Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 16.013
October 30, 2006

1) kh'vil nisht aza khosn (Ken Frieden)
2) kh'vil nisht aza khosn (Bernard Katz)
3) Ben Gurion and Ben Tzvi's book in Yiddish (Bernard Katz)
4) Yiddish ballad sought (Josh Backon)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 13, 2006
Subject: kh'vil nisht aza khosn

The query [vol. 16.012, from Beth Goldstein concerning a Yiddish song heard
in Beit Shmuel in Jerusalem about a girl whose parents were trying to marry
her off] sounds like it could refer to "Kh'vil nisht aza khosn."  (It's on
my mind because a vocalist in the Syracuse University Klezmer Ensemble is
singing it this semester.)  A version of the song is contained in Eleanor
Mlotek's Mir trogn a gezang, pp.220-221.

Ken Frieden

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 22, 2006
Subject: kh'vil nisht aza khoshn

Beth Goldstein zukht a yidish lid vegn a meydl vos ken nit gefinen keyn
pasikn khosen. Efsher iz es dos zeyer shayne lid Mordkhe Gebirtigs "kh'vil
nisht aza khosn"?

In Mendele 16.012, Beth Goldstein asks for help in identifying a Yiddish
song about a girl "whose parents were trying to marry her off, and every
potential groom was lacking something."  Perhaps the song is the lovely "I
don't want such a khosn" by Mordecai Gebirtig.

In this song, the young woman's parents are being suggested one candidate
after another by the matchmaker. Each has good points, but the meydl
decries their given names one by one, saying that she doesn't want such a
khosnn ("kh'vil nisht aza khosn"). Finally, the matchmaker suggests Vladek,
whose name she really likes and who she thinks is the best of then all ("an
oysnam fun ale") - but there's an impediment. The prospective shviger has
the same given name as the young woman, and will not agree to the marriage!

This was a no-no in the Yiddish culture of eastern Europe. My paternal
grandmother in Israel was told a made-up name for her prospective shnur in
the late 1920's because they had the same given name, "Blima." So my mother
(z"l) was henceforth known as "Dvora" by my father's (z"l) family in Israel
rather than by her real name. Perhaps this custom was to avoid the evil
eye, or was due to some obscure rabbinic decree -  maybe someone on Mendele
could enlighten us?

Gebirtig's song ends with the refrain: "Oy vey, mamenyu, / shikt shoyn got
mir eynem tsu, / treft a tsore, / heys ikh Sore, / vey mir, mamenyu, / oy
tayere mamenyu."  Tr: "Oy vey, Mummy, / G-d sent me someone finally, /
befell a calamity, / I'm called Sara, / woe is me Mummy, / oy, dear Mummy."

Bernard Katz

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 22, 2006
Subject: Ben Gurion and Ben Tzvi's book in Yiddish

I have a copy of the book Dave Keusch described in Mendele 16.012
("Erets-yisroel in fargangenheyt un gegenvart"). The subtitle declares it
contains "geography, history, legal proportions, population, agriculture,
commerce and industry." There are many interesting things about this book,
including, as Dave Keusch noted, that it is in Yiddish. For example, it is
dedicated (in Hebrew) to the memory of "our friend and comrade Dov
Borokhov, may he rest in peace" ("le-zikhron khavernu vere'eynu Dov
Borokhov alav ha-shalom").

Ben Gurion and Ben Tzvi, the co-authors of the book, were very early
members of the Poale-Zion movement and were present together with Borokhov
at its 1906 conference during which it was re-named the "Jewish Workers'
Social Democratic Party Poale Zion."  Borokhov was responsible for the
philosophical underpinnings of the movement, and probably was its "leading
light." At the 8th Zionist Congress (Hague, 1907), he helped establish the
World Union of Poale Zion as a separate group within the World Zionist
Organization.  Soon afterward, as a result of some serious doctrinal
disagreements, he spearheaded the Russian Poale Zionists' pulling out of
the WZO.

Borokhov died unexpectedly in Kiev of pneumonia in 1917 while on a speaking
tour following his return to Russia after the Revolution. So the book's
dedication to him in 1918 was very a propos. Not only that: he had gone to
the USA in 1914 and become very active in the American Poale Zion.  Thus,
the book being published by the Poale Zion's Palestine Committee in New
York was entirely appropriate.

As far as the book being written and published in Yiddish is concerned, it
seems to me that this too was most reasonable and indeed proper for the
time.  In the Committee's introduction, they note that their objective is
to build the institutions in erets-yisroel concerned with workers'
well-being; they usually don't have anything to do with publishing books.
However, the Committee "held as its duty to give the broad Jewish world
such a work (which absolutely has not been available in the Yiddish
language), because of its urgent necessity, and this is an accurately
informative, educational and scholarly work about our old-new land
erets-yisroel" ("hot ober gehalten far zayn khoyv tsu geben dem breytn
yidishn oylem aza verk, vos iz lakhlutn nit geven benimtse in der yidisher
shprakh, trots zayn groys noyt-vendigkeyt, un dos iz a genoy-informative,
belerende, un visenshaftlekhe arbet iber undzer alt-nayland erets
yisroel,")

The relationship among the various Zionist groups and non-Zionists (and
anti-Zionists) with respect to Yiddish was complicated. At the Czernowitz
Conference on Yiddish (1908), all stripes and shades of opinion were
present.  Those that held Hebrew to be the sole national language of the
Jewish people, seeing Yiddish as the language of exile undeserving of
preservation, were completely opposed by those who saw Hebrew as a dead
language of the past with Yiddish as the true national language of
contemporary Jewry.  And there were opinions at every compass point in
between. One wonders how the Yiddishists could have been so
Ashkenaz-centered!

The history of the Poale Zion's relationship to Yiddish is also quite
complex, as I understand it. Borokhov, a real Yiddishist, edited and wrote
for their Yiddish daily newspaper, "Di varheyt," in New York when he came
to America in 1914. Poale Zion's very first newspaper in Palestine was the
Yiddish "Onfang," but a few years later (1910) they also began publishing a
Hebrew language paper, "Ha-akhdut." And the Palestine 'branch' soon drew
away from those outside ha-aretz in terms of ideology, emphasizing
realistic practical actualization of worker support in Palestine with
closer ties to the other Zionist pro-labor groups who were active there.
Borokhov maintained leadership of the leftist wing, while Ben Gurion and
Ben Tzvi moved to the right over time. Their positions vis-a-vis Yiddish
were affected by this shift, which was accelerated by WW1 and its
aftermath. The majority of Poale Zionists in Palestine hewed to the right
side, and even some of the leftists supported the use of Hebrew rather than
Yiddish. As a result, there were further splits in the Left in the late
1920s.

Its also interesting that the last page with substantive text (p. [478] has
an addition to p. 24. It is the text of the message found in 1880 inside
the water tunnel in Jerusalem (Hezekiah's Tunnel) running from the Pool of
Siloam, which was cut for about 1/3 mile through solid rock near the end of
the 8th century BCE. The message, likely carved by the tunnelers, is given
by Ben Gurion and Ben Tzvi in the original Hebrew, followed by their
Yiddish translation - very appropriate!

Well, that's likely more than most Mendelers want to know about this
subject. So I'll stop, except to say that my own interest in the book stems
from along-standing project - to compile an enumerative bibliography of
travel literature and information accounts of the Holy Land which were
published in English and Yiddish where the travel, etc. took place between
about 1750 and 1925. I once posted a message on Mendele about this project
listing some of the several Yiddish accounts that I have in my collection.

Mir zoln ale zayn gezunt un shtark,
Bernard Katz

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: October 29, 2006
Subject: Yiddish ballad sought

My father is 91 and remembers a beautiful Yiddish ballad his mother, z"l,
had sung when he was a child. Unfortunately, he forgot the last stanza.
Could you help out?

Here's my very poor transliteration:

Mayn mame hot mir dertseylt az eyn mol iz geven a hayzl tsevorfn in tol.
Nit vayt fun dem hayzl a gertl tserblaybt gevoynt hot in hayzl an erlekher
yid.

Thanks,
Josh Backon
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End of Mendele Vol. 16.013