Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 26 July 9, 1992 1) Yiddish camp (Benjamin C. Kite) 2) Bakoshe and introduction (Blossom Kirschenbaum) 3) Mickey Katz (Jack Falk) 4) Mendel in Forverts (Yankl Steinberg) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 8 Jul 92 05:13:39 -0500 From: ajax@judy.indstate.edu Subject: Yiddish camp Does anyone know anything about (heh) the Mt. Holyoke Yiddish Camp? Is it over already? Is there time to enroll? :) Benjamin C. Kite 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 08 Jul 92 11:53:29 EDT From: "Blossom S. Kirschenbaum (Blumke Shteynberg)" Subject: A bakoshe and an introduction Dear Ellen Prince, please send me your material on Menashe Skulnick. I feel on the verge of making my brother Ira very happy by sharing it with him. I've been tuned in to MENDELE for some weeks but this is my first note. I was born in Manhattan, grew up on West Burnside Avenue in The Bronx, went to Hunter from 7th grade through B.A. My parents spoke Yiddish for privacy until the kids caught on, then switched to Russian but froze that in the Cold War--I still consider it my "lost language" and delight in hearing it at work (in same building as Slavic Department). In 1986 through the Weinreich Summer Program of YIVO I studied at Columbia and became literate in Yiddish--what a thrill! I went to elementary, inter- mediate, and advanced classes, understood everything, a velt fun yiddish. Leonard Wolf was teaching translation; I actually published a translation of an A. M. Orzycer story in Queens College journal YIDDISH. (Most of my translation though is of Italian fiction by women.) MENDELE is like my daily vitamin tablet now. Greetings too to other friends whose names have crossed my screen--and I blow a kiss to you, Dovid Braun! Blossom Kirschenbaum 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 8 Jul 92 09:29:42 PDT From: jfalk@cs.MENTORG.COM Subject: Mickey Katz As a Yiddish vocalist, klezmer musician, and host of Portland's only Jewish radio program, I feel honor-bound to reply to the reflections on Mickey Katz in vol. 2 no. 24. First off, family details: yes, he was the father of Joel Grey. Also, the grandfather of Jennifer Grey ("Dirty Dancing"). More importantly, Mickey Katz was one of the more inventive free spirits that the American Jewish community spawned during the mid-20th century. Mickey Katz reflected the spirit of his times perfectly; with one foot in the old country and the other foot in the new, he echoed the cultural ambivalence of many Yiddish-speaking Americans who weren't "legitimate" (fully assimilated) Americans but weren't Eastern European Jews anymore, either. As a clarinetist, Mickey Katz may not have been a Dave Tarras or Naftule Brandwein, but he was no slouch; it's a little-known footnote, but Mickey was with the Spike Jones orchestra after the war. I'm sure that his years with that group pushed him closer to the edge as a lyricist (some would say that they pushed him all the way over the edge), but he also built a klezmer band that needs apologize to no one. While his group rarely displayed the kind of virtuosity that impresses classical listeners, they always played the tunes right, with feeling and with musicianship. After 40-odd years, the records stand up extremely well against the other Yiddish stuff recorded in that era. Granted, many of the lyrics are dated, but not nearly as badly as some of the 1960s Jewish humor that followed ("When You're In Love, the Whole World Is Jewish"; "2000-Year-Old Man"; etc.). And a large part of the reason that they seem dated is that so few of us understand the Yiddish these days. One other point worth mentioning. As a Jewish humorist in the years immediately following World War II, Mickey Katz fulfilled an essential and extremely difficult role: he helped Jews learn to laugh again. No small feat, and I can't think of a format that would have done the job better. So, did Mickey Katz "measure up"? The answer depends upon what you're measuring him against. He influenced an entire generation of young musicians who resuscitated the dying art of klezmer music in the late 70s and early 80s. Judy Bressler (Klezmer Conservatory Band), Wendy Marcus (Mazeltones), and a number of other vocalists have recorded his material. More significantly, the great clarinetist Don Byron revived Mickey's repertoire in the jazz festival that Henry Breitrose cites. That concert received much publicity a couple of years ago in the New York Times, on National Public Radio, and elsewhere. Some of the publicity served as a retrospective on Mickey Katz. Some of it focused on the remarkable work that Don Byron has done on his instrument, surging from klezmer to avant- garde and back again. All of it pointed out the magic of Byron's collaboration with Joel Grey, Mickey Katz's son, finally free to perform his father's musical numbers. You might want to read Katz's autobiography, which Professor Breitrose mentions. It's not a terribly well-written or engaging book, but it does provide a lot of details, along with photographs of Mickey and his wife in the 70s. (Now, there's something I wish that I could forget.) I had the good fortune to get Joel Grey to autograph the book when he was in town with a revival of "Cabaret" a couple of years ago. In remembering Mickey Katz and taking stock of his contribution, let's also recall that most Yiddish theater in the first decades of this century was regarded as "shund" (trash) and was rudely dismissed by the defenders of high culture. So what? Much of the Yiddish vocal repertoire that has survived to date stems from that tradition of shund. The next time you listen to a klezmer band at your friend's wedding or at your granddaughter's bat mitzvah, say a quiet thank you to Mickey Katz for having inspired us all to rediscover this delightful music. We'll sing auld lang syne, and drink a glezele vayn, With a toyst "lekhayim" to Uncle Hoymen We'll sit cheek to cheek, while I steal epes a peek And take from you a bisl afikoymen!! (Peysakh in Portugal) Jack Falk 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Jul 92 10:58:50 EDT From: "J. J. Steinberg" Subject: Mendele in Forverts Yo, "Mendele" is gevein in dan "Forverts." Der "philologos" (azoi) iz keschreiben shainer zachen - fun pleasantris - un es is nisht gevein a kritical article. Ober, es is shein to zein az er vaised deiner geschaft leibt offen komputer machinka. Ich deink - oichit - az it vet zein a guter zach az aller menschen (ober fun YIVO, und der Arbeiter Kreise) ken oichit vissen as "Mendele" staiht far dem kolbo und reidt vi a philosoph. Ainschudik mir az ich chob deir nisht geztalt vos iz geviein geschribben der airsther mul. Zei gezubt un sthark. Yankl ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.26 If your message is intended for MENDELE, please write to: mendele@vax1.trincoll.edu If you want to discuss personal business or have a shmues with the shames, please write to: nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.