Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.111 September 14, 1995 1) AALTA Conference (Leah Zazulyer) 2) Teaching Yiddish to children (Marti Krow-Lucal) 3) Mayses vegn Yerushalayim (Miriam Isaacs) 4) Mentshelakh (Eliyahu Juni) 5) Golems and dybbuks (Binyomin Weiner) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 19:20:52 -0400 (EDT) From: watson@uhura.cc.rochester.edu Subject: AALTA Conference The American Literary Translators Association will meet in Austin Texas, October 26-29, Radisson Hotel. Theme: Crossing Borders: Translator as Outlaw. Yiddish will be represented for the third year running, with my participation this time on a panel called Translation Without Borders. The organization is a good one and would benefit by other Yiddishists becoming more involved. In addition to panels and workshops, bi-lingual readings of work in progress are a feature. Alta Offices: The Univ. of Texas at Dallas, MC35, Box 830688, Richardson, Texas, 75083-0688, (214)883-6303. E-mail: ert@UTDallas.edu Leah Zazulyer 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 01:55:43 -0400 From: kromobile@aol.com Subject: Teaching Yiddish to children I subscribe wholeheartedly to the idea of teaching Yiddish to our children. Recognizing the financial and political problems that prevent the teaching of Yiddish in recognized community forums, I would like to add another problem (probably with an easier solution that the aforementioned ones) which I have discovered in the process of helping my son learn some Yiddish for his secular bar mitzvah . He has requested repeatedly "the kind of thing I have in my Spanish class at school," that is to say, a linked textbook/workbook/tape set. To my knowledge, no such set exists. I have textbooks from my youth that he is making do with, and I have bought a Yiddish vocabulary tape, but he has put his finger on a central weakness of trying to teach/learn Yiddish as a second language: there are no suitable, modern materials for teenagers. He enjoys languages and wants very much to learn Yiddish, but I cannot provide him with a constant Yiddish environment at home (and he certainly can't get one anywhere else around here). Materials are not a trivial problem - we need to work on them. If anyone has any, I would be delighted to know about them Marti Krow-Lucal Sunnyvale 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 11:13:33 -0400 (EDT) From: miriamis@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu Subject: Mayses vegn Yerushalayim Re: Leybl Botvinik's post (Vol 5.109) Ikh vil tzugebn a mayse fin Yerushalayim vos ikh hob hehert fun a Yidish rederin Yerushalmit. Az men fort ofn autobus in Isrol, darf der firer opnemen a kartis in vemen er klopt lekhelekh far yedn eynem. Kumt a frime froy mit nayn kinderlekh un der firer zitst un darf opklopn ale lekhelekh. Derbeyzert er zekh un zogt ir, far vos host du nisht ibergelost a helft fun di kinder in der heym?" Enftert zi im, "ikh hob take yo ibergelost a helft fun zey in der heym." Miriam Isaacs 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 14:06:56 -0400 From: ao107@freenet.carleton.ca Subject: Mentshelakh In vol. 5.088 (I'm catching up slowly :-) Reb Daniel Soyer asked about the word 'mentshile', surmised (correctly) that it refers to a doll, and asked whether this was an appropriate gift for a small boy. When I was a kid, my parents, siblings and I referred to dolls as 'mentshelakh', especially very small ones (the kind that come as parts of other toys, thumb-sized). (For a generational perspective, I'm now 21.) My parents are both native Yiddish speakers, but I grew up speaking English. I'm not sure when it happened, but 'mentshelakh' has become a standard part of . . . (I don't know what to call it, but it's the Yeshivishese spoken outside yeshives by people who are not in yeshive but whose lives are closely connected to it, such as wives and children of kley koydesh and koylel yungelayt, and many kheyder-yinglakh.) As for small boys being allowed to play with dolls or receiving them as gifts, I don't recall any particular issue with dolls beyond the standard discouragement of toys and games; it's toys in general, not just dolls, which are labelled "girlish". But this doesn't begin until the child starts learning; in fact, male toddlers ar often raised on the same terms as their sisters, until they start going to pre-school. (For example: male toddlers will be dressed in the same style of clothes as female, they will be allowed to play together, and at functions with separate seating, or even in shul, they will sit with the women.) This is especially true in those circles (mostly khsidish) where the hair is grown long until the third birthday, and the first haircut on the third birthday is also the occassion for taking the boy to kheyder for the first time and getting him started learning the alef-beys. Eliyahu Juni 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 08:44:52 -0400 (EDT) From: bmw6@columbia.edu Subject: Golems and dybbuks I am looking for legends. I would like to assemble, for personal reasons, a good deal of stories about golems and dybbuks. These would ideally range from the most un-self-conscious folk tellings of these tales (if such things exist,) to more deliberately authored works, such as Ansky's play. Also, I would be interested in learning of the existence of any other kind of Yiddish 'creature' myths. Please suggest stories, and books in which they may be found, either on a general posting or to my address. Binyomin Weiner ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.111 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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