Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.210 January 7, 1996 1) _Tsayt tsu Dermonen_ (Moises Kijak) 2) Plumber (Miki Safadi) 3) Graf Potocki (Aren Portnoy) 4) Hasofe (Noyekh Miller) 5) The Yiddish canon (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 7 Jan 1996 06:45:15 -0300 From: administ@kijak.recom.edu.ar Subject: _Tsayt tsu Dermonen_ Taiere fraint fun der Mendele-reshime, ikh vil bakant makhn az es iz mit etlekhe khadoshim tzurik dershinen in Buenos Aires, dos bukh "Tiempo de recordar" (tzait tzu dermonen) vemens mekhaber iz Yankl (Jack) Fuchs. Dos bukh iz geshribn oif shpanish, in forem fun a dialog mit der shraibern Liliana Isod. Fil fun aikh zenen bakant min mekhaber. Yankl Fuchs, a lodzer, hot vi a iugntlekher ibergelebt dem lodzer geto un shpeter di toit-lagern Aushvitz un Dachau. nokh der bafraiug iz er in 1946 ongekumen kain New York, vu er iz biz 1962 tetik geven in Bund un in Yivo un idish kraizn. Do in argentine iz er oikh zeier aktiv in di idish-idishe organiztzies. Es iz iz vikhtik tzu dermonen az ale anokhes funem bukh hot er geshonken dem argentiner Yivo-idish komitet. Dos bukh farnemt zikh nitht bloiz mit zikhroines, nor es iz a vikhtiker tzushtaier tzum farshtein fil protim vos hobn tzu ton mitn idishn lebn un gedank, farn, beeis un nokhn khurbn. Dos bukh hot do in argentine gehat an oisergeveindlekhn opklang. Di algemeine un idishe prese hobn fil geshribn veg bukh. Di comisie far mentchn-rekht inem argentiner senat hot durkhgefirt a spetziele tzeremonie vu men hot im opgegebn a vikhtike optzekhenung. Di ale vos zenen bakant mit der shpanisher shprakh un viln bakumen dos bukh, bite, zoln zikh farshtendikn mitn mekhaber dutkh main E mail: administ@kijak.recom.edu.ar A dank forois. Moises Kijak 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 Jan 1996 05:42:47 -0800 From: msafadi@ucla.edu Subject: a plumber vos nor me zoll ihm nisht rufn Efsher hot emetzer an andern veg oystsudrikn "plumber?" Mir hobn shoyn rehrenshlosser, instalator, un plumber. A plumber by any other name: Maybe someone has another way to express "plumber" in Yiddish? We already have rehrenshlosser, instalator and plumber. Miki Safadi 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 Jan 1996 11:20:48 -0500 (EST) From: ep73@columbia.edu Subject: Graf Potocki (Ger Teysek) Addendum to questions about Count Valentin Potocki, the Ger Tseydek, first posed by Norman Rosenblatt [5.207] and answered by Charles Jones [5.208]: According to Israel Cohen's, "Vilna" (JPS,1943), Count Potocki, while in Paris, encountered an old Jew studying Hebrew texts while awaiting customers in his wine shop. Potocki was much taken with the Jew's exigesis of the religious texts and convinced him to teach him Hebrew, afterwhich he left for Amsterdam to convert to Judaism. He returned to Poland as Avrum ben Avrum, and wandered from town to town, an itinerant student until he was informed upon in Ilye. Apparently, while he was studying in the Beys medresh, a child disturbed him and despite Potocki's entreaties to stop, the boy continued making a racket. Potocki threw him out of the Beys medresh and told him that any child who behaved like that couldn't have been a Jewish child and would surely be baptized later. The boy ran and told his father,a tailor, who informed the Polish authorities of Potocki's whereabouts. After hiding out at an inn, he was turned over to the Polish authorities, who imprisoned him and eventually burned him alive for refusing to renounce his conversion. His ashes were bought on a bribe by a Jew, who arranged to have them buried in the Jewish cemetery. Many Jews made pilgrimages to the grave and an iron shed was built over it to protect it from Polish vandals, who apparently had hacked off branches of a giant tree which grew over the site. There is also the legend, chronicled in "Mayse Ger Tsedek" (Yohanisberg, Praysn, 1862) and dramatized in Alter Kacyzne's, "Der Dukus," that Potocki cursed the informer and his descendants, that they should all be stricken with some deformity. According to A. Litvin, who visited Ilye in 1930 (Ephraim Jeshurun's Zamlbukh, pp. 841-7), all of the tailor's descendants were indeed afflicted with some deformity. Though I have seen no mention of it, it is obvious that any mid-18th century convert to Judaism, who desired to wander from Beys medresh to Beys medresh in Poland, would have to learn Yiddish. Since Yiddish wasn't "taught" to the Jews of that period, it would be most interesting to know how he, or any other convert, went about learning it. Is any documention available on the acquisition of Yiddish by converts of that period? Aren Portnoy 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 7 Jan 1996 From: nmiller@shakti.trincoll.edu Subject: Hasofe Philologus's most recent column in The Forward (Jan. 5, 1996) is one of his very best and should be of particular interest to our company. Entitled "Splitting Hooves", it lists a number of Yiddish expressions that can't be fully understood or appreciated without a knowledge of Jewish religious practices and religious lore. Examples: a yor un a mitvokh azoy vi a hon bney-odom er trogt zikh arum dermit vi der riboyne-shel-oylem mit der toyre Then comes the last paragraph: I could go on but I wouldn't want you to say, "az m'vil nit dem khazen, heyst er zikh nokh gebn a hasofe". "It's when no one wants any more of the cantor that he goes an gives an encore". Vos mir "encore"? Surely hasofe means a raise in pay? Nu, nu. Zol shoyn zayn "encore". If Philologus can repeat such a performance we can forgive him the occasional wrong note. Noyekh Miller 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 7 Jan 1996 From: nmiller@shakti.trincoll.edu Subject: The Yiddish canon Those Mendelniks who haven't yet seen Harold Bloom's _The Western Canon_ will be pleased to learn that Yiddish has received a hekhsher from the formidable critic. Those with long memories might especially enjoy the fact that this is toyre mi-new-haven, where english literature used to be in the hands of humbugs like William Lyon Phelps and of whom it can safely be said az in itstikn moment treyslen zikh mit im di beyner. Iz dokh gut? In general, yes. But the list of canonized writers doesn't include Sutzkever. And --more puzzling-- only one book is listed for Asch and that book is _East River_. _East River_!!? Of all the trashy things Asch wrote, surely only _Uncle Moses_ is worse. Anyway, Bloom is a fine broth of a lad, but it's a safe bet that he has read less and thought less about Yiddish literature than have many of our own readers. So I propose that we put our collective heads together and produce a _definitive_ list of canonic works that we can propose for the inevitable second edition. The list, wrapped together with a herring in a copy of the Forverts, will then be delivered to Bloom at a time and place to be announced (the Yale Faculty Club?). Nominations are now in order. Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.210