Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.056 September 13, 1998 1) yidish un yidishkeyt (sylvia schildt) 2) Falik un Shtishe (Elie Train) 3) What's in a name? (Robert Berkovitz) 4) What's in a name? (A. Joseph Ross) 5) What to do? (Louis Fridhandler) 6) feygl (Mikhl Herzog) 7) Treblinka revolt/Wiernik family (Jeanne Swack) 8) Snipishok and Bitshutsh (Bob Krovetz) 9) Di Agune fun Chaim Grade (Rukhl Eissenstat) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 15:33:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Pcreativa@charm.net (Sylvia Schildt) Subject: yidish un yidishkeyt Fun eyn zayt bin ikh maskim mit reb hershkovitzn un andere az yidish on yidishkeyt hot mayn bobes ta'am. Ober derleybt mir nor 3 bamerkungen ... b'kitzer ... 1. Yidishkeyt on yidish (un mir redn fun yidn ashkenazim) iz in di breytste ramen on neshome, on ta'am. Es klingt fremd. Teyt. Yidishkeyt in iberzetzung (azey hot gezogt afile i.l. peretz baym tchernovitzer konferentz) is mer nit vi teyte oysyes. nor in di hartzike verter un vertlekh fun undzer 1000 yoriker mame loshn ken men fulshtendik oysdrukn yidishkeyt. Vi ir veyst hot der tanzer rebbe in zayn tzavoye azey ongezogt zayne khasidim, me zol redn yidish in shtub, un lernen say di meydlekh, say di yinglekh a laytishn yidish, k'day ontzufirn a b'emesdike yidishe heym. 2. Tzveytns, ale fargesn, ven me redt fun yidish un yidishkeyt b'khlal un dem aynflus fun toyre/talmud tzitatzies b'frat, az dos iz nit geven eyns far di mener vi far di froyen. dem zokher hot men gelernt ivre ... di nekeyve hot men gelernt merstns ivre-taytsh. un lernen bleter gemore, iz opgeredt. Biz di letzte yorn, un zikher zaynen geven oysnamen, hot gehersht a shprakh mekhitze. Un di mekhitze iz opgeshpiglt afile in di verk fun di revolutzyonern un revolutzyonerkes, di idealogn un di grinder fun bundizm, tziyonizm, u.a.v Di tzaytn baytn zikh ober, un afile in frume krayzn haynt-tzu-tog, zaynen faran a gresere tzol froyen toyre-gelernte vi friyer. Ober doyres lang in der antviklung fun yidish, iz geshtanen a vant tzvishn di minim, un grade di verter un vertlekh vos me baveynt,az on zey iz nito kin yidishkeyt, hobn nor gekent dos rov mener. 3. Un in vos bashteyt yidishkeyt? iz dos nor a frage fun sforim un minhogim? tzi ken an apikoyres eykh zayn a guter yid? ikh vil nit arayngeyn in a tifer diskusye iber dem, dos iz nit kday af mendele -- nor bloyz bamerkn az es zaynen faran bezundere meynungen -- un efsher gor shpilt yede grupe ir eygene vikhtike role in hemshekh fun undzer folk. dos darf blaybn an ofene frage. sylvia schildt baltimore, maryland 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 00:01:01 -0400 (EDT) From: Leslie Train Subject: Falik un Shtishe Yiddishe ruf-nemen: Fun vanet shtamen op di nemen Falik (far a man) un Shtishe, far a nekeyve? A dank in farois. Elie Train 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 11:49:05 -0400 (EDT) From: "Robert Berkovitz" Subject: What's in a name? Like Norman Fruman (08.052), I long ago noticed the frequency with which Jewish boys were given the names of British families. To his list, one should add "Howard." In fact, when as a boy I first heard of the now forgotten Hollywood film, "The Howards of Virginia," I momentarily assumed that it was about Howard Smulevitz, Howard Weinberg, and other successful Richmond merchants. Then came the flash that led me to speculate as follows. American Jews sought to give their sons "assimilated" names of record, for daily use, as counterparts of their "official" Hebrew names. The procedure by which I, authentically Boruch, became Robert, was without doubt improvisation on my mother's part. But the Howard epiphany led me to believe in the existence of an approved list drawn up by American rabbis. Wishing to stem a trend that could, if unstopped, lead to the application to Jewish boys of such names as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John even, a committee of rabbis had prepared an approved boy-name list composed of names of colonial families. These names were unquestionably American, and somehow desirably of English rather than continental immigrant origin. I supposed that two parallel lists might have been made with one running Anshel, Avrum, Boruch, ... and the other Arnold, Howard, Irving, Seymour and so on. But whether such a list actually existed, I have never known. Robert Berkovitz 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 01:14:32 -0400 (EDT) From: "'A. Joseph Ross'" Subject: What's in a name? Norman Fruman asks why so many first names of 2nd generation Jewish boys are also the last names of British families. I don't know the answer to the general question, but one name that he didn't include in his list was "Sumner." Someone I know observed several years ago that this was, for some reason, a particularly popular first name among Boston Jews. It has even been suggested that if you ever meet anyone, anywhere in the world, with the first name of Sumner, you can be sure that he is Jewish and from Boston and was born sometime in the early 20th century. I don't know why this is, either, but it's certainly an interesting phenomenon. I hope someone can explain it. A. Joseph Ross 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1998 12:48:08 -0400 (EDT) From: Lfridhan@aol.com Subject: What to do? To ignore or not to ignore? That is the question. Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan in Mendele (8.046, 4) complained recently that not enough contributors had yet come to the defense of Noyekh Miller in response to an ill-considered, uncomplimentary (to put it mildly) comment about Noyekh's ability and position regarding Yiddish usage. I am reminded of what Ravnitski related in his memoir about Sholem Aleichem. Israel Levy (in the late 1880s) was owner and de facto editor of the Folksblat, the Yiddish weekly that profited from publishing Sholem Aleichem's works. However, the strange Levy was a fanatic opponent of Yiddish and on occasion roundly insulted Sholem Aleichem and other Yiddish writers. This naturally upset Sholem Aleichem who wanted to arouse others to vigorously respond to Levy. Eventually, he thought it over. Ravinitski writes: (My translation) Sholem Aleichem, thinking it over, decided it would be better to ignore the Folksblat and its peculiar publisher as though they shevak khaim lekhol khay geven [had died, in Levy's clumsy, tortured invention] and had left this world. He wrote me: "The best punishment for that lunatic Levy is to say not a word about him, not even half a word." >From the Yiddish in "Tsum Ondenk Fun Sholem-Aleykhem" [In Memory of Sholem Aleichem], ed. Sh. Niger & I. Zinberg, Petrograd: I.L. Peretz Fund, 1917, pp. 43-56. That's one recommendation about this sort of thing from the past. Louis Fridhandler 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 10:19:30 -0400 (EDT) From: "Mikhl Herzog" Subject: feygl--AGAIN I've had occasion to write this before. Perhaps the editor will review the process for accessing such available materials: German _Vogel_ 'bird' yields the (Jewish) name _Fogel_; German _Voeglein_ , a regional form of Veilchen 'Violet',yields the Yiddish name _Feygl_. The Jewish _Fogel . . ._ surnames are derivable from the former. The _Feygl . . ._ surnames MAY be derived from either, BUT the girls given name _Feygl_ is unlikely to be derived from the former--it would then mean the plural 'birds', an unlikely name for a child. Mikhl Herzog 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 23:39:08 -0400 (EDT) From: Jeanne Swack Subject: Treblinka revolt/Wiernik family Dear Mendele list, I am interested in finding biographical information on a man named Jankiel Wiernik, who was one of the leaders of the 1943 prisoners' revolt in the Treblinka camp, escaped, and published an account of his internment in 1944 (first in Polish, then translated into Yiddish and English). Wiernik had been in the Warsaw ghetto before he was taken to Treblinka. This account has been reprinted a couple of times, most recently in Lawrence Langer's Art from the Ashes (Oxford, 1995). I am especially interested in determining his birthplace. Many thanks, Jeanne Swack (possible relative of Jankiel Wiernik) 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 21:42:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Bob Krovetz Subject: Snipishok and Bitshutsh Can anyone tell me about the use of the towns "Snipishok" and "Bitshutsh" in Yiddish literature? These words were used as names for "mythical" places in my family (akin to referring to "never-never land"). When the Soviet Union was breaking up, I heard a reporter say "This is reporting from Snipishok" and I nearly fell off my chair. I found out that Snipishok is a suburb of Vilna, and Bitshutsh is an Eastern Galician town. I would like to learn more about the influence of these towns in Jewish culture. I am not a regular reader of this list. Can you please send replies to krovetz@research.nj.nec.com? I will post a summary of what I learn to the list. Thanks, Bob Krovetz 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 23:31:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Eissenstat@aol.com Subject: Di Agune fun Chaim Grade Ich hob heysht ge-endikt leyenen Di Agune. Emetzer hot mir fartseylt as alles vos Grade hot geshribn is geven emesdik. Is dos gerecht? Oyb azoy, vos is di geshichte fun di emesdike agune-- punkt azoy vi inem bukh-- a zelpsmord? A dank. Rukhl Eissenstat ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.056 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