Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.371 March 17, 1995 1) Yivo archives (Yehudi Efraim Levin) 2) Inscription on a Russian medal (Larry Rosenwald) 3) Mentsh and psychoanalysis (Zachary Baker) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 15 Mar 95 18:15:46 PST From: jflevin@ucrac1.ucr.edu Subject: YIVO archives I would like to respond to Gaston Schmir regarding the motives of the Lithuanians for wanting to retain possession of the YIVO archives, and to perhaps clarify some other issues raised by the discussions in Mendele as well as in the Forward. As a Balto-Slavic specialist, I lived in Vilna for 4 months in 1981 as a Fulbright lecturer at Vilnius State University. I also went to shul every shabbos. I returned in 1991, just after the failed putsch and Lithuanian independence. I was able to witness with my own eyes the revival of organized Jewish life. I spoke to Emanuel Zingeris, and other prominent Jews there, as well as renewing my contacts with Lithuanian scholars. More importantly, I attended a meeting of the Society of Jewish Professionals, at which the dramatic announcement was made of the discovery of the YIVO archives. In fact, since I had my video camera with me, I may have the announcement on video. The man who made the announcement was a Jew who worked as a librarian in the Lithuanian state archives. He mentioned the need to sort and catalogue the material, and the treasures that must be there. He said he had found a letter from Einstein to Dubnow. He asked for volunteers from the Jewish community to help with the job. At this meeting fear was expressed that this material would be lost to the Lithuanian Jewish community, transferred to Western Jewish communities. Americans tend to think that there is literally nothing left in Eastern Europe, including Jews, and that whatever Jewish that does turn up should be rescued and brought to America, where it will be "safe". Of course, compared to what was before 1940, there is precious little. But there are Jews remaining in Lithuania, including *young* Yiddish-speaking Jews, and they are entitled to what is left of the Jewish heritage. Consider the following: The Lithuanians are not interested in suppressing knowledge of a Jewish presence. I have seen many signs that, unlike with the Russians of the Soviet period, a Jewish past is part of the "official" historical record. Vilnius State University was the first former Soviet university to add a department of Jewish studies. Most of their students, some of whom have already gone to Israel for further study, are *not* Jewish. The YIVO records would be valuable to this institution. There is a Jewish Museum in Vilnius. It is in or will be in a building owned by the Jewish Community in 1940. Like all museums in the country, it is part of a government agency or ministry that subsidizes and regulates museums. The YIVO records would also be precious to this museum. Although the Jewish community is tiny (5000 souls?), it is the last trace of authentic Litvak Jewry; it is tending the graves of our ancestors. If even 10 souls of this community wish to retain the YIVO files in Lithuania as part of their heritage, Lithuania, whose citizens they are, has an obligation to act on their behalf. Incidently, there are also c. 500 Karaites left in Lithuania, and there is a Karaite shul (called 'knesse) in Trakai, as well as a museum exhibit with a Karaite sefer torah, etc. These are also regarded as Lithuanian national treasures. Would you ship them to New York also? Finally, regarding the safety problem. Living in Los Angeles, I am familiar with the maximum security that the Jewish Federation building requires, and the more modest security my own synagogue uses (inadequate, in my opinion). When I was in Vilna (Vilnius, as the natives call it) the Synagogue, the museum, and the JCC were open, unlocked, and unguarded (and ungraffiti'ed). Given the world situation, who knows where precious documents of our heritage will be safest? Jules Levin (Yehudi Efraim ben Leib) 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 13:08:33 -0500 (EST) From: lrosenwald@wellesley.edu Subject: A query about an inscription on a Russian medal A colleague of mine has a medal; on one side are Cyrillic characters and the date 1883, on the other an inscription in Hebrew letters, in four lines. The first two lines are, transliterated H Liberman [Lieberman is my colleague's name, and this medal belonged to an ancestor of hers]. But then it gets a little puzzling, to me at any rate. The next line reads,from right to left, nun-vav-lamed-reysh, then a vav with an accent mark over it like a French accent aigu, then hey-shin-vav-vav-langer nun (I'd guess this is Heshvan/Khezhvn, so probably the hey is a khes). The next line reads, again from right to left, sof-reysh-khof-zayin (all with the accents aforementioned), then samekh-lamed-vav-tsadek-kuf. I'm aware that with the exception of the name, this isn't Yiddish, and I beg the shames's indulgence to ask for help, on my colleague, in making sense of this; Mendele is so rich in diverse expertise that I sometimes am tempted to treat it as an omnipurpose oracle. Anyway, if anyone can help elucidate any of this, I'd be very grateful. Larry Rosenwald 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Mar 95 07:04:14 PST From: bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu Subject: Mentsh and psychoanalysis For those who wish to pursue the question of mentsh(lekhkeyt), I would like to bring to your attention the following articles in the December 1994 issue of The American Journal of Psychoanalysis (vol. 54, no. 4): "Discourse and Self-Formation: The Concept of *Mentsh* in Modern Yiddish Culture," by Marc Kaminsky (pp. 293-316); and "Commentary on 'Discourse and Self-Formation'," by Michelle Price (pp. 317-322). Marc Kaminsky is Director of the Myerhoff Center, Brooklyn (affiliated with YIVO), and Michelle Price is Director of the Treatment Center for Incest and Abuse of the Karen Horney Clinic, and a faculty member of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. >From the editor's [Douglas H. Ingram] introduction: "The self, increasingly subjected to penetrating analysis of the kind we find in Kaminsky's essay, is earning its quotation marks: the 'self' is inspected in Kaminsky's keyword analysis of the word *mentsh*. Contextualizing and historicizing *mentsh* may render the word forever changed for many readers. More broadly, Kaminsky is inviting our consideration of how a single word, *mentsh*, serving as a prototypic example, can mediate explosive antipathies within a culture and within a person.... Price is concerned with the implications for psychoanalysis of Kaminsky's appreciation of multiculturalism, discourse, and narrative theories. She delights in the happy synergy achieved by postmodernism and psychoanalysis." Zachary Baker ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.371 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. 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