Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 28 July 12, 1992 1) Request for material (Fishl Kutner) 2) Help wanted (Meylekh Viswanath) 3) Introduction (Reuven Cohn) 4) Maurice Schwartz (Ellen Prince) 5) Borsht Circuit Ballads (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 10 Jul 92 13:56:43 -0700 From: Philip Kutner Subject: NZ request for articles Norman Simms, contact for The Yiddish Network, requests essays,reviews,poems and reports on Jewishness and Yiddishkayt for RASHI the Literary Supplement of the New Zealand Jewish Chronicle. He can be reached at: Norman Simms Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand or nsimms@waikato.ac.nz Philip "Fishl" Kutner 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1992 17:07 EDT From: VISWANATH%DRACO.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 2.25 Wanted: A part-time baby-sitter for Yiddish speaking children, for the Yugntruf Yiddish Vokh (Yiddish retreat) in the beautiful, rustic Berkshires. Should have child care experience and be fluent in Yiddish. Working hours: 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, in the company of at least one parent. Prospective baby-sitter will be given free room and (kosher) board and access to all camp facilities in exchange for baby-sitting services, not to mention the opportunity to participate in a unique Yiddish-speaking experience. For further details, call Dovid Braun (212) 787-6675 during daytime hours. Meylekh Viswanath. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 8 Jul 92 20:22:31 EDT From: REUVEN=COHN%LEGAL%BWH@COMM.bwh.harvard.edu Subject: Introduction It boggles my mind to create an association between the computer, symbol of the future, and the Yiddish language, whose future is so uncertain. As for myself, I spoke Yiddish until I went to kindergarten. Thereafter, my parents spoke Yiddish and we answered in English. When I went off to college, the first week, my mother wrote me a letter in English and wrote in parentheses within the letter that she hoped she had spelled a certain word correctly. I wrote back that I didn't care how she spelled, and why didn't she just write in Yiddish and thus avoid the whole problem, if it was of concern to her. That is how I learned how to read Yiddish. Of course, this story dates me, since who sends letters to their kids in college nowadays. In the last year, I read about 150 pages of Grade's "Der Yeshiva" , a book that I read years ago in English translation. Both my parents come from that world in a sense, and so it was an incredible experience for me to read it in Grade's beautiful Yiddish. Reuven Cohn 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Jul 92 22:14:02 -0400 From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 2.27 [Steve Dubin (Vol2.27) asks about Maurice Schwartz)] re maurice schwartz, he's been dead for many years--at least 30, i think. i can find out for sure--he was the uncle of a cousin (by marriage) of mine. she's out west at the moment visiting her daughter, but i'll check with her as soon as she comes back. don't know of tapes of his theatre work, but there are certainly videotapes of at least some of his movies. even my local little video store around the corner carries 'tevye der milkhiker' (i *think* that's the title) and a few others. if yours doesn't, request them! ellen prince 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 12 Jul 92 From: nmiller@trincc Subject: That old refrain Sholem Ruveyn Benjamin takes the shames to task for having, in an unguarded moment, expressed his feelings about borsht circuit Yiddish. Darned shames! Thinks he can get away with that tired and discredited cultural elitism. But the shames, being older than he'd like to be, figures it this way: koydem kol, he hopes that the readers of Mendele will tolerate his crotchets; v'hasheynis, ver hert zikh tsu tsum shames? So he feels free to express his personal view that much of borsht circuit culture is painfully self-abasing and in any event godawful (which of course has nothing to do with standing in awe of God, but that's for another forum) because he knows that readers will continue to send in what they want. An interesting question does emerge: where else in modern Jewish history have we leaned so heavily on parody of the host culture (l'moshel 'An Old Cowhand' and other such khidushim of the Jewish Euterpe)? I learned a good many Russian songs as a child, some of them in Yiddish trans- lation, some with Yiddish stanzas, but they were the same sentimental smarmy tunes that were popular at the time among Russians. There were also macaronic ditties, but no parodies. Am I missing something? Did Poland between the Wars have some of this? I've seen no references to such but I'm no authority. Noyekh ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.28 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.