Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 14.023
December 12, 2004

1) Introduction (Noam Libeskind)
2) Introduction (Sidney Rosenfeld)
3) A lid on a nomen (Itsik Goldenberg)
4) likhtpakhter (Renee Miller)
5) Fun with Dick and Jane (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan)
6) The dark side of Yiddish (Noyekh Miller)
7) D. Kosman's "Shalom Yiddish" (Eddie Paul)

Visit Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 12, 2004
From: noam.libeskind@durham.ac.uk
Subject: Introduction

Sholem aleykhem,

My name is Noam Libeskind and I am an american/canadian doctoral candidate
living in the UK. During the daytime, I fill my hours attempting to study
the formation of galaxies and the realtionship between galaxy evolution
and black holes. After hours and on weekends, I am trying to teach myself
yiddish. As I live in one of the corners of the world where there are few
jews, I have no access to anyone who speaks any yiddish. I would love to
part an online community that can help me progress beyond the basics - in
particular I am looking for answers to Uriel Weinreich's "College Yiddish"
exercises.

A dank,

Noam Libeskind

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 12, 2004
From: Sidney.Rosenfeld@oberlin.edu
Subject: Introduction

I was born in South Philadelphia in 1931 of Yiddish-speaking parents from
Podolia and spoke Yiddish as a child. As an adult, I taught myself the grammar
and to read. In 1999, I retired after teaching German language and literature
at Oberlin College (Ohio) for 36 years. My research and writing focused on
German-Jewish authors. Since 2001, I have attended the 4-week intensive summer
course of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute three times and edit the Institute's
website newsletter.

Best wishes for khanike and for continued success in editing Mendele, which I
read with profit and pleasure.

Sincerely,

Sidney Rosenfeld

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 7, 2004
From: rgoldenberg@sympatico.ca
Subject: A lid on a nomen

Here are the words to Melekh Ravitsh's poem "On a nomen," requested by
Amitai Halevi, from Di goldene keyt No. 82:

Arum mir iz nokh friling,
Ober ikh bin shoyn osyen.

Un efsher iz arum mir nokh osyen,
Ober ikh bin shoyn friling.

Ale emesn hobn tsvey zaytn,
Un beyde zaytn zenen emes.

Ale yoen zenen naynen,
Un ale naynen - yoen.

Arum mir iz shoyn yiesh,
Ober ikh bin nokh hofn.

Arum mir iz nokh oyfgang,
Ober ikh bin shoyn fargang.

Arum mir iz nokh stire,
Ober ikh bin shoyn klorkeyt.

Arum mir iz nokh yid-zayn,
Ober ikh bin shoyn mentsh.

Arum mir iz nokh mentsh-zayn,
Ober ikh bin bay got.

Arum mir iz nokh vartn,
Ober ikh bin shoyn do.

Arum mir iz nokh shtarbn,
Ober ikh bin shoyn toyt.

Arum mir iz shoyn leygn zikh
Ober ikh bin shoyn oyf.

Arum mir zenen lider,
Ober ikh bin dos lid shoyn aleyn.

Arum mir iz nokh letstkeyt,
Ober ikh bin shoyn onheyb.

Arum mir zenen fregtseykhns,
Ober ikh bin basheydung.

Arum mir - nishto keyn arum-mir mer,
Vayl ikh bin shoyn bloyz ikh.


Itsik Goldenberg

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 9, 2004
From: reneem22@yahoo.com
Subject: likhtpakhter

I'm translating the Yizkor book for Nowy Sacz and I'm having trouble with
"likhtpakhter".

"The control of the community in the first half of the 19th century by the
gangs of likhtpakhter and kosher meat tax collectors..."

Any hekp woould be appreciated.

Renee Miller

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 10, 2004
From: marj@hirshan.com
Subject: Fun with Dick and Jane

The November 26 issue of the Forward (page 11) presents an audacious review of
a new tasteless book, "Fun with Dick and Jane" which they describe as a
"first-rate primer for mastering the basics that fall from your bubbe's lips,
and is a playful baby-step in keeping Yiddishkeit alive for the next
generation."

Zol got ophitn! mayn bobe volt zey ale derlangt a knip un a patsh.

Their 'yiddishkeit teaches words like drek, shlak, shnorer and shtupping. What
a dearth they remind us we suffer of knowers and lovers of Yiddish. I keep
recalling the Arbeter Ring primer we so proudly handed our new registrants to
begin classes. The first page reads, "motele geyt in shul, Gitele geyt in
shul..." - settingyiddishkeit with a gracious tone of emphasizing learning.
Even the french primer I remember starts with the very bland, "Le crayon est
sur la table., no love of learning here either.

The Forward should be the penultimate newspaper, second only to the Forverts,
to keep Yiddish alive, respected and beautiful; how can it commend a review
when Yiddish is cheapened and painted in muddy shmutz and raggedy shmates.
There are writers, and then there are lovers of Yiddish who write with insight
and background.

The Forward doesn't even honor or recognize the YIVO, our Library of Congress,
by using its standardized rules for transliteration.

Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan
Boynton Beach, Florida

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 10, 2004
From: nmiller@trincoll.edu
Subject: The dark side of Yiddish

Here is an interesting article by Matan Hermoni in an unusual venue:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/512560.html

Noyekh Miller

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 12, 2004
From: e.m.p.a.u.l@gmail.com
Subject: D. Kosman's "Shalom Yiddish"

I currently run the collections dept. at the Jewish Public Library of
Montreal. I'm wondering if anyone can help us out with this. We have the 25
audiocassette series of "Shalom Yiddish" by D. Kosman, but one side of one of
the masters was accidentally erased. We need to make a duplicate copy to
circulate to our patrons, but now we're missing one side. I was curious
whether any Mendele subscribers either own or know someone who owns the
series, and would be willing to make a copy of side 4 of tape 2. We would
of course, be happy to pay whatever charges are incurred.

Thank you,

Eddie Paul
Montreal

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