Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.052 Jouly 16, 1995 1) Rabenu Tam (Yori Yanover) 2) Origins of Yiddish (Bob Rothstein) 3) Children's books (Stephen Dowling) 4) Nayer AV lernprogram oyf yidish (Leybl Botvinik) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Jul 1995 13:50:54 -0400 From: root@advn.com Subject: Rabenu Tam Does anyone have the words to Rabenu Tam by Itzik Manger? It's a fantastic tale of how Rabenu Tam had an adventurous affair with the daughgter of the Sultan. Something like that. My dad used to sing it to me, but now he claims to have forgotten the words... Yori Yanover 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 22:14:13 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Origins of Yiddish There has been some discussion on Mendele of Paul Wexler's theories on the origins of Yiddish, but I don't recall any examination of the challenge to "Weinreichian orthodoxy" posed by Dovid Katz. (I just happen to have read his 1985 paper, "Hebrew, Aramaic and the Rise of Yiddish," [in Joshua A. Fishman, ed., _Readings in the Sociology of Jewish Languages_] and am innocent of any knowledge of most more recent literature on the subject.) In his 1985 paper Katz concludes that "...Yiddish arose some thousand years ago when Aramaic speaking Jews settled in German speaking areas east of the Rhineland, and the remnants of their vanishing language fused with the local coterritorial dialects..." (100). Max Weinreich, on the other hand, argues (in the English version of his _History of the Yiddish Language_) that "Yiddish came into existence in Loter [roughly, the Rhineland] because [speakers of] "western Loez and southern Loez" [the Jewish correlates of Old French and Old Italian]..., with Hebrew as their mediated [written, not spoken] language, created a small gathering of exiles in an area where the coterritorial non-Jewish population spoke different variants of German" (347). Thus the first Yiddish-speakers were Aramaic-speaking Jews living east of the Rhineland or Romance-speaking Jews with a knowledge of written Hebrew living in the Rhineland (or neither of the above). I suspect that I am not the only reader of Mendele who would be interested in the comments of those who know something about these matters, albeit most would probably prefer relatively non-technical comments. Bob Rothstein 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jul 1995 01:09:47 -0400 From: stdowling@aol.com Subject: Children's books I had meant to reply to several things I've seen recently much sooner than this. 1. Bono Wiener's loss is a great one. He would travel frequently and would act as the Shaliach for the Bundist and Yiddish movements. Whenever Koala Farlag (See Zachary Baker's recent post) would publish a new book, he would deliver it to us, Russia, Montreal and Europe. I was greatly saddened to hear of his passing. 2. I had planned to mention the I. L. Peretz school and Bialik High School. I see that my friend Anna Gonsher beat me to it. They are the largest purchaser of Workmen's Circle Yiddish children's book in the world. The only other school that comes close is the Sholom Aleichem Day school in Australia. I have heard rumor that Argentina and Mexico have Yiddish day schools. We have little contact with them. Fishl Kutner had made some contact with Mexico. They do not use WC books. I've seen some samples of older children's that they use in school in Argentina. Shoshana Wolkowicz (oykh a mendelnik) brought them to me. Perhaps she can be prevailed upon to answer. 3. I'm going to try to answer the various postings on kid's books in the order they were made. a. The Workmen's Circle continues to publish the Yiddishe Kinder series. We have three books in the series and as Harvey Spiro has pointed out, little has changed. I suspect that if Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan were to compare it to when she used it, she would also find few changes. b. Harvey Spiro mentions Dr. Seuss. That actually is not an impossibilty. The trick is to make a deal with the publishing house. What many publishers do is use the same color plates and drop in the text in the language of choice as they are printing. Would it be possible to do this with Yiddish? I don't know. At a guess, it would cost $15,000 to do it. It would require donations. c. Marcia Gruss-Levinsohn has an excellent book for kid's that uses Yiddish, English and Yiddish in tranliteration. It has an excellent cover and art work throughout. She can tell you more about it. d. Koala Farlag has published several books. The first two are out-of-print. We stock the book at the Workmen's Circle. It can also be ordered by mail. e. David Sherman's suggestion of Boro Park is a good one. While we stock all of the "Secular" Yiddish children's books we do not always carry those with a greater religious content. When I can, I try to sell these books in the store. Some are more saleable than others. A good example of a recently published title that fits this mold is "Ver iz Der Shtarker" It was published by the Bet Chana Girls School in Boro Park. The book strong points are the fact that it uses full color thoughout and has a fairly modern look. Its weak points are its poor Yiddish and the fact that it is so infused with Chassidic culture. Don't take the above as being critical of Chassidic culture. What I mean is that when I try to sell it to the larger Jewish world, it sells more slowly. Does that mean that if it were less so I could sell more? I don't know. Maybe a few. If a school like I.L. Peretz were to adopt it, yes. I'm sure it does well in the market for which it was intended. At one point Lubavitch published a book of stories in Yiddish and a matching volume in English. We have also recently received two books of stories for older children by Kipnis. In the Boston area, consider trying the Israel Book shop. They have a large section of kid's book in Yiddish. They are primarily intended for the religious market. I like them. f. Shuli Burger posted something about Monopoly in Yiddish. I was intrigued and made a point of visiting Eichler's. They have it. The problem (or blessing. I guess it depends on your point of view and education) is that many of the things you are trying to buy will be unfamiliar to most people that have not been raised in a Chassidic home. 4. The Jewish Book Center of the Workmen's Circle is currently preparing its Fall catalogue. If anyone would like to suggest any titles to be included in the catalogue, please let me know. While I can't promise that they will be included, I will certainly seriously consider all suggestions. 5. Plans are currently under way for Mameloshn '96. If anyone can suggest a place that can comfortably hold 400 people at a reasonable price and that is convenient to Boston and New York, please let me know. Stephen Dowling Brooklyn, NY 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jul 95 18:39:04 IDT From: leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il Subject: Nayer AV lernprogram oyf yidish es iz ersht dershinen a nayer avdeo-visueler lernprogram oyf yidish, oyf der teme: der velt bashaf (bries ho-oylem). der lernprogram bashteyt fun 120 prekhtike kolirte likhtbilder vos ilustrirn der bagleyter naratsie vos iz oyf a kaset-tashme fun kemat 2 sho. der toykhen fun der audio-naratsie motivirt diskusies un klas interaktsie baym ayntrakhtn zikh in di farsheydnartike problemen un vunder fun dem velt-bashaf in likht fun undser visn in natur-visnshaft un toyre inyonim. di materyal ken vern tseteylt baym lerer oyf tsvishn 5 un 10 lektsies un iz tsugepast tsu di toyre-limudim fun talmidim inem 3tn bizn 9tn lernyor. der A.V. program iz tsuzamengeshtelt un oysgefirt gevorn durkh horav moyshe noam. dos iz eyner fun a serie AV lern-programen oyf toyre un yidishkeyt temes. di andere ken men dervayle bakumen nor in hebreish un english. vegn nokh protim, shraybt mir perzenlekh. leybl botvinik ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.052