Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.264 March 5, 1996 1) Pluperfect (David Herskovic) 2) The Yiddish canon (Shirley Kumove) 3) Bokser (Hugh Denman) 4) Misnagdishe songs (Gershon Margolis) 5) Dos Bukh fun Gan-Eyden (David Lidsky) 6) Yerushalayim d'Lite (Tsirl Kuznitz) 7) Nayer lernbukh far onheybers (Leybl Botvinik) 8) A rabbi's husband (Joseph Sherman) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 18 Feb 96 11:21:21 EST From: 100114.750@compuserve.com Subject: Pluperfect How come nobody has used the following example in any of the pluperfect messages? ven di babe volt geveyn gehat reyder volt zi gefloygen. David Herskovic 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 09:51:42 -0500 From: comact@interlog.com Subject: The Yiddish canon Ikh leyn mit interes dem postn vegn a canon fun der yidisher literatur ober es lozt zikh mir nisht gleybn un farshaft mir groys fardrus vos es gefint zikh nisht tsvishn di ale verk keyn shum dermonung fun di yidishe froyen shraybers. Keyn vort nisht vegn di verk fun yente serdatsky, tsila dropkin, anna margolin, kadya molodovsky, rokhl korn, chava rosenfarb un nokh andere. Tsi hobn zey zikh efsher geshmat? A tayne fun a klenern sort iz dos vos men hot aroysgelozt fun der reshime Chaim Grade's di agune un isaac bashevis zingers, di dertseylungen vos gefinen zikh in bukh, gimpl nar. Loyt a sakh meynungen rekhenen zikh di tsvey bikher tsvishn di vikhtikste fun zeyere verk. I read with interest the recent post about what should be included in a canon of Yiddish literature. I have trouble believing and it distresses me greatly that among so distinguished a listing there is not included a single woman. Not a word about Yente Serdatsky, Celia Dropkin, Anna Margolin, Kadya Molodowsky, Rokhl Korn and Chava Rosenfarb, to name a few. What happened? Where they placed outside the pale or sent to Coventry? (my free translation). A complaint of a lesser order is the absence from this listing of Chaim Grade's The Agunah and Isaac Bashevis Singer's stories in his collection, Gimpel the Fool. According to many readers, these two volumes are considered among the finest representations of their respective work. Shirley Kumove 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 15:03:47 +0000 From: uclhhfd@ucl.ac.uk Subject: Bokser Meyer-Leyb Wolf is again right in saying [5.259] that I failed to recognise that he intended his gloss 'hartshorn' to be taken in its pharmaceutical sense, but then the word for the smelling salts is in German not 'Bockshorn' but 'Hirschhorn(geist)', whence Yiddish 'hirshnhorn' in the same sense. But this is a far cry from the carobs with which we started. I agree that there is no reason to assume that a Semitic term has been replaced. The trail is more likely to lead, as I suggested before, from Greece through the Balkans with the dissemination of the tree or at least of its fruit whose tough, dry quality must have facilitated their transportation. Unfortunately neither Grimm nor Lexer throw any light on the early history of the etymon. Can someone tells us whether it is attested that the fruit themselves were widely enough available in Eastern Europe for them to play a significant role in the celebration of tu bishvat? Hugh Denman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 12:22:00 -0800 From: garrym@netcom.com Subject: Misnagdishe songs Hershl Hartman: Omega/Vanguard Classics has reissued "An Evening with Herschel Bernardi" on CD (their catalog number OVC 6023, originally on Vanguard LP VRS 9074), which includes this "Chiri Bim". The recording is subtitled: "A humorous & nostalgic look at Jewish life in America" and was recorded in performance at the Valley Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles in 1960. Gershon Margolis 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 22:25:57 -0800 From: fdlidsky@netvision.net.il Subject: Dos Bukh fun Gan-Eyden In Mendele 5.243 Bess Katz says that Manger's "Dos Bukh fun Gan-Eyden" was never published in a separate volume. I have it in a separate volume, published in Israel by the Y L Perets Farlag, 1976. David Lidsky 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 16:14:43 -0800 (PST) From: tsirl@leland.stanford.edu Subject: Yerushalayim d'Lite Tsi veyst emetser tsi di vidergeboyrene tsaytung fun Vilne, "Yerushalayim d'Lite," geyt b'emes itst nokh aroys ? Oyb yo, vi azoy ken men zi abonirn, oyb nisht shikn amerikaner gelt durkhn post ? Does anyone know if the newly-revived newspaper from Vilna "Yerushalayim d'Lite," is really being published again now ? If so, what is the best way to subscribe - is there some sort of international money order I can send, rather than sending cash through the mail ? A dank, Tsirl Kuznitz 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 15:26:44 +0200 (IST) From: leybl@telecomm.tadiran.co.il Subject: nayer lernbukh far onheybers :: new book for Yiddish beginners me redt letstns vegn der matsev fun yidish, un oykh vegn yidish bay di khsidim. hob ikh far aykh gute nayes. es iz ersht dershinen a prekhtik sheyn lernbukh far onheybers mitn nomen "mayn yidish bukh (kheylik alef)", fun dvoyre kosman, in yerushalayim. es vert aroysgegebn fun dem lerer seminar far froyen lereres fun di beys-yankev shuln. dos bukh iz prekhtik sheyn ilustrirt, un a fargenign tsu haltn in hant un adurkhbletern. farshteyt zikh, az der inhalt iz nit nor interesant far di kinder vos veln dos banutsn, nor take dertsiyerish. khotsh der oylem far velkher dos bukh iz tsugegreyt gevorn iz a frumer (un afile a shtreng frumer), zaynen di merste lektsyes iber algemeyne temes vi mishpokhe, kolirn, tseyln, un ikh-du-er-zi-mir-zey-ir, mayn-dayn-zayn... tsayt, eyntsol/mertsol, un azoy vayter. es geyen oykh arayn a sakh fotografyes fun yeshives, kheyder yinglekh, un frume moysdes. etlekhe inovatsyes vos zaynen mir spetsyel gefeln, zaynen di kheynevdike un nutslekhe ilustratsyes vos klern oyf, vizuel, spetsifishe bagrifn. azoy arum, darf men nit iberzetsn in keyn ander shprakh nit. es vern oykh banutst aserye simboln (vi ikonen oyfn kompyuter) vos bagleytn lern temes. lemoshl, reyd-balonen far shmuesn, a fidl-shlisl far lider, an ofener bukh far leyen- ibungen, un nokh. es geyen oykh arayn a sakh tabeles oyftsuklern verbn un nokh azelkhe yesodes fun der gramatik. mir gefinen do veltlekhe lider vi "gut-morgn aykh", oder "eyns un eyns", tsuzamen mit yontef erlikhs "brokhes". nokh a merkvirdiker punkt, iz der oysleyg. di mekhaberin shtamt fun argentine un hot zikh gelernt als kind in di y.l. peretz shuln. firt zi iber dem veltlekhn aynheytlekhn klal yidish in ale textn, mit dem pasik ibern fey un beys. dos iz a gezunte dershaynung. agev, tsvishn di vos vern badankt inem sherblat iz d"r avrom novershtern hoypt fun der yidish katedre in hebreishn universitet in yerushalayim. a tsol hoores un iberzetsungen vern gemakht oyf hebreish. bikher ken men bakumen fun der mekhaberin far 30 shekel (arayngerekhnt post) in yisroyl, un far $15 (arayngerekhnt post) mekhuts yisroyl. dos iz a lernbukh vos iz keday tsu koyfn far di kinder un eyniklekh. der adres: Dvora Kossman, Rehov Sharei Tsedek 3, Jerusalem, Israel. telefon: (02) 251-019 leybl botvinik netanya 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 10:38:37 GMT + 2:00 From: 071JOS@muse.arts.wits.ac.za Subject: A rabbi's husband In response to the recent query [5.258] about finding a word in Yiddish to describe a rabbi's husband, I share with you the answer I was given when I asked exactly the same question on a visit to the States in 1993. The word I was given at that time was `a rebbets'. I don't/can't believe this was meant seriously. Joseph Sherman ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.264