Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 11.003 May 29, 2001 1) Corob Fellowship in Yiddish Studies (Joan Sinclair) 2) Library Director position (Uzi Adini) 3) kharedi Yiddish literature (Yankev Lewis) 4) Yiddish and microfilm (Adam Levitin) 5) Musicians' Raft: Between New York and Sejny (Michael Steinlauf) 6) Chave Rosenfarb (Marjorie/Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan) 7) 2001 Canadian Jewish Book Awards (Bernard Katz) 8) Lambori for Labori (Michael Schein) 9) Lambori for Labori (Berish Goldshteyn) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 11:41:39 +0100 From: Joan B Sinclair Subject: Corob Fellowship in Yiddish Studies OXFORD CENTRE FOR HEBREW AND JEWISH STUDIES AND UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD COROB FELLOWSHIP IN YIDDISH STUDIES Applications are invited for the Corob Fellowship in Yiddish Studies at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, the appointment to start in October 2001 or as soon as possible thereafter. The appointment may be made in any area of Yiddish Studies, but suitable candidates must have an excellent command of the Yiddish language and a thorough grounding in Yiddish literature and culture. In addition to pursuing research in his or her areas of scholarly interest, the successful candidate will be expected to offer undergraduate and postgraduate tuition, including teaching a course for the Diploma in Jewish Studies, and to supervise doctoral students. He or she will also be expected to assume an active role within the Centre and the University and undertake such administrative duties as are required. The postholder will be a member of the Oxford University Teaching and Research Unit in Hebrew and Jewish Studies, initially with the title of Visiting Lecturer and eligible in due course to be considered for the title of University Research Lecturer. Scholars of all ranks will be considered for this position. The appointment will be made for an initial 5-year period, renewable after review. Salary will be on the University Lecturer scale GBP19,461 to GBP34,347 per annum plus benefits, depending on age and experience. Applications including 3 copies of a curriculum vitae should be submitted to: Joan Sinclair Fellowships & Visitors Co-ordinator Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies Yarnton Manor Oxford, OX5 1PY ENGLAND Direct telephone line (answerphone) & fax: +44-1865-370830 Applicants should also ensure that letters of recommendation from 3 referees are sent directly to the above address. Review of applications will begin on 31 May 2001 and will continue until the post is filled. The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and the University of Oxford are equal opportunities employers. Joan Sinclair 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 11:24:38 -0400 (EDT) From: "Uzi Adini" Subject: Library Director position Library Director for a specialized college of Jewish studies, with resources of 100,000 books and periodicals. Three years of administrative experience desirable, MLS required, and strong background in Judaica, with emphasis on Hebrew and/or Yiddish. Computer and communication skills are essential. Library serves students of all ages. Send Resume and salary requirements to Anita Coleman, Gratz College, 7605 Old York Road, Melrose Park, PA 19027, fax 215-635-1046, or e-mail acoleman@gratz.edu. No phone calls, please. Uziel Adini Melrose Park, PA 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 11:50:49 -0400 (EDT) From: Justin Lewis / Jane Enkin Subject: kharedi Yiddish lit In light of the ongoing discussions about Yiddish literature in the Kharedi world, I thought this letter to Der Yid (April 27 2001) might be of interest. (It also touches on a research question of mine: trying to get a sense of the status/prestige of Hasidic stories in Hasidic communities today. I'll be grateful for any feedback on that question.) Yankev Lewis The author of the letter is Shmuel Segal Roth of Brooklyn. It appears on p. 6 of the April 27 _Der Yid_. I'll use a YIVO transliteration following the spelling in the original. Di Yidishe Shprakh Kosher't Nisht Yede Bikh"l Tayerer redaktor un redaktsye fun unzer libe vokhnshrift "Der Yid", he"y [Hashem aleyhem, yikhyu (?)] Ikh bet aykh git mir di gelegnheyt oystsudrukn mayn meynung vegn a gor vikhtige zakh vos es zet mir oys az s'vert alts mer un mer arayngegesn baym oylem un m'khapt zikh aleyn nisht. Azoy vi di tekhnik fun druk hot zikh in di letste yorn gor shtark antviklt, un tsu drukn a bikhl iz shoyn haynt nisht farbundn mit groyse shverigkeytn, iz di market farfleytst gevorn mit farshidene bikhlekh oyf di idishe shprakh. Ober nisht yeder ken farfasn a bikhl mit a rikhtige idishe historishe inhalt, to vos tut men? M'nemt goy'ishe bikhlekh, m'zetst zey iber oyf di idishe sprakh, un es vert "a idishe mayse bikhl". Oder nemt men bikhlekh vos tsionishtishe shrayber hobn farfast oyf di hebreishe shprakh, un m'zetst zey iber oyf idish. Kedey tsu kosher'n di bikhlekh varft men arayn a por psukim, vi lemoshl "mo rabu maasekho H'", oder "Ezri meyim H'" u. a. v. [un azoy vayter]. Un m'ken shoyn tsushraybn az s'git arayn "idishkeyt", in di tsayt vos dos bikhl iz ful mit hoyle fantazyes, anthalt nisht keyn shum historishe geshikhte, un es iz geherig bitl zman. Meyle ven a meydl leynt es, iz oykh a sofek tsi s'iz ratzam, ober ven a bokher leynt es, darf er visn az dos iz geherig bitl toyre un bitl zman. Un vi an amoyre hot geentfert far eynem vos hot im gefregt tsi m'meg lernen khokhmes yevonis -- tsey uvdok bizman shehu loy yoym veloy loylo, vayl der tog mit di nakht darf zayn gevidmet far limed hatoyre, vi es shteyt "v'hogiso boy yoymom volaylo". Derfar darf men visn, az dos vos dos bikhl gefint zikh in a idishe sforim gesheft, meynt nokh nisht az dos bikhl iz a "seyfer", es iz nokh alts bloyz a bikh"l, un dos tor nisht geleynt vern in di tsayt vos darf zayn gevidment far limed hatoyre. Oyb m'vil dafke zikh opruen abisl dem moyekh, zenen faran fil mayse bikhlekh fun tsadikim, biografyes fun tsadikim, velkhe anthaltn mayses vos m'hot mekabl geven ish mipi ish, velkhe brengen arayn in mentsh emunes tsadikim, emune un bitokhn baH', mides toyves vekhu' [vekhule]. Bikhlekh mit a visnshaftlikhn inhalt, vu m'ken zikh aynkoyfn yedies, u. a. v. [un azoy vayter]. Un nisht mayses mit hoyle fantazyes, vos der leyener hot keyn toyeles derfun. Mit dank foroys far opdrukn dos brivl ayer lang-yoriger leyener Shmuel Seg"l Roth, Bruklin 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 May 2001 23:57:07 -0400 (EDT) From: ajl43@columbia.edu (Adam J. Levitin) Subject: Yiddish and microfilm Sholem Berger's posting is of appropriate concern to all those who have occasion to consult American Yiddish newspapers for their work. I have read through a great many issues of the Forverts from 1897 (when the microfilms at the YIVO begin) through 1915, and while the majority of the texts are excellently microfilmed, there are plenty of errors and even missing pages. (For example, whoever did the microfilming did not think that advertisements would be of any scholarly interest and therefore often didn't bother microfilming pages that had only advertisements.) I have often found myself wishing that I had an original paper copy to consult. While microfilm does have the advantage of easy photocopying (direct from the machine), reading it is a tremendous strain on the eyes. Even with magnification, I frequently find it quite difficult to read the smaller print articles. Similarly, while the reprints offered through the National Yiddish Book Center are a wonderful service, there is a definite decline in the quality of printing from original texts to the reprints, and errors do occur in the reprinting process (e.g., in pagination). Moreover, the covers and binding of the original works, themselves sometimes of great interest, are not conveyed in the paperback reprints. It should also be noted that certain works, such as those of Bashevis and Grade, are not available in reprints because of copyright issues. I fear that it is largely too late to do much about the microfilming situation for the American Yiddish press--it hardly seems practical for any institution to store thousands of paper copies of rarely consulted American Yiddish newspapers. For all of its problems, microfilming may still be the best way to go. Adam Levitin New York, NY 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 14:59:03 -0400 (EDT) From: "Michael Steinlauf" Subject: Musicians' Raft: Between New York and Sejny The Musicians' Raft: Between New York and Sejny For the better part of a millenium, Yiddish culture flourished in the Ashkenazi Jewish communities of East Central Europe, above all in the shtetl, the small town set amidst regions of multiple religions and nationalities. Thanks to centuries of reciprocal influence and dialogue, the culture of these borderlands blended their varied elements into a whole. Yiddish culture was a strong and permanent part of this whole. The Shoah put an end to Yiddish culture in this part of Europe. This, at least, was how it seemed. I. B. Singer, in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, referred to Yiddish as a disappearing language, a language that belonged only to the past. At the time, he already lived in New York, having participated in yet another Jewish exodus, this time across the Atlantic Ocean. Singer was accompanied in this migration by many other Jewish writers, musicians, actors, and artists who still retained East Central European traditions in their hearts. In America they continued to develop klezmer music or Yiddish theater, blending them with jazz and Tin Pan Alley, vaudeville and Broadway. For these artists too the Shoah appeared to be a decisive break, after which Yiddish culture seemed to vanish forever. And yet...In various places in the world in recent years the Yiddish language began to revive. Courses, summer programs, university departments devoted to Yiddish began to enjoy increasing popularity. Above all there has been an extraordinary renaissance of klezmer music. Its capital is now New York, where in neighborhoods such as the East Village or Brighton Beach, sparks of East Central European Jewish spirituality now flare. This renaissance, whose creators have been above all third and fourth generation descendants of Jewish immigrants to America, then began to attract the interest of East Central Europeans. Similarly to Israeli participants in the March of the Living, representatives of the Ashkenazi tradition from New York and other corners of the world started to arrive in East Central Europe. Just like their Israeli counterparts, they pilgrimaged to Auschwitz and other sites of Jewish martyrdom. But not only. They traveled to the Carpathians, to Krakow, Prague and Vilnius, to Bukowina and Polesia, to Siedmiogrod and Maramures, to the Balkans, wherever they hoped to discover traces of the old Jewish culture. Sometimes they met Gypsies who still remembered the music they used to play with Jewish musicians at weddings. Sometimes they met surviving Yiddish writers or musicians, proving that Singer was not the last of their kind. Elsewhere they met those who remembered their grandparents, could show them where a family house still remained, or a spot in the Jewish cemetery. Sometimes they encountered vulgar antisemitic scrawls on a wall, a commentary of prejudice and hatred, contempt for the dead and for memory, propaganda for oblivion. Travellers from New York and other parts of the world also came to Sejny, a small town of the borderlands once populated by Jews. How surprised they were, when within the walls of its old synagogue they heard the sound of klezmer music performed by very young people. Only recently these musicians had been students at the secondary school in Sejny. Through the Borderlands Center, they began to learn about the multicultural past of their region, including its Yiddish culture. The next step had been working on a production of The Dybbuk and researching the music connected to Anski's dramatic world. Later came meetings with musicians at the annual Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow, tapes and cd's sent from New York, workshops with klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer, travels in East Central Europe to people who still remembered, and through songs, stories and instrumental music could still express and transmit their memories. That is how New York and Sejny met. Though these are actual places, they also stand for numerous other places on both sides of the ocean where similar dialogue is occurring. We are witnessing the rediscovery of routes which had seemed permanently lost because of the awful history of our times. A new meeting emerges, beyond broken links, tragic conflicts, severed roots, and ruined memory. Most important, this meeting takes place in a living cultural context, not at all limited to the past, a context in which we encounter modernity and pose the most essential questions for today and tomorrow. We are aware that this is only a beginning, that much more remains to be done to keep the routes open, to have them truly affect the world around us. This is why we have initiated the Musicians' Raft. May it ride the waves between New York and Sejny. May it lead the way to the remaining traces of Yiddish culture in East Central Europe. May it lead to contact with those in Vilnius, Grodno, Czernowitz who have preserved the Yiddish language, Jewish music and song. May it renew the links among people of various religions and nationalities. May it lead young people in places where Yiddish culture was once part of a common heritage to a meeting with those "others" who have long only revealed themselves in silence and ruins. June 17-27, 2001 the Klezmer Ensemble of Sejny Theater will host a gathering of young musicians from East Central Europe along with some of the most outstanding klezmer musicians from the United States. The idea for the Musicians' Raft was born out of our contact with David Krakauer at the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow organized by Janusz Makuch. David then came to Sejny and organized workshops for our ensemble. We also traveled together to meet Jews in Kaunas (Kowno). Last year we decided to expand the scope of our meetings and invite others to share in our adventure. We would like this year's workshops to be a creative artistic quest: to draw on the varied musical traditions which participants represent in order to discover new sounds, to inspire the creation of new music rooted in the sensibility of youth. May our Musicians' Raft ride the waves between the old world and the new, tradition and modernity, one generation and another. Music workshops will be led by: Acclaimed clarinetist David Krakauer, founding member of the Klezmatics and the Kronos Quartet, currently leader of the band Klezmer Madness. Celebrated violinist, singer, and connoisseur of Jewish folkways Michael Alpert, member of the band Brave Old World. Eminent bass and cymbal player Stuart Brotman, member of the band Brave Old World. Celebrated violinist and singer Deborah Strauss, a mainstay of the international klezmer renaissance, most recently performing with Jeff Warschauer. Jeff Warshauer, internationally-known mandolin, banjo and guitar player, currently performing with Deborah Strauss. Participants will include young musicians from Belarus, Ukraine, Rumania, Moldavia, Hungary, Bosnia, and Yugoslavia. A series of lectures, readings and discussions on Jewish culture in Eastern Europe, led by Professor Michael Steinlauf of Gratz College in Philadelphia, will constitute an additional part of the program. In collaboration with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, there will be an exhibition of rare prewar photographs of Jewish Eastern Europe taken by photographer, music critic, singer and ethnographer Menachem Kipnis. There will also be showings of prewar Yiddish films. An important part of the program will be trips to Lithuania and Belarus to meet with Jews who still know Yiddish and remember traditional Jewish music and customs. A special guest of the program will be Josef Burg, a Yiddish writer from Czernowitz whose volume of stories entitled Okruchy (Remnants) will appear in the Meridian series published by Pogranicze Publishers. The program will conclude on June 27 with a special concert at the White Synagogue in Sejny, to which we invite all those who sympathize with our ideas. Workshops will be closed, available to a limited number of participants only. Food and housing will be available without cost to all participants. The costs of travel are the responsibility of participants. The project is directed by Malgorzata Sporek-Czyzewska and Wojciech Szroeder on behalf of the Borderlands Center of Arts, Cultures, and Nationalities and the Borderlands Foundation. For further information, please contact us at , tel./fax 48 87 565 03 69. Michael Steinlauf 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 06:01:19 -0400 (EDT) From: Marjorie Hirshan Subject: Chave Rosenfarb Orchids, amaranths, and a blessing on their head to Syracuse University Press. Can anyone name for us the prime mover whose new happy selection of _Menachem Mendl_ follows Chave Rosenfarb's awesome two-volume set, _Bociany_ and _Of Lodz and Love_? The Literary Translation Association of Canada (LTAC) has named Chave Rosenfarb (a Manger Prize winner) the winner of their prize for her translations of _Bociany_ and _Of Lodz and Love_ (Syracuse University 2000, ISBN 0-8156-0577-3) And how wise they were. _Bociany_ is awesome - deep and fresh and true - a masterpiece. Her translation retains the Yiddish flavor, rich with our idioms, and her engaging characters make your heart their new permanent home. They remain at my side throughout the day. _Of Lodz and Love_ continues the exciting story of Binele whom you shall embrace into your family. Pre-war shtetl life comes alive again, vibrant with richness and poverty. Rosenfarb is intense, touching at essences through her powerful heroes and anti-heroes - life and death, good and evil, faith and doubt, love and its loss, tradition and change. What a fulfilling banquet of ideas - written in wonderful style. Marjorie/Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan Boynton Beach, Florida 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 03:13:37 -0400 (EDT) From: Bernard Katz Subject: 2001 Canadian Jewish Book Awards - 13th Year! Of special interest to Mendelayners is Vivian Felsen's translation from the Yiddish of her grandfather Israel Mendres' "Montreyal fun nekhten" Kaneder Adler, 1947) -- found in the final paragraph of this release. This year, the "bar mitzvah" year of the Canadian Jewish Book Awards, our awards are highlighted by a special double prize for biography or memoir to two icons of Canadian culture. Both prizes have been awarded posthu- mously: the Louis L. Lockshin Award goes to the late renowned novelist Matt Cohen for his autobiographical "Typing: a Life In 26 Keys" (Random House Canada, 2000); and the Koffler Centre Prize has been awarded to the late beloved actor-director Al Waxman, author of "Thats What I Am" (Malcolm Lester, 2000). Highlighting this year's gala presentation evening and celebration of Canadian books with Jewish content is our guest reader Andy Barrie, popular broadcaster and host of the CBC's "Metro Morning" radio program. Mr. Barrie will read selections from each of the winning autobiographies as a tribute to these two great Canadian artists. Prizes in an unprecedented twelve categories are being awarded this year. The Committee had a very challenging, though rewarding, task in choosing the winners from more than fifty books submitted from across Canada - an embarrassment of riches that proclaims the vitality of Jewish writing and scholarship in Canada. The evening's events will take place in the Leah Posluns Theatre, Koffler Centre of the Arts, at the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre, 4588 Bathurst Street (between Shephard and Finch) on Wednesday, June 6, at 7:30 pm. Admission is free and there will be a open reception following the ceremonies with opportunity to purchase books and meet most of the authors. Parking at the BJCC is avaiable free of charge. The Beatrice and Martin Fischer Fiction Award for a first first novel goes to Michael Kaufman for his inventive and transcendent "The Possibility of Dreaming On a Night without Stars" (Viking, 1999). In History, Erna Paris' internationally acclaimed "Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History" (Knopf Canada, 2000) wins the Dorothy Shoichet Prize; while Franklin Bialystok's significant study, "Delayed Impact: the Holocaust and the Canadian Jewish Community" (McGill-Queens University Press, 2000) garners the Joseph and Fay Tanenbaum Award in Canadian Jewish History. Vancouver's Irene Watts, a previous award winner in this category, wins this year's Isaac Frischwasser Memorial Award in young adult fiction for her engaging "Remember Me" (Tundra Books, 2000). The first winner in a new category, the Laks-Wajsfus Prize in World Jewish Culture, goes to the Beth Tzedec Reuben and and Helene Dennis Museum for their beautifull art book, "Art and Tradition: treasures of Jewish Life", edited by curator Dorion Liebgott (Beth Tzedec Congregation, 2000). Winners in other categories are: Barry Dov Walfish, editor of "Apples of Gold In Settings of Silver" (Pontifical Institute of Mediaevil Studies, 1999), who receives the Penina Rubinoff Memorial Prize for Biblical or Rabbinic Scholarship; Vivian Felsen, translator of the important "Montreal of Yesterday: Jewish Life in montreal, 1900-1920" (Vehicule Press, 2000), who gains the Izzy and Betty Kirshenbaum Foundation Prize for Yiddish Translation; Gitel Donath, author of the touching "My Bones Don't Rest In Auschwitz" (Kaplan Publishing, 2000), winning the Abraham and Fay Bergel Award for Holocaust Memoir; Karen Shenfeld, who receives the Henry Fuerstenberg - Betty and Morris Aaron Memorial Prize for Poetry for her collection "The Law of Return" (Guernica Editions, 2000); Howard Margolian, whose very controversial "Unauthorized Entry: the Truth About War Criminals In Canada, 1946-1956" (University of Toronto Press, 2000) garners the Morris Winemaker Award for Scholarship on a Jewish Theme; and F.C. DeCoste together with fellow editor Bernard Schwartz, who win the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem Prize in Holocaust History for their revealing "The Holocaust's Ghost" (University of Alberta Press, 2000). Bernard Katz 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 19:43:12 -0400 (EDT) From: "Michael M. Schein" Subject: Lambori for Labori As far as I remember, the name of Zola's lawyer Labori [10.055] does appear as "Lambori" in the original of Sholom-Aleichem's "Dreyfus in Kasrilevke". This is an intentional distortion, meant to make a little fun of the Kasrilevke Jews. Their mispronunciation of the name of one the chief players fits in with the whole picture given in the story: of Kasrilevke's private version of the Dreyfus affair, quite separate from the happenings in Paris. Michael Schein 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 10:31:00 -0400 (EDT) From: Barry Goldstein Subject: Lambori for Labori Not to continue to beat a dead lawyer [10.055], nor to be overly defensive about my transcription, but it was Sholem Aleykhem's own joke to call the man "Lambori". s'shteyt punkt azoy inem tekst dray mol -- tsvey von zey in gendzn-fislekh. berish goldshteyn ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 11.003 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net http://ibiblio.org/yiddish/mendele.html