Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.335 April 28, 1994 1) Yiddish films (Michael Steinlauf) 2) The light ahead (Dvosye Bilik) 3) A letter from Birobidjan Yiddish students (David Krumm) 4) Russian Jewish Accent (Varda Ullman Novick) 1)--------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 27 14:31:15 1994 From: M_STEINLAUF@ACAD.FANDM.EDU Subject: Yiddish films In response to Rick Gildemeister's shock at viewing "The Light Ahead," a film made in 1939 whose vision is that of Jews escaping the dark superstitious shtetl for the "light" of the big city, in this case a symbolic Odessa... I certainly share the feelings. But the film is a product of its times, of the "Morgn Frayhayt" left. It was written by "Frayhayt" columnist Chaver Paver and acted by the "socially-conscious" New York dramatic troupe Artef, whose members were doubtless CP-members and "fellow-travellers." It was only in such ideologically-crazed circles that a radical version of Haskalah could still be proclaimed on the eve of the Holocaust: the struggle of "progressive" light against "reactionary,""clerical," "bourgeois" darkness. This was a perspective that ultimately saw Hitler and small-town balebatim on the same side, facing the storming world proletariat. On the eve of the Holocaust, members of the Artef were attending rallies for Birobidzan, etc., etc. On the other hand, the film does feature the memorable laments of Isadore Cashier as Mendele, who, despite the ideologically-correct plot, manages to contemplate the fate of East European Jews with powerful dread, and in general steals the show. As usual with politically correct art, it helps to read between the lines. For more on this and Yiddish film in general, J. Hoberman's "Bridge of Light" is invaluable. Also, Rick mentions purchasing Ergo versions of Yiddish films. I don't know about their print of "The Light Ahead," but their version of "The Dybbuk," which, because of an ordering error, I recently had to show to a seminar class instead of the print produced by the Brandeis Center for Jewish Film, was scandously shoddy, and ruined the experience of viewing this masterpiece for the entire class. Buyers beware. Michael Steinlauf 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 27 13:48:42 1994 From: Dorothy_BILIK@umail.umd.edu Subject: The light ahead To Rick Gildmeister: I enjoy your postings very much. The film is,of course, based loosely on Mendele Mokher Sforim's "FISHKE DER KRUMER and old man is meant to be Mendele. The film is deliberately archaic in part because Mendele according to the O so clever Sholem A. "THE GRANDFATHER OF YIDDISH LIT and, the film had been in the works long before. If you don't know it, you should see Hoberman's book on Yiddish film. I also love that film and the actors are very photogenic. Dvosye Bilik 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 27 01:12:33 1994 From: david@genius.khabarovsk.su Subject: A letter from Birobidjan Yiddish students Dear Sirs, We are fourth year students at the English/Yiddish department of the Birobidzhan Teacher's Training Institute. We have been studying Yiddish for three years but our knowledge of Yiddish is very poor. We have many problems, such as no text books, and no real Yiddish specialist. We are to become teachers of Yiddish but our teacher and we are anxious about our level of knowledge in this language. In spite of the fact that Birobidzhan is a centre of Jewish culture in Russia only some people in our town can speak Yiddish. When our department was established we were supposed to revive Jewish cultural life. Now there are only 16 people left in the department, we are waited for in the Jewish school in the newspaper, on the local radio and TV. Unfortunately we are the first and now the last (the following students study French instead of Yiddish) to seriously study Yiddish at BGPI. Can you provide us with textbooks (We can use books for English - speaking students). We would like to attend Yiddish courses and / or seminars. We know English and can attend lectures in English. We have heard that there are such summer courses for foreign students learning Yiddish. We would like to know more about these programs. We want to take advantage of every possibility to learn the language. Please, inform us at your earliest convenience if it is possible to improve our knowledge of Yiddish, Jewish history, culture and tradition. We wish to develop cooperations with you. Faithfully yours, the students of Birobidzhan's Yiddish department David Krumm 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 27 16:49:36 1994 From: vunovick@netcom.com Subject: Russian Jewish Accent Someone in the Opera listserver group posted the following: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= For anyone who is still interested in the gutteral pronunciation of the letter"R" among some Russian Jews... My Russian Jewish colleagues and I are having HEATED (typically Russian) discussions this morning about the subject. Most of us believe that it is learned, passed on from generation to generation. A few believe that it is a genetic defect among some Russian Jews. I have a difficult time with the defect notion. Some of these people are able to pronounce "R" in other languages correctly. One opinion, with which I have to agree, is that originally Russian Jews spoke Yiddish at home, which uses a gutteral "R". Then they kept that pronunciation when they started speaking Russian. That just seems more logical. Most Russian Jews who live in the larger cities, i.e. Moscow, Leningrad, pronounce it correctly with a "rolled R". =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Do any Mendeleniks have comments? Varda Ullman Novick ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.335 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu