Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 14.046 April 22, 2005 1) nokhn khirurgishn tish (Kenneth Moss) 2) prezhenitse (Gertrude Dubrovsky) 3) prezhenitse (Mikhl Herzog) 4) prezhenitse (Pearl Shifer) 5) aftsulokhes (Jascha Kessler) 6) nevues (Zulema Seligsohn) 7) Slob (Hershl Bershady) Visit Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 22, 2005 Subject: Re: nokhn khirurgishn tish Lucas Bruyn writes [14.043]: I am not qualified to comment on Joachim Mortello's remark that "the Nazis might have changed their plans after observing the desire of liberated Soviet nationalities for collective revenge agains all etnic Ashkenazim because of the acts of the Ashkenazi Soviet officials during collectivization". I would think that some historians would contest such a statement. Wasnt that partly German propaganda? For what it's worth, I am an historian of modern Jewish, Russian and Soviet history, and would note that both of Martillo's remarks are extremely problematic as history, leaving aside their deeply irresponsible invidious comparisons (Palestinians are worse off than German Jews etc., as though a situation of military occupation and colonial settlement in the context of an 80-year interethnic and multistate conflict -- however deplorable in its own terms -- can be intelligibly compared to a situation in which 1% of a state's population was cast during peacetime and with no actually existing conflict in the role of insidious race enemy etc; or as though this comparison helps us ot judge either case, any more than noting that the Palestinians are much better off than, say, the victims of state-sponsored terror in Darfur). His comment on vengeance against "Ashkenazi etc" has of course a core of distorted truth: the notion that Soviet collectivization policies in teh Ukraine in teh early 1930s and the Bolshevik regime in general were in some meaningful sense a 'Jewish' policy struck roots among substantial parts of the Ukrainian peasant population in the context of a larger notion of 'Judeo-Bolshevism' that became a staple of anti-semitic propaganda already by 1917, if not earlier; the Ukrainian nationalists of what had been western Soviet Ukraine and eastern Poland certainly seized on this notion in teh independent campaign of mass murder which they then pursued against Jews. In fact, there were many ethnically Jewish individuals in teh Bolshevik regime before the late 1930s, including in its 'security' (ie state terror) organs, among the collectivizers etc; but it is ludicrous to imagine that they sought to enact some distinct 'Jewish' policy. Was Stalinism a "Georgian" policy because Stalin happened to have been born Georgian? Of course not: Bolshevism was a political religion unto itself, and its adherents and servitors came from all backgrounds but by definition broke with these 'parochial' concerns. Jewish disproportion in the party-state apparatus seems a lot less disproportionate when one compares it not to the total Soviet population, but to the Soviet urban and literate population, incidentally. Those interested in these issues might consult: Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations; Amir Weiner, Making Sense of War; Zvi Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence; and the works of Lynn Viola. Martillo embeds a more complicated historiographical issue in his unfortunate remarks: the influence of German contact w/ anti-Soviet forces (Ukrainian nationalists) on the decision to carry out hte mass murder of European Jewry. On the origins of that decision, see the works of Christopher Browning. Acutally, though, it is Martillo's prior claim about Zionism and the Nazis which marks the real blood libel of his message. The notion that "during the 30s the majority Zionist leadership actively and often cordially collaborated with the German Nazis" is simply wrong. Mainstream Zionism was convulsed by deep desperation the face of 1930s trends (which many did see as marking the end of European Jewry in a poltiical and econoimc sense, though few could imagine actual genocide), not only in Germany but in Poland and indeed throughout Europe and, we might note, the Arab world. Zionists played a key role in active Jewish diplomatic efforts against Nazism in teh 1930s, such as they were. It was precisely mainstream Zionists like Stephen Wise who pushed American Jewry to try at least some sort of symbolic boycott of German goods, for instance; in Germany itself, it was only the Zionist movement whcih could offer some measure of self-respect to German Jews forced into the life of racial outcasts. The half-truth in Martillo's claim has to do with what was called the Transfer Agreement, an effort to organize some German Jewish emigration to Palestine; that this was an act of desperation, an effort to at least draw some good for the Jewish people from teh intolerable situation in Germany, is evident to any objective reader. Mendelyaner are referred to the work of Yehuda Bauer. Kenneth Moss 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 22, 2005 Subject: Re: prezhenitse In the April 21 issue, there is a discussion of the Yiddish word for omelet. Sheva Zucker seems to prefer "prezhenitse." Having grown up on a chicken farm, I ate eggs almost every day, and heard much conversation about eggs. No one in our community of yiddish speaking chicken farmers ever used that word. At least not in my presence. The word for omelet was 'faynkukhen.' But then again, what did we know; we were simple farmers. And we had much more interesting things to argue about, such as how we can best save the world. Gertrude (aka Gitl) Dubrovsky 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 22, 2005 Subject: Re: prezhenitse Another Yiddish word for 'omelette' is _ya'yetshnitse_. Mikhl Herzog 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 22, 2005 Subject: Re: prezhenitse We called it "ayershpayz". Pearl Shifer 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 22, 2005 Subject: Re: aftsulokhes Parallel to af-tsulokhes: I used to hear in the '30s, my father, on his return home from the fur shop on Seventh Avenue say about some unfortunate meeting, event, coincidence, to begin with, "Rose? treft mir haynt a glik!" and recount the disaster... and/or, "You know what happened to X's business? it went af-tsulokhes - the damned debtors wouldnt pay up! Er iz shoyn af-tsulokhes...." if my memory serves, which these days...is, well, somewhat scatty? Jascha Kessler 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 22, 2005 Subject: Nevues [Felicitas Payk asks [14.045] about "nevura".] Nevues means "prophecies," and that would seem to fit with the verses meaning "in my song lie many prophecies, that some day you will be spread (like seeds) throughout the world". Zulema Seligsohn 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: April 22, 2005 Subject: Re: Slob My sources for many things Yiddish are my grandmother and mother who came to the United States from the Ukraine as adults. The lady who lived five houses down the street and was considered by my bobe and mother to be a sloven, was called by them a shtinkerke. Her house was constantly disheveled, un-swept sidewalk, dirty dishes in the sink, an odor of unwashed diapers, throughout, her children with runny noses and soiled clothing,etc.. I don't know whether shtinkerke is an American-Yiddish expression of the kind Ellen Prince once noted -- i.e., next-doorikeh, or upstairsekeh. -- although it may be. In any case, shtinkerke is the one word drilled into my memory for "bad housekeeper." (It was a pretty filthy household back then, although one of the daughters was quite cute). There are expressions my family used to mean irresponsible or lazy girl -- foyle moyd -- but this doesn't seem to be what's wanted. Hershl Bershady ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 14.046 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu