Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.030 July 21, 1998 1) Introduction (Shprintze Willis) 2) Izi Kharik (Noyekh Miller) 3) Izi Kharik, shpanishe iberzetzungen (Eliahu Toker) 4) Yiddish in Canada (Philip "Fishl" Kutner) 5) Yiddish in Israel (Lucas Bruyn) 6) pejoratives (David Herskovic) 7) Muselman (Ingemar Johansson) 8) Stuffed K'neidlach (Michoel Simon) 9) "Der Amerikaner" weekly (Naomi Fatouros) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 20:27:58 EDT From: WILLIS@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Subject: Introduction I am writing to introduce myself. I am currently a PhD candidate at Brandeis studying both Hebrew and Yiddish literature. I spent two summers at the YIVO institute. I study Yiddish at Harvard with Ruth Wisse and Marcus Mosley. I have also studied with Avram Novestern and David Roskies. My specific area of interest is late 19c Hebrew and Yiddish literature written in E. Europe. I am looking forward to participating in Mendele. Shprintze Willis 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 11:40:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Noyekh Miller Subject: Izi Kharik a hartsikn yasher-koyekh shaya mitelmanen, ershtens far di vunderlikhe sheyne lider izi khariks, un tsveytns far undz dermonen -- un nokh mit aza shtokh -- vegn a tragishn kapitel fun di geshikhte undzere. Izi Kharik's lyricism and that (literally) deadly prose of Der Shtern. I suspect that a lot of us on Mendele had our hearts broken long ago over this dreadful and even worse shameful period; now comes Shaya Mitelman to do it all over again. But if after heartbreak comes a deeper understanding, makhtese. And for that understanding what we need is what we outside Stalinist Europe have never had, a _full_ account of what Jewish life was in those years. I hope that the Mendelistn who are in a position to provide the necessary will be unstinting in the matter. More: if a minute fraction of the money spent on "Holocaust" extravaganzas were devoted to the publication and worldwide distribution of the largely unknown Yiddish literature of post-1917 Russia (and for good measure the better-known but unavailable Yiddish literature of interwar Poland), _then_ we'd have a monument worthy of the name. That takes leadership and I doubt whether since Joshua's time there has ever been a Jewish leadership that has not consisted largely of fools and knaves. But I wander. Noyekh Miller 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 20:33:39 -0400 (EDT) From: tokere@abaconet.com.ar Subject: Izi Kharik, shpanishe iberzetzungen Libe Mendelianer: Ikh vil onteil nemen in di dermonung funem poet Izi Kharik tzu zain hundert ierikn geburtstog, mit shpanishe iberdijtungen fun drai fun zaine lider. Di iberzetzungen zainen maine un zei zainen a teil fun main shpanishe antologuie fun idishe dijtung "EL RESPLANDOR DE LA PALABRA JUDIA", originel ershinen in Buenos Aires in 1981, un ibergedrukt in 1996 in di zelbe shtot in a fulkomere un oisgebeserte oisgabe. Ot o di lider zainen a gutn baishpil fun Khariks epish-lirishn ton, an oisdruk fun zain epoje. CANTOS ACERCA DE CANTOS Para que habre aprendido a componer canciones, no me bastaba con la inquietud del viento? Ven cabeza mia, tonta y agobiada, voy a acunarte como a un ninio. Tu padre no sabia nada de poesia, leia dificultosamente letra a letra; hubieras podido ser como el, un simple zapatero huesudo, sano y sencillo. Y cuando la maniana se atragantara de colores y el viento hamacara tu casita, cantarias como el, trabajando, sin darte cuenta tu mismo... Y andarias ligero, con miembros cansados, y siempre llevarias despejada la cabeza, para que habras aprendido a componer canciones, cabeza mia, criatura inquieta! NOVEDADES GOLPEAN LOS VIDRIOS... Novedades golpean cada maniana los vidrios; arrojo afuera mis dos inquietas manos y que en alguna parte ya arde otro pais estoy listo a escuchar confiado. El corazon comienza a echar fuego; siento que un tiron me arranca de mi casa; en cada plaza roja vuelve a hablarnos Lenin y cada plaza roja hierve y llama... De nuevo esta ardiendo el horizonte. Levanto mi cabeza iluminada, y la llevo. El calor empuja; el clima es de fiesta. Y asi todas las noche y cada dia nuevo... enero, 1925 SOBRE LA TIERRA Coloquen cuanta mas carga sobre mi nuca; tal vez apriete un poco mas los dientes, pero cuanto sea que carguen voy a decir: -Es poco! Y por pesado que sea, voy a gritar: -Mas! Que hacer si me siento ligero y cualquier tarea me resulta digna. Necesito cantar, me pongo de pie y canto, y, mojada de rocio, me responde la Via Lactea. Creo que toda una vida podria andar sobre la tierra con el primer rocio y la juventud sobre los labios, y cuando se me haga pesado... pero como puede hacerseme pesado si energias juveniles manan todavia y manan. Eliahu Toker 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 21:49:42 -0400 (EDT) From: "PHILIP \"FISHL\" KUTNER" Subject: Yiddish in Canada David Sherman's highly informative discussion of Yiddish in Canada in V. 8.025-1 revived my interest in a project needing to be finished. While David's information concerned the total population, my interest is in the key people in the non-khasidik community. With very rare exceptions, the contact between the Haredi and the non-khasidik community is zero--when we refer to interest in Yiddish literature, music or theater. If one were to deal solely with the group who are the Mendelyaner type, non-Haredi, then how many key people are there in Canada who are keenly fostering Yiddish? Using the definition of key people in Yiddish clubs, Yiddish teachers, Klezmer band leaders, Yiddish radio announcers and translators and Yiddish performers, my Canadian database shows 267. In a conversation with Phil Givens o"h several years ago, he felt that given my definition there would probably be well under 1000. When current mailings are sent to Yiddish key contacts, there is not one list, but as many as four. These total around 1000. In my opinion a central clearinghouse needs to be developed for the Canadian Yiddish community. Addresses, phone numbers and e-mail access are important data to be centralized. Mailings should be sent at least yearly and preferably semi-annually. This can be in the form of a small newsletter or even a postal card with return address requested for those who no longer reside there. With a very small community in the East Coast islands, there is essentially none until one approaches Montreal. Here is where the Westward migration begins. Montreal was the center of Yiddish speakers and the Yiddish cultural center of Canada. The move has been Westward and now the Toronto Jewish community outnumbers Montreal. The movement seems to have bypassed Winnipeg and the smaller communities in the West and instead is moving to Vancouver. It is hoped with the new leadership that there will be an effort to fulfill Given's plan to have a good database of the key people in the Canadian Yiddish community. Philip "Fishl" Kutner San Mateo, CA 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 10:55:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Marion Troia Subject: Yiddish in Israel Re: Yiddish in Israel Vol 08.026 I would like to object against Sylvia Schildt's suggestion to have 1500 mendelyaner write protest E-mail to the Israeli Knesset, demanding Yiddish instruction in Israeli schools. It seems to me a political issue and not a literary or linguistical one. We might protest against the plans of the Sholom Aleichem Memorial Foundation to bring out a 25 volumes Sholem Aleichem Library in English translation at a time that we don't even have a dictionary containing all words used by Sholem Aleichem or against the fact that the Penn Un. on line dictionary was closed down because of the copyright on the EYYED. By the way, what is the E-mail address of the Knesset? Lucas Bruyn. 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 05:00:07 -0400 (EDT) From: David Herskovic Subject: pejoratives Last week I called a friend to ask if he could recommend an electrician. His reply was 'kh'ob a gite elektrishn, a shvartse, er arbet far landn elektrisiti in er's nisht tayer'. Had it been an Indian he probably would have said 'an idniyaner'. However, had it been a white Englishman he may have said nothing or simply 'a goy' since I find the use of goy is often used to mean a chap or a fellow. Someone recommending a good builder might say 'kh'ob a gite goy' rather than 'a gite bilder'. Goyte on the other hand is mostly used for cleaning ladies. Goytes are traded and swapped; a good goyte is one who does under the fridge and the couch and leaves no water marks in the kitchen and bathroom while a geferlekhe goyte is one who never turns up, doesn't dust the top of the doors and has the khitspe to tell you on erev paysekh that falls on Good Friday that she has to go to church. Where the goyte knows she is being referred to in this way the term araylis is sometimes used, which though anatomically meaningless is the feminine of orel. Orel and araylis are used for goy/goyte in the same way that shokher is used for shvartse. A true geferlekhe goyte, or yidene for that matter, like the one who won't let you on the airline with excess baggage or won't fit you in for an emergency appointment at the doctor's surgery is known as a klafte, makhsayfe or reshante. A shikse in English or Yiddish implies commonness as in 'a proste shikse' or has sexual connotations. If a friend were to tell me 'ikh bin gezesn leybn a shikse ofn ereplan' I would take it to mean an attractive young girl rather than an old hag. But if you hired a woman architect or solicitor then I think you would say simply a fro rather than anything fancy. But we needn't look for pejoratives to our references to non-jews. The use of frenk for a sphardi is deeply insulting in any language but unfortunately is widespread. I have no idea where the word comes from but it is on the offense level of referring to a black man as a spade. Another term I find offensive is 'a farkalekhte' for a senile person. Again I know not the source of the word but it is always used with a derisory tone. My father uses 'over ibotel' which translates roughly as a goner, and although perhaps not ideal is still kinder especially because of its Mishnaic source. David Herskovic 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 09:54:09 -0400 (EDT) From: "Ingemar Johansson" Subject: Muselman This is a quotation from a Swedish book, "Utvald att leva" ("Chosen to live"), Bonniers 1996, page 268, written by Jerzy Einhorn, born in 1925 at Czestochowa, Poland, Yiddish-speaking from birth: "Some are worse off, the worst ones are called Muzelmans in the camp - prisoners who due to malnutrion or other causes cannot go on anylonger, who resign, don't wash up in the mornings, don't mend their clothes. We know that a muzelman will die soon. The term is derived from a similar expression in yiddish - _a miser man_ - and has nothing to do with muslims." Einhorn writes this in connection with his memories from the Hasag-Pelcery Camp where he was a prisoner between June 1943 and January 1945. I don't know what his explanation is worth, but I cannot see that this interpretation has been mentioned here before. Ingemar Johansson 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 07:03:03 -0400 (EDT) From: "ms" Subject: Stuffed K'neidlach In response to Howard Aronson's query about Kneidlach stuffed with something sweet my family have a Yom-Tov tradition of kneidlach with cinnamon and sugar inside. They are quite large and the family calls them 'bombs'. I think this may also have originated in Lithuania. My Zaide o''h used to have his bombs roasted in the oven before being put in the chicken soup. Michoel Simon 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 20:59:37 -0400 (EDT) From: NFatouros@aol.com Subject: "Der Amerikaner" weekly Dear People, In 1941, a few years before his death, Gregor Zvi Belkowsky, who was my grandfather's first cousin, wrote to my grandfather, saying, in part, that he was compiling a book concerning his life and Zionist activities. (Gregor was educated in Odessa, taught law in Bulgaria, was a lawyer in St. Petersburg and wrote several books and articles on law. Although he had a falling-out with Herzl over the Uganda question, he remained an ardent and active Zionist, for which he was arrested several times. In 1924, he escaped exile by getting himself deported to Israel (then Palestine) in 1924, where he became a municipal court judge in Tel-Aviv.) Gregor wanted my grandfather, Dr. Isidor Belkowsky, to find an article for him that was published in the "weekly review in Yiddish, under the name of "Der Amerikaner', published in New York , 77 Bowery, Telephone: Canal 6-7200." The article might have been called "The Jubilee of Professor Zvi Belkowsky," but Gregor Zvi was not certain when it appeared. He thought it might have been in October or November of 1940. He remarked (with some gleeful pride), that "it was the 17th article published about [his] jubilee in this country [Palestine?] and Bulgaria." I have been told by Rachelle Rubinstein, archivist at WZO, that there was no such article in Gregor's archive there, so I am asking in this forum whether anyone knows where the microfilms or the original issues of "Der Amerikaner" might be found. Naomi Fatouros ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.030 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