Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 38 July 20, 1992 1) Judgements (David Sherman) 2) Query (Zev Kesselman) 3) In defense of schlock (David Sherman) 4) Yiddish films (David Sherman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jul 92 16:25:19 EDT From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.CA Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 2.31 Sten Vikner asks about: > 1 Zet der yid plutsling den shokhn kumen (?) > Sees the man suddenly the neighbour come > > 2 Lozt der yid plutsling den tsigar faln (?) > Lets the man suddenly the cigar fall > > 3 Vet der tsigar plutsling faln gelozn (?) > Is the cigar suddenly fall let 3 sounds weird to me, but 1 and 2 are quite normal for me. Of course, my Yiddish is not native and may have been corrupted in this respect by English. But my wife, who grew up in Toronto with Yiddish as her mother tongue, uses the same constructs. I'm assuming what's at issue here is the use of the infinitive. Of course, to begin the sentence with a verb presumes that it's being used in narrative, taking on the sense of "Therefore" or "And the next thing to happen was...". Or is the use of plutsling here supposed to have an effect? David Sherman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Jul 92 07:59 JST From: Zev Kesselman Subject: Anschel What is the etymology of the personal name "Anschel"? I can't find it in any of my name books. Zev Kesselman (Zev@Hadassah.Bitnet) 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jul 92 15:56:45 EDT From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.CA Subject: In Defense of Schlock Maybe I'm warped by having grown up playing Allan Sherman (no relation) records at home. I'm sure Noyekh would put Allan Sherman in the same category, though he used virtually no Yiddish. (If he had, I wouldn't have understood it as a kid, and presumably never would have gotten corrupted.:-) I happen to like the Rechnitzer Rejects and Country Yossi and the Shteeblehoppers, not to mention Schlock Rock. So do my kids. Some of it is very witty. Agreed, it's mostly takeoffs on popular songs; why is that so awful? Not all of it is comic; many of the lyrics are serious and/or thought-provoking. Pardon me for not being cultured enough. (If it's any consolation, we also have several dozen tapes & records of "real" Yiddish music, and we listen to those too.) But remember that MENDELE owes its genesis to this kind of schlock: it was in reaction to the junk I was including in mail.yiddish that Noyekh first proposed setting up an alternate, "high-kless", mailing list. I'm thankful he did; aside from the great discussions we have, it's allowed me to let mail.yiddish more-or-less lapse without feeling bad. Noyekh wonders whether Yiddish schlock is unusual in copying so much from the surrounding culture. Is that any different from the language itself, as actually spoken in Toronto, or Boro Park, or Skokie? (As distinguished from YIVO Yiddish.) One reason I get a kick out of Country Yossi is that it's drawn from the same songs I listen to quite regularly on AM radio, yet is converted to Yiddishkeit (in the religious & cultural sense) and Yiddish, because that's the natural environment of the singer. To me, listening to Country Yossi sing "Me darf visn ven tsu koyfn / visn ven tsu loyfn" is certainly no worse than listening to Kenny Rogers sing "You gotta know when to hold up / know when to fold up", and is a lot more fun because (a) it's culturally closer to me, and (b) it's Yiddish, and anything in Yiddish is appealing. If this were the ONLY Yiddish I heard or used, then maybe Noyekh and Ellen would have a point. But I'm in a home that (as least as far as the kids go) lives in Yiddish. Sure, we listen to "real" Yiddish songs as well -- lots of them. And we even read stories in Yiddish, when we work up the energy. But why is Yiddish schlock so bad? Or will you also despise me for listening to 60's and 70's "pop" stuff (they call it "oldies" now; I guess I'm getting old) on AM radio? David Sherman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jul 92 16:12:48 EDT From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.CA Subject: RE: Yiddish films I recently discovered that Toronto's Board of Jewish Education runs something called the Toronto Jewish Media Centre, which is a resource centre chock-full of films, videotapes and audio tapes. They have quite a respectable collection of Yiddish movies on VHS videotape (about 30 or 40). For a modest ($18) annual membership, anyone can borrow tapes for a two-week lending period. Since I discovered the Media Centre, I've been borrowing handfuls of Yiddish videos and we've watched a good number of them with our kids. Yidl mitn Fidl; A Brivele der Mamen; Tevye der Milchiker (this one we watched without the kids -- boy was it different from FotR!); Mamele; and others. All of them are subtitled, but the subtitling quality varies (white subtitles on a white background are often unreadable). The sound and picture quality vary, but are generally intelligible. Would anyone care to comment on the four films I mentioned above? I'm interested in other people's reviews of them. (Maybe I'll discover that Yidl mitn Fidl is actually junk and schlock, which is why I like it. Please enlighten me.) One thing I find unfortunate is that the credits list the actors but don't say who was who. In Mamele, for example, I know Molly Picon was Mamele, but I don't know who the others were. Who played her father? Who played the fellow she was in love with? Are there complete lists anywhere? David Sherman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.38 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.