf) [Moderator's note] 7) Azay neyt a shnayder (Bernard Kouchel) 8) Yiddish idioms (Larry Rosenwald / Naomi Ribner) 9) ashlekh, patelnye (Itsik Goldenberg) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 03 Feb 2000 15:45:07 -0500 From: "Caraid O'Brien" Subject: Learn about the Yiddish Theater on-line Ladies and Gentlemen, Patriotn un Patriotkes, We are delighted to announce the release of 2nd Avenue On-line: The Yiddish Theater Digital Archive Project at New York University. By visiting our website at www.yap.cat.nyu.edu - you can read histories of the Yiddish theater, hear oral histories, read scripts in Yiddish and English, see photographs and listen to music. Before the explosion of downtown basement theaters hit the lower east side, the Yiddish theaters ruled the neighborhood, with theaters of 3000 seats and more. The movie theater on Second Avenue and 12th Street is the former home of Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theater - the longest running repertory theater in New York City's history. Actors Joseph Buloff, Stella Adler, Paul Muni, Rudolph Schildraut, Jacob Ben-Ami, lighting designers Abe Feder (the Empire State Building), set designers Sam Leve (Citizen Kane) and Boris Aronson are just a few of the greats who learned their trade on the Yiddish stage before transforming English language theater with their talent. The history of the Yiddish theater - begun in the late 1800s, by Boris Thomashefsky (the grandfather of Michael Tilson Thomas) whose first venue was Turn Hall (the present home of La MaMa)- is a particularly glorious chapter in the history of American Theater. It's impact on our culture (hello Jerry Lewis, Danny Kay, Jerry Seinfeld, Lenny Bruce, The Three Stooges, ah the modern Broadway musical) has yet to be properly recognized and its influence continues up to the present day. (Leonard Nimoy acted in Yiddish with Maurice Schwartz, Yiddish actor manager Herman Yablokoff was the first to mike actors on stage) Please send us your comments and suggestions when you have a chance to look through the site. Visit www.yap.cat.nyu.edu and remember we update our site daily so tell us what you want to see. A Shaynem Dank. Sincerely yours, Caraid O'Brien 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 09:10:01 EST From: NFatouros@aol.com Subject: An-Sky's Expedition I envy Mr. Shulman, not only because he found a book called "Yiddishe Etnografiye un falklor" but also because, by only glancing through it, he was able to read enough to tell what it was about (09.060). Not being able to read Yiddish (unless its transliterated as it is this mail group), I probably wouldn't have borrowed this book from the library at Indiana University even if I had found a copy there. But a few months ago I did borrow a copy of a large, illustrated paperback book entitled "Tracing Ansky" from I.U.'s library and found it so fascinating that I tried, so far unsuccessfully, to find a copy to buy. No online used bookstore had a copy and I was told it was out of print. Someone from another Jewish mail group wrote me privately to tell me that he had a copy which he purchased from the Amsterdam Jewish Museum, which had held an exhibition about the An-sky collection. The book was I was unable to find for purchase was: "Tracing An-Sky; Jewish Collections from the State Ethnographic Museum in St.Petersburg." The title page says "Waanders Uigevers, Swolle, Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam, State Ethnographic Museum, St. Petersburg. The catalogue was "made possible by a generous contributioin from the Schussheim Foundation , Haifa, Israel." The ISBN is 0-6630-454-9 (There is also another library number printed in the back of the book: NUGH 641-639. The copyright is 1992, but again reverting to the obverse of the title page, there are the dates 1992-1994.) It suddenly occurred to me one day to write to the gift shop of Jewish Museum in New York about the book. At first I was told they did have it and would send it, but soon I got another email saying they had been mistaken and didn't have that book, but I was offered another, well-illustrated book on An-sky's collection, (greatly reduced in price) which I eventually received: Vasilii Rakitin and Andrei Sarabianov, Eds., "Semyon An-sky 'The Jewish Artistic Heritage: An Album,' "RA" Moscow, 1994, ISBN 5-85164-024-3 (With an introduction entitled "Aladdin's Lamp" by Abram Efros and text by Alexander Kantsedikas.) Mr. Shulman asked: "Does anyone know what happened to this wealth of material? Does it still exist? Is access to it possible? Can any of it be recovered?" Although some of of An-sky's collection may have been lost, and parts scattered, much of it is in the State Ethnographic Museum in Peterburg. A collection of "lubki" (folk paintings) on the "Legend of Joseph" is or was in the Berlin Museum which published a brochure about them in1937. The Jewish Museum in London has a copy of an An-sky-collected ketubah. Some of his xletters and other memorabilia are at YIVO and some can be found in the archives of Moscow, Kiev, and Petersburg. Some of the pinkassim or their fragments in An-sky's collection are in the collections of Peterburg and the Institute of Manuscripts in the Central Science Library of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. >From the book I had to return to I.U.'s library, I vaguely and perhaps mistakenly recall that some of the collection had been sent to Odessa (the Moykher Seforim Museum) or removed from Odessa to Germany. The notes to the illustrations in the Rakitin-Sarabianov book trace much of the history of the collection, but I think the book I had to return gave a better idea of its fate. Naomi Fatouros 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 13:23:05 -0500 (EST) From: Zachary Baker Subject: An-ski collection Yaacov Dovid Shulman asks, regarding materials collected on the Sh. An-ski's ethnographic expedition: Does anyone know what happened to this wealth of material? Does it still exist? Is access to it possible? Can any of it be recovered? The answer, as far can be ascertained, is that much of this material _does_ still exist, and access to it is theoretically possible (though I am not in a position to gauge the practicalities of access). Some of the An-ski expedition material is in St. Petersburg, at the State Ethnographic Museum, and was exhibited during the first half of the 1990s in Amsterdam, Cologne, Frankfurt, Jerusalem and New York. See the following publications: (1) Semyon An-sky: The Jewish Artistic Heritage; an album. Moscow: RA, 1994. (In English.) (2) Tracing An-sky : Jewish collections from the State Ethnographic Museum in St Petersburg. Editors: Mariella Beukers & Rene Waale. Zwolle : Waanders Uitgevers ; Amsterdam : Joods Historisch Museum ; St Petersburg : State Ethnographic Museum, 1992. (In English.) Additional material -- documentary collections (e.g., pinkasim, other manuscripts) above all -- are at the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, in Kiev. The most astounding discovery there is the collection of over 1,000 wax cylinder field recordings made by An-ski before World War I and by the ethnomusicologist Moyshe Beregovski during the Soviet period. (The Beregovski recordings were obviously not done under the aegis of the An-ski expedition but are similar in content.) The Vernadsky Library has been gradually transferring these recordings to CD, but I am not aware of the current status of this project. Zachary M. Baker Stanford, CA 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 11:52:12 -0500 (EST) From: Gilles Rozier Subject: An-ski's expedition In answer to Yaacov Dovid Shulman's question about An-ski's expedition : the history of the material after An-ski gathered it is a long one. Most of the material is at the State Ethnographic Museum of St Petersbourg. An exhibition was organized in 1992-1994, and it went though a few countries : Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam, Juedisches Museum in Frankfurt, Israel Museum in Jerusalem (I saw it there) and Jewish Museum in New York. You will find more details in the catalog of the exhibition : "Tracing An-Ski: Jewish Collections from the State Ethnographic Museum in St Petersbourg", 1992-1994, Zwolle/Amsterdam/St Petersbourg, or in Kantsedikas, Alexander, "Semyon An-sky: The Jewish Artistic Heritage, an album", RA, Moscow, 1994. Gilles Rozier 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2000 16:29:25 -0500 (EST) From: Harold L Orbach Subject: An-sky's 1913 Ethnographic Expedition Y.D. Shulman asks in Mendele 9.60 about the fate of Shlomo An-Sky's study of Jewish life in the Jewish Pale in 1913. The material is in the collections of the State Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg. An exhibition entitled "Jewish Life in Tsarist Russia: A World Rediscovered," was mounted October 9, 1994 to March 5, 1995 at the Jewish Museum in New York with over 300 hundred objects and 46 photos. I saw this marvelous exhibition and believe I mentioned it in a post to Mendele in December 1994. Prof. Dan Miron gave a lecture on "The Literary Image of the East European Shtetl" in connection with the exhibition examining the portrayal of shtetl life by Sholom Aleichem, I.L. Peretz and Mendele and others as related to the themes of the exhibition. The Museum sold a printed a catalog of the exhibition and the Russian book on An-sky's work mentioned by Shulman. Inquiries about accessibility should be directed to the St. Petersburg Museum I would assume. H.L. Orbach Manhattan, Kansas 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 03:40:53 -0500 (EST) From: David Assaf Subject: An-sky's expedition and Bratslav bibliography In reply to Yaakov D. Shulman's query on An-sky's expedition (Vol. 09.060), one can read more about it in the book "Tracing An-sky: Jewish Collections from the State Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg", Amsterdam 1992 (also published in Hebrew: Be-chazarah la-Ayarah [=Back to the Shtetl], Jerusalem 1994). I don't think that any of the remnants of Bratslav that Rechtman mentioned had survived. This is a good opportunity to inform Mendele readers about the publication of my recent book "Bratslav: An Annotated Bibliography", published by Merkaz Shazar for the History of Jewish People: Jerusalem 2000, 320 pp. This friendly multilingual bibliography comprises 1,100 entries on all aspects of Bratslav Hasidism and its context - both the Bratslav writing and the writing on Bratslav. The book includes as well dozens of citations taken from the Yiddish literature and Yiddish Press. For more details see the web site: www.shazar.org.il or contact the publisher: shazar@netmedia.net.il David Assaf [Moderator's note: in addition to the above mentioned Russian, English, and Hebrew editions of the catalog, there is a German version: Leben im russischen Schtetl : Juedische Sammlungen des Staatlichen Ethnographischen Museums in Sankt Petersburg : auf den Spuren von An-Ski. Koeln, Frankfurt am Main : Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum ; Juedisches Museum, 1993. ISBN 398021253X A review of the exhibition can be found in Meir Ronnen, The man between two worlds. Jerusalem Post, March 4, 1994. P.10. - i.v.] 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2000 03:18:33 -0500 (EST) From: "Bernard Kouchel" Subject: Azay neyt a shnayder I recall this Yiddish ditty my father sang. He likely learned it on the job in a Paris hat factory or later at the Barclay Hat Company NYC (c1920). Azay neyt a shnayder, Azay neyt er dokh, Er neyt un neyt a gantsen nakht, Un krigt a fertsiker mit a lokh. Is anyone familiar with the ditty? What exactly is a "fertziker"? Thanks! Bernard Kouchel 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 11:11:44 -0500 (EST) From: lrosenwald@wellesley.edu (Lawrence A. Rosenwald) Subject: a colleague in need of some Yiddish idioms Dear Mendelyaner, A colleague of mine, an artist, posed the following questions - I can answer some of them, but not all, and thought that my colleague would get classier ideas if I posted her queries to the list as a whole. Her name is Naomi Ribner, and you could either post answers on Mendele (in which case I'll forward them to her), or send them to me at lrosenwald@wellesley.edu, or directly to her at nribner@wellesley.edu. Thanks! Larry Rosenwald Query follows: I'm looking for yiddish expressions that refer to each of the ideas listed below (any loosely relevant expressions would be fine; the more superstitious the better, but anything remotely related will be most appreciated). The Yiddish expressions will be worked into the surface of an artwork for an exhibit at the Jewish Community Center called "The Power to Enchant: Amulets, Talismans and Superstition". This particular piece has to do with the custom of placing certain items into a new home before anything else is moved in. Please let me know if you can you think of any expressions related to the following: whatever one might wish someone upon moving to a new home warding off bad luck or the evil eye (other things besides ken eyn hora) or perhaps the opposite...wishing someone good luck (besides your basic mazal tov) that there should be enough to eat (or that you shouldn't go hungry) that you should find happiness or joy (or that you shouldn't be faced with misery) that you should be properous (or that you shouldn't be penniless) anything related to wishing someone sweetness in their life Thanks so much in advance, Naomi Ribner 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 11:39:44 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Goldenberg Subject: ashlekh, patelnye From time to time, in Der forverts, I come across a word that I cannot find either in Weinreich or Harkavy. For example, On Feb 4, there is a recipe for low-fat meat loaf (a klops), and one of the ingredients called-for is "1/4 tepl tsehakte ashlekh." I would guess that ashlekh is some kind of green vegetable, because it is sauted, with the other vegetables listed (onion, carrot, celery, etc.) in "a patelnye." "Patelnye" is not listed in Weinreich but Harkavy directs you to "skavrode," which in both Weinreich and Harkavy is "frying-pan." (One would have predicted this anyway from the context.) I wondered about the origin of "patelnye." I would guess at Russian or Ukrainian, partly because the editor of that section of Der forverts, Nayes far bney-bayis" is Sore-Rukhl Schaechter. Ir tate, oyb ikh makh nisht keyn toes, iz D"r Mortkhe Schaechter, un er shtamt fun Tshernovits, vos ikh meyn itst gehert tsu Ukraine. This exercise shows that it is useful to have both Weinreich and Harkavy, the latter unfortunately out-of-print at present. It is also a reminder of how interesting Der forverts has become since Boris Sandler became Editor. It retains the best of what it featured before, plus a wealth of interesting new features, many directed at newcomers to Yiddish. The quality of the content merits a larger readership. Anyone who can read Yiddish owes it to themselves to become regular readers/subscribers. Even if you are a snail-slow reader, you will see your reading speed and comprehension improve incrementally. Start with the headings and sub-headings of the contents, gradually try to read an article or two in each issue. You will amaze yourself. Itsik Goldenberg ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 09.065 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