Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.154 December 21, 1996 1) Der B'rit Chadash (Bernard S. Greenberg) 2) Der B'rit Chadash (Diane Rabson) 3) Der B'rit Chadash (Ellen Prince) 4) Der B'rit Chadash (Zachary M. Baker) 5) Der B'rit Chadash (A. Joseph Ross) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 15:30:58 -0500 From: bsg@basistech.com Subject: B'rit Chadash/Lederer I own one too; among Testaments, the Qur'an, the Urantia Book, and the Book of Mormon, it is one of my most prized scriptures/translations... The Lederer Foundation is a "Messianic Judaism" organization, who believe that Jesus was/is the Messiah and the logical completion/Completion of Judaism. They proselytize exclusively to Jews, and heavily emphasize Jewish symbols, holidays, tradition, etc., and try to recast them all in a Christian light. Although they meticulously avoid traditional Christian terminology, names, imagery, and the like, their theology is 100% straight-out-of-the-book Pauline Christology. I (an atheist with a particularly avid interest in the conflict between Jewish and Christian theologies) have engaged Barry Rubin, their director and in-house theologian, at extensive length in written correspondence, and remain unconvinced that anyone not wholly ignorant of history could find their arguments compelling, or be inspired to any reaction other than laughter laced with weeping for the millions of victims of the Judaeo-Christian Tragedy (perhaps the only noun for which that adjective is valid). The Einspruch translation is their piece-de-resistance; Einspruch's own tale is available from the Lederer Foundation; in short, he, born Jewish, found Christianity, or Christianity found him. I am astounded by the obvious discrepancy between his substantial knowledge of Yiddish and deeply flawed knowledge of its speakers that led him to produce a work whose total _Affekt_, again, is tragic comedy. Hoping not to veer too far off topic, Franz Delitzsch's early 19th century casting of the New Testament into first-rate literary/poetic Biblical Hebrew is, by contrast, a work of perverse genius far more worthy of respect... Bernard S. Greenberg 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 13:49:21 -0700 (MST) From: rabson@meeker.ucar.edu Subject: Yiddish Bibles Roger Harris (6.153) wrote about a copy of the New Testament he found in Yiddish. Leonard Greenspoon, who holds the Chair in Jewish Civilization at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, delivered a very interesting paper on Yiddish Bibles at the recent Klutznick Symposium held in Omaha. I don't have his e-mail or 'krikht-post' addresses handy, but I can send them to you privately (or post to the list if there is interest). Diane Rabson Boulder, Colorado 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 19:19:59 EST From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: Der B'rit Chadash in answer to roger harris' query about that yiddish translation of the new testament, i have a copy and got it quite a few years ago from the messianic jews center in philadelphia. yes, it's done by missionaries, of the 'jews for jesus' persuasion. i've been told there is at least one other yiddish translation but this is the only one i've seen. ellen prince 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 21 Dec 1996 11:18:09 -0500 (EST) From: yivo1@metgate.metro.org Subject: Bris khadoshe I am reasonably certain that the Einspruch translation of the New Testament (6.153) has been discussed before, on Mendele. According to the Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur (vol. 1, cols. 77-78), Chaim (Henry) Einspruch -- who in his earlier career as a Yiddish author wrote for the Poale Zion organ Der yidisher arbeter -- started writing for missionary journals in 1915. He took up residence in Baltimore in 1920, where the first edition of his New Testament translation appeared in 1941, "in a correct, modern Yiddish," as the anonymous author of the Leksikon article puts it. There should really be no mystery surrounding its attractive design features (it includes reproductions of famous illustrations by the graphic artist E. M. Lilien). It was most likely Einspruch's aim to present the Bris khadoshe as a quintessentially "yidishlekh" book, one that would appeal to its Eastern European-born, Yiddish-speaking readership -- ideally causing them to be attracted by the message as well as the medium. I don't know to what extent Einspruch succeeded in that attempt. Zachary M. Baker 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 23:59:27 -0500 (EST) From: lawyer@world.std.com Subject: The New Testament in Yiddish I have also seen a copy of the New Testament in Yiddish. This was in a used book store in Boston in the late 1970s. My eye was attracted to a book in Hebrew letters in the foreign language section. The title was "Dem Nayem Testament." I didn't buy it, and I don't remember anything about who prepared the book or published it. I assumed at the time that it was published by some group intent on converting Jews, but so far as I can remember, that was just my assumption, not backed by anything specific in the book. A. Joseph Ross ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.154