Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.017 June 8, 1994 1) Yiddish comics (Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch) 2) Yiddish comics (Howard Gershen) 3) Yiddish comics (Itzik Payne) 4) German "nachts" (Mark Devlin) 5) German "nachts" (Zev Bar-Lev) 6) Tax farmer? (Howard Kaplan) 7) Eynikl (Shleyme Axelrod) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 13:55:34 1994 From: SZ0435@daphne.rrze.uni-erlangen.de Subject: Yiddish comics It may be of some interest to you, that Will Eisner, the author of the yiddish comic strip "An Opmakh mit Got", was awarded the famous Max & Moritz Prize at the 6. International Comic Saloon 1994 in Erlangen for his life-long work in the field of comics. Born in 1917 in New York, he is a first generation child of jewish immigrants from Europe (father from Vienna, mother from Romania). In his comic stories he was always concerned about the little everyday dramas of the "every-day people". This gender of comics became famous under the expression "graphic novel". Today, Will Eisner is 77 years old and still full of energy, working on a three volume comic novel to be published soon. Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 15:39:21 1994 From: howard@BoxHill.com Subject: Re: Yiddish/Jewish comics II That was a fine summary of Yiddish/Jewish comics, but I think you left out the main one: Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer prize-winning comicbooks, _Maus_ and _Maus II_. Prior to publication of the entire "Maus" story in book form, the strips were included in early issues of "RAW", the arty comics magazine produced by Spiegelman and Francoise Sagan(?). The Jewish content of "Maus" exceeded that of "Superman" or "MAD", and the writing was, as noted above, recognized by the Pulitzer prize committee (the only other comic strip so noted was "Doonesbury", which occasionally features Mark Slackmeyer). Howard Gershen 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 20:57:44 1994 From: jmpayne@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Yiddish/Jewish Comics Just a note to introduce myself to Mendeleniks and add a comment or two to the discussion of Yiddish/Jewish comics. Ikh hays Itzik (Jason) Payne and I'm beginning a Master's program in Yiddish this fall at Ohio State. That said, on to the comics. To correct a note from Mr. Sapoznik, the Golem character appeared in the series "The Invaders," a book featuring a U.S. mandated team of superheroes -- Captain America, Submariner, Human Torch -- as they fought the Axis across the European theatre. Actually this incarnation of the golem is rather interesting; the golem and its creator, a Polish religious scholar, possess a collective consciousness. As comics go, its a good read. I'd like to chime in as well on Jewish presence in the comics field. While Siegel and Shuster gave us Superman, it was Stan Lee (nee Stanley Lieber) who created most of the popular characters for the Marvel Comics line. Amongst his creations are the golem-knockoff from the Fantastic Four, the Thing, and the FF's first super-villain, the Mole Man (a character slight in stature and possessing a king-size schnozz, both of which cause his ostracization from society). Most interesting is Lee's character Magneto, an eastern European Holocaust survivor who channels his rage and trauma into an attempt to make the world safe for his kind, the mutants. There is some critical work out there examining the X-Men as a parable for Jews in society. I hope this stimulates some interest for readers, even though it's less about Yiddish and more about superheroes. Itzik Payne [Before this thread unravels in all directions, the shames respectfully reminds Mendele's readers: think Yiddish. nm] 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 16:06:28 1994 From: mdevlin@acs.bu.edu Subject: German "nachts" Mikhl Herzog asks (Mendele Vol. 4.105) : > Question: Is there any apparent basis for the "nakhtS" form in German? > Any reason to think that this construction may have required a genitive? In German, "Nacht", a feminine noun, would not form the genitive with -s. Many temporal adverbs are derived from the genitive, e.g. "morgens", "abends", "montags". The genitive derivation can be seen pretty clearly in certain adverbial phrases that have not achieved independent "wordhood", e.g. "eines Tages", gen. of "ein Tag", meaning "one day" or "some day" in the sense of "One day I'll fix that leaky faucet". I can only guess that the Germans one day started turning the genitives of certain masculine temporal nouns into adverbs and kept doing it so long that they ceased to see the connection to gender, at which point they could start saying "nachts" without feeling funny about it. Mark Devlin 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 17:23:07 1994 From: zbarlev@zeus.sdsu.edu Subject: German "nachts" i'm not sure what m. herzog's question is -- but it is my understanding that not only does gm. nachts derive from a genitive form: so does english "(he works) nights"! zev bar-lev 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 16:42:31 1994 From: HKAPLAN@woods.uml.edu Subject: Tax Farmer? Ok.. I'll admit my ignorance: a Mr. Mullish wants to know if his friend's (a Mr. Baltaxe) claim to a member of the rabbinic court on the basis of his last name (Baltaxe) is true. The answer given is, no, Baltaxe means "tax farmer.' So..tell me, what is a tax farmer? In English, pulleze! Another frage: Why didn't Mullish take Baltaxe's word for it in the first place? Howard Kaplan 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 8 09:51:13 1994 From: PTYAXEL@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: eynikl I have long believed that "eynikl" (grandchild) is related to "eyn", "eyner", "eyn-un-eyntsik" etc., and so expresses the singularity of the relationship. When I became a grandfather for the first time, this seemed entirely appropriate. But now I have three eyniklekh--the end is not yet--and I wonder whether the etymology I've assumed is correct. Is "eynikl" *not* related to "eyn" after all? Shleyme Axelrod ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.017 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. 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