Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.097 August 27, 1995 1) Superstitious Yiddish expressions (Mottel Lakin) 2) Superstitious Yiddish expressions (Dan Leeson) 3) "Southern" accent (Mottel Lakin) 4) Der yontif 'Seredipisk' (Mendy Fliegler) 5) Kovno Ghetto artifacts (Paul F. Rose) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 12:17:55 -0400 (EDT) From: mlakin@acpub.duke.edu Subject: Superstitious Yiddish expressions I want only to add another to Zellig Bach's timely reminder of ways of warding off the "nisht gute" and other evil designs, since the days of yomim noraim are upon us and it is certainly timely to frustrate the various evil eyes that are a constant source of danger. I think that the practice of naming a girl child "Maiteh" or "Maitah" -- one who is already dead -- was another excellent strategy of outwitting the malekh hamoves for, after all, if the child was "already dead" why bother? In the case of my own spouse, born in interwar Poland, her mother so disliked the name that she changed it to Musia. Of course we still are trying to outwit the aforementioned... Pu, Pu, Pu. (And as my own mother would add; "With the wind and the water" Pu, Pu, Pu, Ober fun vanen es kumt, veys ikh gor nit) A gut yor aykh alemen, un zol der malekh hamoves hoben gor keyn nakhes fun aykh! Mottel Lakin 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Aug 1995 07:40:37 EDT From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu Subject: Superstitious Yiddish expressions I just got back from a trip to New York and found Zelig Bach's posting on Yiddish superstitious expressions. It was terrific!! I was also so pleased with the helpful descriptions responding to my inquiry about "feldshers" that I am encouraged to try again with a word that I am not sure of. The expression used in describing the trade of one of the older members of the family was "Moishe is geven a zhlen" although the sentence might have been "Moishe is geven azhlen." So I am not sure if the word was "zhlen" or "azhlen." However, the Moishe in question was an official who kept a record of the births and deaths of the Jewish community in Nyashtat, Lithuania and that is what I believe a "zlhen" or an "azhlen" to have been. Any help? Any suggestions? Dan Leeson Los Altos, California 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 12:32:50 -0400 (EDT) From: mlakin@acpub.duke.edu Subject: Harvey Spiro's "southern accent" This business of saying meshiginer instead of meshuggener must be regional but it reminds me to that Dershowitz the lawyer, making a guest acting appearance on Picket Fences TV Friday nite (Shabbes, take) August 25, says in his parting message to the guy playing the part of a lawyer about to appear before the Supreme Court, zay gezint, not, as I would have said it, zay gezundt. So it appears to be a systematic thing, and no doubt their are regional dialect differences to account for it, as in "moomeh" vs. "meemeh" for aunties, and such like. Even git yor instead of gut yor, Is it Galicia vs. Lithuania? Mottel Lakin 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 22:29:18 -0400 (EDT) From: efliegle@CapAccess.org Subject: Der yontif 'Seredipisk' Koydem kol, vil ikh zikh antshuldign vos ikh hob tsures shraybn in der Litvisher mine, afile vi men nitst dem YIVO oysdruk. Farvus? (nit farvos), vayl mayne eltern hobn mikh oyfgekhovet als Galetsyaner, un nisht a reyniker Yidishist. Un azoy geyt es.... Az mentshn glaykhn nisht vi ikh red, efsher zoln zey zayn a bisl meyr demokratish....Otherwise, some of my Yiddish posts here, will be in idiotic English and I will try my YIVO correct Yiddish as best I can. Vil ikh aykh freygn, mendlyaner, ver veyst fun dem yontif 'Seredepisk'? Mayn mame hot mir dertzeylt derfun, ven ikh bin amul geveyn foyl: "Vus iz haynt Seredipisk? Zi hot mir oykhet dertzeylt veygn di Altfrenkishe. Mendy Fliegler 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Aug 95 14:55:06 EST From: prose@inetgate.ushmm.org Subject: Kovno Ghetto artifacts Washington, D.C., -- The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is searching for artifacts to include in a new special exhibition on the Kovno Ghetto (Kaunas, Lithuania) that it plans to open in 1997. Using surviving artifacts, photographs, and documents from the Ghetto's clandestine archives, the exhibition will examine the extraordinary experiences of individuals who were imprisoned in the Ghetto from August 1941 to July 1944. To complete the exhibition, the Museum is searching for photographs of Ghetto life; objects made in the Ghetto workshops; personal items used in the homes; children's toys, clothing, and books; items used in the resistance and partisan movements, and sacred materials, including prayer books, prayer shawls, and liturgical items. The Museum also is seeking artifacts from the destroyed world of pre-Holocaust Kovno -- including photographs, ceremonial objects, household items, books, and art works -- to use in the exhibition. In addition to artifacts, the exhibition team is looking for scholarly works on the Jewish material culture of Lithuania, works on Lithuanian - Jewish relations, and papers on the German occupation of Lithuania. Anyone who is willing to make such materials available to the Museum, or knows of sources for such materials, including any names and locations of survivors of the Kovno Ghetto, should contact Paul Rose, Exhibition Researcher at the museum, via his E-Mail address (prose@ushmm.org), by calling him at (202) 488-0400 ext.749, or by writing him at the Department of Exhibitions, United States Holocaust Memorial Museu