Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 22.007 October 12, 2012 1) Hebrew vs. Yiddish, 1930 (Hershl Hartman) 2) Es loyfn, es yogn shvartse volkns" (Jane Peppler) 3) Yoshke Pandre (Eliezer Greisdorf) 4) frande/fronde/prande/pronde (Martin Jacobs) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 27 Subject: Hebrew vs. Yiddish, 1930 The daily email blast, "Jewdayo," marking historical events every day (some reflecting pride in Jewish history, others shameful in various ways), recorded the following for yesterday, Sept. 26: A mob of several thousand Jews protested outside the Mograbi Theater in Tel Aviv on this date in 1930 against the screening of one of the first feature-length Yiddish-language talkie movies, Mayn Yidishe Mame ("My Jewish Mother"), starring Seymour Rexite. The rioters included several members of the so-called "Army for the Defense of the Hebrew Language" who broke into the theater, threw ink at the screen and smoke bombs at the crowd. The police eventually broke through the mob and made arrests, but the protestors returned a second time and forced the screening to end, although many of the viewers refused to leave the theater until the lights were shut off. This was just one of numerous violent attacks on Yiddish culture in pre-statehood Palestine, where Hebraists were intent on repressing the language that they held in contempt. "Yiddish was a force to be reckoned with in this period. It provided the name for and was an integral part of the Yiddishist movement that posed an alternative to Zionism. . . . The language issue became a convenient tool of political conflict within contemporary Jewish culture." --Yael Chaver, What Must Be Forgotten: The Survival of Yiddish in Zionist Palestine Hershl Hartman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 15 Subject: "Es loyfn, es yogn shvartse volkns" A version of this song can be found online sung by Aliza Azikri on a recording called Festival of Yiddish songs - 1973. I suspect it is not the original because it is credited: Composer: Rafi Gabai Lyrics Source: H D Nomberg. Jane Peppler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: October 10 Subject: Yoshke Pandre When I was a little boy and my mother spanked me or threatened to spank me an uncle of mine used to tease me with this little verse: Yoshke Pandre ligt oyfn bank, az men shmayst em, zogt er a dank. Even at the age of three or four I understood that he was teasing me. Years later I came to understand that Yoshke, a familiar form of Jehoshua, was a slightly disrespectful term for Jesus. Many years later, when we were already in Canada, I asked my uncle if he knew the meaning of Pandre. He did not, nor did my father who was a graduate of a yeshive in our (so called) home town of Wilno. I also asked a well known poet friend of the family about Pandre. He was familiar with the verse but he also did not know the meaning origin of Pandre. Sometimes in the l970s I came across a book "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross" by a specialist in ancient semitic languages, John Allegro. In this book he tries to prove that the Christian bible is nothing but a cover story for an ancient mushroom cult which dabbled with LSD. (Mishuge mayne sonim.) This is where I again encountered our friend Yoshke Pandre on p.125.In the footnotes to this chapter he also claims that the rabbis referred to Jesus by that name in the Talmud. Apparently, this was the name of the Roman who fathered Jesus. The connection being that the mushroom amanita muscaria has a spotted head and the panther (pandera in Greek) has a spotted skin. So, it seems that we Jews have been despised for countless generations for having crucified a sacred mushroom. (Tate, du lakhst? A klog tsu dayn gelekhter.) Eliezer Greisdorf 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 22 Subject: frande/fronde/prande/pronde Due to the archaic orthography, the Yiddish word I am inquiring about could be any of these. It occurs in a handwritten letter, as follows: tayere frande madam bermann [body of letter] ayer frande bibi Can anyone tell me what it means? Thanks in advance, Martin Jacobs ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 22.007 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. 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