Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.079 August 10, 1995 1) Feldsher (Gaston L. Schmir) 2) Feldsher (Bernard Katz) 3) Feldsher (Bob Rothstein) 4) Feldsher (Mikhl Herzog) 5) Feldsher (Paul Pascal) 6) Feldsher (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Aug 1995 18:24:38 -0400 (EDT) From: glschm@minerva.cis.yale.edu Subject: Feldsher To Dan Leeson: my father, who was born and lived in Warsaw until the age of nineteen used the term feldsher to refer to a sort of paramedic or physician's assistant. The term is also known to my friend Dr. David Ladner who stems from Tarnow (Galicia). The word feldsher appears in two biographical sketches about Abraham Pinkusewicz, who lived and practiced his profession in the western Polish town of Piotrkow Trybunalski. So much for geographical localization. Uriel Weinreich translates _feldsher_ as "old-time barber-surgeon", while Harkavy gives "assistant surgeon". What precisely were the functions and qualifications of barber-surgeons in 19th century America is not clear to me but they may have been similar to those of the feldsher in 20th century Poland and in the Soviet Union. Among the duties of the feldsher were the withdrawal of blood by application of heated cups ("cupping") or leeches, the dispensing of medications such as aspirin, the changing of bandages, and the setting of broken limbs. I suspect that the training of a feldsher involved mainly a prolonged apprenticeship under the supervision of an experienced practitioner, after completion of secondary school Gaston L. Schmir 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Aug 1995 19:18:16 -0400 (EDT) From: bkatz@uoguelph.ca Subject: Feldsher Dan Leeson asks about the occupation of feldsher. As I understand it, and from my Polish relatives, this term refers to someone who was trained as a sort of bone-setter cum first aid practitioner. The training was usually as an apprentice to an established feldsher, but I have heard about some who were "trained" as a result of their medical work experi- ences in the army. My impression is that the latter were rare and that di feldsheren were very countrified and relatively primitive in their approach, although many had good natural talents and acquired excellent skills, and that they practiced in rural areas that were not well served by physicians (if served at all). I also know that the word in German means a military field surgeon, and that it was sometimes used for the old-fashioned "barber-surgeon". Bernard Katz Guelph, Ontario 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 09 Aug 1995 22:56:06 -0400 (EDT) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Feldsher Dan Leeson asked about the term _feldsher_ (5.078). In German _Feldscher(er)_ is an army surgeon. Russian (and Ukrainian) _fel'dsher_ and Polish _felczer_ refer to a kind of doctor's assistant who has only high-school level medical education (i.e., is a graduate of a medical technical high school) and who is entitled to provide first aid and other low-level medical treatment. Bob Rothstein 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Aug 95 23:06 EDT From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Feldsher Weinreich's dictionary definition is 'old-time barber-surgeon'. My grandfather, _Arye der feldsher_ (my _yikhes_) was from Mozyr, a bit north of the Belorusian-Ukrainian border--not Lithuania but, culturally and linguistically, Lite, which may bear out Dan Leeson's point nevertheless. 'The Jewish, unlicensed doctor' is what we were told: I would imagine _geshtelt ba(y)nkes_, _tsugeleygt piyefkes/pyafkes_ (leaches), maker of _proshkes_ 'powders' (_geviklt proshkes_, I think); 'barber'? No. A widespread synonym is _royfe_. Both contrast with a full- fledged _dokter_. In due course, a map (_az met derlebn_). Mikhl Herzog 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 Aug 95 08:24:19 EDT From: 75332.2735@compuserve.com Subject: Feldsher Regarding Dan Leeson's question about the use of the word "feldsher", it is not necessary to refer to it in the past tense; just last summer I came across a building in Slutsk (Belarus) with a sign in Russian indicating that this was the clinic of the Feldsher. At the time, I (mistakenly) thought it meant veterinarian, so I considered it a minor coup to photograph a family of geese just happening to be waddling haughtily past the building. My Russian-English dictionary gives as definition of feldsher: "doctor's assistant, medical attendant", while Weinreich defines it as an "old-time barber-surgeon". Clearly the Russian came from the Yiddish (or perhaps from German), not the other way around. A feldsher, literally a "field scissors", seems to follow the pattern of other words like "feldtrumeyt"--a bugle--and "feldflash"--a canteen--in alluding to a military context. So I would guess that the feldsher began historically, at least, as a military medic. The word also follows another pattern, namely the Jewish practice of referring to a person according to the tools of his/her trade, as for example in "klezmer". Paul Pascal Toronto 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thur, 10 Aug 95 From: nmiller@shakti.trincoll.edu Subject: Feldsher, royfe, belfer, dokter I take the definition "old-time barber-surgeon" as describing what a feldsher _was_. Mikhl is surely right in saying that "today's" feldshers are not barbers. Well, almost surely right. The barber around the corner had in his window a set of bankes together with a sign: mir shteln bankes. And I well remember watching while he administered to someone in my family. I _think_ feldsher was used in Ukrayne. At any rate my father used the term, though he'd served in the Czar's army and maybe picked it up in that setting. But my bobe, who grew up in a dorf, only used royfe and belfer (Jewish doktoyrim were rare). A royfe knew what he was doing, a belfer didn't. Azoy hot zi gezogt. But what's a belfer? The dictionaries say that a b(eh)elfer is an assistant melamed. Nit ba indz. Is belfer as apprentice healer limited to Ukrayne? Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.079