Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.219 February 5, 1997 1) Bet hemder (Arre Komar) 2) Bet hemder (Goldie Morgentaler) 3) Bet hemder (Michael Shimshoni) 4) Bet hemder (Hugh Denman) 5) Shul memories (Pinyeh Weichsel) 6) Avrom Reisin's "Zog, maran" (Marti Krow-Lucal) 7) Jewish Labor Committee materials (Ruvn Millman) 8) "Yosl, Yosl" (Judith Nysenholc) 9) "Ikh Benk Aheym" (Lisa Tomlinson) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 17:36:33 -0500 (EST) From: komar@suhep.phy.syr.edu Subject: bet hemder In the context of the given text it seems clear that bet hemder is Yiddish and not Hebrew. In Yiddish it simply means bed linens, and obviously not house of delight [see 6.213]. Arre Komar 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 19:32:36 -0500 From: 105341.3550@compuserve.com Subject: bet hemder Isn't "bet hemder" night clothes, i. e. "hemder vos men trogn in bet", that is, "nakht hemder" in modern Yiddish? Goldie Morgentaler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 05 Feb 97 11:42:20 +0200 From: mash@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il Subject: bet hemder Now that Joy Kingsolver asks in 6.218 about the corrected term "bet hemder" and with the example given, it is IMO clearly the plural of a "hemd" worn in the "bet", i.e. a gown worn, mainly by women, in bed. Michael Shimshoni 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 16:27:52 +0100 (MET) From: h_denman@maier.vol.at Subject: bet hemder In reply to Joy Kingsover's two queries [6211:1 & 6218:4] concerning the expression 'bet hemder' which occurs on p. 36 of the Kaufmann edition of "Die Memoiren der Glueckel von Hameln" (Frankfurt am Main, 1896), I would say that seen in context there can be very little doubt but that the meaning is 'night shirts' or 'night gowns' and this is indeed how it is rendered in the excellent Bertha Pappenheim translation (Vienna, 1910, p. 34): 'Die Betthemden'. The '-er' ending was and is the normal Yiddish plural. What is more curious is the misleading note offered by Kaufmann: 'die Anzahl'. Clearly, he later thought better of this and under the 'Berichtigungen und Ergaenzungen' on p. lxxi corrects this to 'Bett-Hemden'. But why did he write 'die Anzahl' in the first place? It is my belief that he intended to allude to the anomalous use of the neuter singular articles and relative qualifying the expression in question. In other words he meant to say that Glikl had used 'doz' rather than 'di'' because she was thinking of a singular quantity or set of night shirts. Recognising that some might interpret his cryptic note as a translation, he subsequently opted on reflection for the rather obvious, but at least unambiguous 'Bett-hemden'. In fact, Glikl's use of the singular is not so egregious. I am no expert on Yiddish syntax of this period, but there are certainly parallels in Middle High German. By the way, may I just add that I hope that by now no one who lacks the patience to persevere with the beautiful Kaufmann makes do with the inadequate Lowenthal translation (itself not based on the original, but on Feilchenfeld's travesty), when one can choose between the faithful renderings of Beth Zion Abrahams's English (London, 1962/ New York, 1963) and Bertha Pappenheim's German translations. There is, of course, also the Bernfeld and Rozhanski Modern Yiddish version (Buenos Aires, 1967). Hugh Denman 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 15:04:53 -0600 (CST) From: weichsel@math.uiuc.edu Subject: Shul memories I would like to invite all mendeleniks to search their memories of shul experiences that featured yiddish apikorsishe mistranslations of certain siddur phrases. The only example that comes to mind at the moment is: bli rayshis bli tachlis : es fangt zich nit ayn un es lost zich nit oys. I know that there are many others. Please contribute. Pinyeh Weichsel 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 16:06:37 -0500 (EST) From: kromobile@aol.com Subject: Avrom Reisin's "Zog, maran" I have two questions about A. Reisin's "Zog, maran": 1) Does anyone know when he wrote the poem/song, or when it was first published? 2) What might be the sources of his knowledge of the existence of a Marrano tradition? Was there any Ashkenazic folk tradition containing stories of the Iberian crypto-Jews? Is it more likely that Reisin was acquainted with high-culture nineteenth-century German histories of the Jews (like that of Graetz, for example) that might have furnished the inspiration? I realize that possible answers must be highly speculative, but if anyone could give it a try, it would be most helpful. A sheynem dank aykh. Marti Krow-Lucal Sunnyvale 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 09:20:06 -0500 (EST) From: ruvn@aol.com Subject: Jewish Labor Committee materials I am posting two exerpts from Arieh Lebowitz's article on the JLC. The archives of the JLC reside at the Wagner Labor Archive at New York University. Many of the documents are in Yiddish. Recently, work was done on the Vladeck papers by Dan Bender, graduate of the YIVO Yiddish summer program. For an email of the complete article please contact Arieh at: XXMN26C@prodigy.com The Jewish Labor Committee A History, and Resources for Researchers by Arieh Lebowitz The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) was founded in February 1934 on New York's Lower East Side by leaders of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the Workmen's Circle, the Jewish Daily Forward Association, the Jewish Socialist Verband and other kindred groups in response to the rise of Nazism in Germany. Before and during America's entry into World War II, the JLC raised emergency funds for partisan forces, rescued over a thousand political and cultural leaders -- Jews and non-Jews -- and organized an American coordinating committee of leaders in exile of European trade - union and social - democratic movements.... The JLC collection at the Wagner Labor Archives, New York University In early 1985, the non-current records of the JLC were transferred to the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University in New York City. This vast collection, comprising some 800 boxes of material covering the period 1934-1980, includes manuscript and printed documents in English, Yiddish, Polish and other languages, as well as photographs, scrapbooks, posters, and films. Here researchers can find the whole story of the JLC, from its earliest struggles against the rise of Nazism to its post-war activities in the fields of civil rights, labor justice, and human dignity everywhere. Ruvn Millman 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 18:41:34 -0500 (EST) From: jnysenho@umich.edu Subject: "Yosl, Yosl" I am looking for the words to the song "Yosl, Yosl". I have exhausted every possible songbook that I have at my disposal and was only able to find the refrain in a Russian anthology of Yiddish songs. I was hoping that someone could post the words to the entire song. Judith Nysenholc 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 19:20:21 -0800 From: ltomlins@direct.ca Subject: Need words for "Ikh Benk Aheym" Our band is planning to perform the song "Ikh Benk Aheym" by Rumshinsky on our upcoming Klezmer concert at the Vancouver Jewish Community Centre. We came across this song through a recommendation we got from a Mendele participant. We then heard the song on Bruce Adler's superb recording with Zalmen Mlotek. Now all we need are the words (...and the music). Can anyone help? In the worst case scenario we will extract the words and score from the recording. But we sure would appreciate if anyone has them handy. In return, we promise to send you a recording from the concert. Please help! Lisa Tomlinson ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.219