Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.139 October 12, 1995 1) _The Book of Paradise_ (Bess Katz) 2) Frida de Cielak's _Arele_ (Ellen Cassedy) 3) Frida de Cielak's _Arele_ (Stephen Dowling) 4) Women of the Yiddish left (Eric Schoenbaum) 5) Kind un Keyt (Leybl Botvinik) 6) Khapn (Eric Gildemeister) 7) Khapn (Chaim Rosemarin) 8) Sholom Aleichem Street (Joel Maxman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 21:54:59 -0400 From: bessk@aol.com Subject: _The Book of Paradise_ Ronald Florence can get Itzik Manger's _The Book of Paradise_ (translated by Leonard Wolf) from the National Yiddish Book Center. Bess Katz Philadelphia 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 22:59:33 -0400 From: cassblum@aol.com Subject: Frida de Cielak's "Arele" Marti Krow-Lucal asks about Frida de Cielak's "Arele," a 3-volume Yiddish workbook published in Mexico in 1982. I ordered it from the National Yiddish Book Center, 48 Woodbridge St., South Hadley, MA 01075. Phone: 413-585-8200. It was a perfect beginner's book for my 10-year-old. Now we're working our way through Joseph Mlotek's 3-volume "Yidishe Kinder," available from Workmen's Circle, which is just right after "Arele." Ellen Cassedy Bethesda, MD 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 09:39:35 -0400 From: stdowling@aol.com Subject: _Arele_ Martha Krow-Lucal writes that the Jewish Book Center of The Workmen's Circle is unfamiliar with the book "Arele" by Frieda de Cielak. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We are very familiar with the book. We don't carry it for several reasons. They are: 1. It uses highly stylized lettering that some people find hard to read. 2. It was rapidly going up in price. "Arele" is a three book set that when I last was interested listed for $40.00 3. It didn't sell. When I had them, no one wanted them. When I don't have it, people want it. For a bookseller, it is a highly maddening state of affairs. 4. When we would order the book from Ms. de Cielak, her invoices would be accompanied by long notes informing us that she continued to hold the copyright. 5. Lastly, it was always a pain to set up the shipping and billing of her books. As I recall, the book is entirely in Yiddish. For some people, this is exactly what they want. I believe Fishl Kutner (Fishlfishl@aol.com) has her latest address. Stephen Dowling Brooklyn 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 21:31:34 -0500 From: eschoenb@laedu.lalc.k12.ca.us Subject: Women of the Yiddish left I'd like some input on the subject of women in the Yiddish left. From personal knowledge they certainly seemed to be assertive and quite active. For instance, my grandmother, Bessie Solomon, helped form an Emma Lazurus Club in the Bronx. On the other hand, this was a woman's auxillary, by definition less important than the male led IWO. Were radical Yiddish women more "empowered" and "powerful" than other Jewish women? Were/are Jewish women any better off in this regard than their non Jewish peers? I've done some reading on this: _Daughters of the Shtetl_ by Susan Glenn; "What Made Yetta Work?" by Charlotte Baum; and "Culture and Radical Politics: Yiddish Women Writers, 1890 - 1940." If anyone has any useful sources to read, and/or opinions on the matter I'd be grateful. eric schoenbaum 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 12:16:13 +0200 (IST) From: leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il Subject: nayer ilustrirter yidisher zhurnal far kleyn un groys: Kind un Keyt Fun dem redaktor, boris sandler, gib ikh iber di vayterdike yediye: "kind-un-keyt", an ilustrirter yidisher zhurnal far kleyn un groys, iz koydem kol a literarisher zhurnal. far medines yisroyl, iz dos a naye dershaynung, vos iz frier nit geven. in der frayer yidisher velt iz undzer oysgabe meglekh di eyntsike oysgabe far kinder un yugntlekhe oyf haynt tsu tog. di redaktsye funem zhurnal gleybt, az "kind-un-keyt" vet gebn a meglekhkeyt far di opgezunderte un tsevorfene iber der velt, -- say talmidim, say lerers un eltern -- tsu bakumen a konkretn adres, kedey zikh tsu farbindn eyner mit dem andern, zikh teyln mit zeyer freyd un leyd, zikh farkhavern, --- mit eyn vort, zayn aktive shutfim in shafn dem zhurnal. "kind-un-keyt" vet dershaynen, mirtshem, eyn mol in dray khadoshim (dos iz oykh ophengik in undzere finantsyele meglekhkeytn), in a farnem fun 16 zaytn mit a sher-blat. der ershter numer iz shoyn tsugegreyt tsum druk un, vi mir hofn, vet er zen di likhtike shayn in november-detsember 1995. inem ershtn numer zaynen arayn naye verk ongeshribn spetsiel farn zhurnal fun rokhl boymval (yerushalayim), zisi vaysman (samare), avrom katsev (kiryat-motskin), genadi estraykh (oksford), zyame telesin (yerushalayim), un andere; fun di klasiker, y.l. peretz, yakov pat, y. kaminski; farsheydene shpilerayen, retenishn, kinder-humor; in der rubrik "khoshever gast" - tret aroys prof. dov noy. un nokh. in yedn numer veln mir zikh bamiyen tsu dertseyln vegn di yidish klasn, shuln, krayzlekh vos ekzistirn in yisroyl un in andere lender. farshteyt zikh, az mir zaynen zeyer farinteresirt aroystsubakumen aza min materyal fun aykh oykh (foto-bilder, tseykhenungen, mayses, reportazhn...), mit eyn vort, alts vos iz lebedik un sheferish. *** als informatsye, voltn mir gevolt visn, vifl beerekh ekzemplarn fun "kind-un-keyt" volt ir gekent farshpreytn? di prayz fun eyn numer iz 10 amerikaner dolar. a gut gezunt yor, ayer boris sandler, redaktor adres: "kind-un-keyt" P.O.Box 11085 Jerusalem, 91111. Israel [ir kent oykh entfern oyf mayn internets-adres, un ikh vel im ibergebn: leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il] leybl botvinik, netanya 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 08:57:00 EDT From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Khapn Just wanted to follow up Daniel Soyer's message referring to khapts 'em for the act of getting a mugger. What your dealing with probably is the Central Yiddish colloquial custom of adding (e)ts to imperatives, which refer back to the use of "ets" instead of "ir" in the nominative for 2nd person plural of "you". Mike Burshteyn sings a beautiful song from a Manger work (Di Megile). "Flits, feygelakh, flits getraye, oyf der malke Ester's dakh." I.B. Singer has a spoken recording, which, because I only spoke the klal shprakh at the time, was very hard for me to understand. A sentence which stood out, if I remember it correctly, was one at the beginning of a mayse: "Ets gleybt nisht kinderlakh, vel ekh aakh dertsayln". Now that's eynmol dialect! Em instead of im is also very common, and some scholars like Solomon Birnbaum, *prefer* eykh, eym (em) for ikh, im. So that should give Daniel and anyone else that's interested, a kik araan in poylish yidish. I pray *I* got it right! Rick Gildemeister 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 10:14:45 -0700 From: astroj@astro.washington.edu Subject: Khop In Brooklyn (or at least Brownsville) "khop" was used as a more vigorous form of "take" than "nem" including, but not limited to, "grab, nab or steal." Eventually it became yinglishized into "cop," (on the west coast "kype"). So if you got caught "copping" something, you might "cop a plea" (plead guilty to a lesser charge). Chaim Rosemarin Seattle 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 10:15:15 -400 From: jm400@rnc2.rosenman.com Subject: Sholom Aleichem Street At a meeting being held tonight, October 12th, at 6:00 p.m., one of the many items one the agenda is discussion of a proposal to rename a portion of East 33rd Street (between Madison and Park Avenues) in New York City "Sholom Aleichem Street". The meeting is being held in the 8th Floor Employee Dining Room of Fashion Institute of Technology, 227 West 27th Street, Building A, New York City. It is open to the public. Joel Maxman New York City ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.139