Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.128 October 6, 1994 1) A "shul" by & for ameratsim? (Zellig Bach) 2) Di Dray Bern (Marcia Gruss Levinsohn) 3) On Reverends and Rabbis (Zachary Baker) 4) World Script (Dan Peck) 5) John Hollander's Halpern translations (Larry Rosenwald) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 05 Oct 94 12:09:20 EDT From: Zellig@aol.com Subject: A "shul" by & for ameratsim? Mikhl Herzog (4.122,2) had already commented on Howard Kaplan's threat "it's time for a schism" (4.119,4). As the one who critisized Pinker's Yiddish sentence I'd would like to add a word or two of my own. Perhaps Howard will tell us what he's so wrought up about? Is it the grammarians who disturb him so much, or what he calls disparagingly the "correctniks"? Who are "the rest of us," he refers to, who can now "be on our merry way as language free spirits, literature enjoyers, joke tellers"? The anti-grammarians? Is the literature Howard enjoys devoid of any language rules? Does he spell haphazardly in his own writing, with wanton inconsistency, in an "anything goes" hodgepodge? I wonder if he vehemently objected to his teachers' demands that he speak and write according to accepted conventions of language usage, that he adhere to rules of grammar and syntax, or he gets particularly worked up and irked ONLY when such demands are made with regard to Yiddish? That would be revealing, wouldn't it? Just as his so-called joke about "correctniks" who dwell upon the problem of a hyphen between anal-retentive, reveals a great deal that I would as soon leave it unsaid. v'hamEYvin yOvin. My own contribution to the repertoire of jokes Howard proposes for his new network concerns the ameratsim (ignorants) who objected to the fact that only those who knew "ivre" (who could read "di kleyne pintelekh"), were called to the reading of the Torah. They decided to establish their own shulkhl (small synagogue) to be called "di ameratsishe shul"... Zellig Bach 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 00:41:27 -0400 (EDT) From: mashinke@wam.umd.edu Subject: Re: Di Dray Bern Since Harvey Spiro wrote in Mendele, Vol 4.114,4, we have received several inquires about our book, "di dray bern, mirele-goldherele antshuldikt zikh." The book and tape are available from ourselves at 2209 Greenery Lane, Silver Spring, Maryland 20906, the Workmen's Circle Book Store, NY (Steve Dowling), National Yiddish Book Center, MA, Border's Childrens' Book Store at White Flint, Rockville, MD, and Lisbon's Hebrew Books and Gifts, Wheaton, Maryland. The Book/Tape retails for $18 plus postage. Individually - Book, $13 + postage Audio-Tape, $7 + postage. For my fellow Mendeleniks we're offering $1 off each, $2.50 off the B/T. That's $15.50 + postage and free handling. Checks are payable to our nonprofit organization, Jewish Educational Workshop, which piblished the Book/Tape. Dr. Bilik was my main editor for the work. And we were fortunate to have Dov Noy, Rabbi Noah Golinkin, Naomi Kadar, Henia Lewin, and Leonard Wolf review our book before we published it. The exquisite Hebrew typeset was done by James Kapplin of The Ethnic Press of Baltimore and my artist sister, Fayga Williams drew the charming illustrations. The audio-tape contains original music by Paul Frank, enhancing the Yiddish telling of the story. Arnold Kuzmack offered invaluable help computing the English printing. The 60 page spiral-bound book is written in Yiddish with a facing page of English and transliteration, an alphabet key at the end, and vowel help on the bottom of many pages. Thank you Harvey, for bringing this to our attention. "Zayt ale bagrist mit frayndlekhn grusn." Marcia Gruss Levinsohn 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Oct 94 08:01:11 PDT From: bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu Subject: On Reverends and Rabbis In Mendele 4.121 entfert mayn alter universitet-khaver, D"r Refoel Finkel, af mayn kashe vegn dem termin far der rovetes (oder rabinershes) man. Refoel leygt for az me zol im onrufn "rebitser," vos iz zeyer a sheferisher entfer. Nu, un vos zogn di "native speakers" deruf? "Bay mir zaynen ale rovn (oder rebeyim) -- rovn, nit rabays, nit rabiners, un nit revrends," shraybt mayn Kentokier fraynd. Tsu dem hob ikh a shtikl bamerkung, vos ikh vel makhn af english. My grandfather, Samuel A. Baker (alevasholem) -- to whom I am indebted for teaching me Yiddish -- was the proud bearer of the title Reverend. A 1912 graduate of the Teachers' Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (his diploma, which is a family keepsake, is signed by Rabbi Solomon Schechter, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, and Mr. Louis Marshall), he steadfastly refused the title Rabbi, preferring instead to be called Reverend. During his long career, he bounced from post to post, and city to city (New York, Roanoake, Newburgh, Brooklyn, Canton [Ohio], Norfolk, Rochester, Minneapolis), teaching recalcitrant bar mitzvah bokherim their haftores, leyening Torah, serving as a bal-tfile --in general acting as a synagogue factotum, not as the leader of a congregation. He was the product of a Conservative seminary, but was not ordained as a rabbi. In his era, "Reverend" was a title commonly adopted by those who performed various religious roles but did not occupy pulpits. Some were undoubtedly charlatans, and use of the title strikes the present-day listener as quaint at best, but Reverend Samuel A. Baker was not ashamed to be called Reverend -- indeed, he insisted on it. My grandfather died in 1975, at the age of about 84 (we don't know for sure how old he was). After his death, our family established Reverend S. A. Baker Memorial Scholarships (for a student attending the Uriel Weinreich Summer Yiddish Program) and one at the National Yiddish Book Center (for their summer study program). Zachary Baker 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 11:23:37 -0500 From: danpeck@panix.com Subject: World Script Macintosh users now have the option of using World Script for System 7 that allows standard applications that support World Script to mix Hebrew (Yiddish) and and English (as well as other non-Roman alphabets) in the same document. I believe that Nisus and Word Perfect support World Script. Dan Peck 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 06 Oct 1994 11:48:00 -0500 (EST) From: lrosenwald@wellesley.edu Subject: A talk by John Hollander on his Halpern translations Mendelniks in the Boston area or near to it might be interested in knowing that the poet John Hollander will be giving a talk about (and a reading of) his translations of Moyshe-Leyb Halpern, at Wellesley College, Thursday, October 20th, at 4:30, in the English Department Common Room, 106 Founders Hall. The talk is free. Hollander's translations of Halpern are in my opinion really brilliant - virtuosic ventriloquism, if you'll pardon the alliteration. If people are interested in coming to the talk but don't know how to get to it, let me know and I'll send you directions. Larry Rosenwald ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.128 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. 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