Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.003 May 20, 1994 1) Zhid (Zachary Baker) 2) Dina Abramowicz honored (Zachary Baker) 3) Karl Habersaat (Leonard Prager) 4) Fonye (Aren Portnoy) 5) Preglen (Mikhl Herzog) 6) Over botl (Donald Cohen) 7) Spanish-speaking Jews (Hugh Kottler) 8) Grine felder (Judith Nysenholc) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 18 21:02:10 1994 From: BM.YIB@RLG.Stanford.EDU Subject: Zhid There was an inquiry on MENDELE back in vol. 3 somewhere, concerning usage of the Slavic "zhid." [#221,251,257,339,340 nm] Recently, I uncovered a footnote that cited the following articles (which I have not read, but I pass them along for the sake of those who might wish to delve into the matter): Birnbaum, Henrik, "Some Problems with the Etymology and the Semantics of the Slavic Zhid 'Jew,'" in Slavica Hierosolymitana 7 (Jerusalem, 1985), pp. 1-11. Klier, John, "Zhid: Biography of a Russian Epithet," in Slavonic and East European Review 60:1 (London, 1982), pp. 1-15. Zachary Baker 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 18 21:14:53 1994 From: BM.YIB@RLG.Stanford.EDU Subject: Dina Abramowicz honored It gives me great pleasure to convey the following news: The Public Library Association has just announced that Dina Abramowicz, my predecessor as head librarian of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and currently YIVO's reference librarian, has been awarded the 1993 Leonard Wertheimer Multilingual Public Library Service Award. The award, which is sponsored by the PLA and by the NTC Publishing Group, will be presented at this year's PLC All-Star Breakfast, on Monday June 27th, between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m., in the Fontaine Room of the Miami Beach Fontainebleau Hilton Hotel. (Miss Abramowicz will not be there to receive the award in person.) Those who know Dina Abramowicz and her work will certainly agree that the Multilingual Public Library Service Award is one that she richly deserves. Miss Abramowicz personifies the very word "multilingual," serving as she does a variegated clientele in a range of languages, including Yiddish, Russian, Polish, French and English. Her career spans the old world and the new. A native of Vilna, she worked as a children's librarian before World War II and in the Vilna Ghetto library, under Nazi occupation. She emigrated to the United States in 1946 and since 1948 has been associated with the YIVO Library (from 1962 to 1987 as its head). Her reputation as reference librarian par excellence is legendary. Dina Abramowicz annually answers hundreds of letters and thousands of telephone inquiries, in addition to dealing with hundreds of visitors to the YIVO Library. Though YIVO is not a public library, it is open and available to the general public free of charge, and many readers have gratefully acknowledged Miss Abramowicz's assistance. As Irving Howe wrote in his monumental study of Jewish immigration to the U.S., "World of Our Fathers": "And then there is YIVO, that blessed repository of Yiddish learning and historical materials, without which this book would simply not have been possible -- especially its indefatigable and splendid librarian, Dina Abramowich [i.e., Abramowicz]." What Howe said almost twenty years ago has been echoed by researchers before and since -- right up to the present. The PLA's recognition of this immensely gifted and resourceful librarian bestows great honor not only on Dina Abramowicz and the YIVO Library, but, by extension, on the glorious civilization of Yiddish-speaking Jews in Eastern Europe. Zachary Baker, YIVO Library 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 18 21:55:44 1994 From: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu Subject: Karl Habersaat Leonard Prager (rhle302@haifauvm.bitnet) would appreciate biographical information on Karl (also Carl, Carlo) Habersaat, author of about 45 bibliographical articles, mainly on Old Yiddish manuscripts. Dina Abramowicz seems to remember that he was a German monk. Leonard Prager 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 18 23:03:45 1994 From: ep73@columbia.edu Subject: fonye Mit a por vokhn tsurik, ven ikh hob gemakht a kleyne forshung mit Der Groiser Kundes, ikh hob bamerkt az ven di shraybers hobn geshribn epes vegn Rusland, oder dem tsar, hobn zey genutst a sakh mol dos vort "fonye." Kh'hob gefregt di bobe ( yetst akht un akhtsik), ver shtamt fun vaisrusland: hot zi gezugt az zey hobn gerufn der tsar "fonye ganef," ober zi veyst nit farvos. Stuchkov's oytser hot es unter di rubrik fun "nit-yid," tsuzamen mit farshidene natsionalitetn. Mayn frage far di khakhomim un meveynim fun mendele iz azey: fun vanen shtamt dos vort un vos zaynen di protim. A sheynem dank in farois, Aren Portnoy 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 19 00:41:40 1994 From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Subject: Preglen Leigh Lisker: Thanks for the dictionary reference. I haven't checked Grimm yet, but the German dictionaries that I have checked, including Kluge, have no entry for "b/pregeln". Would such an entry preclude a Slavic source. I'd welcome whatever the Germanists can contribute to the question. As for the gloss 'braten', whenever I see it I want to tear my hair. So far, it figures as 'roast', 'bake', 'grill', 'broil', and 'fry'. What to do? Mikhl Herzog 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 19 09:49:47 1994 From: CohenDJ@MASPO2.MAS.YALE.EDU Subject: Over Botl The phrase is a clear Hebraicism derived from the last sentence of chapter 5 of Pirkeh Avot where the stages of life are described. The final one is an individual of 100 years old who is "as if he were dead." The person is "avir v'batel (= ovir botl) meen ha'olam," "passed away and wasted/ceased from the world." It has been a delight to follow the imaginative discussion. Donald Cohen 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 19 09:56:18 1994 From: ElMaestro@aol.com Subject: Re: Spanish-speaking Jews Several articles in Mendele about the Jewish ship in Salonika made me think about my own experience in high school in Chula Vista, California, near the Mexican border south of San Diego. The few Jewish families in the part of town where I lived were Mexican Jews who owned businesses in nearby Tijuana, and they all spoke Spanish, of course. The high school was located in a part of town where other Mexicans did not live, ergo the only Mexicans in my high school were Jewish, and the only Jews were Mexican (except for me--I'm from Argentina). Quite a few of the other students at my high school were convinced that Spanish was the Jewish language and vice versa. Hugh Kottler 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 19 15:04:39 1994 From: jnysenho@students.wisc.edu Judith Nysenholc Subject: a translation of Grine Felder There is a translation of _Grine Felder_ in the anthology _The Great Jewish Plays_, translated and edited by Joseph Landis (Horizon Press, New York, 1972). Judith Nysenholc ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.003 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