Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.181 December 3, 1995 1) Betty Klein tapes (Susan Harlap) 2) Dorem-afrikanish (Ron Robboy) 3) Der tunkeler (Peter Kluehs) 4) Ghetto song "eykho" (Chana Mlotek) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 1 Dec 95 09:51:00 EST From: harlap@biosta.mskcc.org Subject: Betty Klein tapes Does anyone know where to buy tapes of the Israeli singer Betty Klein? I heard her singing recently in yiddish and ladino. She was exquisite - quite extraordinary. I'm trying to find tapes to give as Hannuka gifts, but I don't find them in the record stores. Also, does anyone know the label? Can anyone help? Susan Harlap New York 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 16:57:09 -0800 From: rrobboy@cts.com Subject: Dorem-afrikanish Joseph Sherman writes (5.179) of the late Sol Liptzin's "The Maturing of Yiddish of Literature" that "it remains the single most important published international recognition of the considerable achievement of Yiddish artists" in South Africa. I am certain Professor Liptzin would have agreed that it does nothing to diminish our appreciation of his contribution to mention the anthology _Dorem-afrikanish_, edited by the redoubtable Shmuel Rozhansky in Buenos Aires. And certainly Joseph Sherman would want to credit his Argentine co-latitudinists! If I may offer a few bibliographic details: _Dorem-afrikanish_, unter der redaktsye fun Shmuel Rozhansky. Buenos Aires: Yoysef Lifshits-fond fun der literatur-gezeleshaft baym YIVO; 1971, 360 pp. It has an added title page: La literatura Idish en Africa del sur. Rozhansky has for many years overseen the series _Musterverk fun der Yidisher literatur_, of which the South African anthology is Number 50. I myself have never read this volume, but I am very familiar with a number of other titles in the same series. Typically, they include an introduction by Rozhansky; perhaps 250 pages of excerpted chapters or complete short stories from the field under survey; and then another 50 or more pages of historical and critical appraisals drawn from a range of Modern Yiddish commentators. As acute a commentator as Liptzin may have been, and as attentive as he may have been to the then-recent scene in South Africa, it would seem doubtful that his eleven-page English-lan- guage treatment in "Maturing of Yiddish Literature" could compete in scale or depth with that of the book-length Argentine survey, which is in Yiddish, after all. (I assume that by "international," Sherman was referring to discussion outside of South Africa of the South African scene; and not to discussion outside of Yiddish to the Yiddish scene.) Rozhansky is now at an advanced age and much less active in recent years, but it has not been so many years since I saw a notice of a speaking appearance in New York City. He was, by all accounts, understandably devastated by the Buenos Aires bombing, which destroyed so much of the archive he did so much to build. If I may make one last comment, there is a small detail I have always enjoyed with respect to spelling Rozhansky's name. In Yiddish, it is reysh-komets alef-zayen-shin-pasekh alef-nun-samekh-kuf-yud. In Spanish --as on the Spanish-language title pages on the (Yiddish) back- or (Spanish) front-page of volumes in the Musterverk series-- it is always transliterated as Rollansky. This is because, while in most other modern Spanish dialects the letter _tsvey_ ells (LL) is pronounced like 'y' (amontillado = a-mon-ti-YA-do; llama = YA-ma), in the Argentine pronunciation it is like the Yiddish _zh_ (_zhargon_, _zhurnal_, Zhitlovsky, _patlozhelye_). (_Patlozhelye was a risky example, and _zhlob_ would be a bad one in this context, as the _lamed_ could easily be confused with the non-liquid _tsvey_ ells of Rollansky: don't make this mistake!) There are two bibliographic records in the University of California catalogue (where I happened to look it up on-line) for the South African anthology. One gives the editor as Shmuel Rozshanski (UCLA library), and the other cites Shemu'el Rozshanski (Berkeley library). The Berkeley spelling (Shemu'el) is clearly less "Yiddish," is it not? But both faithfully denote (with an added 's') the presence of the _shin_ following the _zayin_, but which seems to contravene the YIVO transliteration convention for _zayen-shin_, which is 'zh'. Or am I misunderstanding that also? Ron Robboy [Shmuel Rozhansky died in Buenos Aires on Feb. 19, 1995 at the age of 92. Obituary notices and tributes can be found in 4.327, 4.332, 4.339, 4.350, 4.353. nm] 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 02 Dec 1995 18:17:00 +0200 From: pete@pko.rhein-main.de Subject: der tunkeler [3] hemshekh fun *literatn mit bekies* in mendele vol. 5.178 nokh dem dozikn atikl bavayzt zikh an artikl fun d"r gliksman in *zshelibazsher almanakh*. dos artikl heyst "prof' froyd in zayn meditsinisher analize fun d"r leypuner". tsvishn andern shraybt er: "ven ikh zog, az der geshlekht-batrib iz di aks, oyf velkher es dreyt zikh der kosmos, meyn ikh tsu zogn, az der kosmos iz di aks, oyf velkher es dreyt zikh der geshlekht-batrib. un (mem-hey-patakh-alef-yud tes-ayen-mem-alef)? muz ikh zogn, az di tsitate, vos d"r zshitlovski brengt funem daytshishn dikhter *shintse* (zol mir moykhl zayn der khaver leo finkelshteyn: *shintse* iz keyn mol nisht geven keyn englender un hot nisht gelebt in mitlelter, nor a daytshisher denker iz er geven un a genialer entsiklopedist, vos hot gehert tsu der grupe entsiklopedistn fun der firme "brokhoyz, efron et komp'", vos hot gelebt in der ershter helft fun 18tn yorhundert un vemens lektsyes ikh hob gehat dos glik tsu hern in bern in yor 1905), az di froy iz der tsimes fun erotishn unterbavustzayn iz poshet treflekh un genial, un az dos iz der kvintesents fun gantsn froydizm. es freyt mikh zeyer, vos kolege un oykh dokter, nemlekh, d"r zshitlovski, hot getrofn, punkt vi ikh, tsu tsitirn mayn balibter denker, velkhn ikh hob nokh fun mayn yingster yugnt, ven ikh bin nokh geven a vunderkind, lib gehat tsu lezn un tsu komentirn un tsu tsitirn, un velkher hot mir gegebn azoy fil espri un verve un sharm far mayn disertatsye "di froy, froyd un zayn psikhoanalitishe dimprogae". di dozike geniale fraze fun *shintse* hob ikh oykh eynike mol gebrakht als moto tsu mayne ophandlungen. yo, di froy iz der tsimes fun der natur"! vayterdiker hemshekh folgt peter kluehs wehrheim, germany 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 2 Dec 1995 18:45:20 -0800 From: chaniyos@eworld.com Subject: Ghetto song "eykho" Does anyone know where I can obtain the music of the ghetto song "eykho"? There are two versions of the text in S. Kaczerginsky's collection, but the melody was never printed as far as I know. Chana Mlotek ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.181 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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