Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 13.007 December 24, 2003 1) Rekude Potash (Naomi Fatouras) 2) Rekude Potash (Yael Chaver) 3) Jews and the Spanish Civil War (Henry Srebrnik) 4) Der yid vos hot khorev gemakht dem templ (Itsik Goldenberg) 5) Der yid vos hot khorev gemakht dem templ (Joachim Neugroschel) 6) Arbeter Ring in London, 1938-46 (Arieh Lebowitz) 7) deyzhe borsht (Bob Rothstein) 8) vos heyst 'a mentsh'? (Dina Levias) 9) vos heyst 'a mentsh'? (Michael Meckler) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue 23 Dec, 2003 From: NFatouros@aol.com Subject: Re: Rekude Potash In a message dated 12/23/03, Ben Potash writes:<> My desire to help Mr. Potash prompted me to go to: www.jewishgen.org, where I used its "Family Finder" to look up others who are researching the surname POTASH. As might be expected from the name and the use of potash in gardening, I found quite a few listings. I also checked Jewishgen's Discussion Group Archives, and there I found a message describing a book entitled "Found Treasures: Stories by Yiddish Women Writers" published by Second Story Press, Toronto, Canada. This book includes page-long biographies for each of the writers of each of the stories including "Rekudah Potash." So Ben Potash may want to find a copy of the book in order to read Rekudah Potash's biography. According to the one website I found for this author, she wrote a book of poems "Moyled iber Timna"(New Moon over Timna) which was publised in Jerusalem in 1959 or 1960. Naomi Fatouros (nee FELDMAN) Bloomington, Indiana 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue 23 Dec, 2003 From: "Yael Chaver" Subject: Re: Rekude Potash In response to Benjamin Potash's query about Rikuda Potash (Czestochowa, Poland 1906 - Jerusalem, Israel 1965), I would point him and others who are interested in this unique poet to my forthcoming book "What Must Be Forgotten: Yiddish in Zionist Palestine" (Syracuse University Press, 2004), in which Potash's Palestinian poetry is the subject of a chapter. The book is based on my 2001 Ph.D. thesis at the University of California, Berkeley. Since my research on Potash is ongoing, I would be grateful for any more information that people might have, particularly on her life in Poland before 1934, when she immigrated to Palestine. I am answering Ben Potash separately. a hartsign dank, Yael Chaver 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue 23 Dec, 2003 From: HSREBRNIK@upei.ca Subject: Re: Jews and the Spanish Civil War For Gerben Zaagsma: I had some material on the Botwin company in my article "Salud di heldn: Jewish Communist Activity in London on Behalf of the Spanish Republic," Michigan Academician 16, 3 (1984): 371-381. Henry Srebrnik 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue 23 Dec, 2003 From: rgoldenberg Subject: Re: Der yid vos hot khorev gemakht dem templ Yosl Kurland asks who wrote this. It was Avrom Reisen, and it's one of my favourite stories. It can be found in many anthologies for Yiddish schools, as well as in collections of Reisen's mayselekh. Itsik Goldenberg 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Dec 24, 2003 From: Jackjackn@aol.com Subject: Re: Der yid vos hot khorev gemakht dem templ In regard to the query about the story THE JEW WHO DESTROYED THE TEMPLE, it is by Avrom Reyzen, and iv e included it in my collection of Yiddish stories from 1382 to the present: no star too beautiful. Joachim Neugroschel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue 23 Dec, 2003 From: LAWRENCE LEBOWITZ Subject: Arbeter Ring in London, 1938-46 In Mendele Vol. 13.006 / December 14 , 2003, Sara Goudge sent in a query re: the Arbeter Ring in London, 1938-46. A number of books have recently been published about the English community in general in terms of its reactions to the persecutions of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe during the Holocaust years. However, to get information on the Yiddish speaking community in London's East End to the persecutions of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe during the years 1938-1946, the best place to look would be some of the Yiddish-language publications of the time. Not just UK publications in Yiddish, but also the Jewish Daily Forward, which, during the years in question still had the largest worldwide circulation of any Jewish - and Yiddish - publication. Many Yiddish readers in the UK read the New York-based publication regularly. As part of her work involves the Arber Ring [that is, the Arbeiter Ring - known in the UK generally as the Workers Circle, not the Workmen's Circle, as in the USA and Canada], someone must know -- or know of someone who would know -- if the AR in the UK had any publication[s] of its own. If I am not mistaken, there was also at least one additional Yiddish publication in the UK at that time - probably more. The last chapter of the book JEWS, LABOUR AND THE LEFT 1918-1948 [Ashgate 2000] has a rather extensive bibliography of [primarily] English-language sources dealing with the Jews and the trade union movement[s] in the UK and the USA. [I compiled that chapter: it's quite good, thank you, thank you.] Included are articles, books and other sources on such groups as there were in the Jewish labor movement of those years in these two countries. Arieh Lebowitz Communications Director Jewish Labor Committee 25 East 21st Street New York, NY 10010 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue 23 Dec, 2003 From: "Robert A. Rothstein" Subject: Re: deyzhe borsht Mikhoyel Basherives (Mendele Vol.13.005) is not the only one stumped by "deyzhe borsht" (13.005). Yehude Elzet writes in his _Yidishe makholim_ (Warsaw, 1920, p. 93): "Umfarshtendlekh iz mir bay Mendele Moykher Sforim 'geven in deyze borsht fartrogn'" ("Tsores hobn im dem kop farshlogn/ iz geven in deyze borsht fartrogn"). He also cites another example from MMS: "Der ibriger oylem undzerer, funem miteln sort mentshn iz tomid fartrogn in deyzhe borsht" and one from Linetski's _Dos poylishe yingl_: "Fun di ale vaynen, iz gevorn besekhakl tsen butelkes, vi reyzhe (?) borsht." In an article called "In mayn mames kikh" (_Yidish shprakh_ 12 [1952], 4) Shoel Hurvits (Saul Horowitz) mentions a _deyzhke_ as a vat for water to sour cabbage or cucumbers and a big _deyzhe_ as a container used for leavening bread (tsu farroshtshinen broyt). In Russian _dezha_ is a kneading trough and can also dialectally refer to leavened dough; there are related words with just the first or with both meanings in Polish, Belorusian and Ukrainian as well. None of this answers Mikhoyel's question, although perhaps the answer is connected with the fact that Russian _borshch _ (and Jewish borsht?) can be based on various liquids, including _kvas_, the beer-like drink made from fermented grain and/or bread. Bob Rothstein 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue 23 Dec, 2003 From: Dina Levias Subject: Re: vos heyst 'a mentsh'? I agree with you entirely, 'a mentsh' is not a 'cool guy', unless we take the adjective 'cool' to be synonymous with admirable, out of the ordinary, a model for the rest of us.. And the "image" I have of a mentsh goes far beyond the concept of an "English gentleman": who is too pale a figure, too steeped in his own culture's conventions. Robin Hood - there, perhaps, is a figure of 'a mentsh' ! "a mentsh is someone who acts justly and is compassionate and kind toward everyone without further distinction", you say. No, that is not enough. There is, in my opinion, another characteristic of a 'mentsh' and that is that he will remain just and charitable EVEN IN THE FACE OF DANGER TO HIMSELF, or in the face of majority attitudes and opinions with which he disagrees. The Israeli air pilots and conscientious objectors who refuse to fight in Palestinian territories are eminently "mentshen" in my opinion !! Dina Levias 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed 24 Dec, 2003 From: Michael Meckler Subject: Re: vos heyst 'a mentsh'? Noyekh Miller's musings on the meaning of "mentsh" (Mendele 528.5) reminded me of my parents' long-departed Labrador retriever, Winston. Winston was a wonderful dog: calm and gentle in demeanor, courageous and protective, loyal and obedient. He was neither whiny nor demanding, and despite serious health problems his entire 13-year life (including a gunshot wound in his neck, a collapsed vertebra, and an almost life-ending bout of meningitis), the dog maintained his dignified disposition. As my mother used to say all the time (and still does today), "Winston was a mentsh!" Michael Meckler ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 13.007 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