Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 12.011 December 5, 2002 1) MLA AAPY Session & AAPY-CMJS Dinner (Alan Astro) 2) New book: Di Yidishe literatur in Amerike, 1870-2000 (Hy (Khayim) Wolfe) 3) New book: Threepenny Opera in Yiddish (Leye Robinson and Shmoyl Naydorf) 4) New book on the history of klezmer music (Yale Strom) 5) New Nehama Lifshitsaite Songbook (Alexander Frenkel and Martin Horwitz) 6) New Yiddish songbook (Mitya Yakirevich) 7) New book: Prophets and Dreamers (Miriam Weinstein) 8) The New Yiddish Times (David Weintraub) 9) Yiddish and Queer Issues (Warren (Zalmen) Hoffman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2002 14:04:58 -0500 (EST) From: "Astro, Alan" Subject: MLA AAPY Session & AAPY-CMJS Dinner The American Association of Professors of Yiddish (AAPY) is hosting its annual MLA session and is co-hosting, with the Conference on Modern Jewish Studies (CMJS), a special dinner. The topic is Yiddish New York: Its Creativity, Its Influence, on Monday 30 Dec., at 1:45-3:00 p.m. in the Riverside, Sheraton. Akhren akhren khoviv! The session, #813, is the very last one listed in the MLA program. The topics and participants are: 1. "Male and Female Immigrant Responses to America: Abraham Cahan and Anzia Yezierska" by Ruth Adler, Baruch College-CUNY. 2. "'In zikh' and Its Contributors: Quintessential Yiddish New York" by Nikki Halpern, Univ. of Paris VII, Institut Charles V. 3. "The Yiddish Reception of Whitman's 'Song of Myself'" by Julian Arnold Levinson, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 4. "Max Berliner and Tsipe Lincovsky: Two Argentinean Stars of the Yiddish and Spanish Stage" by Nora Glickman, Queens College-CUNY. 5. "Not that the Rabbis Give a Damn" by Dror Abend-David, Bilkent Univ., Turkey. I will be presiding. The dinner, hosted by the American Association of Professors of Yiddish and the Conference on Modern Jewish Studies, will celebrated a double anniversary. The journal, YIDDISH-MODERN JEWISH STUDIES, will begin its thirtieth year of publication, and the AAPY-CMJS will reach the age of 29. To celebrate this double anniversary, we have arranged a dinner at the glat kosher Levana Restaurant (69th St & Bway), Saturday, December 28, at 7:00 p.m. Cost: $42/$32 for grad students. Dr. Arthur Hertzberg will be the guest speaker, on the topic, "Trends in the Development Culture of the American Jewish Community." The guest of honor will be Dr. Joseph C. Landis. A cocktail party at a nearby home of members will precede the event. For more information, please e-mail me, Alan Astro 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 15:26:53 -0500 (EST) From: Subject: New book: Di Yidishe literatur in Amerike, 1870-2000 Tayere Mendelyaner! Tsu bakumen fun "TSIKO" Bikher, 25 East 21st Street, 3rd Floor, New York City, NY, 10010 (Telefon 212.505.8305; Faks 212.505.8044): _Di Yidishe Literatur in Amerike, 1870-2000, antologye in tsvey bend_, geklibn un tsunoyfgeshtelt fun D"r Mendl-Sholem Goldsmith, aroysgegebn fun Alveltlekhn Yidishn Kultur-Kongres. Hekher 1200 zaytn Yidishe dertseylungen, lider, eseyen, drames, un zekhroynes fun 97 groyse shraybers, mit hekher 130 fotografyes un bilder. Band I: Dovid Edelshtat biz Moyshe-Leyb Halpern (ISBN 0-9724565-1-1) Band II: H. Leyvik biz Bashevis (ISBN 0-9724565-2-X) Prayz: Eyntsiker band, $95 plus $5.75 porto; Beyde bend, $190 plus $8.95 porto. Shraybt oys dem tshek tsu "CYCO Books." Now available from CYCO Yiddish Books, 25 East 21st St., 3rd Floor, New York City, NY, 10010 (Phone 212.505.8305, Fax 212.505.8044): _Yiddish Literature in America, 1870-2000, an anthology in two volumes_, selected and edited by Emanuel S. Goldsmith, and published by the Congress for Jewish Culture. This remarkable work contains over 1200 pages of Yiddish stories, poems, plays, essays, memoirs and literary criticism by 97 great authors, with more than 130 photographs and illustrations. With a nod to Hugh Denman: Goldsmith, Emanuel S., ed., _Yiddish Literature in America, 1870-2000: Volume II, H. Leivick to Isaac Bashevis-Singer_, photos of anthologized authors and other illustrations, 2 vols., New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, 2002, 603 pp. [ISBN 0-9724565-2-X], $95.00 (Deluxe edition). Goldsmith, Emanuel S., ed., _Yiddish Literature in America, 1870-2000: Volume I, Dovid Edelshtat to Moyshe-Leyb Halpern_, photos of anthologized authors and other illustrations, 2 vols., New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, 1999, 599 pp. [ISBN 0-9724565-1-1], $95.00 (Deluxe edition). Price: Single volume, $95 plus $5.75 S&H; Both volumes, $190 plus $8.95 S&H. Please make checks payable to CYCO Books. "A brilliant and true book. The selections have been chosen with excellent taste." Arthur Hertzberg, "... indispensable to anyone wishing to read and understand, and love the treasures of Yiddish literature. It deserves to find a place of honor in every library." Elie Wiesel. "There is no other collection of American Yiddish Literature of this size and historical scope." Dara Horn, Forward. Hy (Khayim) Wolfe 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 14:59:48 -0500 (EST) From: Cnydorf@aol.com Subject: New book: Threepenny Opera in Yiddish We have just published a Yiddish translation of The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht. As with our previous books, this is a cultural translation in that the context has been somewhat judaized. We have taken great pains to make sure that all the songs are singable and we hope that they will performed and enjoyed! Brecht, Bertolt Di Drayer-Opere:Yidish Translated from German by Shmoyl Naydorf and Leye Robinson. Edited by Walter Sauer. Published by Verlag Michaela Naumann, Nidderau, 2002. ISBN 3-933575-91-5 A grus Leye Robinson and Shmoyl Naydorf 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 22:26:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Yitztyco@aol.com Subject: New book on the history of klezmer music Yale Strom has a new book out called THE BOOK OF KLEZMER: The History, The Music, The Folklore by A Cappella Books (380pages). After twenty years of research and three years of writing Yale has compile a book that draws extensively from his field research he has done among the Jews and Rom in Eastern Europe. The book has archival material, photos, music and oral histories from klezmorim that survived the Holocaust and remained in Eastern Europe. The book also containe interviews from many of the current klezmorim as well as famous artists who who some aspect of the Jewish aesthetic in their art form like: Leonard Nimoy, Theodore Bikel, Joel Grey, Tony Kushner, etc. Lastly the book as an extensive appendix on klezmer loshn as well as the first ever annotated bibliography of all articles that have the word klezmer found in the Yisker Bikher. This appendix alone has 250 entries. The book cover The Violinist) is from Chagall's four muses he created from the Soviet Yiddish Art Theatre. The book is available at all book stores, online and from the publisher at 800-888-4741. Yale Strom 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 13:19:25 -0500 (EST) From: "Martin Horwitz" Subject: New book: Nehama Lifshitsaite Songbook _Yidishe lider funem repertuar fun Nekhama Lifshits far shtim un klavir_, St. Petersburg: Jewish Community Center of St. Petersburg, 2002, 76 pp., ill. [ISBN: 5-7331-0196-2]. The collection includes arrangements of folk songs and original songs written in the 1960s and 1970s especially for Nechama Lifshits (Lifshitsaite). The book contains both notes and all texts of the songs in Yiddish, in transliteration, and translation into Russian. The collection is well illustrated and beautifully printed. It was prepared in honor of her 75th birthday. To obtain this book or other publications of the Center for Jewish Music of the Jewish Community Center of St. Petersburg, please contact us at frenk@lea.spb.su or by fax at (+7-812) 314-5117. By special arrangement with one of our American sponsors, the Jewish Community Development Fund in Russia and Ukraine (www.ajws.org/jcdf/) the book may be obtained by making a donation to their work and indicating Nechama Lifshits Book with a donation of $15. They may be contacted at jcdf@ajws.org or (+1-212) 273-1643. Alexander Frenkel and Martin Horwitz 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 06:36:52 -0400 (EDT) From: "Mitya Yakirevich" Subject: New Yiddish songbook "I am a Jew!". A song-collection by composer Dmitry Yakirevich - heroical, lyrical, humorous, children's songs. Contains a historical review of the singing-culture of the Jews, beginning from the 15th century and comments for the transliteration and the phonological aspect (in English and in Russian). The song-collection is illustraited by Itella Mastbaum. The price, including handling and shipping, is $60. The book can be ordered from the publisher: Dmitry Yakirevich, Yosef Nedava, 22/3, Pisgat Zeev, Jerusalem, 97781, Israel. Tel.: 972-2-585-84-26. Dmitry Yakirevich 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 10:16:22 -0500 (EST) From: "Miriam Weinstein" Subject: New book: Prophets and Dreamers I would like to announce the publication of my new book, Prophets and Dreamers: A Selection of Great Yiddish Literature. In addition to many other Yiddish stories, poems and songs, we were very fortunate to be able to include the first-ever English translation (by Golda Werman) of Isaac Bashevis Singer's first short story, Old Age. Also, my 2001 book, Yiddish: A Nation of Words, originally published by Steerforth Press, has been issued in paperback by Ballantine Books. If I may brag, it won the National Jewish Book Award. Translations into German, French and Dutch are in progress. Weinstein, Miriam, ed. Prophets and Dreamers: A Selection of Great Yiddish Literature. Intro by Miriam Weinstein, photos, South Royalton, Vermont, Steerforth Press, 2002, 214 pp. [ISBN 1-58642-047-X], $14.00 (paper) Weinstein, Miriam. Yiddish: A Nation of Words. map, photos. New York, Ballantine Books, 2002, 303pps. [ISBN 0-345-44730-I], $14.95 (paper) Miriam Weinstein 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 18:41:42 -0500 (EST) From: Elizabeth Weintraub Subject: The New Yiddish Times Has Arrived! Tayere Chaverim (Dear Friends): A peaceful and happy Thanksgiving and Chanukah to all. Your issue of the Fall/Winter edition of The New Yiddish Times (der naye yidishe tsayt) can be picked up at: <>. If you wish to be a contributor for the next issue as an article writer, submitter of Yiddish/English poetry, humorist, graphic artist or foreign correspondent please e-mail us at info@yiddishculture.org <>. Preparations are being made now for the Spring 2003 issue. This is your tsaytung (newspaper), and your input is always welcome. mit hartsiken dank (with heartfelt thanks), David Weintraub Coral Gables, Florida 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 22:53:32 -0500 (EST) From: Warren Hoffman Subject: Yiddish and Queer Issues I'm a grad student currently working on my dissertation about queer Jewish cultural production in the 20th century. Though my project looks at some English language texts, the first 3 chapters are on Yiddish texts, namely God of Vengeance, some Bashevis Singer stories, and some of Molly Picon's work. I have 3 separate but thematically related questions that I hope some of you might be able to answer. Please feel free to respond to me via Mendele or at my e-mail: whoffman@cats.ucsc.edu. 1. Does anyone know when the first Yiddish-language production of Got fun nekhome took place in the U.S.? I've heard the date 1913 bounced around, but nothing definitive. I think the Yiddish Theater Lexicon also mentions some sort of debate concerning the show happening in the Yiddish presa around 1918, but again, can't seem to find specifics. I'm trying to track down reviews for such productions and having dates would be helpful. 2. Does anyone know of other short stories, songs, or texts other than the ones I'm working on that speak to or allude to homosexual/queer references in Yiddish texts? 3. Finally, I'm interested in Yiddish terminology for gays. So far, there's the obvious "homosexual," as well as "lesbianka" and "feygelah." What other terms exists (pejorative or otherwise) to refer to queers in Yiddish? **On a related note, I'd like to hear from other queer Yiddishists to perhaps have us come up with some NEW words to describe ourselves. It seems that if we are going to contribute to Yiddish culture, there need to be ways for us to refer to ourselves our than the clinically sounding term "homosexual" or the often pejorative "feygelah" (for gay men). Please e-mail me privately if you're interested on working on this project as perhaps I could start a separate listserv to discuss some of these issues** A sheynem dank, Warren (Zalmen) Hoffman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 12.011 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