Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.208 January 24, 1994 1) Introduction/ Rokhl Korn (Rachel Burleson) 2) Poter vern (Michael Shimshoni) 3) Invitation to Yiddish (David Sherman) 4) New Member seeks Yiddish course (Marshall Levin) 5) Poem and Yiddish at UMCP (Dvosye Bilik) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jan 24 07:11:23 1994 From: burleson rachel Subject: Introduction/ Rokhl Korn After reading Mendele for a few weeks, I decided to introduce myself and make a request regarding the poet Rokhl Korn. What do you know but there was a poem by her--thanks, Mark. And when I'm over this flu I will look for the orignal for you, if somebody hasn't already by then. Anyway, my name is Rebecca (aka Rifke, aka Rif) Lillian. I am in my (hopefully) penultimate year as a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College near Philadelphia, but spending this year in Jerusalem at Hebrew U. Among other things I am studying women in Yiddish literature with Chava Turniansky, which is a mekhiye. (Unfprtunately the faculty is on strike now so it's been a while...) Hopefully next sememster I will also be studying with Avrom Novershetern, who was my teacher when I did the YIVO/Columbia zumer program in 1988. In my spare time I enjoy translating from Yiddish to English, and also working with tekhines. Currently I am writing a paper on the poetry of Rokhl Korn, particularly the poems regarding her mother's death. It is for a course on place and displacement in modern Yiddish literature (with Sidra Ezrahi at Hebrew U) and I was wondering if: 1. anybody knows of any critical articles on Rokhl korn's poetry, in English Yiddish and/or Hebrew 2.anybody knows of articles on Holocaust survivors writing of the death of their parents, in general 3.anybody has biographical information on Korn beyond what is available in S. Levitan's PAPER ROSES and her Yiddish anthology HEYM UN HEYMLOSKEYT 4. anything else you may know of that could be relevant I would greatly appreciate any information at all, un shik a groysn dank fun erets yisroyal. Mark, by the way, I suggerst you find that volume editied by Seymour Levitan, PAPER ROSES. It is a lovely bilingual book. She was a phenomenal poet, I think, and I for one would love to learn more about her (paper or no paper, that is.) So I appreciate the opportunity to seek some etses over this forum, and will gladly help out anyone who would like info on Jerusalem's yidishe svive. zeyt gezunt, alemen, un nokh a dank Rifke Lillian 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jan 24 11:29:09 1994 From: Michael Shimshoni Subject: Re: "poter vern" As to "poter vern" getting rid of, one could also remember the brakha (brokhe?) one says at a bar mitzva: barukh shep'tarani etc. i.e. released me of paying for his sins. In spoken Hebrew we often use the phrase "barukgh shep'tarani" for good riddance. Michael Shimshoni 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jan 24 15:04:12 1994 From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca (David Sherman) Subject: Re: Invitation to Yiddish [Cecile Esther Kuznitz writes:] > Khayim Bochner mentioned Yudl Mark's "Invitation to Yiddish." I have > a copy of that record and I remember fondly the dialogues between > the old Jewish couple that comprised the lessons... Well, that's not as bad as the "Understanding Yiddish" lessons on the Rechnitzer Rejects albums, which are given first in Yiddish only and then with translation. Selected excerpts: Ikh darf shoin bentchn. "I need a nice seat." Fur gezunterheit. "Go away sneezing." Ikh hob gemakht havdulah. "I've made fifty cents profit." Zug mir nokh a mol. "Tell me after the bris." Gay in a gite shu. "Go out in a good pair of sneakers." (I have the full transcript if anyone wants it... maybe for Purim?) David Sherman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jan 24 10:04:09 1994 From: mlevin@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Marshall Levin) Subject: New Member seeks Yiddish course Hi. I'm a new member of this list. My name is Marshall Levin and I'm a student at Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT. I really don't know any Yiddish at all. I've taken both German and Hebrew, and, with the help of my Grandmother, I have trudged through a few paragraphs of a Yiddish textbook and learned a few rudimentary phrases from her. I was hoping to ask the other list members about how I can learn more Yiddish. Are there any good e-mail or snail-mail courses, or good and easy-to-use textbooks, which would not require me to have another Yiddish speaker here to work with? I'm in a rather remote location, and I can't really go anywhere to take a course. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks very much, Marshall 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jan 24 14:12:35 1994 From: Dorothy_BILIK@umail.umd.edu (db28) Subject: Poem and Yiddish at UMCP Tayere Mendlniks un nikes, The University of Maryland at College Park has offered courses in Yiddish Language and Literature since 1978. As of this year I have students who have been studying Advanced Yiddish for ca, four years. Since our Jewish Studies program does not, as yet, have a MA degree, we teach mainly undergrads and grads in history and comp.lit. Yes Mark the Rokhl Korn poem is a fine one. Mit vareme grusn, Dvosye ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.208 To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files