Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.025 June 30, 1996 1) Shprikhverter (Paolo Agostini) 2) Another Yiddish humorist (Velvele Golman) 3) The anti-Yiddish campaign in Israel (Alexander Vodovoz) 4) Juedische Volkshochschule Berlin and Yiddish (Harold L. Orbach) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 16:22:01 +0200 From: pagos@mbox.vol.it Subject: Shprikhverter As Zellig Bach very correctly noted [6.022], it is often difficult to set apart the proyst-oyf-yiddish proverbs and those belonging to the European tradition. Let's consider the following German/Yiddish proverb couples: Mit alten Sachen kann man nicht viel machen / Mit altn zakhn kan me nit fil makhn Eine gute Luege ist auch Geld wert / A guter lign iz oykh geld wert Diener sind treu bis sie sind neu / Diner zenen troy bis zi zenen noy Auf fremder Erde baut man nicht / Oyf fremder erd boyt me nit Despite this, there are shibboleths (!) which enable us to recognize true Yiddish proverbs, e.g.: Esroygim nokh Sukes (= locking the stable-door after the horse is stolen) Ganz yor shiker, Purim nikhter A meshumed in a mishpokhe kumt amol oykh tsu nuts Eyn azesponem kumt gleykh in Ganeden arayn Az a meydl kumt tsu dem rebe, iz dos meydl a meydl un der rebe a rebe. Az der rebe geyt tsu a meydl, iz dos meydl ka meydl un der rebe ka rebe. Paolo Agostini 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 02:05:36 -0400 (EDT) From: velvele@wam.umd.edu Subject: Another Yiddish humorist Nu, un Nudelman gefelt aykh nisht? [ikh meyn az er heyst Moishe.] Fun zayne monologn vegn gesheyenishn in nu york un tel aviv kayklt men zikh oifn dil mit gelekhter. Walter (Velvele) Golman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 13:20:29 +0300 (IDT) From: vodo@post.tau.ac.il Subject: The anti-Yiddish campaign in Israel I'm only 20 years old, but I have some words to say about importance of Yiddish. I came from Ukraine when I was 14 years old and I remember pretty well the role, Yiddish played in our life. I even don't know Yiddish, just some statements, but I understand that in Hebrew or Russian I can't sometimes express myself exactly. Even in Israeli parlament, Knesset, when almost nobody took part in discussion the man who rules the Knesset said in Yiddish : " Shoin , nishtu mit vym tzu redn" (Sorry for mistakes) That is what he felt. Besides, it very important to keep in touch with diaspora. In Jewish comunities in Eastern Europe people don't know Hebrew, and despite of hebrew school there they will never feel hebrew like Yiddish. Alexander Vodovoz 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Jun 96 23:42 CDT From: hlorbach@ksuvm Subject: Juedische Volkshochschule Berlin and Yiddish A short visit to Berlin last month for archival research led me to take notice of the educational program of the Juedische Volkshochschule which is sponsored through the Juedische Gemeinde zu Berlin. The program from 22 April-20 June included 14 presentations of which but one was in Yiddish, that of Gennady Estraikh (now at Oxford) on the young Jewish writers in the last years of the USSR. There were 17 language courses teaching Hebrew (including two in Russian), a history of the Jewish people course in Russian, five intensive courses teaching German for immigrants and two courses teaching Yiddish. One presentation was a reading by Lore Segal (American, born in Vienna) from her novel _Ihr erster Amerikaner._ The brochure included an excerpt which caught my interest and I reproduce a small part where the book's heroine, Ilka Weissnix (!), after being met at Idlewild Airport (today's JFK) by her American host, Fishgoppel, is in the subway: ..."Ich muss nemen ein Examen. Ich muss gein back to school", versuchte Fishgoppel das Droehnen der Untergrundbahn, die sie uptown brachte, zu uebertoenen. "Ihr will stay in mein Apartment in New York, okay?" "Pardon?" bruellte Ilka zurueck. "My horrible Yiddish!" rief Fischgoppel und schlug sich an die Stirn. "Jiddisch!" schrie Ilka, entzueckt, auf ein Wort gestossen zu sein, das sie verstand. "Bei uns in Wien sprach ausser die _Polischen_ niemand Jiddisch!" ... I caught notice of these programs originally via a poster on a kiosk in former East Berlin at the City Library (next to one city archive). What originally attracted my attention was their "Jewish Film Festival" that was devoted to Humour in Jewish Films. 15 showings featured 17 films (including separate showings of Mel Brook's "The Producers" in a German dubbing in addition to the original American). Most of the films were quite recent films by Jewish directors about Jewish themes (though there were both Lubitsch's original "To Be or Not to Be" and the Mel Brooks remake and Michael Roemer's "The Plot against Harry). Yiddish-language films were represented by the US 1937 short "I Want to be a Border" and the 1937 Polish "Freyleche Armen." There were three silent films: the 1925 Alexey Granowksi "Juedische Glueck" and two early films by Ernst Lubitsch "Schuhpalast Pinkus" (1916) and "Meyer aus Berlin" (1919). I was not familiar with Granowski or the 1916 Lubitsch film -- which is not listed with the "complete" filmography of Lubitsch in Robinson's _The History of World Cinema_ (New York, 1973). The Lubitsch films by title "sound" like they are Yiddish-inspired. Does anyone know about these and the Granowski film? Are they available in the US. More generally, are there many "silent" Yiddish films? Harold L. Orbach Manhattan, Kansas ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.025