Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.260 March 5, 1996 1) Introduction (Shirley Kumove) 2) Introduction (Libe Gritz and Mikhl Katz) 3) Khasidish or misnagdish (David Herskovic) 4) The Shamrock Prize (Mikhl Herzog) 5) The Shamrock Prize (Leonard Prager) 6) The Shamrock Prize (Barry Walfish) 7) Nokhamol tsu der arbet (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 09:55:34 -0500 From: comact@interlog.com Subject: Introduction Shoyn a sheyn bisl khadoshim vos ikh shtey hinter der tir, leyn un hob hanoye fun di farshidene inyonim vos vern gehandlt oyf mendele. Ikh hob zikh ersht nisht lang dervust az m'darf lozn visn ver m'iz, men darf zikh heyst es, fortsushteln. Loz ikh aykh visn di etlekhe pitshevkes. Heysn heys ikh Shirley Kumove (in der heym hot men mir gerufn Sore). A geboyrene in Toronto, di eltern fun Lodz, Poyln, geret un farbrengt oyf yidish. Alts meydl geven a shiler in di Borochov Shul vos iz ongefirt gevorn fun di lerers Menachovsky. Oyf der elter, gevorn a shtikl shrayber un iberzetser. Ongeshribn a bukh, _Words Like Arrows, A Collection of Yiddish Folk Sayings_. Der tsveyter teyl ruft zikh, _More Words, More Arrows, A Further Collection of Yiddish Folk Sayings_, gefint zikh itst bay a redakter in di fareynikte shtatn. Az m'et lebn un zayn gezunt, mirtseshem, vet dos kind oykh geboyrn vern. Nokh a ksavyad, di ale lider fun Anna Margolin, ibergezetst oyf English un ongerufn, Drunk On The Bitter Truth, gefint zikh itst oykh bay a redakter, a canadisher, un ikh dervart tsu hern a gute b'sure vegn dem oykh. Farayorn iz gedrukt gevorn a bukh, Found Treasures, Stories by Yiddish Women Writers. Etlekhe dertseylungen vos ikh hob ibergezetst gefinen zikh dortn. Dos bukh iz gevorn gedrukt in 5,000 exemplarn vos zaynen bald oysfarkoyft gevorn dem ershtn yor. Men hot vider gedrukt nokh 5,000 exemplarn. Vayst oys, az dos bukh vert ongenumen baym folk. Ikh halt az ikh hob aykh shoyn genug dertseylt vegn zikh. S'iz shoyn tsayt hoylekhn tsurik tsu di avoyde. Zayt ale gegrust un lomir redn yidish! For the last several months, I've been standing behind the door so to speak, reading and taking pleasure from the various subjects under discussion on Mendele. I've recently become aware that one should identify oneself, so I offer the following details: My name is Shirley Kumove (at home I was known as Soreh) Born in Toronto, parents from Lodz, Poland; we generally spoke in Yiddish. As a girl, I was a student at the Borochov School under the tutelage of the Menachovksys. A late bloomer, I've become somewhat of a writer and translator. Wrote a book called Words Like Arrows, A Collection of Yiddish Folk Sayings. The sequel called, More Words, More Arrows, A Further Collection of Yiddish Folk Sayings, is presently with an American publishing house. God willing, we should live and be well, it will also see the light of day. Another manuscript, the complete poems of Anna Margolin, translated into English under the title, Drunk On The Bitter Truth, is now with a Canadian publisher and here too, we hope to hear good news about publication. Last year, the book, Found Treasures, Stories by Yiddish Women Writers, was published. Several stories I translated are included in this collection. The initial print run was 5,000 copies which was sold out the first year. A second edition of 5,000 copies is now available. It seems the book is well received. I think I've given you enough details. It's time to hustle back to work. Regards to all and let's keep talking Yiddish! Shirley Kumove 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 29 Feb 96 22:24 EST From: 0007547315@mcimail.com Subject: Introductions and a query After months of lurking, it's time to say hello (or as Mikhl would say, Good Morning). We are Mikhl Katz and Libe Gritz, active members of the Boston Yiddish community. We're among the founders of a lively branch of the Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring in Boston, which sponsors many Yiddish and Yiddish cultural events and activities, including a Sunday school with over 100 children. If you're in town on the second Thursday of the month, come to our Yiddish Vinkl to shmooze in Yiddish. On the fourth Thursday of the month, come sing Yiddish songs with us. Libe attended a Workmen's Circle shule and Camp Kinder Ring, while Mikhl's shule was a descendant of the IWO or "linke" shuln, and he and his family have been active Camp Kinderlanders going on four generations. Therefore some consider us a mixed marriage (between the Yiddish left and the Yiddish far left) . We are pleased to report progress in thawing relations between these two bastions of secular Yiddishkayt that parted company 70 years ago. To paraphrase Yehudes Nisnholts from a recent issue of Yugntruf, Yiddish was our mame's loshn but not our mame-loshn. We are not fluent in Yiddish, but thanks to a kick in the pants from our good friend Khayem Bochner, who said "Beser a tsebrokhene Yidish vi nisht kayn Yidish," we are speaking a tsebrokhene Yiddish with our 7- and 5-year old children, Perl Ester and Benyomen Noyakh. They understand Yiddish much better than they speak it, and they delight in correcting our mistakes. Perl simply cannot understand why Bubbe-Zeyde and Bubbie-Zeydie did not speak Yiddish with us when we were children! It was a mekhaye to visit the National Yiddish Book Center and surround our children with hundreds of thousands of Yiddish books, including shelves upon shelves of their great-grandfather Moyshe Katz's literary and political books and great-grandmother Esther Katz's book of poems for children. Which brings us to our query. Mikhl's father Lyber Katz, in addition to writing a monthly column for the magazine Jewish Currents, is translating some of his father's autobiographical essays edited by Paul Novick in Di Moyshe Katz Bukh. Zeyde Moyshe writes that his earliest memory (at age 2, in 1887, in the Byelorussian shtetl of Dokshits) is of a song, and we were wondering if anyone is familiar with the words and music. Here are the Yiddish lyrics as remembered by Moyshe Katz, followed by Lyber Katz's English translation. Feygele, feygele, Pi-pi-pi, Vu iz der tate? Geforn in ru. Vos t'er brengen? A fesele bir. Vu t'men shteln? Hintern tir. Ver vet trinken? Ikh mit dir. Tiny bird, tiny bird, Peep-peep-peep, Where is your daddy? Away on a trip. What will he bring? A mug of beer. Where will we put it? Behind the door in the rear. Who will drink it? Maybe you and I. Any further information would be greatly appreciated. It may not be a wonderful song but, as Moyshe Katz writes elsewhere, "...di ershte ayndrukn fun der kindhayt un yugnt, vikhtike nit far zikh aleyn, nor bloyz derfar, vayl zey hobn pasirt, farblaybn in zikorn oyf eybik." (...the first impressions of childhood and youth, important not of themselves, but simply because they happened, remain in memory forever) A sheynem dank to our Shames who enables lovers of Yiddishkayt to find each other and spread the word by blits-post! Yidish lebt! Libe Gritz and Mikhl Katz Somerville, Massachusetts 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 18 Feb 96 11:21:14 EST From: 100114.750@compuserve.com Subject: Khasidish or misnagdish Another satirical reference to the khasidim's belief in the omnipotenet powers of their Rebe are the lyrics to the song 'chiribiom'. I don't remeber all the words but it goes something like: zogt der rebe tsi di khmare her oyf gisen vaser ale khsidim zenen triken aroys nor der rebe iz aroys a naser By the way, is the term 'misnagdish' correct? While 'khsidish' is a commonly used word I have never heard the term 'misnagdish'. For eg. one would say 'er shtamt fin a khsidishe shtib' but for a misnaged it would be 'er kimt fin a mishpokhe fin misnagdim'. David Herskovic 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 Feb 96 19:05 EST From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: The Shamrock Prize Iosif Vaisman [5.258] cites the Jerusalem Post's report on the award of the Israel Prize to Professor "Hana Shamrock". The correct name is, of course, Khone Shmeruk. The problem obviously arise from an attempt to render an essentially vowelless script into readable form in the latin alphabet. Having sublet Shmeruk's apartment in Jerusalem many years ago, I was frequently a party to telephone conversations of which the following will serve as a model: Telephone rings and I answer "Shalom" "Erev tov, efshar ledaber im Khana?" (Good evening, may I speak to Khana? --female) "Khone (male) eynenu" (Khone's not here) "Eyfo hi?" (Where is she?) "Hu beanglia akhshav" (He's in England now) "Khana beanglia!?" (with surprise: Khana's in England?) "Lo, lo, Khone beanglia. (No, no, Khone's in England) "Khana Shmorak?" (khes-nun-hey shin-mem-vov-reysh-kuf) "Lo, Khone Shmeruk" (khes-nun-alef shin-mem-reysh-vov-kuf "Slakh li, ta-iti" (Sorry, I made a mistake.) Mikhl Herzog 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 Feb 96 20:49:19 IST From: rhle302@uvm.haifa.ac.il Subject: The Shamrock Prize Hebrew spelling can mislead and the Jerusalem Post is easily misled, especially about matters Yiddish. Not "Shamrock" -- with its quaint Irish associations, but Shmeruk. The first name is Khone (sometimes spelled Chone), a quite common Jewish name (cf. Khone Hamaagal). Leonard Prager 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 11:00:27 EST From: walfish@vax.library.utoronto.ca Subject: Prof. Shamrock? The winner of the Israel Prize, referred to by Iosif Vaisman, is of course not Hana Shamrock, but Chone Shmeruk, a great scholar of Yiddish literature. Someone at the Jerusalem Post, it would seem, did not do their homework. Barry Walfish Toronto 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 From: nmiller@shakti.trincoll.edu Subject: Nokhamol tsu der arbet Oys "recess". Vi lang ken a mentsh zikh arumdreyen in midber chihuahua on a tsaytung, on a radio? A welcome to all new Mendelyaner who joined during the last two weeks and have been wondering what happened to their subscriptions. Introductory messages are as always solicited. As of this morning, Mendele has 999 subscribers. Ver volt zikh af dem geven gerekhnt? Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.260