Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.068 July 24, 1993 1) To Dovid Braun (Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Jul 24 14:04:51 1993 From: Roslyn Kalifowicz-Waletzky <0005943838@mcimail.com> Subject: To Dovid Braun To Dovid Braun, Yo, s'iz take modne far undz tzu redn english, ober az men muzh, muzh men. >Reyzl, your mention of the Xmas decorations on the suke where so >interesting and could really be instructive about how cultural >patterns are transferred. I would guess that it was no problem >for the Boro Park (or Williamsburgh or whatever) person to use these >"for Xmas" decorations because she was living in a purely Jewish >neighborhood where the possibilty of a Jew putting up Xmas >decorations was nil, and where there was no or very little cultural >contact between Jews and Christians who use these decorations >forXmas. I.e., the woman might not have had strong associations >with Xmas because she wasn't in a neighborhood where there much >Xmas. On the other hand, a Jew living among (Jews and) Christians >would specifically associate the decorations with Xmas, and thus >wouldn't be likely to use the decoration him/herself. If so, a >conclusion is that cultural forms adopted by Jews from coterritorial >cultures were not adopted as a result of tremendously strong >cultural interaction with the non-Jews, but because Jews were >somehow exposed to these forms and brought them back into their own >communities where the Christian (or what have you) association was >missing, and further cultivated them within their closed community. >(Take, for example, the dying of eggs among Ashkenazim -- obviously >reminiscent of Easter eggs, but apparently having lost that >association.) >Tell us more about that decorations discovery, please. First off, khasidim in New York have always lived in mixed neighborhoods no matter how concentrated their population seems to be. There have never been "purely Jewish neighborhoods" in Brooklyn. The same goes for Boro Park, Williamsburg, etc. today. They do see Christmas decorations and Christmas symbols in store windows, ads, newsprint, etc. as we all do. It's unavoidable even if you don't watch television. I think they are familiar with the major Christian symbols of pine tree, pine wreath, red and green color combo, etc. These are symbols that everyone in America knows. The plastic cut-out decorations that I was referring to are indoor decorations (often used to decorate Christmas trees) and are perhaps not as readily seen by Khasidim. Though they are used by non-Jews only for Christmas as far as I know, they are not always featured in commercial Christmas displays, perhaps because they are a cheap item and commercially unprofitable. You will sometimes see flat one-dimensional cutouts that look like snowflakes in all kinds of window displays, and they are clearly Christmas symbols. But the ones my friend Shifra Epstein was investigating are the multi-dimensional, ornate ones made from mylar and imported here in the last 10? 20? years from the Orient. What is intriguing for me is that not only are they very similar to the kinds of papercuts European Jews used to hang in their sukkas, but they also resemble the ornate papercuts (made, following tradition, of paper) that I once saw in the Bobover Shul's sukka I believe in 1977, handmade by children in their summer camp. So now comes Shifra's question. She basically asked the khasidic lady (not in my presence): How come you are now buying mylar papercuts that are distinctly produced by Christians for Christians for a goyisher Christmas and the package clearly states on it "For Christmas"? Her answer basically was, "What's the problem, here? They are very pretty and I can use them in the way I want for my holiday. They are not Christmas for me." I think that what we have here is a very practical approach to cultural forms. These mylar papercuts are selected first because they are pretty. Gut genug. Second, they look like the kinds of papercuts European Jews used to make for their sukkas, forms once very popular among all Jews but especially khasidim. What could be more wonderful for khasidim today! Third, these today are made of indestructible mylar and will maintain their fancy forms all eight days no matter wind or rain. What could be better! Traditional papercuts are made of paper and they always fall apart in the rainy weather. In view of all these very practical considerations, why should a khasidic lady let the fact that it says on the package "for Christmas" stand in the way of her enjoying the multiple benefits of such an innovative product? I am sure that the fact that they are also sooooo shiny and come in many rich saturated colors, including gold and silver, appeals to the taste of folksy ladies. My point in mentioning this was that both we and Wexler (via Halkin, we now know) too often talk of cultural borrowing in terms of influence from the strong, majority culture upon a weak, minority population. This is not an accurate description of what is really going on here. When you closely study folk artists and cultural transmission you find there is a specific, and different, modus operandi. Borrowing quite often occurs on the basis of the folk mind making very practical and aesthetic choices. In a strong traditional society everything is grist for the mill; and practicality and aesthetics determine what and how much is borrowed, whether it is from the majority, or neighboring or another, even lower-status minority culture. This goes for decorations, music, folk medicine, foods, and even methods of de-bloodying a carcass, no matter what the cultural source, even Turkic Barbarians. Then comes a mental process of de-stigmatizing, de-Christianizing, neutralizing any remnant non-Jewish symbolic values before new Jewish symbolic value is assigned. Victor Turner and Clifford Geerts have written much about this process of "converting" foreign folk ways and making it one's own. It took me years to finally break down and buy these decorations for my own sukka, mostly because I was worried that my non-Jewish next door neighbors would think I was really borrowing from their Christmas ideas. Or else, believe that I was using their Christmas decorations inappropriately in some stupid little hut we built outside. Dovid, you are right in saying, "If so, a conclusion is that cultural forms adopted by Jews from co-territorial cultures were not adopted as a result of tremendously strong cultural interaction with the non-Jews" but your assertion that borrowing happens in a monolithic Jewish community where "Christian associations are missing" is not completely on target. The conclusion you drew from my earlier posting is correct but cultural isolation is also not the only possible scenario where cultural borrowing occurs. First, as a former member of those communities, let me tell you that non-Jewish symbols are rarely unknown in the khasidic community. If a khosid ever bought a Christmas decoration (with no crosses or Santa Claus on it of course), his guests would assume that he either did not know that it was a Christian artifact or that he knew it but it was too beautiful to resist; and since the guest is sure that the khosid is not going to use it in any Christian context, what difference is it going to make if he is going to enjoy its aesthetic, neutral value? However, a Jew who lives in an assimilated world can always be located somewhere near the outer boundary of Jewish practice and that person would worry that other Jews may think that he/she has lost his balance in the difficult juggling of these two worlds. Such a Jew tries to make sure to mark every boundary very clearly and avoids any confusing or ambivalent symbols. The khasidic lady knows that non-Jews use it as a Christmas decoration. Although she is buying the item as is, in the same version as a Christian does, she still doesn't worry that someone will think she is making even a mild version of Christmas with that decoration. She knows that she is placing it in a Jewish context where it will be redefined by the virtue of that new context. In this case, she isn't even "cultivating" it in any way. In her modus operandi, she can buy it and benefit from it according to her needs. You can compare the folk attitude described above with mine. For the last few years, I, a somewhat assimilated Jew, have been wracking my cultural brain about whether to buy beautiful, decorative, dried flowered- or fruited-wreaths. I am talking about the ones that have become so popular in the last years-- the ones made of anything but Christmassy pine needles. Now these wreaths come from a Christian tradition (I think) and have now been "cultivated" and secularized by an open society for practical and aesthetic purposes. For an avid flower lover like me, these wreaths are most aesthetic and practical; but I cannot get myself to buy them. It is as you suggest; I am too aware of their symbolic value. I stand and ask: At what point does the category of wreaths lose its Christian association and become a neutral, non-sectarian decoration? What marks a wreath as Christian? Is it the material used (holly or pine needles)? Is it the round form itself? Or is it the combination of pine needles and round form? If you are aware of all the symbolic values an item has in the world, you may first isolate that marker, strip it and then replace it, giving it a new symbolic value. You will then have "recreated" the artifact to suit your ritual or cultural need. Or you can just ignore all previous symbolic value, as that khasidic lady did, and redefine the artifact in any way you want. I cannot buy them because I am still too fearful the Christian associations will not permanently fall away by that redefinition process. The only wreath I have bought till now is one with sliced apples, blueberries and dried rose buds-- a wreath whose contents are so charming and unusual that they chase away any Christian association. I could always attach some Jewish symbol to a wreath to "Judaize" it; but that worried about it, I am not. It's interesting that the "Judaized" ones I have seen at Jewish crafts fairs always look to me to be stupid and "nokhgemakht". (These are the equivalents of "cultivated" Jewish forms you are asserting in your posting.) Maybe this kind of excessive brain-wracking and consumer-paralysis is what happens to students of decorative semiotica (one of my academic activities). But the point I would like to make with raising the wreath issue is that one finds scholars/academics, who themselves live in assimilated cultures, quite often assuming that the folk borrower cares or negotiates the same issues that he/she does. When they see a case of cultural borrowing, they often judge it to be a result of cultural weakness rather than cultural strength. In the example of the khasidic lady and the Christmas decoration, you clearly see a case of cultural strength, especially when you compare it to my "culturally" weak position vis-a-vis buying a simple flowered wreath. I can not seem to do what these khasidim and Jews have always done so easily, so naturally, if you will. That's because the khasidic lady isn't always worrying and checking for crisscrossed boundaries the way a self- conscious Jew like me does. In every society, a substantial part of the marketplace, whether of ideas or artifacts, is always open to all cultural groups. Cultural borrowing is a natural course of events and not always the result of a minority's cultural weakness or isolation. I think that it's often a result of courage in clearly and distinctly marking your cultural territory and identity, so that you don't worry about misperception by others. Now, I certainly never consciously worried that someone will think that I'll be celebrating even a weak form of Christmas. But when I think about the wreath issue, it obvious that I don't feel that all of my boundaries are water-tight. God knows, I don't want them to be, so I am stuck with spending energy checking them when I walk into a store. A khasidic lady walking into a store is certainly also always checking her boundaries vis-a-vis products, probably with more frustrating results that mine, but in the example I cited above you see her dealing with "tume" in a much more "liberal" way than I am. The same goes for the church hymn that was converted to "Maoz Tsur" or a khasid converting a peasant drinking song into a neshomedik nign. New cultural Jewish forms will probably develop more easily in that khasidic lady's house than mine. Observing such "liberal" attitudes among Jews vis-a-vis borrowing foreign cultural patterns is what makes scholars like Wexler nervous is the point I was making in my last posting. But we don't have to be. Now that I said all this, maybe I will go out and buy myself a nice flowered wreath. As for your example of dyed Ukrainian Easter eggs as examples of cultural transmission, I don't think that Jews coloring eggs for Peysakh is necessarily the result of Ukrainian influences. Sephardic Jews also dye Peysakh eggs (called "Huevos haminadav") with onion peel just like Ashkenazim do. Sephardim sometimes also use coffee grinds to dye the eggs. The result is kind of brown marbleizing. Ukrainians paint them with their traditional designs. I'll tell you more when I'll see you af der yidish vokh. **Note: There has been talk on this forum of discussing Yiddish literature not just linguistics. I have been trying to bring Yiddish folklore into Mendele. But God, if I could only do it with shorter postings!!! Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky reyzl@mcimail.com ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.068