Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.079 August 4, 1994 1) More introductory books (Harvey Spiro) 2) Nathan Susskind, zl: A Tribute (Andrew Sunshine) 3) LCAAJ On-Line Electronic Data Archives (Andrew Sunshine) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Aug 4 09:38:07 1994 From: hjs@nrc.gov Subject: More introductory books In Mendele 4.072, I suggested some introductory books that presented Yiddish proverbs and sayings. Now that I've refreshed my memory by a shpatzir through my library, I'd like to correct some errors and add some information I omitted. An unparalleled sourcebook for Yiddish sayings (in Yiddish only) is entitled "Yidishe shprikhverter un redensarten," by Ignaz Bernstein. First published early this century, it was recently reissued in hardback, and was available several years ago from Workman's Circle for $10, a metzia even at twice the price. "Royte Pomerantzen," by Immanuel Olsvanger, was also available in catalogs from Workman's Circle and National Yiddish Book Center. Both of these sources are used extensively in most English-language collections of Yiddish humor or sayings that I have seen. For gutsier Yiddish expressions, I recommended a somewhat academic book which I erroneously called "Maledictions and Benedictions." I now find that that was the title of a similarly oriented chapter in Maurice Samuel's thoroughly enjoyable "In praise of Yiddish." The title of the book to which I intended to refer is: "Blessings, curses, hopes and fears: Psycho-ostensive expressions in Yiddish," by James A. Matisoff, published in Philadelphia sometime after 1978 by the Institute for Study of Human Issues. I don't own the book; I've just photocopied bits and pieces of it. I've never found it for sale anywhere. L'havdil: Another book that I had forgotten is Lilian Mermin Feinsilver's "The taste of Yiddish." Although written in the same era (circa 1970) as Leo Rosten's "The joy of Yiddish," I find it much less appealing. Both books treat Yiddish as a funny vocabulary list from which to pluck words or phrases to add spice to your conversation. Rosten's book is alphabetical, provides some etymologies, and is less chatty and cutesy; if the word you seek is discussed, you can quickly find it. Feinsilver's book is very gossipy (in an Art Raymond sort of style), has quirky transliteration, almost no etymologies, and confusing organization. However, it does present a substantial number of expressions that may not be found in other English-language books. Harvey Spiro 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 Aug 94 10:23 EDT From: ANSUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: Nathan Susskind, zl: A Tribute I am writing to pay a brief tribute to Nathan Susskind, _zikhroyne-livrokhe_, whose death at the age of 87 was recently reported in Mendele and in _The New York Times_. Dr. Susskind, a Professor of German at CCNY for many years, was also Director of the Institute for Yiddish Lexicology, a body founded at CCNY to create the _Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language_ (_GDYL_). Susskind worked tirelessly on behalf of the _GDYL_ during the period when the project was based at CCNY and during its transfer c. 1979 to Columbia University. Although I never met Professor Susskind, I spent several several significant years of my life (1983-1991) involved in the _GDYL_ project to which he had dedicated so many years of his own life. My role in the project gave me occasion to review Professor Susskind's _GDYL_ correspondence (in Yiddish and in English) covering more than a decade. In a certain sense, I feel I came to "know" Professor Susskind from these letters; and my role in the project enabled me to appreciate some of the difficulties he faced and to sympathize with his occasional expressions of frustration and exasperation. It is not pertinent here either to quote or to summarize the contents of those letters. (This is in any case not possible since it is some five years since I read these letters; and they, along with other _GDYL_ records, are for the time being not readily accessible.) I wish merely to record certain impressions left by my reading. Professor Susskind's dedication to the _GDYL_ struck me as beyond admirable: perhaps the word is astonishing. Susskind worked with a rare and unwavering zeal on behalf of the _GDYL_ even once the project had begun to hobble under a burden of internal dissension, funding problems, deflated morales, the increasing scarcity (if the oxymoron may be permitted) of Yiddish lexicographers, and the attrition of fair weather friends. Susskind was not alone in his faithfulness to the "cause," but he appears to have done much of the administrative water-carrying for the project by himself. (It will take nothing away from Susskind to note parenthetically that he couldn't have gotten on without the collaboration of Morton Pavane, who was a grants administrator at CCNY. One supposes that Susskind's ardor for the _GDYL_ inspired Pavane's own dedication of many years. Whatever the case may have been, Pavine's contributions to the project, which have not received public appreciation, are certainly inestimable.) Susskind even persevered in his labor of love despite some gratuitous and undeserved insults from within the ranks of the _GDYL_ itself. And despite the fact that all his self-sacrificing would yield him little personal gain and less glory. I am particularly impressed by Susskind's ability to keep the goal of the project in view, rather than his personal stake or view of how the work should be accomplished. This seems all the more exemplary when one realizes, upon reading his articles on such topics as the origins of Yiddish and on Jewish languages, that Susskind had some strong views about Yiddish in which he sometimes differed with other scholars, and could state them with force and sometimes sarcasm. I can think of no better way to honor Susskind's memory than to draw inspiration from his example and to rededicate ourselves to the sorts of collaborative Yiddish-language projects he advocated so selflessly for so long. It is no secret that the optimal dynamics of group work can be difficult to sustain especially in academia where people are habituated to working alone. But it is also no secret that there is a need for such group work in the field of Yiddish which touches on diverse domains of Jewish religion and cultural life and on the languages and cultures of non-Jews throughout Europe over ten centuries. I hope I will be forgiven if I appear to be "using" Susskind to make a pitch or plea concerning Yiddish language research. For Susskind's children and grandchildren and for the rest of his family and for his friends, his passing is first and foremost a personal loss. To them I offer my heartfelt condolences. Andrew Sunshine formerly Project Coordinator, _GDYL_; currently a member of the Editorial Collegium, _LCAAJ_ 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 Aug 94 10:31 EDT From: ANSUR@CUVMB.Columbia.edu Subject: LCAAJ On-Line Electronic Data Archives The _Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry_ (_LCAAJ_) is a long-range investigation into the dialectology and geography of the Yiddish language and of Ashkenazic Jewish culture as it existed in Central and Eastern Europe up until the Second World War. Between 1959 and 1974, the project's fieldworkers recorded some 6,000 hours of interviews with Yiddish speakers; they also made field transcriptions of extensive parts of these interviews (nearly 100,000 manuscript pages). These tapes and transcriptions, along with several thousand hand-drawn dialectological maps, constitute the core of the _LCAAJ_ archives. This material is currently being used to compose a ten-volume work entitled the _Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry_. Volume I was published in 1992 and Volume II is scheduled for publication in the fall of 1994; two subsequent volumes are either ready or nearly ready for publication. Apart from the value of the interpretative findings expressed in the pages of the _Atlas_, the project has come to recognize the importance of the data itself to linguists, anthropologists and folklorists, Jewish historians, and other scholars--and, no less, to learners of the Yiddish language for whom access to East European-born and -educated Yiddish speakers is becoming increasingly hard to come by. With this in mind, the project has been developing plans to transform its archive of tapes, transcripts, and maps into an on-line electronic archival data base. This transformation is a long-term project which (funding permitting) will proceed in well-defined stages (perhaps to be described on another occasion). Ultimately it will be possible to access any of the project's more than 600 interviews. We also intend to develop several paths of access to the data. These paths correspond to the questions in the field questionnaire, the locations represented by the interviews, and a set of covert dialectological issues. Used singly or in combinations, these paths of access will enable the user to conduct well-defined searches for data or parallel sets of data. Heretofore, the process of extracting such information from the tapes has been a tedious in-house process. But not only will the editors of volumes of the _LCAAJ_ benefit from such a system; so, too, will the wider community of scholars and students of Yiddish. Having offered this general sketch of our aspirations in the brave new world of "information technology," we are curious to know something of the extent of the audience for this projected resource--and, as well, the nature of its interest(s) in using it. Also, since it is often the case that institutions (universities, departments at universities, libraries, etc.) are a conduit for individual researchers' access to electronic (as well as other) resources, it would be helpful to learn of the interest of institutions in subscribing to this archive. Readers of Mendele are kindly invited to respond in Mendele or to either of the following addresses: ZOGUR@CUVMB (Mikhl Herzog) or ANSUR@CUVMB. Andrew Sunshine ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.079 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. Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu