Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.311 May 2, 1996 1) Jewish/Yiddish Humor and Germany (Harold L. Orbach) 2) Yiddish for psychoanalysts (Louis Fridhandler) 3) Tsatske (Hershel Bershady) 4) Tsatske (Abe Bloom) 5) Tsatske (Arre Komar) 6) Fonye (Arre Komar) 7) Fonye (Martin Cohen) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 May 96 12:49 CDT From: hlorbach@ksuvm Subject: Jewish/Yiddish Humor and Germany The New York Times of Jan 25th this year had an article from Marburg, Germany by Alan Cowell regarding a "Days of Comedy" devoted to humor and satire, etc., in Germany, one theme of which was that humor was in short supply and becoming narrow and restricted in contemporary Germany. The end of the article quoted one Harry Rowohlt, a speaker at the 'Days" as follows: "Of course there's not much laughing matter." Mr. Rowohlt said. And one reason for that was about as serious as you can get. "German humor was mainly Jewish humor, and the United States inherited that," he said. Is it accurate that "German humor was mainly Jewish humor" and was this based on Yiddish? Certainly, Yiddish was the background to almost all of the "Jewish" humor in the US, created by various immigrant Jewish peoples. And while I can think of many other immigrant groups that have contributed to American humor -- Irish, Italian, French and Spanish/Latin (as well as various black/African-American sources) easily spring to mind -- I can't recall any German-American comedians, humorists, etc., of vaudeville, radio and now TV prominence. Is this a blind spot in my experience? I certainly recall that German immigrants were the subject of vaudeville jokes, along with other ethnic groups, but I can't think of German comedians. My Borsht Belt days dredge up lots of ethnic comics, but a German comedian in the Borsht Belt seems inconceiveable... Can any of the Mendeleners knowledgeable in these areas shed any light on these matters, especially Mr. Rowohlt's assertion? Harold L. Orbach Manhattan, Kansas P.S. I exclude H.L. Mencken, who was an ironic satirist of aspects of American life from the ranks of comedians as this was not his main claim to fame. He was no Peter Finley Dunne... 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 17:59:17 -0400 From: lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Yiddish for psychoanalysts A dank Zellig. A mekhaye tsu hern epes vegn a yidishn film, _Undzere Kinder_ fun 1948 nit lang oyfgedekt (5.310, 2) . That it is to be shown and discussed at sessions of the American Psychoanalytic Association reminds me of a quip I read a few years ago in the L.A. Times. As I remember it, a Beverly Hills psychoanalyst advised his colleagues to apply a guiding principle to bolster the analyst's disciplined maintenance of 1) proper social distance along with 2) emotional closeness (a tricky job, I would guess). He said: _Dress British; think Yiddish_. Louis Fridhandler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 2 May 1996 10:38:14 -0400 (EDT) From: hbershad@sas.upenn.edu Subject: Tsatskele In Mendele 5.310 Zellig Bach discusses Wm. Safire's exposition of "tsatske" or "tsatskele" -- with variant spellings. I'd like to add a few words to this. My great aunt had a considerable collection of small glass figurines -- horses, coaches, ballerinas, vays ikh vus. My mother always referred to these as "tsatskes" and dust collectors. I understood that she meant something like baubles, but the tone was derisive. My kid sister's dolls and toy stoves were also referred to as "tsatskes," but the tone here was protective and indulgent. Occasionally, I would hear of my youngest uncle as being my grandmother's "tsatskele der mames"; the tone here was, depending on who made the observation, envious or merely descriptive of my uncle being her favorite child. This very same uncle referred to one of his sisters-in-law as a "real tsatskele," meaning a woman who expected to be, and was, indulged. From these and kindred examples I don't think an attractive woman, who is called a tsatskele, would necessarily be thought of, as Georg Simmel would say, as having a wonderful past ahead of her. Hershel Bershady 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 2 May 1996 10:37:56 +0500 From: abloom@n1.globalvision.net Subject: Tsatske This is with reference to a posting by Zellig Bach relative to the word tsatske. My memory of yiddish, though I have not spoken nor read it for many years, is that a "tshotshke" is a toy and that "tsatske" is a dear, sweet young lady. Have I disremembered over the years?? Abe Bloom 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 14:08:58 -0400 (EDT) From: komar@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Tsaskele and tchotchkele Safire in the NYTimes pointed out that there are 2 pronunciations of the term tsaskele or tchotchkele, the first from the Polish and the second from the Russian. Both occur in Yiddish as i pointed out about a year ago and are used slightly differntly. Tsatske is more pejorative in some dialects than tchotchke. For example: "Oy iz zi a tsatske!" But, "Zi hot gekoyft nokh a tchatchke!" Both expressions can occur in the same dialect. Arre Komar 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 14:08:58 -0400 (EDT) From: komar@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Fonye Fonye is a derogatory slang nickname distortion of the common Russian name Ivan. Hence it was used to refer to the Tsar: e.g. Fonye Ganif. Arre Komar 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 16:22:51 -0700 From: mcohen@ucla.edu Subject: Fonye I have seen the word transliterated as "fonya" and believe it comes from the Russian name "Vanya" and was used as a slang reference to Russia and Russians. Example: To avoid being conscripted into fonya's army. Martin Cohen ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.311 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.cis.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. 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