Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 98 November 16, 1992 1) An-sky (Sarah Stein) 2) On pronouncing 'botch'(Ellen Prince) 3) Query (Henry Breitrose) 4) Our productive subscribers, cont. (Nahum M. Goldmann) 5) J. Rothenberg's poetry (Sigrid Peterson) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 21:58:01 EST From: Sarah Stein Subject: An-sky I extend a hearty thanks to the many senders who offered me information and leads about An-sky. I am excited to follow them up. They have prompted me to put forth a question regarding some of the work I am doing in this respect. Recently, inspired by an article by Dr. Mendes-Flohr in Studies in Contemporary Jewry (1987?) I have been pursuing the question of how a genre of scholarship by Western Jewish intellectuals writing at the turn of the century can be placed into the general context of the "Orientalist movement" that Said, primarily, explores. While studying An-sky's work, I have begun to wonder: what does it mean for Ansky, highly educated, with a strong socialist leaning, to "return" to the study of Jewry, and more particularly, contemporary Eastern Jewish communities? How is his project a synthesis of admiration and objectification--particularly given the fact that a goal of An-sky's was to assemble a musuem of the "ethnographic objects" he zammled along the way? Does such a pursuit find inspiration in the Western European vogue of making a pilgrimage to colonial (mystical, alien) lands? Is it stretching the point to suggest that the fascination with the Ostjuden as cultural other by certain highly educated and highly assimilated Western Jews "colonializes" Eastern Jewry? Though An-sky was of shtetl origin himself, as an educated and assimilated Jew he, like many peers, spent formative years in Paris--where folkloric and colonial trends were simultaneously develo ping. Finally, can authors such as Peretz, Shalom Alechem, and Asch--who describe the shtetl with a similar combination of admiration and sarcasm, be said to share with An-sky an "objectified" passion with shtetl life? I am aware that the Ostjuden were sometimes referred to as "Asiatic" or "Halb Asian" by Western Jews. This seems to me to be a philosophical as well as geographic catagorization. Mendes-Flohr's article was the first one I had read overtly questioning the association between the Ostjuden and the "Orient"- -and more particularly, the myth thereof. Has work been done in this regard that I have not come across? In as much as it is largely theoretical I am not certain as to what extent I am lost in my own research! I have really only begun this work, and recognize many of these ideas and questions as primitive. But all the more, I welcome responses. Sarah Stein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 22:36:56 EST From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: RE: Mendele Vol 2.97 [Leonard Prager writes:] >It is of course true that in CY it rimes approx. with >GenAmerEngl _botch_, though you can hear a Dzigan (from >Lodz) stretch out and nazalize the vowel considerably. totally trivial comment: in my recollection of the cy i grew up hearing, the vowel would be much longer than in _botch_, more like _march_ if you don't pronounce the /r/ (as we didn't, back in brooklyn). ellen prince 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 16:36:52 PST From: hbreit@leland.stanford.edu Subject: Query My late colleague Nathan Maccoby was exceedingly proud of having been a descendent of the Kamenetzer Magid. We are trying to prepare a fairly elaborate biography, and would appreciate stories, references, etc. about the said Magid, and the tradition of Magidship (magiderei? magidshoft?). Hertzigen denk, Henry Breitrose 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 11:44:00 -0500 From: "Nahum (N.) Goldmann" Subject: Yet another "productive subscriber" N. Goldmann "Online Information Hunting" - the first book for the end-user! (McGraw-Hill/Windcrest, ISBN 0-8306-3945-4). Nahum Goldmann 5)--------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 12:07:35 EST From: petersig@ccat.sas.upenn.edu Subject: Jerome Rothenberg's poetry Mendelniks (?) who were moved, as I was, by Ira Robinson's evocative review of the Journal _Polin_, about Polish Jewry, might appreciate knowing of the two volumes of poetry by the noted poet/folklorist Jerome Rothenberg that are related to the devastation of people and culture that took place. One collection is _Khurbn & Other Poems_. New York: New Directions, 1989; the other is _poland 1931_. Santa Barbara, CA: Unicorn Press, 1970. (Harvard lists this as a limited edition; since I read some of these poems in Portland, Oregon, either Portland State University's library has one of the 500 editions issued, or it's been republished, or some of the poems were later collected in an anthology of his. I suspect this last is the case.) Sigrid Peterson petersig@ccat.sas.upenn.edu ____________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.98