Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.070 July 30, 1993 1) Non-jewish sukke decorations (Meylekh Viswanath) 2) Translation help needed (Peg Syverson) 3) Hillel Halkin (Reyzl Kalifowicz-Waletzky) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jul 27 11:03:13 1993 From: Meylekh Viswanath Subject: Reyzl's analysis of non-jewish sukke decorations Reyzl's analysis of the khasidic woman using non-jewish decorations is interesting indeed. However, I would like to raise one question. If she, and khasidim, in general, realize the non-jewish associations of these decorations (as they presumably would if it says so clearly on the label), I think they would have to worry about the implications regarding the doraysa iser on 'khukas ha goyim.' There is a big rabbinic responsa literature on the subject, and its certainly not clear cut; so the decorations in question might in fact be muter, but I would think that the question would be raised and resolved, considerations of practicality and aesthetics aside. Meylekh. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jul 28 13:13:47 1993 From: nli1@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU Subject: Translation help needed I have heard that this group specializes in Yiddish literature and history. I am currently working on a dissertation involving the Objectivist poet Charles Reznikoff, who was born of Russian immigrant parents in 1894. His parents worked in the garment district in New York. Among Reznikoff's papers is a lengthy manuscript written by his father, Nathan, entirely in Yiddish. There is a typescript manuscript accompanying it that we believe is a translation/editing by Charles. My work deals with a single page of this Yiddish manuscript, and I am trying to find a way to get it translated, so that I can compare the typescript with Nathan's original manuscript to discover to what extent Charles reshaped the typed version. The translating may be difficult, because it was written such a long time ago, by someone who was probably not well-educated. The manuscript as a whole is extremely interesting and important, I believe, because it is an autobiographical account of the father's life starting from his childhood in a Russian village, and including his emigration to New York and work in the garment trade. The page I am concerned with deals with a very emotional moment for Nathan, when his own father and mother arrived from Russia, together with their young daughter, some fourteen years after Nathan had left Russia. The manuscript itself is held in the Archive for New Poetry at University of California, San Diego. Some of your members might be interested in having a copy made for further research. There is also a memoir written by Reznikoff's mother, in English, as she was teaching herself to read and write English. The family story of the arrival of the grandparents was later incorporated into an autobiographical poem written by Charles Reznikoff, who drew extensively on his parents' accounts, constructing, in effect a communal, family memory. I have published an article in the Fall/Winter1992 issue of Sagetrieb on this subject. If anyone is able to suggest a possible translator, or would like more information about the Yiddish manuscript, I would be happy to correspond via the email address below: msyverso@ucsd.edu Peg Syverson Department of Literature, 0410 University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jul 28 20:56:35 1993 From: Roslyn Kalifowicz-Waletzky <0005943838@mcimail.com> Subject: Hillel Halkin Dear Ms. Halkin, It is interesting that you don't bother to refute the contents of the message, just its source. Like Zachary, my source also said that Philologos is Hillel Halkin; but my source's original source was not your deceased mother, o'ley'a hasholem. Since your posting, I have not only rechecked on the health of my source but have found another, irrefutable one for the same info. I assume that you have been letting your brother read all the Mendele postings on Philologos and Wexler. Now I won't bother sending Philologos copies of them as I had planned to do. You can assure him that the Forwards is not giving out this information; but on the other hand, it's as my mother said to me last month, "zolst visn, mayn kind, in leybn zenen nishtu keyn soydes". No one on Mendele or anywhere else that I know of has ever pursued Philologos's identity until now. And no one would have pursued it had his soft-pedalled Wexler write-up not involved someone who gave pseudonymity a bad name. He otherwise writes a very interesting column. With this I go back to Khaim Bochner's advice --polite silence. On another note, does anyone know what plans are being prepared for the Jerusalem One Yiddish News line? Some one here got excited about it when the news came out, ober men hert nisht un men zet nisht zint demolt. Is anyone considering posting any articles or texts on there? Reyzl [The shames can help on that last question. The Jerusalem One Yiddish account was both a list and a personal account. Faran a posuk: adam asher lo yoda ben-yemino lismolo (vegn kompyuters veysn zey nisht) ubehema rabba (a ferd farshteyt mer). Di untershte shura: the list is no longer in operation.] ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.070