Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 12.007 October 10, 2002 1) Havdala (Shira Lerner) 2) Children's Street Rhymes and Games (Shira Lerner) 3) Almi poem (Bret Werb) 4) Yiddish 'pig Latin' (Joel Maxman) 5) farzhankes (David Shneer) 6) Spinoza in a yiddish context (Kay Schweigmann-Greve) 7) Yiddish Theater Forum (Philip "Fishl" Kutner) 8) Yiddish Theater Forum (David Harris) 9) tsimes (Dvorah Getzler) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 00:16:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Susan Lerner Subject: Havdala I would appreciate receiving suggestions of readings (prose and poetry) in Yiddish (and/or English translation) about havdala for a program that I am putting together. Thanks in advance for your suggestions. Shira Lerner Los Angeles, CA 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 19:43:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Shira Lerner Subject: Children's Street Rhymes and Games For this year's family festival in early October, Yiddishkayt LA is using a Lower East Side theme. I'm trying to track down some research materials on what games were played and perhaps, ideally, find some songs, nonsense and jump-rope rhymes (Yiddish is fine, but English-Yiddish intermixed is ideal - one can dream). I've got the Ruth Rubin/ Folkways recording, but that is definitely alte heym and I'm looking for naye alte heym. Any suggestions are welcome. I would also be interested in hearing from anyone who remembers children's songs, rhymes or play games in Yiddish or in combined English and Yiddish from their own pre-WWII NY childhood. Any recollections of the games played on the streets of the Lower East Side, Bronx or Brooklyn pre-WWII are also welcome. Please feel free to contact me off list (with the street games) or on the list for the Yiddish and Yiddish/English children's rhymes. a sheynem dank! Shira Lerner Yiddishkayt Los Angeles 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 15:39:18 -0400 (EDT) From: BWerb@ushmm.org Subject: Almi poem Dear Mendelyaner, I'm looking for information about a poem attributed to Almi in a recording recently donated to our archives. The text begins (as best as I can determine): "fun land tsu land, fun shtot tsu shtot, es faln shver di oygn tsu." Thanks in advance for any help, Bret Werb US Holocaust Memorial Museum Washington DC 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 14:26:19 -0400 (EDT) From: "Joel Maxman" Subject: Yiddish 'pig Latin' My mother and uncle, who grew up in Galicia during the 1930s-1940s, told me that as children they used to speak in a kind of pig Latin when they didn't want their parents to understand them. It was somewhat similar to American pig Latin: the first consonant of a word was moved to the end, and the suffix -tye was added. Thus, the word VUS became US-V'TYE (the accent fell on the V', and the ' was pronounced like a schwa). Have any Mendelyaners heard of this or any other type of Yiddish 'pig Latin'? Joel Maxman New York City 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 11:51:10 -0400 (EDT) From: David Shneer Subject: translation question Mendelyaner- I'm desperately searching for the translation of a word that appeared in the title of an article from a 1926 Soviet Yiddish newspaper, Yidisher poyer The headline reads Corn + Pigs = farzhankes Any help on the last word would be of great assistance. Thanks, David Shneer Denver CO 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 04:22:26 EDT From: Kay.Schweigmann-Greve.50@Hannover-Stadt.de Subject: Spinoza in a yiddish context Dear Mendele-friends, as requested at your homepage a few lines about me: I am a solicitor, working at the municipality of Hanover, Germany. I am working in my free time on philosophical and yiddish issues. Hopefully I will compled my doctorad in this field in future. Actually I work on a bibliography "Spinoza in Yiddish Language" wich shall appeare in autuum at the "Studia Spinozana", an academical yearbook published by the german Spinoza-Society. In context with this bibliography your site was recomended to my by Jerry Kalpan from the Anarchist Arcive Project whom I asked if he knows about Spinoza discussed among the anarchistic workers movement in there yiddish publications. Since he does not read yiddish he could not help me but suggested to ask you. In difference to hebrew yiddish as a cultural context of discussing Spinoza is not explored yet and I hope my bibliography will provide a base for that. Untill now I found 175 titles/articles e.a. but I am sure this is just a accidental part of a much larger field. The anarchistic context is neglected a well. Perhaps you know someone who can give me a hint on that. All the best and shana towa! Kay Schweigmann-Greve 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 07:02:27 -0400 (EDT) From: Philip Kutner Subject: Yiddish Theater Forum To Leonard Prager and Joel Berkowitz re: TMR v6, no8. Your Joint Issue of TMR 6.0081 and YTF 1.001 is superb. It is an excellent start. There is a very impressive list of Honorary and Advisory experts. In may cases they are for prestige and showcase, but have not been utilized. A publication, organization, company and especially political parties can be compared to a triangle. There must be a large base to have a solid foundation. First, no note was made of current centers of active Yiddish theater in Canada, New York and Israel or their leadership. Second, there are still a few Yiddish thespians around, like Chayale Ash, who are a rich resource. Third, I do hope you will also be publishing a hardcopy. It is wonderful to keep it on an academic plane, but to have a broad and lasting base, you must articles which could be used as a basis for discussion by Yiddish clubs. With Dr. Gottesman aboard you will have good coverage. there will be future notices in Der Bay. We hope to have a future Conference where the theme would be The Yiddish Theater. Once again, to both of you, all the wonderful wishes for success in your venture. Hot a gezunte yor. Az es vet zayn a gezunte yor, vet es zayn a gute yor. mit frayndshaft, Philip "Fishl" Kutner San Mateo, CA 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 11:33:46 -0400 (EDT) From: David Harris Subject: Yiddish Theater Forum I support with great fervor the establishment of the Yiddish Theater Forum as introduced by Leonard Prager in Vol. 6, No. 8 of the Mendele Review. The early Yiddish theater was certainly an expression of the culture of a people spreading out from Eastern Europe in the late 1800's, and an exchange of views on this medium would be of great value. I would like to point out to the membership that there already exists a Yiddish Theater and Vaudeville (YT&V) Research Group, hosted under the kind auspices of the JewishGen web site. While some of the messages already distributed (and archived) in the group's file relate to the history and highlights of the Yiddish stage, the thrust of the YT&V group is to assist members in locating family and friends who contributed to Yiddish theater and Vaudeville. Besides the playwrights and actors, the YT&V members are concerned with those who ran the theaters, composed the music, worked backstage to make the production a success and formed the leadership of the Hebrew Actors Union, Yiddish Theatrical Alliance, etc. My involvement with the YT&V stems from family roots that include "Professor" Moshe Hurwitz HaLevi, and brother Aaron (my great grandfather), adopted daughter Charlotte Hurwitz, and son-in-law Sezar Greenberg. Reading about their lives as written by David Lifson and Nahma Sandrow and reported on the pages of Die Yiddische Bihne, Jewish Theatrical News and even the New York Times, helps recreate an environment gone for nearly 100 years.. Match that with plays about blood libels (Tissa Esler), pogroms (Hurban Kishinev), natural disasters and social consciousness such as the Johnstown Flood and the Homestead strike, you understand more about the audiences that apparently craved those "emotional" productions, until replaced by more "sophisticated" material. I hope the Mendele--YTF membership joins the moderated JewishGen--YT&V group and contributes to both lists as appropriate. I certainly encourage the YT&V members to be aware of the new YTF and to be active in its success. More information about the goals of theYT&V can be found at http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ytheatre.txt David Harris Moderator Yiddish Theater and Vaudeville Research Group, JewishGen 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 06:34:37 -0400 (EDT) From: Getzler Israel Subject: help with tzimmes Dear Mendele: Some kind soul reading the ganse megilla site gave me your name as one likely to be enough of a maven to answer my query: what is the origin of the word tsimmes, or tzimmes -- I don't need an explanation of the culinary concoction or the meaning of the expression machen a ganse tzimmes -- I grew up on both -- what no one ever told me or any friends and neighbours here in Jerusalem is where the word comes from -- etymology etc. Can you help. Anyway, shanah tovah to you and your colleagues, Dvorah Getzler ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 12.007 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