Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.257 January 2, 1995 1) Posting (Bob Berk) 2) Mendele in the Forverts (Zellig Bach) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 31 Dec 1994 16:58:14 -0500 (EST) From: berk@zodiac.rutgers.edu Subject: posting as one who has been suffering in silence while reading the erudite postings by some of the linguists among us, i hasten to endorse the suggestion by zellig bach [biz hundert un tsvantsik] that specialists help the general readership by explaining some of the technical terminology used. [even so, i haven't learned so much linguistics since i roomed with bob rothstein in graduate school.] also, the shames' somewhat doleful reminder [A fine way to end a forgettable year] is somewhat mitigated, for me, by thinking back on the past yearsworth of mendele postings. bob berk 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 1 Jan 1995 22:17:31 -0500 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: Large Borrowings from Mendele in the Forverts To All Mendelyaner: To Start the New Year With A Smile Un A L'Khayim -- To Life in Nineteen Ninety Five! Miryom Shmulevits-Hofman published in the Yiddish _Forverts_ two articles (12/16 and 12/23/94) about the E-mail Mendele list and its Volumes. She availed herself liberally from materials sent to her by two Mendele members, Bob Friedman and myself. Shleyme Axelrod (4.241,6) and Marjorie Shonhaut Hirshan (4.253,7) already made brief reference to them in their postings. Miryom Hofman, as I know her familiarly, quoted at length many items from the Mendele bulletins, among them from the aforementioned Shleyme Axelrod, Brukhe Lang, Moyshe Mlotek, Ellen Prince, Yude Rozof, Harvey Spiro, Sol Steinmetz, and others. She also reprinted in full my story "Mit gots hilf" (4.188,2), which must have been a very easy task since the original itself was in Yiddish in Roman letters, so all she had to do was to transcribe the Yiddish words back in Yiddish-Hebrew letters. This brings me to a side "issue" which, to my mind, is deserving of some discussion, even though with a wide, knowing -:): What about royalties?... Since my story was "a matone far (a gift to) Dvosye Bilik, is _she_ entitled to receive the royalties?... Or is the author entitled to them?... I can assure you that under no circumstances would I quarrel with Dvosye about it, because, in the first place, it is just a rhetorical question, and, second, the_Forverts_ would pay royalties, or any other honorarium, only in Meshiekh's tsaytn (when Messiah will come). But there is a further, totally, "new" issue, and, indeed, a more "serious" one: Miryom Hofman took it upon herself to expand, so to speak, my matone to Dvosye -- without the donor's or the assignee's permission -- to *also* serve, in her words, as a matone to the _Forverts_ readers. Frankly, I am not sure whether this represents an expansion of the gift or rather a shrinkage, an imposed-upon sharing... It seems to me that it would be proper for Dvosye, and justifiably so, to file a lawsuit for some form of gift "infringement," with complex and wide-ranging juridical issues that will ultimately have to be settled by the highest Court in the land... Knowing as I do Miryom, and notwithstanding the immensely high fees of her defense team, including such court luminaries as Alan Dershowitz and Robert Shapiro, she will be very happy to use the unavoidably prolonged litigation procedures as fodder for a whole series of weekly feuilletons in her rich, colorful Yiddish about L'Affair Bach, Bilik, and Hofman... And now, finally, a truly serious issue -- this time, as the reader can see, *without* quotation marks gripping both sides the word _serious_ and thus denuding it from its true meaning of seriousness: The matter of copyrights. Fishl Kutner, a devoted Yiddish activist and member of our Mendele khavruse, compiles and publishes lists of Yiddish teachers, klezmer bands, Yiddish Clubs, etc., etc. He keeps up a worldwide correspondence with people interested in Yiddish and its hemshekh (continuity), and is editor of the monthly newsletter _Der Bay_ , published by the Peninsula Jewish Community Center of Belmont, California. He asked me for permission to publish in his journal some of my Mendele postings in a rubric to be called "Best of Bach." I naturally felt flattered, and, without hesitation, said: "Of course. Go ahead." As a matter of fact, the recent issue of _Der Bay_ already reprinted from Mendele my posting "Compression of an Expression" (4.213,4). But now I ask myself: Who holds the copyrights, if any, of materials published in Mendele? You have heard the old song in which there is a plaintive refrain "fregt di velt an alte kashe" (the world asks an old question) to which there is no definitive answer. But in our present case, the question is new. Fregt di velt a NAYE kashe," and only Noyekh has the answer. Zellig Bach ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.257 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. 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