Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.112 September 29, 1993 1) Yiddish Clubs (Sid Resnick) 2) The joys of Yiddish? (Noyekh Miller) 3) Ma(y)nse (Elyet Hersh Gertel) 4) Manse/mayse/maynse (Marnen Laibow-Koser) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Sep 28 15:40:11 1993 From: NMILLER@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Subject: Yiddish clubs [Below a few excerpts from an article in Jewish Currents, Vol.47, No. 8, September, 1993] Yiddish Clubs International Conference Sid Resnick One of the newer and less reported developments on the American Jewish scene in the past two decades has been the emergence of locally-based informally organized Yiddish-language activity groups composed mainly of American-born, middle-ages and older people. Jews meet together to speak and hear Yiddish, to read Yiddish books, etc. How many such groups are there? I was amazed to learn from Fishl Kutner, the resourceful editor of the monthly newsletter, Der Bay, in Belmont., CA, that he maintains a register of contacts with over 200 Yiddish groups in the United States! Der Bay is a clearing house of information for these groups and features a calendar of San Francisco area events, and another for national and international activities. His newsletter of eight pages, two of them in Yiddish, is sent to 600 subscribers. Another bilingual newsletter is published by the organization Yiddish of Greater Washington, for a mailing list of 3000. Newsletters are also issued in Toronto (Dos Bletl) and in Florida. There is even an on-line computer bulletin, issued in Middleton, CT. **** For these reasons one welcomed the initiative of the organization, Yiddish of Greater Washington, in arranging the First International Conference of Yiddish Clubs, held at the Hillel House and adjacent buildings at the University of Maryland in Rockville from May 29 to June 1. About 150 registered for the Conference, of whom 100 were from outside the Washington, D.C. area and six from Canada and Argentina. **** The four lectures presented indicated the Conference planners' seriousness of purpose. The lectures were: "H. Leivick, his Life and Work," a moving account by the poet's daughter-in-law, Ida Leivick, who lives in Bethesda, MD; "The W.P.A. Yiddish Writers Project of the 1930's," a fascinating discourse given with much verve by Prof. Hannah Kliger of the University of Massachusetts; "The History and Development of the Yiddish Language," a lecture with slide by Prof. Mikhl Herzog of Columbia University. The only Yiddish lecture was that of Moisey Wolf, M.D., also a professor of psychiatry and a Yiddish writer from Russia who had been a contributor to Sovetish Heymland in Moscow. Dr. Wolf, now living in Portland, represented the Jewish Federation of that city. Though his address was not readily understood by everyone he was, nevertheless, given a standing ovation when he concluded, so captivated was the audience by his colorful and authentic Yiddish. Yet, unexpectedly, language truned out, at one point, to be a source of contention. The shprakhenkamf, as some dubbed it, reared itself when an elderly man from Orlando, FL, speaking in Yiddish, reproached Prof. Kliger for lecturing in English though it was obvious she knew Yiddish perfectly well. He had come to the Conference, he said, "to hear Yiddish and instead all we hear is English!" He had his supporters, but it was evident that most of the audience preferred hearing the lectures in English because their knowledge of Yiddish was not sufficient to follow a scholarly talk in mame-loshn. Was it worth losing one's audience to uphold a purist attitude? Indeed, it was clear that most of the Yiddish groups in the localities generally combine Yiddish with English. Sid Resnick 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Sep 28 15:52:50 1993 From: NMILLER@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Subject: The joys of Yiddish [Regarding Sid Reznick's post, zeyt hekher] Aside from pointing out that the one place Mendele is _not_ issued from is Middletown, CT (try Brookline, Waltham, Hartford or New Haven) I have a maysele. It involves the very same Prof. Hannah Kliger who was chided for speaking English to a Yiddish audience. Three or four years ago, Ms. Kliger gave a very interesting talk at the University of Hartford on the subject of Jewish landsman- shaften. Comes time for questions. First one up is a tense, angry man who intoduces himself as a Galitsianer and demands to know why the lecture was given al-pi nusakh Lite. And more: why does everybody make bad jokes about Galitsianer? Poshet, a bezoyn! A little back-and-forth ensues. Shteyt oyf an anderer un vil visn: what about us Turkish Jews? (Turkish Jews at a Yiddish lecture? Yes, dear reader.) And he wants to register his dismay over Ashkenazi dominance in America. So it went. Not one person asked one question about the landsman- shaften. Geyt firt oys mit an Idishen oylem! Noyekh 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Sep 28 19:57:49 1993 From: EGERTEL@FULLERTON.EDU Subject: May(n)se Di mame iz fun Brod, Galitsie un der tate iz fun Podolye khotsh r'hot oykh gevoynt in Tishivits (efsher Varshe); beys der tsveyter velt-milkhome hobn zey beyde geven in Ratn-Farband, dernokh in di-pi lager lebn Frakfurt-am-Mayn un zint 1947 in shtot Nyu-york. Di mame zogt "maanse" [klal-yidish: mayse] mit a kurts farlengertn [a] un der tate zogt "manse." Ale mayne yidish-redendike kroyvim hobn an [n] in zeyere may(n)ses. Dem [e] baym sof iz agev a shva. Eynlekh oykh tsum untersheyd tsvishn zeyere aroysredn "haynt" [English taytsh: "today"]. Der tate zogt "hant" punkt vi er redt "hant" [Eng: "hand"] un di mame: "haant." Ikh red es aroys eynlekh tsum tatn. Elyet Hersh Gertl 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Sep 28 21:18:30 1993 From: laibow@brick.purchase.edu Subject: Manse/mayse/maynse Regarding the current mayse/manse debate, my parents have always said maynse (or mayntse -- it's hard to tell). My father's parents came to the US from the Polish/Ukranian border area (his first language was Yiddish), and I believe my mother's grandparents came from the same area (her first language was English). Seems to me my mother used the word more. Marnen Laibow-Koser ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.112