Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 14.001 May 15, 2004 1) Mendele vert bar/bas mitsve (Noyekh Miller) 2) Esther Singer Kreitman (Troim Katz Handler) 3) dona dona (Shane Baker) 4) a nekhtiker tog (Paul Pascal) 5) Yiddish courses and programs (Lori Cahan-Simon) 6) nebbish and nebekh (Bernard Katz) 7) Tribute to Yiddish speakers (Hershl Hartman) 8) Mark Arnsteyn and Mihal Waszynski (Arieh Lebowitz) Visit Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 15, 2004 From: nmiller@trincoll.edu Subject: Mendele vert bar/bas mitsve s'kumt undz ale a mazltov. ver volt zikh geven gerekhnt az fun a minyen akademiker zol oyskevaksn a kehile fun 2000 yidishistn? Thirteen is to be sure not a particularly ripe age. On the other hand, Mendele is older than the Internet and _that_ feels as though it's been around since the Roosevelt era. At any rate, we've been through a lot. What success we've had is entirely due to those who over the years have written questions, answers and opinions about Yiddish. While most of them are b"h still with us, this is a good time to recall some of those who are not, good friends such as Zellig Bach, Shleyme Axelrod, Yitzkhak Kertesz and Mendy Fliegler. If they are gone their humanity remains. af undz ale gezogt. Noyekh Miller 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 8, 2004 From: Troim@webtv.net Subject: Esther Singer Kreitman In re Hershl Hartman's posting of 5/5, my leyenkrayz has just finished reading esther kreitman's BRILYANTN in Yiddish. We made 23 photocopies of a photocopy because the book was not available. It deals with diamond cutters in Antwerp, Belgium prior to WW1 and moves to London as the Jews flee. It seems to be an accurate record in a fictionalized setting. we were disheartened to hear about the NYBC west coast seminar, "The Other Singer", protested, and they promised to run a program on her. Tkhiyes hameysim.. She is being resurrected...... Troim Katz Handler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 10, 2004 From: kongres@earthlink.net Subject: Re: dona dona Der fraynd Goldvaser fregt vos se batayt "dona dona" in Zeitlin un Secundas lid. Loyt vi ikh farshtey iz dos a traditsyoneler tsuzung fun Poylishe folkslider, keile "tra-la-la" uaz"v. Kol-tuv, Shane Baker 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 12, 2004 From: path@interlog.com Subject: Re: a nekhtiker tog While I agree with the general concensus that "nekhtiker tog" means "not a chance" or "don't bet on it", I had a different understanding of how it came to mean that. It only occurred to me after years of wondering about the expression, which my mother seemed to use (on me) daily. So far, those who've posted on this thread have translated "nekhtiker" as a form of "yesterday", which it certainly could be (from "nekhtn"), but "nekhtiker" could also be an adjectival form of "nakht". So the literal meaning of the phrase would be something like--and you should pardon the awkward English--"a nocturnal day" or "a nighttime day". This meaning of the phrase is clearly an oxymoron, an impossibility of opposites, which explains why it is used as it is: "it'll never happen". Paul Pascal Toronto 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 13, 2004 From: lorelecs@juno.com Subject: Yiddish courses and programs My colleagues and I at the Yiddish teacher's list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yiddishteachers/ are compiling a list of all the colleges and universities around the world which offer Yiddish language or culture, from as little as one course to a full program, as well as their teachers, departments and heads, and contact information. We would like to have your contributions to add to the list. I will be posting this information on our website. In addition to university level classes, we would like to know about the existence of classes at the following levels anywhere in the world: Secondary schools (High school, middle school or junior high) Elementary schools (K-5 or 6) Pre-schools After school classes Sunday schools Adult classes Casual classes a dank in foroys, Lori Cahan-Simon 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 13, 2004 From: bkatz@uoguelph.ca Subject: nebbish and nebekh ikh bin maskim mit Hershl Hartman. In all the years I conversed with and heard Yiddish spoken by my extended family, native speakers all, I never heard them use the word "nebbish". I concur with reb Hartman's conclusions that it is a 'Yinglish' word, not to be found in the Yiddish canon. abi gezint, Bernard Katz Toronto 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 15, 2004 From: hershl@earthlink.net Subject: Tribute to Yiddish speakers The following is from the 5/5/04 issue The Scotsman. You can read the entire article at the URL -- but it's in Scottish!! Hershl Hartman IN HIS recent book Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages , Montreal journalist and poet Mark Abley talks of meeting speakers of endangered tongues like Mati Ke in Australia and Yiddish in North America. He says: "I came out of all the travelling, research and writing a lot more hopeful, just through having met such tenacious, determined, smart, bloody-minded people. People who were not going to let their language go gently into the night." Abley will be speaking at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August. http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=508782004 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 15, 2004 From: ariehnyc@prodigy.net Subject: Mark Arnsteyn and Mihal Waszynski Perhaps someone on Mendele can either help answer this research query reposted from H-JUDAIC Digest - 10 May 2004 to 13 May 2004 (#2004-60) - or forward it to someone who can? Please respond directly to the person making the query, Joel Rosenberg. Arieh Lebowitz ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 22:42:14 -0400 Subject: Query: Mark Arnsteyn and Mihal Waszynski (Rosenberg) From: Joel Rosenberg I am seeking sources dealing with the life and work of Mark Arnshteyn and Mihal Waszynski, the screenwriter and director, respectively, of the 1937 Yiddish film Der Dibek (The Dybbuk), and particularly their work on this film. I have already seen Michael Steinlauf's informative dissertation on Arnshteyn. I'm interested in finding articles in English, Yiddish, Hebrew, French, or German, if such exist, and in any relevant archival materials. Please reply to joel.rosenberg@tufts.edu, or to the H-Judaic web site. Joel Rosenberg ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 14.001 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu