Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 7.058 September 7, 1997 1) Loksh (Ruth Etkin) 2) e-mails in Yiddish in our Yiddisher "Briv Fraynd" Club (Frida Cielak) 3) Gordin translation rights (Kenneth Wishnia) 4) Performance in Portland (Joan Rudd) 5) Articles on Yiddish (A. Manaster Ramer) 6) Yiddish-language Anarchism (John Patten) 7) Mendele Bookmart... (Mendy Fliegler) 8) bund literature (abraham brumberg) 9) Virtual Ashkenaz gets exciting (Ari Davidow) 10) Josef Lin and other questions (Heather Valencia) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 11:54:25 -0400 From: "Ruth Etkin" Subject: Loksh Chaim Rosemarin (vol 7.054) certainly brought back memories of a Bensonhurst, Brooklyn childhood. I do, indeed, remember that use of Loksh. Of course, my to-be husband, all 6'4" of him, was called lange loksh as well! The specific reference to him, of course, was still spaghetti thin, but, of course, not his origin. Ruth Etkin 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 02:18:12 -0500 From: arele@enter.net.mx (FRIDA Grapa de CIELAK) Subject: e-mails in Yiddish in our Yiddisher "Briv Fraynd" Club Ikh bin zikher az Noyma Appelbaum (Mendele Vol. 7.057) un oykh a sakh mendelyaner, hobn nisht gehat dih gehlehgenhayt tzu leynen, davkeh in Mendele Online (5 Mar 1997), vegn dem Yiddishn "Briv Fraynd" Klub proyekt, velkher, vih ikh hob geshribn damolst, volt gekent vern a veltlekher "pen-pal club", a feder-fraynd klub. Nu, der proyekt iz shoyn a fact, mihr hobn biz aynt tzu tog: 78 Yiddisheh "Briv Fraynd"! Nisht shlekht, emes? (I am sure that Noyma Appelbaum from Philadelphia (Mendele Vol.7.057) as well as many mendelyaner did not have the opportunity to read, there, precisely on Mendele Online (5 Mar 1997) about the "Yiddisher Briv Fraynd" Club project which could become, (as I wrote then), a world-wide Yiddisher pen-pal club. Nu, the project is already a fact, we have up to this date: 78, yes 78 Yiddisheh "Briv Fraynd"! Not bad, don't you think so? ). Ikh vel aykh alemen ibergebn nokh amol vegn undzer klub, ikh vel es ibergebn nor oyf english, im'keday es zol nisht zayn a tzu langeh prezentazyeh. (I will deliver again (the information) about our club, I will do it only in English so that it won't be such a long presentation). Is, besides Noyma, any one else from our mendelyaner-friends interested? Well, here is the all information again: HOT IHR SHOYN GEHEHERT? HAVE YOU ALREADY HEARD ABOUT THIS? Tayere libhobers funem yidishn vort, KHOSHEVEH YIDDISHEH FRAYND: HOT IHR SHOYN GEHEHERT FUN DEM YIDDISHN "PEN PAL" CLUB -DER "Yiddisher briv-fraynd Club"?. HAVE you heard about the "Yiddisher pen-pals club" called "Der Yiddisher Briv-Fraynd Club"?.. NU, THIS is the story about it: On 1997, I started this project, which could become a world-wide, Yiddisher pen-pal club. It operates through the international electronic network of E-mail and also through snail-mail. (I chose to call it briv-fraynd instead of feder-club because it describes more precisely what it is all about). In its few months of existence, several people have enlisted in this activity. 78 up to this date. We have already letter-friends, "briv-fraynd" from Australia, Canada, France, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, South-Africa, Uruguay and from USA and, of course, I count me also in, as the organizer of all this from Mexico City! Not bad, don't you think so? Nisht shlekht, emes? However, I would like to see an increase in the number of yiddisheh fraynd who can take advantage of this opportunity through the E-mail system and communicate in Yiddish with people from all over the world! Even if it is transliterated Yiddish, "iz dos ober dokh - ah yidish vort!" even so, it is Yiddish words! Our Yiddisher "briv-fraynd" Club is more or less, divided in three group -levels: beginners, intermediate and advanced. (The suggestion is that advanced-group members should communicate with members of the other two groups in order to help them improve their Yiddish and encourage them to maintain their interest. This, of course, does not exclude communication among members of the same group level). I urge you to participate and spread the word about our Yiddisher "briv-fraynd" Club in the hope that we all plant a seed that will flourish to promote the survival of our beloved language! Ikh dervart fun ahykh ahle a baldikn entfer, I am looking forward to receive from all of you, Yiddish-lovers, your reply, preferably written in Yiddish, or if you so desire, in English or Spanish. Your Yiddisheh frayndineh - - - Freydl Frida (Grapa de) Cielak Mexico City 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 12:46:02 -0400 (EDT) From: "imaginary_press@iname.com" Subject: P.S. to Gordin translation rights To save you all the trouble of correcting me, the 4-volume set of Gordin works was put out in 1910 by the Hebrew Publishing Company, not the _Forverts_. I was away from my desk, working from (obviously faulty) memory. Forgive me, Yankev. Kenneth Wishnia 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 00:02:03 -0700 (PDT) From: Joan Rudd Subject: Performance in Portland For those outside the Pacific Northwest, a truly fine performance environment and multimedia installation was created at Gallery 114, 1100 NW Glisan Street, in Portland Oregon from 8/7-8/30. While the performances were listed early on in Mendele, no words really summarized what director Michael Griggs, musician Jack Falk (The Yiddish Hour weekly on Radio KBOO), artist Lawrence Kominz, and sculptor/set designer Chris Harris created as an installation. The viewer entered into a study area: a desk piled with books-the top one in Yiddish, eyeglasses left, coats left hanging. From there on into a devastated Shabbos table setup- candlesticks overturned, pitcher spilt. Past a wall inscribed with giant sheet music and overhung with prayer shawls into the forest. The forest indicated by huge photographic blowups of forest memorials, carved wooden memorials, stumps. and actual leaves underfoot. Around the corner into whiteness, the walls white "smoke" painted over faces peeking through this "mist", white rocks underfoot with lit yahrzeit candles nestled among them. Finally, notices of the recent Dybbuk performances, puppet characters, a TV/VCR with tapes of last winter's trips to Hungary and to Poland-it did me good to pop Jack's niggun into the VCR and hear a living voice for a few minutes. The last objects on view: fresh hand towels, pitcher and bowl-moving away from death with a symbolic ritual wash. The exit: tight white sheets to part and pass through. All observations and opinions those of this reviewer. It was tremendously powerful. Yasher koach to all. Joan Rudd Seattle, WA 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 08:40:09 -0400 (EDT) From: manaster@umich.edu Subject: Articles on Yiddish Since they appear in somewhat obscure plaaces, I thought it might be useful to announce the recent publication of these two papers on Yiddish: Alexis Manaster Ramer and Meyer Wolf. Yiddish origins and the Austro-Bavarian problem. Folia Linguistica Historica 17: 193-209. Alexis Manaster Ramer. The polygenesis of Western Yiddish--and the monogenesis of Yiddish. Indo-European, Nostratic, and Beyond: Festschrift for Vitalij V. Shevoroshkin. (Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph Series 22), 206-232. Washington, DC: Insitute for the Study of Man. A. Manaster Ramer 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 19:26:38 +0100 From: john Subject: Yiddish-language Anarchism Dear all, I am attempting to produce a bibliography of Anarchist materials produced in the Yiddish language. If any readers know of any, or can recomend potential sources of information, I would be grateful to hear (I have already contacted both Dr. Vaisman and YIVO in N.Y. who have been most helpful). If anyone would be interested to see the bibliography as it stands at the moment, email me and i will send you a text file. You can laugh at my feeble translations! thanking you in advance John Patten 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 21:48:50 -0100 From: emenems@juno.com Subject: Mendele Bookmart... Unser tayerer fraynt Leonard Prager hot aroysgebrakht a gute shayle: Vu ken men take arayngeyn in a kram, un leyzn/oyskloybn a Yidish bikhl? I'll put it into English: Maybe its time that some of these huge book establishments like Barnes & Noble, and Borders (both of whom have built palaces of book establishments here in Washington, DC and elsewhere, and even offer coffee and a place to sit and read )--maybe its time to advise these people of the growing need to offer Yiddish books to the public-- just as Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, German, etc, offerings are provided. Couldn't YIVO drop them a line, or some of the universities?? How about an e-mail from Mendele?? That's the dream, but where will the Yiddish readers come from??? Mendy Fliegler 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 20:47:13 -0400 From: abraham brumberg <102142.2545@compuserve.com> Subject: bund literature re bund literature: unser tsayt in nyc has published a veritable library on this subject over the past forty or so years--surely you can get it from them. in french there is henri minczeles'es book histoire de bund, l997 (or 6?), also myh review of it in tls, in hebrew a history of the bund by d.blatman, in yiddish hertz's geshikhte fun bund in four volumes, also see mendelson, shmeruk, etc., JEWS IN POLAND BETWEEN TWO WORLD WARS, my article there re pps and bund, johnpools book THE POLITICS OF FUTILITY--allthis as a starter... a. brumberg 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997 17:25:45 -0400 From: ari@ivritype.com (Ari Davidow) Subject: Virtual Ashkenaz gets exciting We are slowly building a community on the new Virtual Ashkenaz web-based discussion site. This is a good thing, as it is not clear whether the festival will sustain the site as the seed for future new Yiddish cultural events, or move on. Participation now is vital. In the meantime, there are active discussions about genealogy, the history of the Yiddish language, Jewish music in Eastern and Central Europe, and the usual meshuggas. If you are able to use the world wide web, do point your browser to: http://www.ashkenaz.org/virtual.html register (it's free!) and do join in. There are currently 11 active discussion topics. More would be even more fun. While you're exploring the Ashkenaz site, don't forget to explore the RealAudio samples of festival events--everything from readings by Yiddish writer Chava Rosenfarb to the Israeli Celtic-Arabic fusion band, Esta, to Toronto's latest klezmorim, Hu-Tsa-Tsa. About 1/3 of the material is up, now, and it will continue to arrive (including pictures from the visual artists) until as much as could be recorded is available. For sounds, check out: http://www.ashkenaz.org/sounds.html or just explore the festival site http://www.ashkenaz.org/ Enjoy! P.S. If you like what you see, this is the time to let the festival director, Bruce Rosensweet (brosen@lglobal.com) know. Ari Davidow http://www.ivritype.com/ 10)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 5 Sep 1997 10:37:00 +0100 From: Heather Valencia Subject: Josef Lin and other questions A colleague has asked me for information about Josef Lin (or Lion) who was editor of the journal "Mizrakh-yid" from 1920-21. She also wished to know whether the Yiddish Pen Club or the Yiddish Writers' Union still exist in New York. I don't know the answers to any of these questions and would be grateful for any answers from Mendelistn to pass on to her. Thank you. Heather Valencia ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 7.058