Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.221 February 8, 1997 1) Benjamin Gebiner (1898-1997) (Arieh Lebowitz) 2) "A keselgarten!" (Hershl Hartman) 3) Beyts and blegitch (Lili Eylon) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 18:52:55, -0500 From: xxmn26c@prodigy.com> Subject: Benjamin Gebiner (1898-1997) Benjamin Gebiner, veteran Jewish labor activist passed away at age 98 in New York City Funeral on Sunday, Feb. 9, 1997 Location: Riverside - 76th Street & Amsterdam Avenue 12:30 p.m. * * * * * Benjamin Gebiner, a prominent member of the Yiddish cultural and political sector of the Jewish community, a veteran educator, writer, organizational leader and friend to many, passed away just after noon, Friday, February 7th, at the age of 98. A funeral will be taking place at the Riverside Funeral Home this Sunday, Feb. 9th, at 12:30 p.m. A number of people reading this might have learned Yiddish from him, or have relatives or ancestors who did. Bearing in mind this extraordinary individual's life, I am sending out this brief biographical note. Mr. Gebiner was born in Rovno, in the Ukraine, on June 25, 1898. He became politically active in Zionist circles in his student years in Odessa and Kiev, and, after his student days, in the Tzeirei Zion movement in Rovno and Warsaw. He was conscripted and served in the Czarist army in Russia. Soon after the October 1917 revolution, feeling endangered because of his political activism, he fled Russia to Poland [Warsaw] in 1919. The next year, he married Sonia Goldfarb. In 1922, he and his wife emigrated to the United States. Soon after his arrival, he "sat in" at a public school in New York to pick up English; soon thereafter, he studied journalism at Columbia University, as well as law at Brooklyn College, from which he received a law degree in 1929. Mr. Gebiner became an educator in the Yiddish-language school system of the Workmen's Circle, teaching from 1924 to 1934. At that time, he became involved in the formation of the Jewish Labor Committee, founded in 1934 in New York by Jewish labor leaders to oppose the rise of Nazism in Germany. He was the JLC's first Executive Secretary, serving from its founding until 1936. That year, he became General Secretary of the Jewish Socialist Verband, an American socialist organization whose politics were similar to that of the Jewish Labor Bund in Poland, Russia and Lithuania. Mr. Gebiner was an editor of the Yiddish publication "Der Vecker," the major organ of the Verband. He also was a writer: for many decades, his work appeared in the pages of the Yiddish daily, the Forward, and he had a radio program in Yiddish on the station WEVD [named after the American socialist leader Eugene Victor Debs]. Mr. Gebiner held many positions within the Workmen's Circle, from Educational Director to General Secretary. In his 70s, Mr. Gebiner returned to teaching, and he taught Yiddish language at Queens College in New York City to new generations of students. He always maintained his close connections to the Yiddish-rooted Jewish labor movement, and until his last months, remained an active leader in the Workmen's Circle. His wife passed away a number of years ago. He is survived by two daughters, and a good number of grandchildren and great-grand-children. * * * * * If anyone reading this knew Mr. Gebiner, and would like to pass along a message to the family, I would be glad to act as an intermediary. Just send back a message via e-Mail to xxmn26c@prodigy.com or via paper to me at: Arieh Lebowitz Jewish Labor Committee 25 East 21st Street New York NY 10010 USA Arieh Lebowitz 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 11:14:59 -0500 (EST) From: hershl@aol.com Subject: "A keselgarten!"/Castle Garden Catching up on several weeks' worth of Mendele, I noticed (V. 6.208) reference to the subject and immigrants' pronounciation as _kestl garden_. Not quite. Convinced that much of the immigration process was dominated by those who preceded them, the Yiddish-speaking immigrant flood at the turn of the century quite naturally and simply concluded that New York's reception center was named _kestl gartl_: a belted box or a belt for a box. Makes sense: immigrants were detained (boxed-in and "belted") there. Sholem Aleichem's Motl, Peyse the Cantor's son, explains in the very first lines of his adventures in America: "We're due _mazltov_--we're finally in America. That is, they say we're in America. We haven't seen America yet because we're still in _kestl gartl_. That is, that's what it was once called. Now it's not called _kestl gartl_ anymore, but 'Ellis Island.'" (Motl goes on to explain that Ellis Island was named after someone called _elye_--Eli--, which is also his elder brother's name. He describes the family's stay there as being--the title of Chapter 3--"In Prison", _in gefengenish_. Hershl Hartman 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Feb 97 16:12:32 PST From: brno@netvision.net.il Subject: Beyts and blegitch A friend hailing from Scotland has asked me to find out the origin of words he says are known exlusively in Scotland and the north of England:1. Beyts (male), Beytske (feminine), Beytsemer (plural) meaning rude, vulgar, uncultured, and 2. Blegitch meaning mischievous, but not bad. Would any one know the answer? Thanks in advance. Lili Eylon Jerusalem ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.221 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. Anonymous ftp archives are available. ftp ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files A table of contents is also available, along with weekly updates. 2. 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