Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 23 June 13, 1991 1) A tikn to'es (Mikhl Herzog) 2) Yiddish in Israel (Leonard Prager) 3) Introduction (Frank Silbermann) 4) Introduction (Len Alshan) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 Jun 91 15:48 EDT From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.BITNET Subject: RE: Vol 1.22 See what I get for not proofreading my stuff? It was just too late at night. In any event, two corrections: 1. In Western Yiddish, it is intervocalic "b" that doesn't occur. 2. The Litvak in me got the better of me: I meant to propose a "tsEzamenfor"and not a "tsUzamenfor". Woe is me. Mikhl. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jun 91 12:34:55 IST From: leonard prager Subject: letter to editor Dear Noyekh Shames, I don't normally react to the misinformation, stereo- types, condescension, etc. often meted out to Yiddish in the Israeli press, but this time -- because the source was serious and the errors were not enormous -- I did write a letter to the editor. The subject of the relationship of Yiddish to Zionism is an important one. I understand that someone at JTS is doing a thesis on it. I have a few things to say on the subject and would like to hear from others about it. Here is my letter: Editor, The Jerusalem Post The Jerusalem Post Building Romema, Jerusalem, POB 81 (91000) Dear Editor: There are several generalizations which call for quali- fication in Sam Lehman-Wilzig's capsule history of Hebrew in the June 7th issue of Contact; The Jerusalem Post Magazine. The author correctly notes that "The impact of Yiddish is evident throughout Israel to this day," but less correctly continues: "precisely because it was identified so closely with the Diaspora and persecution, Yiddish was ideologically unacceptable to any self-respecting Zionist. Indeed, because the vast majority of immigrants were fleeing bitter experiences in their countries of birth, they enthusiastically embraced Hebrew upon arrival" (p. 23). Yiddish was a threat in the eyes of the militant Hebra- ists because it long continued to be the language of daily domestic use of the majority of the Yishuv. Only a minority of immigrants "enthusiastically embraced Hebrew upon arrival." Hebrew proved victorious over Yiddish largely because it early dominated the kinder- gartens and primary schools. Parents learned Hebrew from their children while continuing to speak Yiddish to one another -- this was the general pattern. Many immigrants from East Central Europe never learned Hebrew well and continued for years to speak German, Polish and Hungarian. Only a small minority of immi- grants to Israel rejected their native languages to the degree of effecting a complete shift to Hebrew. They usually employed Hebrew for certain purposes only and they distinguished between the antisemitsm of their native lands and its language and high culture. One of the greatest Hebrew and Yiddish scholars this country has ever known, the late Professor Dov Sadan, enjoyed nothing better than conversing in Polish with fellow Polish-Jews. He was not atypical. Many German Jews refused to break with the language of Goethe and Heine, though there were certainly also those who refused to speak German after leaving Germany or Austria. I know a German-Jewish couple who, not yet knowing Hebrew very well, shifted to English to avoid German. I am not aware of any statistical studies of this subject but I believe it is safe to say that under almost any circum- stances the acquisition of a new language by an adult is difficult and not likely to be an occasion for celebration. Mr. Lehman-Wilzig has also somewhat distorted the relationship between the Zionist movement and Yiddish. Certainly not all Zionists saw Yiddish as "ideological- ly unacceptable." Most particularly, members of the Left Poalei-Zion, led by such distinguished person- alities as Zrubovl {Jacob Zerubovel}, would have been shocked to learn that they were not "self-respecting Zionists." The Yiddishist Zrubovl was, among other things, one of the founders of the Jewish self-defense movement in the Diaspora, whose members spoke and valued Yiddish. The equations Yiddish = Diaspora and Diaspora = Evil were never universal in the Zionist movement. Moreover, despite the militant Hebraist's conscious hostility, Yiddish never left him -- it was too deeply engrossed in his soul. Sincerely yours, Dr. Leonard Prager University of Haifa 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jun 91 9:36:12 CDT From: Frank Silbermann Subject: RE: A gentle prod from Mendele My name is Frank Silbermann. I am an assistant profes- sor of Computer Science at Tulane Universitiy in New Orleans. During my two years of German as an undergrad- uate at U of Florida, I became facinated by my older sister's books on comparative linguistics. After col- lege, I tried to pick up other Germanic languages on my own. I quickly gained a reading knowledge of Yiddish and Dutch, but gave up the idea of easily learning the Scandinavian languages, as these are less closely related. My capability in Yiddish was magnified in recent years by my progress in Biblical Hebrew, which I have been absorbing by daily minyan attendance (synogogue services). I never heard any Yiddish in the home, though my father spoke Yiddish as an alien in Germany until the age of 10 (when his family fled to Belgium). My mother's family came to America at the very beginning of the East European immigration, and tended to identify more with the German-speaking Jewish immigrants. Her gener- ation had already lost all knowledge of German or Yiddish. fs@cs.tulane.edu 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 Jun 91 21:36:25 EDT From: Len Alshan Subject: introduction Jewish guilt does work so here is my attempt at an intro. I am a professor of psychology at City College of New York with a specialty in psychological measure- ment and statistical methodology. I am first genera- tion, my folks both having been born in Russia, coming here at the ages of 4 and 7. One would think that this would have given me a rich liguistic background. Unfortunately, the contrary is true. Russian was never spoken, and Yiddish when the children were not to understand. The result is that I have a pretty good store of Yiddish sayings, aphorisms and curse words, but absolutely no ability to read or write the lan- guage, which I really regret and had hopes that this list would be of some help with that. I did study Hebrew, both privately (along with an abortive attempt at Yiddish) ages 10 -15 (went back after bar mitzvah to study RASHI) and also studied Hebrew in high school. The result was that at one time I was fluent in both Biblical anmd modern Hebrew -- an ability that has seriously declined with advancing age. So I am here for what I can learn from you folks--a great deal of it is over my head -- but I keep trying. Would love some learning aids -- someone did suggest the YIVO-Columbia summer workshop, but unfortunately I do not have the time to attend that. At this point point, I do find that the list keeps me in touch with Yiddishkayt in a way I did not anticipate but am thank- ful for. So you will probably not be receiving much in the way of learned discourse from me, but rather a dumb question from time to time. Thanks to all, and again, I would appreciate any and all suggestionms with regard to the study of Yiddish --especially those I could follow at home using tapes, books etc. Len ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.