Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 15.027 September 15, 2005 1) Majer Bogdanski (Jennifer Dowling) 2) Majer Bigdanski (Zachary Baker) 3) The state of Yiddish (Yankev Berger) 4) The state of Yiddish (Hy Wolfe) 5) How long does it take to be Yiddish-literate? (Lucas Bruyn) 6) I don't understand some Mendelyaner (Alan Astro) 7) Yiddish micrographic portraits (Diane M. Rabson) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 13, 2005 Subject: Re: Majer Bogdanski Regarding Arieh's question, Majer Bogdanski (z"l) has indeed left us. The Guardian published an obituary, which can be found at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/obituary/0,12723,1567844,00.html Jennifer Dowling [Similar posts received from Leonard Prager and Stephen Jones.] 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 15, 2005 Subject: Majer Bogdanski In case this information has not already been posted, there is an obituary for Majer Bogdanski (composer, folksinger, tailor, Bundist, klal-tuer) in the September 9, 2005 issue of the Forverts. He died in London on September 4th, at the age of 93. Zachary Baker 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 13, 2005 Subject: Re: The state of Yiddish In his commentary [Mendele 15.026], Lucas Bruyn makes some valid points, but implicitly identified the "Catch 22" in the current plight. To stimulate the writing of contemporary Yiddish, it is necessary to have a cultural matrix within which the language itself thrives as the medium of daily discourse. This is a pre-requisite to giving someone with writing talent the basis on which to articulate whatever it is that is on that person's mind. That cultural matrix no longer exists, nor can it be re-created. Therein lies the dilemma in trying to realize khaver Bruyn's cogent suggestion. Yankev Berger 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 14, 2005 Subject: Re: the state of Yiddish Recent postings asks to see some hard evidence that Yiddish is no longer in decline; however, I should like to provide evidence to counter such claims. Having worked the past five years as the executive director of "CYCO" The Central Yiddish Culture Organization & Publishing House, established in 1937, I can enthusiastically report that gross sales of Yiddish books doubled in each of my first 3 years and the fourth and fifth year showed a 20% and a 25% gross sale increase respectively. We pay more to print an individual book and so we are able to keep lower inventories on hand. We have expanded in some instances into print on demand, lower inventories are very good for higher profit margins. Being able to print as few as 25 copies of an individual title keeps us a Lean mean Yiddish printing machine! CYCO has built a customer base the old fashioned way, one Yiddish book buyer at a time. CYCO's customers in particular and Yiddish book buyers in general continue to faithfully support Yiddish book publishers and stores. They are prepared in most cases, to pay whatever the price maybe, within reason, in order to assure the continuity of the published Yiddish word. Further, our institutional customer base of libraries, universities and antiquarian dealers have maintained a constant positive presence in CYCO's Yiddish Book Sales! CYCO books has been around for 68 years and hopefully will continue to be there for another 68 years. Hy Wolfe 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 14, 2005 Subject: Re: How long does it take to be Yiddish-literate? Morrie Feller, in Vol.15026, asks an impossible question: How long does it take to be Yiddish-literate? More specific: What would be the minimum amount of study time required for an average student to learn enough Yiddish to be able to read Yiddish literature? He partly answers the question himself saying: Of course, this is a very subjective thing which depends to a large extent on the motivation of the learner. Motivation is the key to any learning process, but the motivation of a student needs to be supported and strengthened by the teaching process. The figure of the teacher can inspire even those who are not very motivated on the outset. Good teaching materials can inspire both the teacher and his students. Unfortunately, there are no modern study or teaching materials available for Yiddish. This remark might upset some readers, but anyone who is familiar with modern ESL (English as a second language) materials and methods will agree that Yiddish never left the 19th century. Many other factors play a role. Previous learning of other languages is a great advantage. A second or third foreign language is learned much faster than the first. A student who happens to know German (or Dutch) and Hebrew could start reading Yiddish from day one, a student who just knows English and has no clue to general grammar is at a disadvantage. A student who wants to become proficient at all four skills, reading, writing, speaking and listening will need more time than someone who is satisfied with only passive knowledge enabling him to read with the help of dictionaries. Morrie Feller says: I have suggested that perhaps one- two hundred hours might be enough to get a foothold which would allow reading some simple literature, and then, with further practice, one could proceed to more advanced Yiddish pieces. I agree, provided the motivated student has an inspired teacher who provides the student with attractive reading materials that interest the student. The reading material should be real from the start, not graded stuff produced for students. In learning languages one of the big problems is to make the jump from one level to the next, especially going from intermediate to advanced. Even students who made rapid progress from beginner to intermediate might get stuck at the intermediate level, not managing to take the jump into the deep of the real language. Guidance by a capable teacher is of the utmost importance. An additional problem with Yiddish is the sad circumstance that we have not much literature less than over half a century old. Language tends to age quickly, in style, word choice, subject matter. The gap between Yiddish literature and modern life is as huge. Some suggestions: 1. The teaching of Yiddish should be modernized. Teachers and textbook writers should take advantage of the progress made in the field of ESL teaching. Granted, much more money is spent on developing methods and materials for the teaching of English world wide than could be spent on a minority language like Yiddish, but the teaching of Yiddish would benefit from getting out of its isolation. 2. The production of modern Yiddish literature in a modern form of Yiddish should be stimulated. Modern Yiddish should be allowed to have at least 15% of Anglicisms and English loan words, reflecting the natural development and growth of the language. The translation of contemporary literature into Yiddish should be stimulated. Why not a contest to get the best translation of the lyrics of Bob Dylan, for example. 3. An attempt should be made to convince the remaining Yiddish mameloshn speakers that their conservative attitude towards the language is not helpful stimulating young learners. With my sincere apologies to those Mendelyaner who I might have offended with my remarks. Lucas Bruyn 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 14, 2005 Subject: I don't understand some Mendelyaner Reading issue 15.026, I am perplexed and saddened. Someone complains about not liking Sholem-Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer (I'm using accepted spellings, obviously, not YIVO), and wants more modern literature. Sorry, S-A and IBS are some of the very best we have; yes, there are historical reasons why Yiddish is not producing literature the way it used to... Another person wants to know how long it takes to learn enough Yiddish to read literature. The answer is: however long it takes, probably an entire lifetime. Can you read everything in English (or whatever your native language is) without looking words up? Reading literature properly is work; reading a foreign language is work; reading one's own language is work. Or to put it less in terms of the Protestant work ethic... it requires study... from studio, Latin, for zeal. And study for a Yiddishist is pleasure... Isn't that kind of Jewish, by the way? It's too bad people can't take Yiddish on its own terms... It's also funny that someone would say that Yiddish is easier than Russian, or Hebrew, or whatever. First of all, the notion that some languages are intrinsically easier is an absurdity. It's not even clear that someone who aleready knows a Germanic language has an advantage, because of "false friends" and the fact that Yiddish opens onto a horizon--talmudic culture, derekh hashas--that is radically foreign to most speakers of Germanic languages. To read Yiddish properly one has to delve a lot into Hebrew and Aramaic; and I know my own lack of a Slavic tongue is a major problem that often requires seeking out help. Re: easy languages: English is reputed to be easy, but as any English speaker knows from listening to a Russian talking "turistn-english" to a Korean in a South American airport, what they're speaking ain't really English... Or it's a certain register of English that is very limited... People seem to want a quick fix in Yiddish the way everyone wants a quick fix in everything nowadays. Precisely part of the fun, the attraction, the importance of Yiddish for Jews coming from more-or-less de-Yiddishized environments is seeing how familiar and surprising it is at the same time; how close and how far we are from the world of Yiddish; wondering when we speak Yiddish if indeed we could be understood by our true interlocutors: the generations before us; wondering if we are reparing in any sense the massive (but not entire) loss of Yiddish or simply deluding ourselves. Yiddish poses intellectual, existential, practical dilemmas--ober gor dos nemen mir on behave--and that ain't misbehavin'... Alan Astro 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 15, 2005 Subject: Re: Yiddish micrographic portraits In the book, "The Jewish Heritage Album: The Jewish Artistic Heritage Album by Semyon An-sky" [Kantsedikas and Serheyeva, Moscow, 2001], there is a micrographic portrait of An-sky on page 62. Diane M. Rabson ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 15.027 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, choose one of these two: Messages for posting on Mendele Personal and other messages to the shamosim