Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.113 December 1, 1996 1) Rokhl Boymvol and bibliography (Hugh Denman) 2) Yiddish and the Russians (Herbert Megel) 3) Who discovered the Beregovski archive and when? (Bob Rothstein) 4) Who discovered the Beregovski archive and when? (Izaly I. Zemtsovsky) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 21:42:29 +0100 (MET) From: h_denman@maier.vol.at Subject: Rokhl Boymvol and bibliography A few days ago Freydl Cielak (in vol. 6,101) referred favourably to the recent book by Rokhl Boymvol, "Antkegn dem, vos ir zogt". I too read the interesting review in "Forverts" last summer and just like her was frustrated that no adequate bibliographic details were appended, otherwise I would have ordered a copy for our institutional library. Can anyone quote place of publication, publisher and date? Price and number of pages would also be welcome. More importantly, I'm afraid it isn't only "Forverts" that occasionally lets us down in this way. Even members of our own circle have been known to be guilty of this grievous misdemeanour. Could I perhaps put in a plea that we should all make it a practice, in referring to new publications in our field, whenever possible to cite full bibliographic data? There is much talk about the virtue of supporting the language and its culture. Surely this includes getting books sold and into the hands of readers. This is not possible unless librarians can be provided with the relevant details. Hugh Denman London 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 15:47:22 -0500 (EST) From: hmegel@tso.cin.ix.net Subject: Yiddish and the Russians I have been reading Mendele for sometime now and I am amused by the discussion of Yiddish as a dying, dead and doomed language. To me it is is a vibrant language which added considerably to our modern, secular lives. Since I retired some seven years ago, I wanted to become reacquainted with the language I learned as a child. My grandparents and parents lived together in a small town in up-state New York. My parents were the breadwinners while my grandparents, who spoke no English, raised me. We formed a Yiddish Club in Cincinnati where I now live, with a group of other native born Americans who also wanted to reach back to their roots. During that same period, Russia opened its gates permitting the Jews to leave. Russians consisting of entire families -children, parents and grandparents- came to Cincinnati 'en masse'. And I am proud of our Jewish Community that took them in, found housing, clothing, medical support without much fanfare. The older Yiddish speaking Russians soon joined our group. Many of the older generation spoke a fluent Yiddish but knew little of Yiddishkeit. The club served a useful purpose. For the Americans, we became more articulate in the language. For the Russians, Yiddish was the language to communicate with them and give them some realization of their new homeland, what America and democracy was all about. We learned from them the hardships they had to endure. The economic sacrifices leaving behind precious possessions and the security that the Russian state promised. Some professionals high up in the Communist ranks found themselves in the gulag just for being Jewish. The older Russians also did not have a bed of roses in Cincinnati. They lived in poor homes, supported by the community and perhaps by some the children who had found employment. I am happy to report that seven years later, these people have learned the language, became citizens and adjusted to American life. They have contributed significantly to the culture of our town. Our Yiddish Club no longer exits. However, Yiddish served a useful purpose. To me, Yiddish lived and did well. Herbert Megel Cincinnati, Ohio 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 22:00:11 -0500 (EST) From: rar@slavic.umass.edu Subject: Beregovski archive The (relatively) short answer to Leonard Prager's question (6.111) about the Beregovski archive is as follows. To Izaly Zemtsovsky belongs the credit for preserving the typescript of Beregovski's five-volume collection _Evreiskii muzykal'nyi fol'klor_ (Jewish Musical Folklore) and other archival materials, all of which were entrusted to him in Leningrad by Beregovski's daughter Eda. Only the first volume of the collection was published during Beregovski's lifetime, in 1934. (The second volume was set in type in 1938 but never published; Mark Slobin discovered the author's proofs at YIVO in New York in 1981.) In 1962, after Beregovski's death, a one-volume selection of materials from his collection was published in Moscow. Mark Slobin's 1982 volume _Old Jewish Folk Music: the Collections and Writings of Moshe Beregovski_ reprinted the 1934 and 1962 publications and also included translations of several of Beregovski's articles. More recently Max Goldin of the Riga Conservatory published a version of Beregovski's third volume, on Jewish instrumental folk music (Moscow, 1987). For some time now Mark Slobin and I have been working to bring out editions in English of volumes 3, 4 (nigunim) and 5 (purim-shpil). Beregovski's five-volume work was based in part on his own extensive fieldwork, and also on the materials from earlier collections (Kiselhof, Engel, the St. Petersburg Society for Jewish Music and Jewish Historic-Ethnographic Society, etc.). These invaluable collections (which were inherited by the Jewish section of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, where Beregovski worked) had long been thought lost, but were discovered by Israel Adler to have miraculously survived in Kiev. Bob Rothstein 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 23:12:25 -0800 (PST) From: izalma@u.washington.edu Subject: Who discovered the Beregovski archive and when? It appears that I am that very "knowledgeable Mendele reader" who can comment upon those two reports concerning the discovery of Beregovsky's archives. One month ago I came from Kiev where I met with Dr. Liubov A. Dubrovina, the director of the Kievan Institute of Manuscripts of the Ukrainian National Library named after V.I. Vernadsky, where the legendary archives of the former Cabinet of Jewish Culture (which was headed by Moshe Beregovsky) have been kept recently. The two reports which were quoted by Leonard Prager refer to different archives. I spoke of archives which became known in 1966 thanks to me, indeed. These are the manuscripts and draft copies of Beregovsky's own collection of Jewish folk songs and music (five huge volumes which he prepared for publication), his own articles in Yiddish and Russian, a few abstracts, a bibliography, and other documents, some rare books from his private library, as well as about 60 wax cylinders with Yiddish songs from his field work, which he kept at home. At that time and later when I wrote about these, let us say, St. Petersburg archives, nothing was known about another set of Ukrainian state archives which included numerous recordings of different folklorists, all of the sound archives from the famous An-sky expedition, Kiselgof's musical manuscripts, Beregovsky's recordings, and so on, and so forth. When the Kievan Institute released the information about this magnificent collection, Prof. Israel Adler came to examine it (not to "discover") and to start the negotiations concerning its preservation, copying etc. He invited the best specialists from Vienna but, unfortunately, as far as I know from the director, there is no agreement yet, no cooperation between Kiev and Jerusalem, alas. Liudmila Sholokhova-Goizman, a young musicologist from Kiev, is working selflessly to prepare these materials for publication. During the period 1994-96 she has already published ten articles about these archives and prepared the compact disc which was mentioned in the latest Hebrew information which Leonard Prager quoted. (By the way, while in Kiev, I was invited to be a consultant for this disc, which is really unique and priceless.) Let us hope that these valuable archives will be preserved successfully and fully appreciated by future generations. Izaly I. Zemtsovsky ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.113