Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 07.084 October 23, 1997 1) Info about Buffalo Jewish Newspapers from the 30's (Michael Goldsman) 2) A shlak (David Herskovic) 3) Indianer (Pamela Lapham) 4) Dream work by der bal ha-khaloymes (Louis Fridhandler) 5) zol mir zayn far dir (Marti Krow-Lucal) 6) equivalent of English saying in Yiddish (Barbara Lamm) 7) Indianer in German, and turkeyness (Louis Fridhandler) 8) folklore (Arre Komar) 9) Isaac Meir Dick (Steven Cassedy) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 06:37:33 -0400 From: Michael Goldsman Subject: Info about Buffalo Jewish Newspapers from the 30's I have an interesting project that I've just started to work on, and was wondering if anyone out there might be able to give me advice on how to proceed. In short, my father told me that his father (Morris Goldsman) had several short stories of his printed in a small Buffalo Yiddish newpaper during the 1930's. He remembers reading them at the time, and has always felt that they were as good as Mark Twain or Shalom Alechem. Unfortunately, no one has any copies of these anymore and my father has always regretted that they were lost. I have taken it upon myself to see if I can find them somewhere. Which libraries might be good places to start looking for collections which might contain something like this? At this point I feel there is only a remote chance that I will find anything - my impression is that these papers had a very small circulation, and what are the odds that anyone saved any of them? There is also an outside chance that he may have been published in other larger (national) papers. My aunt recalls that he once received a newspaper or magazine in the mail which contained one of his stories. The only major work I've done so far is to spend a day in the Erie Country Public Library (Buffalo's mail library), but without any luck. Because I now live in Atlanta, this isn't something I can do every day! Thanks for any help. Mike Goldsman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 14:49:20 +0100 From: David Herskovic Subject: A shlak The Rabbi of Satmer is known in the wider world for his militant anti Zionist views. Amongst Chasidim however he is equally known for his sharp acerbic wit. On his first sikes after he arrived in America he heard the people around him talking about a 'roof'. After equiring about the meaning of the word and it being explained to him he quipped, 'vos men hot in der haym gerifn a shlak rift men hant a ruv'. As we are told that etymologising is a 'Jewish national sport' would someone like to speculate how 'shlak' which other than on sikes means either a lackey, as in the quip above, or the devil, as in 'der shalk zol eym trefn', came to mean a temporary flimsy roof on a sike. David Herskovic 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 08:36:21 -0700 From: "Pamela Lapham" Subject: Indianer Now I am really getting confused. I agree wholeheartedly with Joachim Neugroschel that the smaller dictionaries are rather useless. I guess the problem is that my WAHRIG (1986) and MURET-SANDERS (1985) are not Austrian specialized or turn of the century. I probably read the original article wrong saying that INDIANER as TRUTHAHN (turkey) should be in any good German dictionary, and that was the point I was trying to make -- not that it was an impossibility for anyone to use Indianer to mean turkey (especially if they were familiar with the American holiday of Thanksgiving). Confusing part. I just talked to a Southern German (Ph.D.) who said that whoever said Indianer meant Truthahn was pulling our leg. Guess I'll have to have a university conference on this one. Just teasing. They already think I'm a bisl meshugele, and I am sure if Joachim Neugroschel says it is in the 1974 MURET-SANDERS, it is. I'm probably very much over my head in this argument, not being exactly a native Austrian:-) and do apologize and wish I had the four volume MURET-SANDERS instead of the two volume one. On another topic: Does anyone know of the superstition of not starting any new project on Friday as that would bring bad luck? Pamela Lapham 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 13:51:29 EDT From: Lfridhan Subject: Dream work by der bal ha-khaloymes I thank Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan for her comments and reflections about my comments (7.081,9). Dos Porfolk changes in the head like a dream. Sholem Aleichem's statements at the start are clear that this is dream work: a sakh arbet farn bal ha-khaloymes. And I am not surprised that my comments zenen farplontert gevorn. For example, I must suggest that Marjorie misquoted me and probably misunderstood me. She writes: "Lou states further that Sholem Aleichem calls them vilde mentshn, and American Indians, as we sadly know, were referred to as savages. But in the story, the keepers, the shoykhets, are called vilde mentshn, not the protagonists." That's not what I said. I'd like to clear that up. Here is what I actually said: "At any rate, 'di vilde mentshn' (the savages) are not the American Indians who in popular folklore of the time were so conceptualized. In a startling reversal, Jews carrying out ritual slaughter of caged, helpless animals are the savages, 'di vilde mentshn.' Two of the intended victims of ritual slaughter are thinking, feeling beings. They invite the reader to observe along with them a bitter irony: a feast to celebrate freedom is prepared by killing caged, bound beings who also long for freedom. All this for God. The helpless victims wonder about God." Finally (and I am done with all this), when the words _indianer_ and _indikes_ are used in the same sentence, it may clue us in as to whether the writer means that they are identical or not. Sholem Aleichem opens the last paragraph (p. 153) with a telling sentence. The essential declarative elements include: indianer zenen gelegn _vi_ indikes. He did not write that indianer _were_ indikes, only that they were lying _like_ indikes. Whatever else one can see here, it is obvious that indianer and indikes were compared with each other and were not identical conceptions for Sholem Aleichem. Dreams are very plastic. Louis Fridhandler 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 16:13:30 EDT From: Kromobile Subject: zol mir zayn far dir Or, in one of my favorite songs ("a kind a goldene," words by A. Reyzen), "mir zol zayn far dir." I think Dan Slobin is on the right track with Middle Eastern origins. My ignorance prevents me from offering much, but for what it's worth: R.Kipling's fascinating novel "Kim" takes place in 19th-century India and is liberally sprinkled with Hindi words and expressions that are accurately used. There is also an important secondary character named Mahbub Ali, a Pathan from Afghanistan. One of his favorite expressions, when he reassures Kim that no harm will come to him, is "May I be thy sacrifice." In my edition (introduction and notes by Edward Said), the expression is described in a footnote as a "Muslim oath of fidelity." Surely there are Mendelyaner who could illuminate us further. Marti Krow-Lucal 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 17:05:30 -0400 From: Barbara Lamm Subject: equivalent of English saying in Yiddish I'm wondering if anyone here can answer a question we have been batting around. What would the Jewish equivalent be for the saying "We all have our cross to bear"? Yiddish and/or English phrases are all welcome. Barbara Lamm New York, NY 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 18:25:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Indianer in German, and turkeyness I can hold my Langenscheidt's German-English dictionary (which defines Indianer as American Indian, not turkey) in one hand, but Joachim Neugroschel warns (7.081, 3) that "if you can hold a dictionary in one hand, it's probably useless for any complex research." However, my dictionary does cover ordinary usages. I would bet that ordinary usage is the influence on Yiddish most likely to operate for Sholem Aleichem's use of Indianer in Dos Porfolk. Also, the notion that kareln (beads) would mean a wattle rather than kareln is a metaphor stretched too far for me. Beads are hard solids resting with some degree of firmness on the chest while wattles are fleshy, quivering appendages hanging from the chin or neck. Ober ver veyst? As has been said: az Got vil, shist a bezim. I am wondering about the Turkish shawl, though. I sense it may be interesting. If my memory serves me, there is a connection with Sholem Aleichem's early novel, Yosele Solovey. Back to the research. Louis Fridhandler 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 18:59:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Arthur Komar Subject: folklore While in Brazil some years ago I purchased a small carved good luck charm and fertility symbol (at least so I was told) which was called in Portuguese a "fica". It was precisely the the thumb in finger gesture which I now learn is called a "feyg" in Yiddish. Is that a coincidence? In fact, when I learned at the time that the fica was a fertility symbol I presumed that the etymology was rather salacious. Re Tum Balalaike: I doubt very much that "A shteyn ken vaksn, vaksn on regn" is as absurd as it may initially sound, nor does it have a salacious origin, although that also would provide an amusing answer to the posed riddle. As most farmers know, rocks do appear to grow in the fields. Before one plows a virgin field one must remove the rocks in order not to break the plow blade. However after each winter rocks reappear, having been heaved up by the winter frost. In certain regions, such as the eponymous Rockland County NY, this is a perennial problem each spring. The rocks do appear to grow, and without rain. It is a rather well known physics phenomenon that when you mix grains of different sizes and agitate them, the smaller grains will migrate to the bottom of the container and the larger grains, in this case the rocks, will migrate to the surface. Zey take vaksn on regn! Arre Komar 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 16:10:17 -0700 (PDT) From: Steven Cassedy Subject: Isaac Meir Dick I'm trying to locate a work by Isaac Meir Dick called "Shivim Mohltsayt." Has anyone ever heard of it? Steven Cassedy ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 07.084 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html