Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.034 June 28, 1995 1) Combatting ignorance about Yiddish (Shleyme Axelrod) 2) Offensive mockery of Yiddish (Louis Fridhandler) 3) Mendele get-together (Fishl Kutner) 4) Reichstag shtik (Shleyme Axelrod) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 13:49:09 -0400 (EDT) From: ptyaxel@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Combatting ignorance about Yiddish Miriam Isaacs' posting (5.031), agreeing with Zellig Bach's insistence (5.030) that no apologies are required for wanting a respectful attitude toward Yiddish, was eloquent indeed. Educating people out of a patronizing and mocking attitude toward the language and culture is, as Miriam points out, a problem. Maybe that's too big a task, and too general, for any of us as indviduals to take all at once. Recall that Harvey Spiro's anger (5.025) was triggered largely by the dreadful mangling of "shver tsu zayn a yid" into "Svayir suit sain i yid" in a local UJA newsletter. It seems to me that a note to the editor of such a publication, (a) gently pointing out that many people are unaware that Yiddish has both rules respected by professional linguists and a standard (YIVO) transcription method, and (b) boldly offering to edit Yiddish content (usually just a few words) before publication, might be well received. Note that the goal here is limited and specific: grammatically correct Yiddish, transcribed in a standard way. Why, after a while, readers might get the idea that _yidish iz take nisht hefker_, as Zellig has put it more than once. Whether that idea would generalize to respect for the language and culture, I wouldn't presume to predict; but in the words of the old joke about an enema for a dead actor, _s'ken gornit shatn._ (In case one is uncertain about one's ability to deal with any particular words or phrases, a quick posting on Mendele would surely elicit acceptable forms.) Shleyme Axelrod Buffalo, New York 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 15:50:32 -0400 From: lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Offensive mockery of Yiddish I resonate with Miriam Isaacs in feeling offended by a woman teaching a Yiddish song in a spirit of mockery of Yiddish [5.031 (4)]. Popular American culture descends into that dim-witted offensiveness quite regularly. And it makes me angry. I, as most others, suspect that responding with anger will be misunderstood without a thorough explanation which will almost certainly be misunderstood. On the other hand, keeping silent may be misunderstood= as agreement. Being caught in such a dilemma makes me (at times) feel helpless. But then, Miriam Isaacs ended her post on an optimistic note: >...to educate people out of this mentality is a problem. >But let's try and ... speak up for Yiddish .... >It will get through to intelligent people. Thanks for the optimism, Miriam. I needed that. Those who created the wonders of Yiddish language and culture were the targets and victims of vicious, pathological destroyers. Those destroyer s of minorities were cowards but some perceive them as daring, giving them a f alse aura of personal strength. I have suspected that joining in victimizing Yiddish language and culture is based on this false perception of strengt h. Therefore, many feel a dread, feel anxiety about a fancied reemergence o f threats by destroyers. This may not be conscious. To protect themselves against that anxiety, some (I'm certain about some) invoke a psychologica l defense mechanism against anxiety. It was named by Anna Freud of blessed memory, "Identification with the aggressor." At an evolutionary level it is analogous to "Protective Coloration." To the sociopolitically cynical it is related to the motto, "If you can't lick 'em, join 'em." Enough anger. And I'm on the verge of overgeneralizing. Let me end with optimism, to emulate Miriam Isaacs. Just think of how lu cky we are. Most of on Mendele can throughly enjoy the wonders of two langua ges and cultures: English and Yiddish. Now _that's_ something to celebrate! Louis Fridhandler Irvine, CA 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 20:52:44 -0700 From: fishl@well.com Subject: Mendele get-together In Vol 5.031 my dear friend Louis Fridhandler noted that he will soon be our neighbor. More important was his raising again the idea of members of our Mendele List getting together. As a start, it may be a suggestion that we offer to have a session at major conferences like CAJE, MLA, and the International Yiddish Club Conference. The Toronto Club Conference had an excellent session on the use of computers. A quick look at the e-mail addresses shows that there are three times as many Mendelniks on AOL as on Compuserve, but together they represent only 10% of our list. The majority are at a university, and I believe many are students. For the students the draw will be meetings like the recent excellent one at Ohio State and Mameloshn '95. Philip "Fishl" Kutner 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 28 Jun 1995 10:30:52 -0400 (EDT) From: ptyaxel@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Reichstag shtik The sub-headline on Newsweek's story (July 3, 1995) about Christo's wrapping of the Reichstag reads "Art: Christo's old shtik for a new Germany". One would have expected the germanoid (though not German) "schtick", or maybe "shtick"; instead, the YIVO-standard transcription of the word, which is surely show-biz Yiddish. A nice surprise. Shleyme Axelrod Buffalo, New York ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.034 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu ****Getting back issues**** 1. Anonymous ftp archives are available. ftp ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files A table of contents is also available, along with weekly updates. 2. 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