Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 11.012 August 7, 2001 1) Info on Leib Fischtein (Tova Fischtein) 2) Janet Hadda's article (Joel Rubin) 3) New English Translation of Gebirtig (Bernard Katz) 4) Alter Esselin's web site (Joe Esselin) 5) Alis in Vunderland (Shoshke-Rayzl Yuni) 6) Romeo & Juliet (Yasminke (Jennifer) Dowling) 7) Death as a musician (Larry Rosenwald) 8) Yiddish plays (Brad Nash) 9) Trilingual database in French, Hebrew and Yiddish (Arieh Lebowitz) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 18:17:16 -0400 From: tova Subject: Info on Leib Fischtein I am looking for information about my father in-law Leib Fischtein. Around 1922-1923 He worked for the Yiddish news paper Folks-Tsaytung in Warsaw. Years later he freelanced to Yiddish news papers in the U.S. mainly in N.Y. If you have any ideas of where I may be able to look for any of his pieces I would be forever grateful. Thank you in advance Tova Fischtein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 04:46:25 -0400 (EDT) From: Joel Rubin/Rita Ottens Subject: Janet Hadda's article Dear Mendele readers, I remember having read recently (I believe, but am no longer sure, on Mendele) of Janet Hadda's publication of her article "Yiddish in today's America" (orig. published in the Jewish Quarterly, no.170, Summer 1998 and re"printed" on Mendele on 13 and 20 May, 1999) being referred to as a "defection" (presumably from the cause of Yiddishism?). Can someone please point me to the proper citation? A more general question: Is it possible to do full text searches of back issues of Mendele, or only of the subject headings? If so, how? Thanks, Joel Rubin [Moderator's note: The Mendele discussion in question is mentioned by Sholem Berger in his review of Joshua Fishman's article "A Decade in the Life of a Two-in-One Language: Yiddish in New York City (Secular and Ultra-Orthodox)" in TMR Vol 05.006. The full quote from the Fishman's article is following: May 1999: A cause-sensationelle was the 'desertion' of Janet Hadda, a well known and highly regarded Yiddish professor (at UCLA), writer, translator and literary critic. She published her doubts about the future of Yiddish in America (and her psychoanalytic interpretation of the unwillingness of admirers of the language to accept the death thereof) in JQ (Jewish Quarterly, one of the very best Anglo-Jewish literary and cultural journals today). Her article was then carried in toto in Mendele, the main Yiddish-interest e-mail bulletin board, together with the moderator's rejection of Hadda's theses, and then Hadda's response to that rejection. Thereafter for many days, Mendele was practically monopolised by reader critiques of (and far more rarely, agreements with) Hadda's point of view, methodology and data. What made the situation even more poignant was the fact that similar noteworthy desertions had occurred in previous years (most visibly, that of Professor Ruth Wisse, at Harvard). Several of New York's most visible 'Mendelyaner' participated in the e-mail storm. From "Can threatened languages be saved? : reversing language shift, revisited: a 21st century perspective / edited by Joshua A. Fishman. Clevedon, UK : Multilingual Matters, 2001. p.80 On the second question: the full text search of the Mendele archives is temporarily unavailable due to the software replacement on the server. Iosif Vaisman ] 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2001 01:01:36 -0400 (EDT) From: Bernard Katz Subject: New English Translation of Gebirtig I would like to bring Mendleyvers' attention to a just-published book of new translations of 88 Mordekhay Gebirtig Yiddish poems and song lyrics. The translator is Simcha Simchovich, no doubt well known to many members as an award winning Yiddish poet and writer. He has also provided a 15 p. introduction to Gebiritg and his poetry, which includes bibliographical details about Gebirtig's publications. Most of the poems & lyrics were originally published in: Folkstimlekh (Cracow, 1920), Mayne Lider (Vilna, 1936), and S'Brent (Cracow, 1946). The publication details are: The Song That Never Died; The Poetry of Mordecai Gebirtig. Translation and introduction, by Simcha Simchovich. Oakville, Ont.: Mosiac Press, 2001. (vi), xv, 154 p. ISBN: 0889627487 ($14 USD, $19 CND). Mosaic Press may be reached at: mosaicpress@on.aibn.com and I hasten to add that I have no commercial interest in this book or its publisher! Bernard Katz 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 10:28:14 -0400 (EDT) From: "josephesselin" Subject: Alter Esselin's web site The web site I created devoted to the Yiddish poet Alter Esselin (my father) was not available for two months (malfunctioning of the server operation) It is NOW back in business (http://www.esselin.com)! Understandably, nobody is accessing it right now because people got tired of being told it is not available. I would very much appreciate your sending the word that it is back in business, Joe Esselin 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 23:37:23 -0400 (EDT) From: "Susannah R. Juni" Subject: Alis in Vunderland In response to Edward Cherlin [11.010]: Se shteyt inem dokument vos me hot oybn dermont az di iberzetsung iz fun Sholem Berger, nisht Refoyl Finkel, khotsh beyde arbetn tsu shafn "Der Bavebter Yid," der internets-zhurnal vos hot zi aroysgegebn. Sholem Berger iz oyket der redaktor fun zhurnal. It is stated in the above referenced document that the translation is by Sholem Berger, not Refoyl Finkel, although both of these people work on creating "Der Bavebter Yid," the online Yiddish journal which published it. Sholem Berger is also the editor of the journal. Shoshke-Rayzl Yuni (Susannah R. Juni) NYC 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 01:44:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Jennifer Dowling Subject: Romeo & Juliet In response to Itsik Goldenberg [11.011]: Funnily enough, someone gave me a copy of _The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish_ (Rabbi Benjamin Blech, Alpha Books: Indianapolis, 2000) and on pages 259-260 is a transcription of that dialogue in Yiddish. Yasminke (Jennifer) Dowling Sydney, Australia 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 11:49:51 -0400 (EDT) From: "Lawrence A. Rosenwald" Subject: Death as a musician Yael Chaver asked about the figure of Death personified as a musician in a poem by Rikuda Potash [11.011]. Not sure about its antecedents, but whatever they are, they're probably at work in the wonderful last couplet of Anna Margolin's "Mari un der toyt": un foroys iz gegangen farbenkterheyt der yingling toyt mit der tunkeler fleyt. ("And the boy named Death went in front, longingly, with his dark flute.") Good luck, and I"d love to hear the results of your search! Best, Larry Rosenwald 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 08:56:34 -0400 (EDT) From: bnash@law.harvard.edu Subject: Yiddish plays My grandfather, born in Horodishtsh, White Russia, in 1908, remembers seeing traveling theater troupes pass through his town. He thinks they came from Vilna. Two performances from his childhood stand out in his memory: one was a Purim- shpil-type dramatization of the biblical story of the selling of Joseph by his brothers -- he remembers it as "Yoysef mit di Brider" or simply "Mekhiles Yoysef"; the other was called "Khashe di Yesoyme." Perhaps these plays are too generic to identify (biblical stories in particular must have been dramatized many times), but I'm interested in finding out more about these works if possible. I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions other could share. Jacob Gordin apparently wrote a play in America called "Di Yesoyme," published around 1903 (I'm not sure if Gordin's orphan was named Khashe, as I haven't been able to access a copy yet). Is it likely (or possible) that this work made its way back to the old country? A greysn dank. Brad Nash New York, NY 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 06:44:38 -0400 (EDT) From: "Arieh Lebowitz" Subject: Trilingual database in French, Hebrew and Yiddish? A colleague is trying to develop a trilingual database of books and other material in French, Hebrew and Yiddish, and would very much be interested in learning what experience institutions as well as individuals are having in this regards. Currently, the platform is Windows - I am not certain however whether it is 95, 98, NT, ME or 2000. Thanks in advance for any correspondence in this regard. Arieh Lebowitz ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 11.012 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