Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 13.006 December 14, 2003 1) Arbeter Ring in London, 1938-46 (Sara Goudge) 2) Jews and the Spanish Civil War (Gerben Zaagsma) 3) Rekude Potash (Ben Potash) 4) Looking for a story (Joe Kurland) 5) vos heyst 'a mentsh'? (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 08:56:10 -0500 (EST) From: Sten18349@aol.com Subject: Arbeter Ring in London during 1938-1946 I am researching the reactions of the Yiddish speaking community in London's East End to the persecutions of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe during the years 1938-1946. Part of my work invvolves the Arber Ring with its HQ at 22 Alie Street, E1. I know it also ran a Weltliche Schule on Sunday afternoons. Would any of your readers know where I can find records of this (aprt from in the Arber Ring Minutes which I have). Isaac Nathani was one of the teachers. Also, does anyone know about Solomon Joseph, a member who committed suicide in 1940 - he had been involved with the Leeds Hostel for Jewish refugees. Also Baruch (Barnett) Weinberg who ran a printing business in Brick Lane. - indeed any of the other members of the Ring. So far, I have only managed to find the descendants of one member, Isaac Goluchovsky (surname changed later to Gollow). Many thanks in anticipation! Sarah Goudge (research student at UCL) 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 16:24:16 -0500 (EST) From: Gerben Zaagsma Subject: introduction Dear Mendelyaner, I am new on the list (or actually subscribed again after some time of absence). I would briefly like to introduce myself. I studied History and Yiddish Studies and I am currently doing my PhD at the European University Institute in Florence. I am in the very early stages of the project and started in september 2003. My PhD project is entitled "Jews and communism: a case study of Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War and the formation of the Jewish Botwin company". The project aims to study the question how Jewish communists in the 30s dealt with issues of identity by using the particapation of volunteers of Jewish descent in the SCW as a case study. The project aims to be comparative: I will focus on the way the Yiddish newspaper of the French communist party, Naye Prese, reported on Spain and the Jewish volunteers that fought there. By contrast I will also analyze a Yiddish Bundist newspaper. Regarding the latter I would like to pose a question. I am currently in the process of choosing a Bundist newspaper that would be suitable to use in the comparison. I have thought of taking Naye Folkstsaytung, but to keep the units of comparison somewhat more equal, a Bundist newspaper from Paris would be ideal. I have tried to investigate the existence of such a newspaper but have not found one yet. I would sincerely appreciate any suggestion people might have on this or more in general. I should point out that I have previously written an MA thesis on the topic of Jewish volunteers in Spain. I am, however, relatively new in the field of 'Yiddish press studies'. With kind regards, Gerben Zaagsma ---------------------------------------------- Gerben Zaagsma Research Student Department of History and Civilization European University Institute (Badia Fiesolana) Via dei Roccetini 9 I-50016 San Domenico di Fiesole (Fl) Italia Private address: Via G. Cesare Abba 12 I-50129 Firenze Italia Tel.: 0039-055-471513 GSM: 0039-347-2233405 Email: Gerben.Zaagsma@iue.it 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 13:31:45 -0800 (PST) From: Ben Subject: Rekude Potash I am writing in reference to a photograph of a Jewish writer named Rekude Potash that I found on your website. My name is Benjamin Potash and the woman in the picture bears an uncanny resemblence to several members of my family. I was wondering if you had any information about this woman or knew of any sources where I could find information. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you. Ben Potash beanhead_p@yahoo.com 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 12:55:40 -0500 (EST) From: Joe Kurland Subject: Looking for a story Tayere Mendelyaners, Ikh zukh a mayse, "Der yid vos hot khorev gemakht dem temple." Ikh gedenk nisht ver hot zi geshribn un in vosere bukh me ken zi gefinen. Di mayse iz vegn a yid, an imigrant, vos kumt in a kleyn shtetl in di ketskils. Er ken nisht zitsn shtil in dem temple vi di asimilirte amerikanishe yidn, un daven't in a hoykhn kol. Di amerikaners ken nisht zikh haltn fun davenen azoy vi er, un, oys temple, s'iz gevoren a shul. Oyb ir veyst, zayt azoy gut un shraybt mir tsurik. I'm searching for a story, "The Jew who Destroyed the Temple." I don't remember who wrote it or in which book it can be found. The story is about an immigrant Jew who comes to a small town in the Catskills. He is not used to the decorum of an American Jewish Temple and starts davening in the old country style. Soon the other congregants, who've been trying to be assimilated into American ways, cannot resist following his example. No more "Temple," it's been transformed into a "shul." If you know, please write to me. Zayt gezunt, Yosl (Joe) Kurland Colrain, MA 01340 voice/fax: 413-624-3204 http://www.WholesaleKlezmer.com 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 From: Noyekh Miller Subject: vos heyst 'a mentsh'? 'Mentsh' is getting a lot of play these days. A non-Jewish friend asked me to comment on his young Jewish colleague's definition. A mentsh, he said, was 'a cool guy'. I told him what I thought. But the question kicked off a couple of new questions in my own mind. 1. vos heyst take 'a mentsh'? 2. fun vanet nemt zikh der bagrif un vi alt iz es? As for the first, my answer is that of my generation: a mentsh is someone who acts justly and is compassionate and kind toward everyone without further distinction. To be a mentsh is to possess a degree of moral integrity that most of us aren't blessed with, and mentshn therefore are considerably less numerous than cool guys. On the face of it, a mentsh sounds something like the 19th C. English gentleman. And I confess that I began with the speculation that the very notion of mentsh owes much to the literature of the Enlightenment (of which Lessing's "Nathan der Weise" is a prominent example), to the Jewish Haskole, to growing awareness of codes of civility and manners as practiced by various European elites. Plausible enough. ober mit yidn iz keyedue a zakh zeltn poshet, un do oykh iz der emes punkt farkert. Who, for instance, is the best-known mentsh in Yiddish literature? None other than our beloved Tevye. And maybe the Nemirover rebe in Peretz's "oyb nisht nokh hekher". What have these men in common, class aside, with such a gentleman as Jane Austen's Mr. Knightley? Where the latter acts at all times in accordance with a rigid code of behavior appropriate to his station, Tevye and the Nemirover act in accordance with the dictates of their characters. The mentsh, on this reading, is an instance of David Riesman's famous "inner-directed" man who follows his equally famous internal gyroscope. The Baal Shem Tov was clearly such a mentsh. So unquestionably was Levi Yitzkhok Berditchever. But not, interestingly enough, their contemporary the Vilner Gaon, nor for that matter the great scholars of that time, and for a simple reason: the Jewish mandarin class was recruited at an early age and so cossetted, nursed and shielded throughout their lives that most were barely adult, let alone in touch with the real world. The mentsh acts in the real world. Beskhakl, I learn from this that the notion of mentsh is not derivative, that it is Jewish to the core. I think of the prophet Nathan who faced down the ignoble king David; I think of Boaz. Finally, I learn that beyond Jewish it is human to the core, for proof of which I give you the biblical Noyekh (no relation) as well as Mark Twain's Jim and his friend Huckleberry Finn. You might even add Rumpole of the Bailey. It may not be surprising, having brought up our children in various suburban shmaltsgriber, that they share the pallid suburban notion that a mentsh is a cool guy; but it's sad. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 13.0006 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