Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 121 December 4, 1991 1) From Hebrew to Hebrew (Melekh Viswanath) 2) The rebbe in song (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1991 14:36 EDT From: VISWANATH@DRACO.BITNET Subject: hebrew to yiddish to hebrew ikh hob ersht gefinen zeyer an interesante vort in dem letzten numer Jewish Action: kolbonikit! a hebraishe vort arayn in yidish mit a rusishe endung un vider arayn in hebraish. tsi zaynen du andere azelkhe bayshpilen? melekh (viswanat@draco.rutgers.edu) 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1991 From: nmiller@trincc Subject: Der rebbe in song Many thanks to Bob Rothstein for tracking down that song. Curiously enough I know shreds of quite another version, but they're from a long way back and it's quite possible that they came to be as a result of the great popularity that Bob's version may have enjoyed. That it _was_ popular is attested by the existence of at least one English version from the early 30's: the rebbe had a bellyache from eating Tastycake and so's your uncle Jake. Sigh. Yet another version (I have absolutely no idea where or from whom I heard them; I'm pretty sure it was _not_ the radio) was a good deal more hostile. Instead of: oy der rebenyu oy iz dos a rebenyu vi er geyt vi er shteyt aza yor af mir.. the last line went: aza yor af im! and what a difference a pronoun makes. In any event, this rebbe song was one of several that mocked Hasidism. Take this one (again I have absolutely no idea how I came to know it; it certainly was not sung at home): AY ay ay ay AY ay ay nisim v'niflo-oys er shpringt arayn in vasser un kumt aroys a nasser! I suppose that these songs belong, if not to the Maskilic tradition per se then to its left-wing successors in Poland. I would be surprised if they were born here. It's useful to keep in mind that Hasidism in the New World barely existed and informed knowledge about it was similarly sparse. Most of us who grew up in the 20's and 30's didn't know precisely what a rebbe was, conflating him perhaps with a melamed. My grandmother, for instance, might have reminisced that her father 'fleg furn tsum gitn id' but it was only as an adult that I realized she was talking about a rebbe (Reb Borekhl of Tulchin at that). I mention all of this only to suggest that what passed for Jewish popular culture in America before World War II was based on a base of colossal ignorance. As everyone knows, all that has changed. Noyekh Ikh vintsh aykh un ayere a freylikhn yomtov. ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.121