Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 100 November 18, 1992 1) Anski (Ira Robinson) 2) Goy (Ellen Prince) 3) Goy (Sigrid Peterson) 4) The Forward (Mischa van Vlaardingen) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 12:49 EDT From: ROBINSO@Vax2.Concordia.CA Subject: Anski An interesting case of Anski's apparent influence has to do with a small book of tales concerning the "Shpoler Zayde", R. Aryeh Leib, entitled "Tiferet Mahar'el mi-Shpole" (piotrkow, 1912). Its author, Yudel Rosenberg, who is also responsable for the tale of the Maharal of Prague and the Golem in its presently accepted form, includes many adaptations of previously published tales of the Shpoler Zayde as well as some that are apparently original. At the end of the book, however, he also printed letters he received from informants, including the then current rabbi of Shpole, answering questions concerning local traditions regarding the Zayde. I discuss this, aong other things, in my article "Literary Forgery and Hasidic Judaism: the Case of Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg", *Judaism* 40 (1991). My assumption is that Rosenberg had heard or read of Anski's ethnographic survey and thought it a good idea to include a "survey" of his own in the Hasidic storybook he was then writing. Ira Robinson Concordia University 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 14:10:17 EST From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Re: Goy [Hershel Bershady asks:] > >In any case, finally, the questions are 1) Does any >Mendelnik know whether there is an etymology in English >that traces the historical usages of the word "goy"? and 2) >if "goy" was indeed once used to refer to a member of a >nation, do any contemporary Israelis now refer to >themselves as goyim? I'd appreciate a few simple leads. > hi, harold. (we have to stop meeting like this.) i have comments, not answers. the meaning-shift you're talking about took place in yiddish, not english. english merely borrowed the yiddish word. also, i believe (i.e. not sure) that judeo-spanish uses _goy_ in its original sense. my basis for this is a judeo-spanish song about the birth of _avram avinu_ where _todo el goy_ turned out for the event. it may be referring to everyone-everyone or every jew but it wouldn't make sense for it to be referring to every gentile. as for contemporary israeli hebrew, it wouldn't surprise me if the yiddish restricted sense has taken over, but it would be interesting to look at sephardic and oriental usage there 40 years ago. let's do lunch one of these days... ellen (prince) 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 14:28:34 EST From: petersig@ccat.sas.upenn.edu Subject: Re: Goy Indeed, goy is Biblical Hebrew (BH) for a person whose status is that of foreign national, while _ger_ was originally the term for a resident alien. In the modern US, a ger is a goy with a green card. (Ger did later come to mean proselyte, someone not yet Jewish.) Is an Israeli a goy? I know in Utah Mendelniks would be gentiles, but can an Israeli be a goy? The term *is* used biblically to refer to the progeny of the patriarchs--`from you will come a great nation'--and Israel can be said to be that nation. There's "you shall be a _goy kadosh_", a holy nation (Ex. 19.6). However, these references are uncommon, compared to the sense that the _goyim_, the nations, are something other than Israel. Often the apposition is of _`am yisrael_ on the one hand, the _goyim_, or the nations who do not know God as Israel does, on the other hand. [Or whom God does not know.] I am fairly certain that the word _goy_ came into Yiddish from Hebrew. I have some idea that it would be hard to find anything in Yiddish where it is used/applied to the Jewish people. Hence it has come to carry a heavy load of negative feelings directed towards "the surrounding peoples"--the goyim as they were in biblical times coming to mean all the oppressive non-Jews of the Yiddishphone (?--maybe IOUDAIOphone?), that is, Yiddish-speaking, world. Sigrid Peterson petersig@ccat.sas.upenn.edu sigpeter@cc.utah.edu 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 22:18:35 MET From: santen@dutiws.TWI.TUDelft.NL Subject: the forward Scholem aleichum Mendelniks ! A few minutes ago i saw a documantary on the dutch television concerning the jiddisch (weekly) newspaper "the Forward". In the Netherlands there isn't any jiddisch periodic and i haven't ever seen "the Forward" in any bookshop here around. But my interest in "the Forward" is huge, it looked very good. Could someone give me an addressI coulde write to for a subscription ? Or is there any other way I could obtain "the Forward", perhaps in Europe ? Ofcourse i would feel so grateful.......... A recht schejnem Dank !!!!! My personal things..... Mischa van Vlaardingen Nazarethstraat 3-c 3061 KN Rotterdam the Netherlands. voice: +31 10 4531785 Betug mit goische al heb je geen poschut op zak. ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.100