Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.147 April 29, 1999 1) Seminar in Shefayim (Ida and Joseph Schwarcz) 2) Seminar in Strasbourg (Elanor Reiter) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 07:51:19 -0400 (EDT) From: Yosef & Ida Schwarcz Subject: Seminar in Shefayim We have just returned from a Shorashim sponsored seminar at the Guest House in Shefayim, "Who's afraid of Yiddish?" It last from April 23-24 and included excellent lectures by Professor Khavah Turniawsky, Dr. Avraham Novershtern, and Dr. Hayah Fridberg. A lecture on Yiddish film by Nahman Ingber was less satisfactory because the videos he projected onto a giant screen became fleeting shadows. A talk on the Bund by journalist Yitshak Loden left much to be desired. Entertainment included Yossl Birstein and his stories; Aviv and Arik Livnat and their jazzy klezmer band, and Natan Yonatan talking about Itzik Manger accompanied by Ruti Levin's magnificent renditions of Manger songs. There was also a surprise appearance by Nehama Lifshitz. The most disappointing aspect of an otherwise very successful seminar was the fact that almost all of the talks were in Hebrew! Ida and Joseph Schwarcz Arad, Israel 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 15:29:04 -0500 From: "Elanor J. Reiter" Subject: Seminar in Strasbourg LETTER FROM STRASBOURG I dream in Yiddish. My grammar isn't so good, but my grandma would have been pleased. Last summer, I participated in "Yiddish in Alsace," a three- week seminar that increased my facility in Yiddish and introduced me to Strasbourg's flourishing Ashkenazi Jewish community, secure in its identity, welcoming Jews in the tradition of Abraham. Strasbourg hosted the program because Paris flashed a Save Our Seminar when the World Cup runneth over, making accommodations and airline tickets hard to get. A group of creative Jewish Alsacians, Le Theatre en L'Air, organized the program, arranging for top-notch faculty and accommodations at the ORT school, and personally conducting interest groups in singing, drama, Alsacian Yiddish and Alsacian Jewish cooking. Our group was small, twenty-eight people, western Europeans except for six Americans and a seventeen-year-old Warsaw Jew from Krochmalna Street. Publicity was primarily on the Internet. Next year's seminar in Belgium will be promoted more extensively. A city of 256,000, Strasbourg has a Jewish deputy mayor who speaks Yiddish. With flowers, canals, and bridges Strasbourg exceeds its sobriquet of Little Venice. The Jewish community is unique and united. A directory lists five kosher restaurants and four kosher butchers. Jewish education? Ten schools, from gan to ORT vocational. There's a Jewish radio program, a Jewish library, and a Jewish travel bureau. In the central synagogue, services are in Ashkenazi Hebrew, and the gabbai wears a Napoleonic bicorn hat. A leaflet wishes worshippers "Chabbat Chalom," announces life-cycle events, and lists nine different synagogues, including Sephardic and "Loubavitch." But behind this bright picture of Jewish life are pentimenti, visible traces of a dark past: notice of a National Day commemorating "persecutions racistes et antisemites"; an announcement of a memorial voyage to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The beautiful ORT building with its courtyard in which we dined alfresco was used by the Nazis for holding facilities. The Strasbourg Jewish community was intensely involved in "Yiddish in Alsace." They were our mishpoche. At Shabbat dinners, families sang with us and regaled us in Yiddish. Our schedule was circulated; local people of all ages attended our classes. Reporters covered the cooking class and debutante (beginning) Yiddish class for the TV evening news. Le Theatre en L'Air presented outstanding programs. Rafael Goldwaser, an Argentinean actor/director from Habimah, translates plays from Hebrew to Yiddish with the balletic ease of his on-stage agility. Pre-performance explanations are in French and English. A solo evening of three unusual Sholem Aleychem stories was as light and delicious as a challah with a professional sheen. Another evening, a different mood: Rafael's second play, "Tonton Arthur," was about a Shoah survivor. Goldwaser, different in style, equals Maurice Schwartz and Menashe Skulnik in talent. A spark rather than a star, he ignites and illuminates the soul. "The Yiddishe Mamas and Papas" were the musical offshoot of Le Theatre en L'Air. The Mamas, Isabel Marx-Roos and Astrid Ruff, helped facilitate "Yiddish in Alsace." Astrid taught Yiddish songs of the shtetl, the Shoah, and surprisingly, American immigrants: "Belz" and "Di Grine Kuzine." Hmm... Had I come all the way to Strasbourg to sing the songs of the Lower East Side? Was this a courtesy to us Americans? Understanding dawned when we saw The Yiddishe Mamas and Papas perform outdoors in Molsheim to a sellout crowd, almost all non-Jews. The sun set, the stage lit up, and out came the Yiddishe Mamas, Isabel and Astrid, in tight black dresses. Sinuous arms unfolded, hips kept time to the music and voices spiraled and harmonized. Acknowledging their debt to the Barry Sisters, they were shopgirls on a day off or dutiful daughters telling their mothers they were in love. They were the vocal equivalent of the klezmer revival. The Papas were three expert jazz musicians. The beat varied from doo-wop to rock but was primarily klezmerized jazz. Good thing it was an outdoor concert because the applause would have brought the house down. CDs sold like latkes. Suddenly, the antiques in the basement of my mind had acquired value. I thought of my mother, who put stones in her pockets so she would weigh enough to get her work permit and give her unopened paycheck to her Mama and Papa, of my grandmother, who kept a bowl of cold water to wash her eyes so she could stay awake sewing piecework. I understood that Europeans value American Jewish history. Our European classmates became subscribers to the Yiddish Forward. For the Alsacians all things Jewish were precious, saved from destruction. "Yiddish in Alsace" became part of a program of 130 events and 13 days of "open house" for many of 200 Alsacian Jewish sites described in a community-written historical brochure circulated by the tourist bureau. Jews came to the Rhine valley with the Roman legions. In 1349 the Jews of Strasbourg were expelled, accused of fostering the Black Plague by poisoning the wells. Many were killed; the rest fled to villages. At the eve of the French Revolution there were with 20,000 Jews in 180 Alsacian communities, more than half the Jewish population of France. Napoleon granted them citizenship in 1791 so they could serve in his army. The Alsacian Jewish community prospered until the Nazi occupation in 1940. More than a quarter of the Jews were killed in the Shoah. Our group toured village synagogues, deciphering inscriptions on old buildings and, in old cemeteries, reciting the Hebrew names of those long gone. Outside the Colmar synagogue, the French government had placed a plaque apologizing for the wartime conduct of the "soi-disant" (Vichy) government. Still active, the synagogue is empty of pews in the center, a reminder of Jews killed by the Nazis. Pierre Levy, a volunteer, opened the ark, revealing many torahs: memorials, I noted, to lost communities. "The torahs were saved by the town firemen," he said. "Not Jews. When the Nazis entered a town the firemen took the torahs and hid them in the firehouse. I want to put up a plaque to honor the firemen." Colmar's Bartholdi museum, home of the designer of the Statue of Liberty, housed a collection of Judaica including a coffin-shaped drinking vessel inscribed with the names of Colmar's chevra kadisha. A member of the society told us that they drank from that cup at their annual meeting. I did not ask whether they drank l'chaim. The spires of the synagogues and town halls of Alsace looked like traditional Ashkenazi b'somim boxes. The fragrant vineyards and haystacks were my b'somim. I was part of a braided havdalah candle, intertwined with the Jews of Europe, kindled by love of Yiddish. The Jewish community joined us for our last dinner in Strasbourg. The choral group sang, the drama group told a folk tale. The kosher Bordeaux was consumed and replenished. Then my classmate Avrom rose to speak. He's a round silver-fringed-bald Belgian with an easy laugh. His hand trembling with emotion, he read his speech in Yiddish. (I use his English version.) "I remember today the words of my Yiddish teacher: 'For an Ashkenazi Jew, to find one's complete and true identity, one must turn to Yiddish.' "I couldn't for one instant imagine to what extent this return would provoke such deep emotions. From the very depths of my subconscious, from a source pure and clean, the Yiddish language surged. It's like a forgotten melody that rocked me in my tender childhood. And each day of intensive study is a joy for me. "I have the feeling of rediscovering the memory of my parents, my grandparents and my ancestors. It's as if I'm finally reciting kaddish for them... Thank you [God] for having given me my soul back." He then recited the Modeh Ani, the prayer of thanks to God upon awakening. He "signed" his speech Avrom ben David Itzhok from Brussels. When Avrom returned to my table, I kissed him on both cheeks. It's a French custom I think I'll adopt. Avrom found the world of his fathers. I, however, intensified my study of mame loshn, the Yiddish of my mothers. I am... Ester bas Chaya Rochl bas Sora Ester. Elanor Reiter from Chicago p.s. The next seminar will take place in Brussels, in the Martin Buber Institute, on July 5-16, 1999. More details in Mendele personal notices and announcements. ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.147 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://metalab.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html