Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.025 June 15, 1994 1) On the passing of Herbert Unger (Steve Silbert) 2) What happy, happy Jews? (Louis Fridhandler) 3) Zushe (Pe'rets Mett) 4) Sholem Asch (Pinyeh Weichsel) 5) Eyniklekh (Meylekh Viswanath) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 14 08:16:00 1994 From: ssilbrt@automata.com Subject: On the passing of Herbert Unger HERBERT UNGER July 4, 1920 - June 9, 1994 In memory of Herbert Unger... Friend to so many, near and far. His guidance, wisdom, humor and kindness will be greatly missed. Please send messages of condolence to addressee below, who will pass them on to family members. Steve Silbert 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 14 13:01:42 1994 From: 74064.1661@CompuServe.COM Subject: What happy, happy Jews? Ted Steinberg (Mendele, 4.022) was quick to react to Dan Leeson's remark (Mendele 4.019) about "pussy foot Tevye the Milkman story about happy, happy Jews in good old Russia." I agree that the remark sounds like a sneering slam at Sholem Aleichem. It suggests a portrayal of Sholem Aleichem as an ignoramus who painted a romanticized, travel-poster view of Jews living in some idyllic shtetl. I cannot know whether Dan Leeson meant to convey that. I can't read minds. In any case, that idea is poppycock. Still, that kind of misrepresentation of Sholem Aleichem as a simple fellow, a local yokel, persists despite manifest evidence to the contrary. Fiddler on the Roof may have something to do with it, but this problem antedates Fiddler on the Roof (1964). Of course, the Tevye stories unfold tragic consequences of Jewish intergenerational conflicts in a hostile environment in stormy, dangerous times in 19th century czarist Russia. Hardly happy, happy Jews. Further, few people are aware of Sholem Aleichem's sharp protests against constrictive customs of his day. Fewer even are aware of the political satires he directed at czarist folly in the struggle for a constitution, and in the Russo- Japanese war. Sholem Aleichem himself was probably not aware that he was put under surveillance by the Russian secret police. Romanticizing life under the czar would not have brought _that_. In fact, Sholem Aleichem was a complex artist with knowledge of the best of the world's literature in Russian translation, and aware in depth of the flowering Russian literature of his time. He worked to meet those high standards. Sholem Aleichem was not a shtetl bumpkin. That should not have to be said now. However, misperceptions by early critics persist. Early critics could not believe that writing which flowed as easily as Sholem Aleichem's Yiddish could be considered "literature." At best, some thought him a talented primitive. Truer appreciation of Sholem Aleichem developed after his death in 1916, but it was a slow process, and still needs work, apparently. Consider, for example, Trunk's statement as late as 1937. My translation from Yiddish: "Intellectually, as objective judge of the life around him, Sholem Aleichem stood not much above the masses. As to the scope of his world view, he was one of the 'little people' (kleyne mentshelekh). No doubt, these intellectual defects blocked Sholem Aleichem's avenue to his own depth." [Sholem Aleykhem, Zayn Vezn un Zayne Verk (Sholem Aleichem, his Essential Nature and his Works), by Y.Y. Trunk, Warsaw: Kultur-Lige, p. 15.] Oy vey! How's that for pompous claptrap? An appreciation of other great writers of Yiddish is possible without slamming Sholem Aleichem. N'est ce pas? Louis Fridhandler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 14 13:12:22 1994 From: P.Mett@open.ac.uk Subject: zushe Dovid Braun writes (Thu May 26): ***I'm running a bit behind!!! DB> These names may be related to the Talmudic Aramaic name Zusya. Is there such a Talmudic name? Can someone please provide a reference? pe'rets mett 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 14 13:27:13 1994 From: weichsel@symcom.math.uiuc.edu Subject: Sholem Asch Dan Leeson inquires about the fate of Sholem Asch. Literary fashions are difficult to explain. I own the complete works of Asch and I read him every now and again with great pleasure. His "The Man from Nazareth" and "Mary", written without the usual "ptoo, ptoo, l'havdil" attitude earned him tremendous scorn from a very wide community and books and essays have been written about the "meaning" of his impulse to write on these subjects. He did not convert to Christianity. I believe that most people who were upset felt that given the history of Jewish suffering at the hands of the Christian world, it was deeply insensitive to write sympathetically about the icons of the Christian faith, especially in Yiddish. I don't think that he ever recovered from that episode. He died in Israel, I believe, considerably less beloved than he might otherwise have been on the basis of his other literary work. Pinyeh Weichsel 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 15 10:52:56 1994 From: pviswana@andromeda.rutgers.edu Subject: Eyniklekh > yude rozof shraybt vegn dem vort eynikl, az efsher shtamt es fun > dos daytshe vort Enkelkind? Ikh hob gefreygt dr. shekhter, ersht tsurik fun yisroel mit dem manger premie. er meynt oykhet az es shtamt fun daytsh 'enkel.' Meylekh Viswanath ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.025 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. 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