Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 151 January 28, 1992 1) Ludic Yiddish (Yude-Leyb Proger) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 26 Jan 92 12:23:26 IST From: leonard prager Subject: ludic yiddish Ludic Yiddish (Note One) by Yude-Leyb Proger (Leonard Prager), Haifa As Yiddish as an everyday language declines among non-ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazim, its LUDIC uses are stressed at the expense of others.(1) Most ludic users of Yiddish are now in their fifties and sixties, were born in Ashkenaz 3 to parents born in Ashkenaz 2, recall bits and pieces of spoken Yiddish, know little Yiddish grammar ("dos froy," "di mentsh"), and introduce New-High-Germanisms and Anglicisms into the sparse Yiddish they do know (the jokes given below had to be rewritten from "Yiddish" into Yiddish). The phenomenon of ludic Yiddish -- which can also be thought of as the phenomenon of pseudo-Yiddish -- is mainly, but not exclusively, American (cf. the "humor" of the borsht belt). One of its high priests is Leo Rosten, whose best-selling _Joys of Yiddish_ and _Hooray for Yiddish_, besides perpetuating numerous factual errors, have packaged pseudo-Yiddish and pseudo-Yiddish culture as a great American fun sensation. Ludic Yiddish is one of several signs of the decline of Yiddish language and culture in Ashkenaz 3. Sadly, ludic users of Yiddish think they are continuing traditional Yiddish humor, but the humor is often pseudo-humor just as the language is often pseudo-Yiddish. No longer a realistic competitor to Hebrew, Yiddish is indulged in certain ways, but this indulgence conceals a deep-rooted ambivalence. As regards jokes, many Israeli Ashkenazim believe that {Heb.} :cit.beyidish ze matschik yoter:ecit. 'It's funnier in Yiddish'. We thus find jokes being retold in Yiddish which do not appear to have been conceived in Yiddish. Since Yiddish is associated with the Diaspora, which official Zionist ideology proscribes, telling jokes in Yiddish to other Israelis who understand Yiddish may have a special "underground" appeal. On a f I have heard some very raunchy Yiddish "jokes" in Israel, which their tellers might not have allowed themselves to tell in Hebrew -- but since Yiddish is the domain of humor, anything goes.(2) The ambivalence of so-called "folklore" evenings of Yiddish humor consists of both the positive appreciation of the formidable linguistic (including gestural and mimetic) resources of Yiddish for the expression of humor, as well as the sense that the "world" of that humor is "they" and not me.(3) Since much humor at bottom is aggressive and implies superiority of the teller over the joke's victims, this they-me opposition is reinforced in the un-Yiddish Yiddish joke. On the other hand, it is interesting that some Israelis feel that these jokes had to be told in Yiddish.(4) Many jokes circulate in Hebrew and one can always at least try to translate any joke _into_ Hebrew. The people who told me these jokes heard them in Yiddish and regarded them as "Yiddish jokes," jokes whose flavor is in the telling as much as in the content. This listening-to-Yiddish experience for them contained some element of nostalgia and, also, of appreciation of the Yiddish language. The first of the following jokes is crudely sexist and though it involves an element of surprize, it lacks the play of language or wit. The second joke is disguised aggression against a supposedly witless woman ("a yidene"), but there is humor in the sudden conjunction of the ordinary (sending messages) and the aweful (the mystery of death and the afterlife), a domestication of Death by plain speech. The joke has a fresh flavor owing to the stockmarket reference and seems more aimed at releasing financial than war anxieties -- both are real. The third joke is the only one of the three which Freud and other students of Jewish humor might have regarded as characteristically Jewish and the only one which seems fully at home in Yiddish. Nonetheless, many non-Jews will appreciate the joke, since it can be understood in a number of ways. Jews (but not all Jews) will see it as a burlesque of Jewish lugubriousness in general, and of the pervasive memorializing in Israeli culture in particular. The joke inverts the well known Yiddish expression, "af simkhes" 'on happy occasions {may we meet}', which is often heard among Jews (not only in Israel) at celebrative occasions where members of families or groups who seldom see one another have a chance to do so. This formula (whose Hebrew token is _besmachot_) is a kind of talisman against such sad causes for clan gatherings as funerals. The inversion suggests that modern life has so isolated people and has so torn asunder communal and familial ties that even unhappy events like funerals, which affirm those ties, provide a needed emotional lift. The joke may also point to unconscious pleasure at the death of others due to a feeling of superiority at having outlived them. The fact that the deceased is a relative points to the family complex, source of love and hate. The logical implication is that the closer the relationship of the deceased, the "better" it is for the mourner, i.e., "better" means "worse." Three Israeli Yiddish Cemetery Jokes (December 1987) At a Chanuka "folklore" evening at Bet Biram (Haifa) in December 1987, a young Israeli woman told jokes in Yiddish and translated them into Hebrew. They do not appear to be original Yiddish jokes, although a Yiddish garb has added something to their delivery. Sara Gilead retold the jokes to me. 1. Z'hot zikh nisht gelozt Tsvey bakante bagegenen zikh un eyner dertseylt dem tsveytn: "Kh'hob nor vos bagrobn mayn vayb olevesholem." Shrayt der tsveyter, "Oy vey! geferlekh! Ober zog mir, far vos bistu azoy farshvartst un farblutikt?" Enfert der ershter, "Z'hot zikh nisht gelozt!" {She Resisted: A man bumps into a friend and tells him, "I've just buried my wife." "Oh, that's terrible!" cries the friend. "But tell me," he asks, "why are you so soiled and blood-stained?" "She resisted," he replied.} 2. Me geyt aleyn! A yidene shteyt afn bes-oylem -- a bes-oylem vi ale bes-oylems iz es ober nisht, dos heyst nisht ka bes-oylem far mentshn, khas-vekholile, nor lehavdl a bes-oylem far khayes (ir zolt visn zayn az in amerike feln nisht azelkhe bes-oylems) -- un zi yomert un makht yeloles. Zi veynt mit trern s'harts ken tsegeyn. Di trern rinen fun ponim un af a hoykhn kol baklogt zi un ruft oys, "Hintele, hintele, zay a meylets-yoysher far mir un far der gantser mishpokhe. Bet, s'zol zayn sholem in erets-isroel, s'zol zikh shoyn nemen a sof dortn tsu di milkhomes, me zol ufhern hargenen undzere yidn. Un nokh epes, hintele, bet got er zol farshtarkn di tel-oviver berze un di prayzn zoln zikh haltn." Nisht vayt fun der yidene shteyt a yid un er hert vi zi shrayt un bet. Geyt er tsu un shushket ir in oyer arayn: "Yidene, far azelkhe toyves shikt men nisht ka hunt -- me geyt aleyn!" {You go yourself!: A woman was standing in a cemetery -- not, mind you, an ordinary cemetery, one for people (God forbid!), but an animal cemetery (there are such places in America) and she wailed and lamented and it was enough to break your heart to hear her. She wept buckets and cried out, "Doggie, doggie, ask God to give me and my family good health. And let there be peace in Israel, no more wars, let there be an end to killing Jews! Also, dear doggie, ask God to keep the Tel-Aviv stock market strong and prices steady. A man standing nearby, who heard her cries, went over and whispered in her ear, "Missus, for such favors you don't send a dog, you go yourself!"} 3a. S'iz beser vi gornisht Eyner a yid treft zayns a khaver un dertseylt em, az er iz ersht geven af a korevs levaye. Enfert em der khaver, -- "Nisht s'vayb, kholile!" -- "Neyn, neyn, nisht s'vayb!" -- "Un nisht kholile der zun!" -- "Neyn, neyn, nisht der zun un nisht di tokhter un nisht di eyniklekh!" -- "Az ver?" fregt der khaver. -- "Geshtorbn iz mayn plimeniks a shvesterkinds a shviger." -- "Nu," enfert der khaver, "s'iz beser vi gornisht." {That's Better Than Nothing: A man met an old friend and told him that he had just been to the funeral of a relative. "Not your wife, God forbid!" cried out the friend. "Oh no," he answered. "Not your daughter, God forbid!," cried the friend. "Oh no," he answered. "Not your son, God forbid!" "Oh no," he answered. "Then who?" cried the friend, "who?" "It was my nephew's cousin's mother-in-law." "Well, answered the friend, "that's better than nothing."} 3b. S'iz beser vi gornisht (I heard this variant of 3a. from Harry Hiller {Haifa} on 28 December 1987. He had heard it from Ted Friedman {Haifa}.) Eyner a yid shteyt afn bes-oylem ban a frishn keyver un veynt un shrayt az er hot gekont ufvekn a toytn fun yener velt mit zayne gevaldn. Geyt tsu im tsu a yid un fregt mit gefil. "S'vayb?" "Neyn," enfert der ovl. "A kind, kholile?", fregt der mentsh vayter. "Neyn, oykh nisht ka kind," enfert der ovl. "Az ver?" fregt der mentsh, ver?" -- "Geshtorbn iz mayn eydims a bruders a shvesterkinds a plimenik." "Nu," entfert der mentsh, "s'iz beser vi gornisht." {That's Better Than Nothing: A mourner stood by a fresh grave and wept and screamed so that his cries could have woken the dead. A bystander approached him and gently asked, "Your wife?" "No," said the mourner, "not my wife." "Not a child, God forbid?" asked the man. "No", the mourner replied, "not a child." "Then who?" he asked, "who?" "My son-in-law's brother's cousin's nephew died." "Well, answered the man, "that's better than nothing."} Endnotes 1). The term _ludic_ in this context was first used by David L. Gold. 2) Yiddish is simultaneously the domain of the obverse of the funny, namely the unctuously ('shmaltsy') sentimental. Food is a large segment of this compartment. In ludic Yiddish, funny or food cover most cases. 3) Non-Hebrew-language ethnic cultural events in Israel are made acceptable in public by being placed under the rubric of _folklore_. _Folklore_ may be quaint, but it is not quite _culture_. The Histadrut in Haifa includes "Haagaf letarbut, khinukh vehaskala," which in turn includes "Hamoadon lesifrut ulefolklor." The latter has for many years sponsored Yiddish cultural events in Yiddish, always somehow coupled with the licensing word _folklor_, which somehow neutralizes the too prestigious _literatur_. 4) Simultaneous with ludicization there has been, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, an ongoing revaluation and subsequent renewed appreciation for Yiddish culture and its treasures. This seems to be related to the strength of Hebrew, the decline of Yiddish, the academicization of Yiddish, the recognition of Yiddish by non-Jews (Nobel Prizes for Bashevis, Wiesel), the spread of Jewish English (especially via the entertainment media), but mostly to genuine nostalgia. ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.151