From Norman.Miller@mail.trincoll.eduThu Aug 31 16:22:48 1995 Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 16:20:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Norman.Miller@mail.trincoll.edu To: mendele Subject: who-is-who update (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 31 Aug 95 09:50:51 +0200 From: Anno Siegel To: Norman.Miller@mail.trincoll.edu Subject: who-is-who update This is Mendele's who-is-who. It was created on Aug 31 1995 and is current up to Vol. 5.099, containing those contributions to Mendele that were marked as "Introduction". Please send comments, complaints, suggestions or corrections to Anno Siegel (siegel@zrz.TU-Berlin.DE) 1) Aren Abramson 2) Rachel and Michael Abramson 3) Sam Abrash 4) William Adelman 5) Ted Alper 6) Ben Alpers 7) Hal Alpert 8) Meyshke Alpert 9) Vadim Altskan 10) Max Applebaum 11) Marion Aptroot 12) Motl Aronson 13) Shloyme Axelrod 14) Zellig Bach 15) Malkah Bachman 16) Deb Bailin 17) Paul Bakan 18) Zachary Baker 19) Annette Baran 20) Ruth Bauman 21) Anatole Beck 22) Patty Becker 23) Rivke Becker 24) Sheldon Benjamin 25) Soreh Benor 26) Sholem Berger 27) Shulamith Berger 28) Bob Berk 29) Hal Berman 30) Rokhl Bernard 31) Dvosye Bilik 32) Judith Binder 33) Russell Block 34) Abe Bloom 35) Frank Boches 36) Harold Boll 37) Henry Breitrose 38) David Brenner 39) Dan Breslauer 40) Jay Brodbar 41) Shimen Bronner 42) Mitchell Brown 43) Linda Cantor 44) Stuart Carlow 45) Zishe Carlow 46) Andrew Cassel 47) Zalmen Itzik Clare 48) Etan Cohen 49) Naomi Cohen 50) Stephen Cohen 51) Reuven Cohn 52) David Connor 53) Motl Dailey 54) Meyer David 55) Greg Davis 56) Martin Davis 57) Simon Dinitz 58) Stephen Dowling 59) Yasminke Dowling 60) Lisa Duhl 61) Heather Edgar 62) Milt Eisner 63) Rafoel ben Yehuda Eliezer 64) Nicholas Eshelman 65) Tom Eshelman 66) Alice Faber 67) Rita Falbel 68) Harriet Feinberg 69) Philip Feinsilver 70) Danny Feldman 71) Hinda Feldman 72) Yankl Feldman 73) Yisroel Feldman 74) Morrie Feller 75) David Ferleger 76) Marvin Fields 77) Allan Fineberg 78) Herbert Fishman 79) Norman Fishman 80) Daniel Frank 81) Rob Frantz 82) Bob and Molly Freedman 83) Howard Freedman 84) Louis Fridhandler 85) Khayim Ber Friedman 86) Marvin Friedman 87) Joseph Galron 88) David Gasser 89) Jerry Gerger 90) Elliot Hersch Gertel 91) Rick Gildemeister 92) Sander Gilman 93) Sander I. Gilman 94) Paul Gilon 95) Ben Tsion Ginsburg 96) Murray Glanzer 97) Michael Godfrey 98) Khave Menukhe Gold 99) Bob Goldberg 100) Jack Goldberg 101) Joel Goldberg 102) Leybl Goldberg 103) Irving D. Goldfein 104) Dovid Moishe Goldstein 105) Ben Gonshor 106) Joann Zazofsky Green 107) Bernard S. Greenberg 108) Marc Greenberg 109) Nathan Greenberg 110) Lew Gutman 111) Martin Haase 112) Janet Hadda 113) Miriam Halkin 114) Susan Harlap 115) Daniella HarPaz 116) Hershl Hartman 117) Rivkah Hasman-Judd 118) Susan Hauser 119) Kathryn Hellerstein 120) Susan Herschorn 121) Aaron Hershkowitz 122) Dovid Hirsch 123) Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan 124) Avrum Ber Hoffman 125) Alice S. Honig 126) Paula Horwitz 127) Gregg Hudis 128) Rifka Igel 129) Jack Jacobs 130) Neil G. Jacobs 131) Steve Jacobson 132) Lisa A. Jenschke 133) Eve Jochnowitz 134) Celia Jones 135) Charles W. Jones 136) Susan B. Jones 137) Eliyahu Juni 138) Sam Juni 139) Lee Kagan 140) Ken Kaminsky 141) Leo Kanowitz 142) Shimen Kass 143) Murray Kastner 144) Eli Katz 145) Harry Katz 146) Sharon Kearse 147) Charles Kent 148) Dana Keren 149) Brett Kessler 150) Moises Kijak 151) Bob King 152) Robert King 153) Gregg Kinkley 154) Blossom Kirschenbaum 155) Alexandra Klein 156) Robert Klein 157) Michael Kleiner 158) Peter Kluehs 159) Roger S. Kohn 160) Michel Konstantyn 161) Henry Koretzky 162) Jay Kraut 163) Nathan Kravetz 164) Ezra Kurnow 165) Fishl Kutner 166) Arnold Kuzmack 167) Yonah Moshe Lakin 168) Yankel Lantz 169) Jay Lee 170) Dan Leeson 171) Nissan Leibovic 172) Binyomn Lesin 173) Thomas Leverett 174) Jules Levin 175) Ruth Levine 176) Schmuel Levine 177) Marcia Gruss Levinsohn 178) Henny Lewin 179) Leon Lipson 180) Al Madansky 181) Adrienne Maltz 182) Ken Maltz 183) Johnny Mangaard 184) Sheine Mankovsky 185) Isabel Marcus 186) Gershon Margolis 187) Patrick Markowicz 188) Sean Martin 189) Yankl Matisoff 190) Mark Melnick 191) Hy Meltz 192) Richard Menkis 193) Basya Meyer 194) Aharon Meytahl 195) Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch 196) Howard Miller 197) Marcy J. Miller 198) Noyekh Miller 199) Raizl Miller 200) Roland Millman 201) Martin Minow 202) Dagmar Mirre 203) Marty Morgenbesser 204) Sorkeh Traister Moskovitz 205) Henry Mullish 206) Bonne London for Charles Nadler 207) Alice Nakhimovsky 208) Holger Nath 209) Efraim Neft 210) Kathleen Rose Noe 211) Elia Novick 212) Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer 213) Sam Paley 214) Paula Parsky 215) Paul Pascal 216) Pinkhes Pascal 217) Dovid Perlmutter 218) Joshua Plaut 219) Bob Poe 220) Ellen Prince 221) Ronald Rabin 222) Dvorah Masha Rabson 223) Joseph Ramek 224) Joyce Rappaport 225) Yekhiel-Yoisef Reisner 226) Paul Ritterband 227) Barbara Rosen 228) Zachary Rosen 229) Nukhum Rosenblatt 230) Moishe Rosenfeld 231) Larry Rosenwald 232) Rudi Roth 233) Robert Rothstein 234) Simon Rozas 235) Martha Rubin 236) Miki Safadi 237) Annette Fashing Safer 238) Howard Sage 239) Yankl Salant 240) Roberta Saltzman 241) Beatrice Santorini 242) Henry Sapoznik 243) Norman Savitt 244) Larry Schiamberg 245) Gaston L. Schmir 246) Mordechai Steve Seidman 247) Ruvn-Moyshe Shapiro 248) Susanne Shavelson 249) Art Sheppard 250) Joseph Sherman 251) Sari and Paul Shifrin 252) Alan Shuchat 253) Anno Siegel 254) Steve Silbert 255) Dennis Skigen 256) Yankel Sklansky 257) Dan Slobin 258) Janice Solomon 259) Harvey Spiro 260) Aviva Starkman 261) J.J. Steinberg 262) Ted Steinberg 263) Max Stern 264) Harry Stillman 265) Al Strauss 266) Avrom Itzchok Strauss 267) Jeff Straussman 268) Ruth and Ben Taber 269) Allan Tanzman 270) Sven Vahlne 271) Diane Valsamis 272) Lester Vogel 273) Berl Walfish 274) Van Wallach 275) Jeff Warschauer 276) Dorothy Wasserman 277) Kiva Weidenbaum 278) Alex Weinberger 279) Binyomin Weiner 280) Adam Weisberger 281) Kalman Weiser 282) Bret Werb 283) Stanley Werbow 284) Golda Werman 285) Gil Wiedermann 286) Ian W. Wilson 287) Dia Winograd 288) Kenneth Wishnia 289) Sara Zaidspiner-Leibo 290) Leah Zazulyer 291) Izaly Zemtsovsky 292) Jeff Zucker 293) Brian Zumhagen 294) Bobbi and Michael Zylberman 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Jun 91 10:51:09 EST From: "Arthur S. Abramson" Subject: Introduction My name is Arthur (Aren) Abramson. I am a professor of Linguistics at The University of Connecticut. My spe- cialty is experimental phonetics: the pro-duction and perception of speech.I have a great interest in Jewish culture, including Hebrew and the various Jewish lan- guages, especially Yiddish.Not having grown up in a Yiddish-speaking home, I learned most of what I know of the language later in life.Here on this campus some ten of us have a Yiddish luncheon about once a month; we read a story in Yiddish and talk about it, making sure that everyone understands everything. I am an enthusi- astic member of the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass. Aren 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 9 00:51:46 1993 From: MAC191H@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au Subject: Introductions Tayere Mendelniks: Mein vayb hot mir geboten tzu shraybn etlekhe verter: My name is Rachel(Rookhele). I am a tutor in Psychology at the Victorian University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. I asked Michael to join Mendele because he has e-mail access. My love for Yiddish dates back to when I was knee high to a grass hopper. My Dad always spoke it in the home. As an adult, I decided to learn it formally so that not only would I be able to understand, but also able to read and write as well. My first teacher told me I spoke with a Warsaw accent. I thought this was interesting considering I was born and bred in Melbourne! I'm still learning Yiddish, but have now progressed to reading literary works like those of Sholem Asch. My oldest son goes to the Sholem Aleichem kinder- garten. All I can say is it sounds so sweet to hear Yiddish being spoken out of the mouth of a 4 year old child. My younger son who is 10 months old, babbles in Yiddish as well as English. A future Yiddishist in the making! Ikh vill oych epes zogn: I am Senior Lecturer in Social & Preventive Medicine at Monash University. Although my zayde and buba came from Russia, I didn't learn Yiddish as a child. I learnt German at school, which has given me an accent which Rachel's family find disagreeable. I read Weinreich's College Yiddish before we went to Israel a few years ago. After a few weeks staying with Rachel's aunt and uncle, I had acquired a passable conversational Yiddish. But I don't aspire to her literary heights. I enjoy reading your bulletin board, even if the frequent messages tend to drown those related to my own work. Zayt gezunt, Michael Abramson. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 May 1995 10:33:21 -0500 (EST) From: abrash@urvax.urich.edu Subject: Introduction I'm an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Richmond. I am a non Yiddish speaker (or reader) except at the level of expertise one can obtain from the scholarly work of Leo Rosten. However, in recent years I have been reading heavily in many areas of Judaica. Mendele came to my attention when I put a request on Koach for the words for Rozhinkes mit Mandlen so I could sing it to my (now 5 week old, then unborn) daughter. I have since been a passive member, but have enjoyed the correspondence. By the way many thanks to the people who helped me with my request. I am now the proud owner of two yiddish songbooks. Interestingly of the three versions of Rozhinkes mit Mandlen that I now have, two are riddled with either melodic or harmonic errors. Alas that the Klezmer Conservatory Orchestra, with thier impeccable taste, have never published a songbook. Sam Abrash 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 11 Jun 91 03:22:42 EDT From: William Adelman <72230.1066@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Introduction I'm William Adelman; I've never had the benefit of a Yiddish diminutive. I am senior majoring in English Literature, with an emphasis in Creative Writing. My only exposure to the language at hand has been while in Israel, and by picking up as much as has filtered into English. Once, in a fit, I decided to write the copy for a picture book called The Joy of Yiddish Sign Language, but my partner, the artist, dropped out, and it never got to page one. I won't have much to contribute at first, but as I learn the language(s), I hope to add something of value. Meanwhile, listening with open ears. 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Jan 14 17:24:47 1994 From: Ted Alper Subject: Introduction My name is Ted Alper (My "Hebrew" name -- given to me by fairly nonobservant parents -- is Manis Heschel (the "Manis" shows up in my middle name, "Mason"). ). My wife and I and I became interested in Yiddish about three years ago. We taught it to ourselves with textbooks, dictionaries, newspapers, old movies on video -- and books of poetry we found at the Chicago-area Brandeis book fairs and Asher Library at Spertus College. (We lived in Chicago for two years before returning to the San Francisco area, where we had both gone to graduate school.) I'm sure our pronounciation is dreadful and we can't consistently craft grammatical sentences, but we can at least work our way through most of Forverts each week -- or at least we could before the birth of our son Morris a year ago put most of our play (and a good bit of our work) on hold. It's always most fun to try to read books or articles about which one has prior interest. (I still kick myself for not picking up that translation of John Stuart Mill at one book fair.) Anyway, I would be very interested in finding any copies of Yiddish chess books. I have contacted the Yiddish Book Archive, but have not yet received their catalog. Via Gopher, I've located the only Yiddish chess book of which I had prior knowledge (Endewelt and Weisblatt, dos ershte yiddishe shachlehrbuch, Warsaw, 1917) in the John G. White Chess Collection of the Cleveland Public Library, but it is non-circulating. I might also be interested in yiddish math textbooks (my current job involves computer-based math instruction for talented younger students). Theodore M. Alper alper@csli.stanford.edu 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Oct 7 12:49:26 1993 From: "Benjamin L. Alpers" Subject: Introduction My name is Ben Alpers. I'm a 6th year graduate student in U.S. history at Princeton. I am just starting to take Yiddish this year, so I look forward, at first, to reading more than contributing to Mendele. Nonetheless, I tend to be an active participant in e-mail lists, so you may well hear from me in the future . . . -- Ben 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1994 19:46:20 -0500 From: halpert2@aol.com Subject: Introduction Born Brooklyn New York, 1944. Public school education plus four years in Workman Circle, 1952-1956. Graduated from Brooklyn College in 1966 and was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in the USAF. Retired 20 years later and entered the Real Estate profession in California. Currently a RE broker in Vacaville, CA. Married, 3 children. One left at home, age 16. Wife is a Marriage Counselor. I'm curious about your group, and will be interested in what kinds of things come across the ether net. Look forward to observing for a while. Hal Alpert 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Feb 12 15:11:24 1994 From: meyshke@aol.com Subject: Introduction Heysn heys ikh Meyshe Yeysef bereb Elye-Meir bereb Meyshe Aba der Likayers. Bay di goyim ober, (sheyn opgeredt bay di hayntike idn) heys ikh Michael Alpert. A muziker bin ikh a klezmer, dertsu a shtikl visnshaftler af dem gebit, farbundn mitn YIVO, olev hasholem. Mitglid bay di klezmerishe kompanyes "BRAVE OLD WORLD" un "THE KRAKAUER TRIO", un geshpilt a fule yorn bay "KAPELYE". Shraybn shrayb ikh amol idishe lider, fun inhalt epes hayntsaytik gepregt. In mitn drinen bin ikh mit-direktor funem yerlekhn tsuzamenfor "A BUFLOKS AFN DAKH" (Buffalo on the Roof) in West Virginia, vos farnemt zikh a yedn zumer mit idishe muzik, tents, folklor un andere kultur-inyonim. Amol bin ikh afile in der heym ekhet tsu pakn. Azeyvi mayn idish shtamt sheyn fun di amolike tsaytn, bin ikh zeyer a baln zikh tsu bakenen mit der hayntiker kompyuter-terminologye, vos me hot zi aroysgetrakht in der letster tsayt. Deriber bet ikh aykh, khevre fakhlayt, zikh tsu yaven bay mir mit etlekhene azelkhe termines, ikh zol kenen zayn a moderner a progresiver mit alemen glaykh. A greysn dank, un hot mir ale a gutn shlitvegs! Meyshke Alpert 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Apr 4 16:54:29 1994 From: valtskan@ushmm.org Subject: Introduction Sholem Aleyekhem ! My name is Vadim Altskan. I'm working for US Holocaust Memorial Museum.I graduated from Moscow University 3 years ago and came to States 18 months ago. In Moscow I used to work for Jewish Historical Society. Subject of my research is "History of Jews in Podolia" Actually I was born in Proskurov in Podolia, and as you know Podolia is South-West part of the Ukraine. I'm fluent in Ukranian and of course in Russian, and trying to learn Yiddish myself. Zayt gezunt. Vadim Altskan 10)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 3 Jun 1995 01:02:58 -0400 From: maxa6423@aol.com Subject: Introduction I studied Yiddish in New York back in the 30's, attending the Yankev Levine elementare shule and later at the JPFO mittltshule. My father, an immigrant tailor, made many sacrifices to pay the tuition. He loved Yiddish and wanted his children to learn and love the language as he did. As a young man, I dabbled a little in the Yiddish Theater - as an extra (for a short while) with Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theater on Second Ave.; and then bit parts with the Yiddish Theater Ensemble (an outgrowth of the Artef) under the direction of Benjamin Zemach of the Habima. Being unpaid, I maintained my amateur standing. Although I can read and write, my overall knowledge of Yiddish is very weak, but with Mendele, it is slowly becoming stronger - despite being intimidated, and confused, by the etymologists and linguists. But, I do enjoy reading all the posts especially from the younger set all over the world. Max Applebaum 11)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Sep 15 14:24:20 1993 From: Marion Aptroot Subject: Introduction As a new subscriber to Mendele I have been asked to introduce myself. My research interests are pre-modern Yiddish language and literature in general, and Northwestern Yiddish in particular. (I am from the Netherlands and Dutch is my first language.) I wrote my dissertation on Yiddish Bible translations and am presently working on polemical pamphlets (Diskursn fun di alte un di naye kille, Amsterdam 1797-8). This year I will be teaching Yiddish language at Harvard. Marion Aptroot 12)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 1 Oct 1994 23:03:52 -0400 (EDT) From: marnor@minerva.cis.yale.edu Subject: Introduction I am a third generation American, whos parents left the Jewish ghetto of Boston for the suburbs of New York. Also left Yiddish behind and rarely used what little they did know. For some reason not quite known to me (but it seems to have a political root) I've always had some interest in Yiddish. Studied German in high school, the closest thing offered (and besides my sister was doing French, and I didn't want to do what my sister was doing, (no way)) and by the time I left college I was reasonably bad in it. Wrote occasional letters to my grandpa (from Poland) in German and he answered in the same. Studied Yiddish briefly at Gratz College in Philadelphia, with an interesting melange of people who could read it fluently from their Hebrew studies, but didn't understand a word, people who couldn't read but knew a lot of phrases from their childhood but mixed it with so much "Yinglish" that it was incomprehenisible to most and then me who understood the lion's share due to my german knowledge, but I couldn't read a word (never studied Hebrew.) I then moved to Amsterdam and studied Dutch, intensively. So now what little Yiddish I was learning is trashed, my German is seriously compromised and spoken with a Netherlandish accent. Go figure. I also play clarinet but not nearly well enough to do any serious Klezmer. Would like to meet people in the New Haven area to actually pursue the spoken and written part of Yiddish, so that I can add that too to may array of confused languages. Wouldn't mind jamming with some equally bad klezmer musicians as well. Mark (Motl) Aronson P.S. I'm totally new to the Internet and email as well. Learning this language as I go along too. Wish me luck. 13)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1992 13:34 EST From: Seymour Axelrod Subject: Introduction and query Born in 1927 in New York City to immigrant parents (from Smargon, a small city in *Vilne gubernye* in Lithuania). My first language was English, but my parents spoke Yiddish around the house (Russian or Polish when they didn't want the kids to understand) and sent me to a far-left-wing and ferociously irreligious Yiddish school three afternoons a week in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn to learn to read and write Yiddish, and to be indoctrinated into socialist/communist thought. The indoctrination didn't survive my adolescence, but I have remained fond of the language *fun kindvays on*, and about 15 years ago led a group of colleagues at the State University of New York at Buffalo systematically through Uriel Weinreich's *College Yiddish*. I have since worked my way through Mordkhe Schaechter's *Yidish Tsvey*, though *kam mit tsores*. Because of the anti-clericalism and anti-hebraicism of my early Yiddish training, I have a hell of a time with the Hebrew-Aramaic words and expressions in most writing. And now, an inquiry. In those salad days, I learned a Yiddish version of the socialist/communist anthem "Internationale". I can recall only a fragment now (see below), and would be delighted if someone out there can come up with the entire song. The people who taught it to me are now, of course, *af yener velt.* ...Di velt fun gvaldhaytn un laydn Tseshtern veln mir, un dan Fun frayhayt glaykhhayt a gan-eydn Bashafn vet der arbetsman... [At this point, everyone was expected to stand with right clenched fist raised, and sing the chorus.] --Shloyme Axelrod (Seymour Axelrod) 14)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 05 Sep 94 15:42:35 EDT From: Zellig@aol.com Subject: Introduction I am a native, educated speaker of Yiddish. I was co-editor of the daily Yiddish newspaper _Folksblat_ (Kovne, Lithuania). The chief editor was the late Yudl Mark, a famous Yiddish pedagogue, author of the _gramatik fun der yidisher klal-shprakh_ (1978), editor for many years of YIVO's bi-monthly journal "di yidishe sprakh." I was also a foreign corres- pondent of the daily _Haynt_ (Warsaw, Poland). In the United States I published a lengthy essay "a matseyve af a shtetl" in the _Tsukunft_, many papers (in Yiddish and English) in the _Forward_ and a number of articles in _afn shvel_ where I am a member of the editorial board. I wrote and published a sharp, exhaustIve critique of the Yiddish translation of the 1990 questionnaire of the Census Bureau. It was called "The Scandalous Yiddish Guide of the Census Bureau" and after many rejections from the general media it was finally published in the _Jewish Press_ (Brooklyn), in the language quarterly _Verbatim_, and in the _Congress Monthly_ of the American Jewish Congress. _Verbatim_ followed up my critique with six postscripts: Five by Bach and one by Steinmetz. Recently I published in _afn shvel_ a lengthy essay "der kamf fun a shoymer yidish mitn tsenzus b'yuro," chronicling the many difficulties in placing in the general media and even in the Jewish-English journals an article in defense of Yiddish. Zellig Bach 15)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 23:55:25 -0400 From: batshira@aol.com Subject: Introduction I didn't mean to "lurk"! I too joined the list over the past month or two and didn't get around to saying hello 'til now. I really identify with Joann Z. Green's recent introduction, where she speaks of being "a newcomer to Yiddish, stricken with all the symptoms of new romance" -- amen! Mine is the usual story: grandparents from the Old Country who spoke Yiddish, parents who used it as stumbling secret code - and my brother and me, with our handful of funny-sounding words... I started studying Yiddish (via a community class in Berkeley) a few months ago, led to it by a growing desire to understand the culture and "neshuma" of my family's recent and erased history... also with a desire to be able to read among the incredible treasure-trove of poets (I myself am a writer-- ). I have found Mendele to be a *very* heymish place to come, read, think & reflect on what's written here.... It's a wonderful resource, I am so happy to have discovered it (and all of you!). Meanwhile -- why wait? -- I have two questions: 1. I was surprised & excited to read that one subscriber, Alan Shuchat, has a bobe from Soroki -- my mother's mother came from that town & I know so little about it -- (she left in 1913 for the States; died in 1956) -- any information/ resources/ anecdotes people have to share about that town would be gratefully appreciated! 2. I am moving to Albany, NY in a few months to enter a doctoral program at the State University there -- alas, they do not offer Yiddish -- can anyone recommend someone to study Yiddish with or someplace to study there? Merle (Malkah) Bachman 16)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 Aug 1994 12:37:06 -0400 From: bailind@king.lsc.vsc.edu Subject: Introduction Hi! My name is Debbie Bailin, I grew up hearing Yiddish regularly from 4 Russian-born grandparents, and I understood it but couldn't carry on a conversation in it. Like many others on this list I suspect, I'm really feeling the loss of my grandparents' generation and with them the Yiddish language. I've never learned to read Yiddish, I never hear it anymore, and I'm afraid of losing the little bit I've retained. So, when I accidently ran across this list, it seemed like a pretty valuable resource to plug into. I'm looking forward to seeing these commuications and to participating at whatever level I can. Is this enough info to begin with? Thanks. Deb Bailin 17)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Feb 2 12:29:51 1994 From: Paul Bakan Subject: Introduction This is my first communication to Mendele. Mendele happens to be my father's name, he being deceased for quite a while. Opening up ny Yiddish memory brings up the times when we used to travel on the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan, when he would speak to me aloud in Yiddish while I answered him in English. He could speak in English but wasn't comfortable in it. I found this embarassing, but I never told him not speak in Yiddish. My grandfather lived with us and communication with him was strictly in Yiddish. Paul Bakan 18)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 23 Mar 92 08:12:23 PST From: "Zachary M. Baker" Subject: Introduction My full name is Zachary Moshe Baker (Moyshe-Zkharye Beker). I prefer to be called Zachary. I am currently Head Librarian of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and have been so since September 1987. My previous library positions were Head of Technical Services and the Yiddish Dept. of the Jewish Public Library, Montreal (1981-87) and Chief Yiddish Cataloger in the YIVO Library (1976-81). I will be glad to share this newsletter with colleagues here at YIVO. Also, in my capacity as librarian, would like to know if it is possible to receive HARD-COPY PRINTOUTS of back issues of MENDELE (in order to avoid blockage of the e-mail system)? I have received a number of printouts from Yossi Galron, at Ohio State (vol. 1, no. 1-96, plus no. 170 or thereabouts, onward -- the latter issues haven't been collated yet). Zachary Moshe Baker 19)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Sep 94 20:02:19 EDT From: Aebaran@aol.com Subject: Introduction Born to eastern european immigrants and raised in Chicago. wrote a memoir with lifetime friend of same ilk, (which is looking for a publisher) called " growing up yiddishist, socialist, zionist", subtitled, paying admission to your own birthday parties. anyone on this list should be able to fill in all the blanks. annette baran 20)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 19 Nov 1994 17:58:48 -0500 From: rutala@aol.com Subject: Introduction Sholom aleichem. Ich hob ge'lernt Yiddish in di hime. Mein tateh iz a Yiddisheh journaliste, Mortdche Bauman, vos shreibt in Der Algemeiner Journal (un anderreh publicatzias). Ehr is yetze aroisgegebben a bikh, a zamlung fun artiklen, mit iberzetsungen uf English. M'ken avadeh hayren as mein elterin zennin fin Warshaw (laben Warshaw, a klayne shtut -- Zyrardov). Ich redt Yiddish mit a vinkala vos kimt for alleh hoidish in Somerville, Mass. Y'asheh koyach tzu Michael Katz un Linda Gritz! Un a shaynem dank tzu Chaim (Harry) Bochner for letting me know about Mendele -- which has been a joy to lurk in -- and for helping me (very patiently) osbesserin mayn Yiddish. Ruth Bauman 21)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Feb 22 17:57:42 1994 From: Anatole Beck Subject: Introduction I am a native speaker of Yiddish (which used to be called Jewish, and is still called Juif in French) and as a child took post-school training in the language for a few years, to the point where I can read and write it now, though only with difficulty. As a professor of Mathematics, I learned German and the two languages interfere with each other in my mind, so that I speak a very juedisch German and a very daitschish Yiddish. I have found Yiddish speakers all over Europe and even in Israel, where the language survived a vicious assault by Hebraists in the 30s & 40s and is now so dead that it can be the subject of an attempted restoration. I have been interested for some decades in the possibility of creating a genuine transliteration scheme which would be a letter-for-letter transposition rather than an attempt to reconstruct the sound of the language in English language conventions. I am looking for something which would enable a typist to transcribe the language without having to be able to read it. I do think that for those who do not read Hebrew, the letters are a major bar to learning Yiddish. I also have a small interest in Ladino, having studied Spanish in HS, but there seems to be even less Ladino around than Yiddish. Anatole Beck 22)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 20 18:06:27 1994 From: Patty_Becker@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu Subject: Introduction I have a love for the Yiddish language and Yiddishkeit, but am not very fluent in the language. I grew up in the Arbeter Ring (Workmen's Circle) and had 7 years of shule education, so I can read the words and have a vocabulary of several hundred words and many idiomatic expressions. I'm not sure how relevant this list will be for me, or to you for me to par- ticpate, but we'll give it a whirl. I *am* a committed secular humanistic Jew and a member of the Birmingham Temple in the Detroit area, the founding congregation of the Society for Humanistic Judaism. Professionally, I am a demographer in private practice and have done a lot of Jewish communal research. Patty Becker 23)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 13 11:00:06 1994 From: rbecker@cap.gwu.edu Subject: Introduction I am a computer program at NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in Silver Spring, MD. I heard Yiddish as a child and studied it for 3 years at the University of Maryland. I am a member of Yiddish of Greater Washington. Enjoy reading the Forvetz (especially Miriam Hoffman's articles) and the Forward (Philologus). Ruby Becker (Rivke) 24)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 06 Jun 91 23:00:20 EDT From: sbenj@ATHENA.MIT.EDU Subject: Introductions Sholem aleykhem. I'm Sheldon Benjamin from Boston. I practice and teach neuropsychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, a practice that seldom involves Yiddish, except for the occasional proverb popping up in a lecture. My particular interests include Yiddish folksongs and shtetl culture. I came to these interests from having spent years interviewing my grandmother (from Streshin, Byelorussia) and record- ing her songs prior to her death 10 years ago. I issued a cassette collection 7 years ago of 101 songs of the 350 or so she recorded, have been trying to write a book on the subject, and enjoy exchanging folksongs with others. I feel that folksongs were often a repository for feelings that often were not adequately expressed in history books and stories. I have parallel interests in genealogy, folklore, prov- erbs, and utilizing old Russian map resources to learn about the shtetl. My Yiddish isn't quite fluent but my heart is in the right place. I was thrilled to be given the opportunity through Mendele to read the translation of I B Singer's "Old Age" and am excited at the possibilities of this network. Hats off to our shames, reb Noyekh. [Reb Noyekh gebt tsu az koydem kol iz er aleyn nisht aza klay koydesh; ober kol zman men hot fun im yo gemakht a shames un me zogt shoyn 'reb', iz vos far a ponim hat es optsuton das hitl? :-)] 25)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 14:52:38 -0400 (EDT) From: seb28@columbia.edu Subject: Introduction Sholem Aleichem! I'm Sarah (or Soreh) Benor from Columbia University (originally Washington, DC). Since my internship this summer at the National Yiddish Book Center, I've gotten _very_ interested in Yiddish and Yiddish culture. I just started a Klezmer band (I play violin), and I'm planning a Columbia Yiddishkeit festival for December. I'm looking forward to meeting other Yiddish-lovers over Mendele and learning more about the state of Yiddishkeit! Soreh Benor 26)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 11:51:03 -0700 (PDT) From: zdb@cco.caltech.edu Subject: Introduction Kedey tsu bakenen zikh mit aykh. ikh bin a eyn-un-tsvantsik-yoriker student, a biolog, bay "Caltech" (a visnshaftlekhe un teknologishe institut in kalifornie). mit finf-zeks yorn tsurik (ikh ken zikh nisht pinktlekh dermonen), hob ikh ongehoybn zikh oystsulernen yidish. tsum ershtn hob ikh gelernt zikh af katoves, bikhdey tsu oystsumaydn dem langvayl fun hayskul. ober bin ikh take gevorn a shtarker yidishist: ist pruv ikh shraybn mayselekh un poemen, redn mit alemen, un leyenen a sakh af yidish. mayne eltern redn nisht keyn yidish, un mayne zeyde-bobe, leyder, oykh nisht. ikh bin take a yidisher ben-yokhid in mishpokhe. (mayn gegebener nomen iz Zackary, ober af yidish ruf ikh zikh on sholem, vos iz mayn yidisher nomen). efsher veyst ir shoyn, az ikh greyt zikh ist zikh untertsunemen a lange rayze (af a gantser yor) keyn mizrekh-eyrope, kedey tsu batrakhtn dem yidishn oyfbli dortn: vi azoy ken men dertsien di kinder af a yidish- shprakhikn oyfn? ikh halt baym graduirn Caltech (akht-un-fertsik teg, ober ver tseylt op?). nokh eyrope, vel ikh zayn a student in program "doktor-dokter" ("M.D./Ph.D.") fun n.y.u. es khoylemt zikh mir a nayer yidisher zhurnal in nyu-york, satirish un baysik, glaykh vi di zhurnaln fun kadmonim. a sheynem dank ayer khovershaft. 's iz gut a khevruse tsu hobn mit velkhn tsu redn yidish. Sholem (Zack) Berger 27)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 09:16:11 PDT From: Shulamith Berger Subject: Introduction and query Well, after all this time I'm finally getting to introduce myself. I'm the archivist at Yeshiva University and also do some Judaica cataloging, which is what's prompting this belated first message. I'm trying to catalog two books on Lachoudisch/Lekoudesch (depending) on whose spelling you prefer, and can't quite get a handle on them. The cataloging records I have indicate that it's a German dialect, but don't agree on whether or not Lachoudisch/ Lekoudesch is the name of the dialect, a term used for Yiddish elements in German in general, or a term for Yiddish in German in particular regions. The titles of the books are Lachoudisch: Geheimsprache Schopflochs and Lekoudesch: Integration Jiddischer Worter in die Mundart von Rexingen bei Horb. Any help will be appreciated. Shulamith Berger 28)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Jun 91 14:52 EDT From: BERK@ZODIAC.BITNET Subject: intro Bob Berk as for introductions - i may be something of a ringer on this list: i'm a professor of statistics at rutgers univ. in new brunswick, nj. but i take an amateur's delight in yiddish linguistics and related matters and some of the items i've read on mendele have been very interesting and informative. borok 29)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 19 13:39:54 1993 From: BERMAN E-MAIL Subject: Introduction Sholom Aleichem. Ich heis Hershl Berman (HAL oif einglish) un di transliteratsie fun YIVO gefelt mir nisht zeyer. I also hate typing in transliterated yiddish (note the 2 d's). I was born in Montreal and now make my home in North York, Ontario. Yiddish is my primary language, and I actually remember a time when I couldn't understand anything else (I remember the time, I have to take my parents word that I didn't understand English, although I don't actually recall any english). I am 24 years old and have recently completed my undergraguate degree in Political Science and Biology at the University of Toronto. I took a minor in Yiddish (if I could have I would have taken a major) as well. So far the Yiddish is the only thing that has brought me any quantitative success in life. For the last 3 years I have been a heritage language instructor, teaching Yiddish to children from 6-13. This past year i volunteered as a teaching assistant (no money to hire one in these recessionary times) at the university for the beginner Yiddish course. I found it very rewarding (aside from the pair of Jays tickets one of the students gave me -- no, it wasn't a bribe). I wish i could say that my entire life will be devoted to Yiddish. But in reality I want to be a doctor. However, I can say that Yiddish remains an integral part of my life and I intend to be active in the community, and in addition, if i can marry someone who appreciates (and maybe speaks) Yiddish, my life will not be a failure. I welcome personal corespondence. Hal Berman 30)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 19:35:47 -0500 (EST) From: dschrag@acs.bu.edu Subject: Introduction I have already posted on Mendele but have not introduced myself. Ikh hays Rhoda Bernard (Rokhl oyf yiddish) un ikh bin a zingerke. Ikh zing Yiddishe musik, hebreyishe musik, klasishe muzik, djez, un musik fun "Brodvey." Ikh makh mayn gants lebn fun muzik -- ikh zing, ikh lern a por talmidim. Ikh hob zikh gelernt redn Yiddish in der Uriel Vaynraykh zumer program fun Yiddishe shprakh, lituratur, un kultur. Ikh bin geven in der program zumer nayntsnhundert fir un nayntsik. Nokh der program, bin ikh geblibn mit Yiddish. Ikh hob gekoyft "Yiddish Tsvey" -- itst, leyen ikh a por bleter yeden tog. Ikh leyen dem Forverts. Ikh shmues zeyer oft mit andere mentschn vos redn Yiddish -- mayn mans bobe hot a verterbukh noyent tsu der telefon, k'dey tsu nitsn dos bukh ven zi un ikh schmuesn oyf Yiddish. Ikh red Yiddish ven ikh gib a kontsert -- ikh derkler di lider tsum ershtn oyf Yiddish un tsum tsveytn oyf English. S'iz mir zeyer gut tsu leyenen Mendele yeder tog in der heym -- ikh hob a sakh gelernt fun Mendelen. Es volt mir zayn a fargenign oyb ir volt gekent mir derklern andere vegn vos mit zey ikh ken nitsn mayn Yiddish un oyslernen di sprakh. Ikh vil nisht farloyrn mayn Yiddish! Rokhl Bernard 31)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 04 Oct 92 14:31 EDT From: Dorothy_BILIK@umail.umd.edu Subject: introduction and query Tayere mitglider fun MENDLEN: I have been teaching Yid. lang.and lit. and Holocaust lit.and film at Maryland since 1976.My research interests include work on Glikl Hamil,Tsenerene, Holocaust lit. and Soviet Yiddish writers.My current project is Der Daytch-The Image of the (non-Jewish) German in Yiddish lit. I have collected shprikhverter, oysdrukn, lider etc.I have given papers on Aksenfeld's Shterntikhl and its presentation of Germans and Germany as well as on Kulbak's Disner Tshayld Herold. I'm working on Vaysenberg's Shmuglares. I ask my fellow MENDLNIKES to inform me of any references to Germans they have come across in their reading in Yid.lit.I found an isolated reference `in an early Vintshfingerl, in Perets Di Royz,Zibm gute yor. Sholem Aleykhem's Marienbad is another source. I would be grateful for any perl funder yidishe literatur vos hot a sheykhes tsu mayn inyen. A sheynem dank aykh alemen un hotzshe zikh a laykhtn tones un a gut yor. Dvosye. Dorothy Bilik@umail.umd.edu. 32)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 17:25:43 -0500 (EST) From: jbinder@wellesley.edu Subject: Introduction I'm at Wellesley college. I am translating a story by Y.L. Peretz, and I can not find some words. Could someone help me? If anyone could tell me about a book that would help me that would be wonderful. I would like to apologize in advance... I do not Know how to transliterate, so this is the best I can do. The story is "A Yingele" 1.Tzipyorek 2.A roite Mogn-Doved fun a lamter - Could anyone tell me what a latern like this was ? or what it was used for? 3.Elef Hashishi - Where does this term come from? 4.Lange Einfar-Hoise 5.Mieshtshonske - in the context of "Di Shmole pasen fun di mieshtshanske felder" Judith Binder 33)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 08:20:29 MEZ From: block@fhmrz4.rz.fh-muenchen.de Subject: Introduction My name is Russell Block and I have been lurking around the list for some time without a formal introduction. I am a native New Yorker and professor of English at the Fachhochschule (Polytechnic) in Munich, Germany. I came to Yiddish originally through my interest in Germanic languages. As a senior in college - now a long time ago - I did a paper on my grandfather's Polish Yidish, comparing it to standard Middle High German. (Yes, I am one of those linguists, who concern themselves with phonemes and the like.) Grandpa David, was not your traditional zaide with a love of learning far beyond his station in life. Although he was once fluent in Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish, Russian and German, he strongly believed that you are what you do and as a tailor (a skilled tailor not an operator, mind you) he saw no need to show off his learning. He was, however, an enthusiastic native speaker informant and was absolutely delighted to help me with my study of Yiddish. He would have loved reading mendele - as I do. Russell Block 34)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 02 Oct 94 21:48:17 EDT From: abebloom@aol.com Subject: Introduction I thought you would like some information as to my interest in Yiddish and my background. Firstly, born June 1, l916 in the Bronx, New York. My father was a printer and also active in Yiddish affairs having among other things translated English language books that were serialized in the Yiddish language newspapers of the day. I was told that my brith was a literary gathering. I personally do not remember. Most of my fathers later years were with the Forvetz, as a zetzer (compositor), and like many a zetzer, was an avid, hungry reader. We, all four children were sent to the Sholem Aleichem shulen in the Bronx. I got as far as mittel shul, but my two sisters went further. My elder sister performed with the Folksbiene for many years and also appeared on the stage for professional theatres and during the later part of her life, was on WEVD as the broadcast voice of YIVO. My claim to fame is that I read all of the available novels of Jules Verne in Yiddish before I saw them in English. Being the son of a Forvetznik colored my thinking of the language and found it warm and very comfortable. Unfortunately, my parents have been gone 40 and 30 years, respectively, and my contacts with the language have been very sparse. I find no trouble in reading nor in understanding the spoken word, but, have difficulty in expressing myself and finding the right word. As to Mendele, I get a great kick out of it and have no trouble with the transliterations. I am familiar with the YIVO conventions, but have little patience with some of the nitty picky discussions about what would be the proper way to transliterate. My feeling is that if it is possible to make ones self understood, then fine, the problem is solved and we are communicating. That was the purpose of the original concept and therefore we are on target. Zeit alle gezunt un lummir olle schreiben mer un mer. Abe Bloom 35)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 9 13:12:50 1994 From: Frank_M_BOCHES@umail.umd.edu Subject: Introduction I'm new--my name is Frank Boches. I hail originally from Boston (Dorchester area) and now live in Baltimore. I'm at the Univ. of MD three days a week. I'm interested in finding out if anyone knows where I can get hold of an old 78 record by Al Jolson entitled "Ich fuhr aheim." The beginning goes something like this: Ich fuhr aheim, ich fuhr aheim. zu Palestine, zu Palestine, ungepluchten yahren dadadadada, a Yid bin ich geboren voren dadada, Ich fuhr aheim, ich fuhr aheaim. And the rest escapes me. Also, anyone from the old Dorchester area--Franklin Field, Nightingale Street Shul, Beth El Hebrew? Shanen dank. Frank Boches 36)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 31 Jan 95 10:13:54 EST From: boll@keps.com Subject: Introduction Although I was born in Germany after the war, my formative years from the age of 2 were spent in Newark, N.J. in a 3-decker neighborhood not all that dissimilar to the descriptions provided by Philip Roth in some of his novels. In the 4th grade, the wooden desk that I sat at had the initials R.S. dug into its surface, which stood for our most famous graduate at the time - Rod Steiger. My parents are holocaust survivors from the town of Gombin in Poland and I grew up speaking a rich mixture of English & Yiddish and often not knowing the difference. This made kindergarten a somewhat traumatic experience for me since my young classmates would sometimes give me quizzical looks when I voiced words they didn't understand ("Give me a handtuch, please.") As the years passed my exposure to Yiddish only occurs on visits home to see family and relatives. My comprehension remains high, although when I try to speak I often revert to Deutsch due to many years of studying it in school. At a relatively recent Yiddish Film Festival sponsored by the Yiddish Film Institute at Brandeis University, I found that I could understand much of what was being said on screen without looking at the subtitles. I'm currently working my way through Weinreich's book on learning Yiddish. I get a lot of pleasure when visiting my parents in trying out my Yiddish or eavesdropping on conversations among the truly fluent at their condominium complex in Florida. I credit much of my renewed interest in Yiddish to Mendele. Thanks to one and all whose participation sustains this electronic journal. Harold Boll 37)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 2 Apr 92 15:40:18 PST From: hbreit%leland.stanford.edu@YALEVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Introduction I'm a new subscriber to MENDELE, and every issue git mir a tzitter un iz fahr mir a machiah. My problem is that I learned Yiddish as a child and have never seen it transliterated from the Hebrew orthography, as can be seen from the above attempt. Until BITNET/INTERNET acquires a Yiddishe Kop, where do I find the appropriate rules about transliteration. -Henry Breitrose Department of Communication Stanford 38)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1992 18:10 CST From: glaa303@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu Subject: brief introductory statement I, David Brenner, am currently completing my Ph.D. in Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. (cut here if necessary) My doctoral dissertation is a study of Jewish identity and assimilation in the German-language Jewish cultural journal, Ost und West. The journal published many contributions from Eastern Jewish writers and on Eastern Jewish topics as well as many translations from Yiddish. I welcome comments from anyone who knows anything regarding the specific journal and its producers/contributors as well as regarding journal and periodical history in general. David Brenner 39)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1992 11:31 CST From: Dan Breslauer Subject: Introduction I am a professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas. I have a 1974 Ph.D. from Brandeis University on the theology of Abraham Joshua Heschel. I have published several books on modern Jewish thought, on Hebrew literature, and on Jewish ethics. Most recently I have published a book on Hayyim Nahman Bialik and a Modern Jewish Theology. I am continuing to work on Bialik focusing now on his view of Hebrew culture. I have an interest not only in Hebrew literature but also in Yiddish literature which, however, I usually read in translation (either in Hebrew or in English). Dan Breslauer 40)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jan 25 08:59:52 1994 From: brodbar@epas.utoronto.ca (Jay Brodbar) Subject: Introduction I am a federation planner in Toronto, responsible for the areas of Jewish culture, which includes supervizing the director of our Committee for Yiddish. I am particularly interested in the role of Jewish culture, including, of course, Yiddish language and literature, in enriching and sustaining our contemporary Jewish life. Jay Brodbar 41)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 31 09:12:47 1993 >From SJB2@PSUVM.PSU.EDU Subject: Introduction I'm glad to have such a list available! I am a professsor at Penn State Harrisburg in Folklore and American Studies. I am also the son of Yiddish-speaking Holocaust survivors, and I still speak Yiddish to my mother, but I get little other practice, except for an occasional Yiddish speaking group meeting in Harrisburg. I have scholarly interests in Yiddish folklore and I would like to hear about proverbs, sayings, tales, beliefs, and folk arts that people on the list are collecting. Regarding Holocaust studies, I am translating some of the testimonies touching on legends and beliefs in the Oshpitsin Yizkor book (My father is from Osphpitsin or Oswiecim in Polish). I would also appreciate reviews of new works on Yiddish and Yiddish culture. I am currently reviewing Polish Jews in Paris for Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review, for example. I am heartened by new interest in Yiddish and I hope to be able to sponsor a course before too long on Yiddish culture in America at Penn State. Sei gesund, Simon (Shimen) Bronner 42)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 07:51:00 CDT From: brown.mitchell@tntv7.ntrs.com Subject: Introduction and a request My name is Mitchell Brown and I have been lurking for quite a few months now. I am 39 years old and currently live in Hyde Park, Chicago. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I heard some Yiddish spoken, but not often. My grandmother was fluent in Yiddish. However, she did not learn it until she went to work in a factory in the early twenties. When ever she would relate the story of how she learned it, she would always end by saying "Those girls were always suprised that I learned to speak such a 'deep Jewish'". Has anyone else ever heard of a fluency in Yiddish being referred to as 'deep'? She never referred to the language as Yiddish, only as Jewish. I was a German Language and Literature major and did my Senior Year abroad in Bavaria. When I returned to the US, I was amazed to see that along with German, I had also acheived some degree of fluency in Yiddish. I had some Russian and Hebrew, which obviously helped. I tried to read the Forward every week. I also started collecting Klezmer music. I studied Beginning Yiddish at the Workman's Circle in New York with a lovely man named Pesach. Is he still there? Since coming to Chicago, it has been more difficult to keep up my Yiddish studies. It is less 'in the air' than it was in New York. I have been able to pick up a Forward occasionally, and rent Yiddish films from that wonderful resource, Facets Multimedia. Any suggestions for pursuing Yiddish in the Windy City? Are there any Yiddish radio broadcasts in the area? Here is a request: I just finished John Gross' fascinating book SHYLOCK, a book that starts out being a historical survey of interpretation and criticism of the character, and winds up being a study of anti-Jewish sentiment throughout the centuries. One of the most interesting pieces of information for me, was the great tradition of performing Shakespeare in the Yiddish theater of New York. Can anyone tell me where I can find these Yiddish versions of the plays? Besides MERCHANT OF VENICE, HAMLET and KING LEAR seemed to be the most popular. Mitchell Brown 43)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 13 May 1995 21:08:29 -0400 (edt) From: lincan@amanda.dorsai.org Subject: Introduction I've received and enjoyed Mendele for several weeks now and thought it was time to introduce myself to other subscribers. As a New York City high school history teacher, I got tired of teaching about others and decided that I wanted to learn more about my own personal and family history and culture, and so got involved in Jewish genealogy. That in turn has gotten me very interested in Eastern European history and Yiddish language and culture. My grandfather lived with us during my childhood and so I heard a great deal of Yiddish. I can understand it reasonably well but, alas, never learned to speak it. We always took the easy way out -- we listened to the Yiddish and replied in English. I also spent many summers in Sharon Springs, NY, a spa that was very popular with our immigrant ancestors who brought the habit of visiting spas with them from Europe. I hung around my grandfather's butcher shop there, where most conversations were in Yiddish. I guess that helped some. I have traced my roots back to Lithuania and the Ukraine and my current family to all over the U.S., Canada, Israel, Australia, and South Africa. I'm currently working on going backwards and to that end, am planning a trip to Lithuania this summer. I know that I will not find much of Jewish Lita but hope to get some feel for what it must have been like. I would love to hear from Litvaks or those who have visited or have advice. Linda Cantor 44)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 19:05:48 -0400 (EDT) From: scarlow@cap.gwu.edu Subject: Introduction I grew up in the Bronx, where Yiddish became music to my ears. My grandmother spoke to me almost exclusively in Yiddish and I always replied exclusively in English. Other relatives spoke to me in Yinglish. Today I hear it spoken rarely, making those moments even more pleasant, although my understanding has diminished greatly. But who says you have to "understand" music? I keep in touch through reading Mendele and through my brother, who is an actor with the Folksbeine; perhaps some day he'll also become active on Mendele. Stuart Carlow 45)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 21:47:54 -0500 From: zishe@aol.com Subject: Introduction; a kashe Heysn heys ikh Zishe Karlov (af goyish: Richard Carlow). Ikh bin shoyn etlekhe khadoshim eyner fun di bahaltene "tsukukers" un ikh meyn az s'iz shoyn tsayt zikh fortsushteln farn oylem. Ikh bin a geboyrener in Bronks un ikh voyn itst in Manhetn. Tsum badoyern bin ikh nisht ufgevaksn mit yidish nor ikh hob zikh gelernt in der Uriel Vaynraykh zumer-program in Kolombye-Universitet. Ikh arbet ba tog vi an ufnemer inem Yidishn Visnshaftlekhn Institut (YIVO). D'h, ikh entfer dem telefon un bagris di mentshn vos kumen tsu undz arayn. Dertsu bin ikh an aktyor i af english i af yidish. Letstns hob ikh geshpilt mit der Folksbine in Nyu-York. Di hayorike pyese iz geven "Mirele Efros" vos me hot zi geshpilt bizn 29stn yanuar. Dos iz geven mayn 8tn sezon mit der trupe. Ikh hob a sakh hanoe fun Mendele un ikh dank dem shames zeyer un take aykh alemen far ayer onteyl. Un itst tsum takhles: Ken emetser mir gebn tsu farshteyn farvos me zogt "in der emesn" ven dos vort "emes" iz loshn-zokher? Dem nun tsum sof vort ken ikh epes banemen vi ba sof andere loshn-zokher-verter in dativ vi "tatn", "mentshn", "rebn". Nor der "der" dort, vu es volt mashmoes gedarft zayn "dem" iz mir a retenish. A hartsikn dank in foroys. Mir iz zeyer ayngenem tsu zayn do tsvishn aykh alemen. Zishe (Richard) Carlow 46)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Jul 11 14:38:58 1993 From: ACASSEL@delphi.com Subject: introduction I'm no linguist, and have only recently begun an informal self-course in Yiddish. But over the past few years I've been trying to translate and edit my grandfather's Yiddish history of his native town, "di shtat Keidan," published in 1930 by the Keidaner Farein of New York. Among the things I learned from this was that zeyde (who died in 1941, nine years before I was born), had collected folk songs in his youth, and was a major contributor to the 1901 book published by Ginsburg and Marek. Baruch Chaim Cassel was a stolz Keidaner, and was quite put out that the G.-M. book credited the songs he had collected as merely from "Kovne gubernie" rather than Keidan. In 1990 I brought this to the attention of Chana Mlotek at Yivo, who put me in touch with Dov Noy at the Hebrew University. The result was a footnote on p. 85 of Noy's re-issued (1991) Ginsburg-Marek (Bar-Ilan U. Press), which corrects this 90-year literary mistake. Sadly, the 1901 Ginsberg-Marek contained only lyrics; the money apparently ran out before they could publish the accompanying music. I'm hopeful that someday I'll turn up at least some of the tunes; my dream is to resurrect zeyde's music for his great-grandchildren, now aged 4 and 2. I've also got some grist for any Sholem-Aleichem scholars out there, in the form of 6 letters from S-A to my grandfather in New York in the period 1906-1908. (Some of these were published last year by Itche Goldberg in Yiddishe Kultur.) They mainly concern an attempt to translate and publish several works, including "The First Jewish Republic" and "Motl Peyse dem Khazan's" in the U.S. Nothing ever came of it, so far as I can tell; probably it was one of many not-too-successful ventures my merchant scholar-Zionist grandfather tried over the course of three decades. But they may be of some interest. For my part I'd like to find someone with detailed knowledge of S-A in that period, in the interest of establishing context and possibly shedding some light on my grandfather's early life. Anyway, I've got translations of the 1930 history, along with some delightful zichroines from other Keidaners of that period, available to be posted or emailed if anyone is interested.... Andrew Cassel 47)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Jan 7 13:04:26 1994 From: CLARE@vms.cis.pitt.edu Subject: Introduction I have just signed on to Mendele because I am interested in preserving my knowledge of Yiddish. I was born in the south Bronx to immigrant parents from Lithuania and Belorussia. We spoke Yiddish at home and I have retained most of it through conversation, writing to relatives in Argentina and Israel and attending the Oxford Summer Yiddish program. I am a chemistry professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. I am 55 years old, am married with3 children and 1 grandson. Ikh vintsch eikh aleh a gezunt'n neiem yohr. A sheynem dank. Zalmen Itzik (Sheldon Irvin) Clare 48)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Oct 94 13:23:20 -0500 From: ecohen@husc.harvard.edu Subject: Introduction My name is Etan Cohen and I am a sophomore in college. My major is Yiddish with a special interest in Yiddish liturature. As I spoke no Yiddish at all before this year, I began learning it as part of my studies. I'm enjoying it a great deal and am very excited about becoming a part of Mendele. Etan Cohen 49)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 11 14:13:33 1993 From: ncohen@sjuphil.sju.edu (Naomi Cohen) Subject: Introduction 1. Ikh hob hanoye gehat fun leynen mendele shoyn a por monatn, vel ikh itst zikh bakenen mit alemen. Kh'hob zikh gelernt yidish in pensilveynier universitet un af der yidish vokh. Kh'hob shtudirt lingvistik un bibliotekeray, un kh'arbet itst in St. Joseph's University bibliotek. 2. Etlekhe idiomatishe oysdrikn zaynen mir bakant fun der heym, ober nor af english vayl tate-mame redn kimat nisht ken yidish. Itst veys ikh far vos der tate hot gezogt, lemoshl, "Let's take this apart and see where the feet grow." An anderer iz geven, "You look like a hot and cold cup of coffee," ven kh'hob zikh aleyn ongeton nit rekht far shul. Emetser veys tsi dos kumt oykh fun yidish? Naomi Cohen 50)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 20 09:48:08 1994 From: smc5@Lehigh.EDU Subject: Introduction Dear Mendeleniks: I am a new subscriber, a postdoctoral chemist at Lehigh University, who is a non-native speaker of Yiddish. I took 2 years of Yiddish at Penn under Khane Kliger, and since then have been a member of Yugntruf, and am a subscriber to the Forverts. Amazingly just as I found out about Mendele, an article in the Forverts on this users group appeared. My own particular "practical" (if they can be called that) interests in Yiddish are genealogy (reading backs of old photos,e.g.) and science. If anyone knows of scientific works in Yiddsih, let me know. Right now I have a 1930s book of biology from Eastern Europe, and most of Sol Finestone's "Khemye: Tsu Leyzen un Tsu Lernen" (1920), both as photocopies. Stephen Cohen 51)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 8 Jul 92 20:22:31 EDT From: REUVEN=COHN%LEGAL%BWH@COMM.bwh.harvard.edu Subject: Introduction It boggles my mind to create an association between the computer, symbol of the future, and the Yiddish language, whose future is so uncertain. As for myself, I spoke Yiddish until I went to kindergarten. Thereafter, my parents spoke Yiddish and we answered in English. When I went off to college, the first week, my mother wrote me a letter in English and wrote in parentheses within the letter that she hoped she had spelled a certain word correctly. I wrote back that I didn't care how she spelled, and why didn't she just write in Yiddish and thus avoid the whole problem, if it was of concern to her. That is how I learned how to read Yiddish. Of course, this story dates me, since who sends letters to their kids in college nowadays. In the last year, I read about 150 pages of Grade's "Der Yeshiva" , a book that I read years ago in English translation. Both my parents come from that world in a sense, and so it was an incredible experience for me to read it in Grade's beautiful Yiddish. Reuven Cohn 52)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Oct 28 03:58:14 1993 From: "Connor, David" Subject: Introduction My name is David Connor, a Gentile, and translator since 1971. I work full-time as a translator of Eurropean languages and translations coordinator for Telecom Australia. As a hobby I delve into minor languages such as Icelandic, Armenian and Yiddish. I decided to join this list to become more informed about the current situation relating to Yiddish. I'm a bit of a collector. Apart from American Yiddish textbooks, I've subscribed for years to Sovietish Heimland and have collected all the Teach Yourself Yiddish booklets (and serialized lessons by Semen Sandler). I dropped the subscription to it when the rates shot up after the collapse of the Soviet empire. I'll follow the info on this list with interest. The sort of thing I'd like to learn about is what is happening with Yiddish in Birobidzhan. Do we have any e-mailers there? Regards, David Connor. 53)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 29 19:58:16 1994 From: Subject: Introduction My name is Matt Dailey. I am a graduate student in Yiddish and Hebrew at the Ohio State University. My Yiddish interests are in the area of Yiddish religious literature, in particular those items written for women, like the tkhines. My Hebrew training is in the area of Biblical Hebrew and Comparative Semitics. I am looking forward to interacting on Mendele, and hope to hear from my colleagues soon. Motl Dailey 54)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 9 Dec 91 23:52:47 EST From: Mark H. David (gensym!mhd@harvard.harvard.edu) Subject: Welcome to MENDELE Brokhim hanimtsoyim! It's great to be on this mailing list! My name is Meyer in Yiddish, and here's a brief bio per your request: I host and produce a weekly Yiddish-language radio called The Yiddish Hour on WBRS, 100 FM, a college radio station at Brandeis U, Waltham, MA, which is like my main hobby. The program, which is at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays, turns one year old at the end of December, 1991. The last two shows of the year will feature interviews with Dov Noy (Nov. 22), Sylvia Fuks-Fried (Nov. 22), and Aharon Appelfeld (Nov. 29), all in Yiddish, naturally. It's a lot of fun. My mother is a fluent Yiddish speaker from Subcarpathian Ruthenia. And I studied some Yiddish, along with German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, and Romanian, while earning my undergraduate degree in Linguistics at the University of Chicago, mit yoren tsurik. But most of the Yiddish I know I've learned in the last few years by interviewing people in Yiddish, reading the Yiddish press, attending concerts, plays, lectures, sings, and "vinkels", and generally seeking out the language and its venerable native speakers wherever I can. For a living I write computer software in a supposedly dead computer language: LISP. 55)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat May 7 21:22:11 1994 From: gdavis@isnet.is.wfu.edu Subject: Introduction I am a new list member from Winston-Salem, NC, where I am an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Bowman Gray School of Medicine. My knowledge of Yiddish literature (and Yiddish) is scanty, but I am excited about the opportunity to learn through Mendele and the members of the list. Greg Davis 56)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 28 Jan 92 10:08:18 -0500 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: Introduction My name is Martin Davis. I'm a mathematician/computer scientist at NYU. My parents were Polish Jewish immigrants in the 1920s. (I was born in 1928.) My parents spoke Yiddish to each other, but English to me. Thus, my Yiddish hearing is much better than my speech. I used to go to the Yiddish theatre on Second Avenue when I was a boy. My favorite was Maurice Schwartz in "Shylock's Daughter." I learned a little written Yiddish in a somewhat progressive Chedar, but really have no formal knowledge of the grammar. I read quite slowly, still not comfortable with the alphabet, and am totally thwarted by vowel-less Hebrew words. I studied German in high school and college, and my spoken Yiddish is inevitably corrupted by this exposure. (Yiddish speakers easily detect the German influence.) My Judaism is strictly sentimental. I'm a totally non-observant atheist, and have been happily married to a gentile woman for 40 years. The level of scholarship of MENDELE is well over my head, but I do find it interesting and fun, and I hope I will be tolerated. This is probably more about me than you wanted to know. Martin Davis 57)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Apr 7 09:50:39 1994 From: sdinitz@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Introduction A lapsed Yiddishist, I would like to return to the fold. For the record, Yiddish was my first tongue and, though I have had little opportunity to use it in the last fifty years or so, I am still very committed to its preservation and good health. Simon (Sy) Dinitz 58)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Apr 17 13:30:03 1993 From: STEPHEN DOWLING <71072.2134@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Introduction My name is Stephen Dowling. I am the manager of the Jewish Book Center of the Workmen's Circle in New York. We sell Yiddish books and tapes, Cd's and dictionaries. I studied Yiddish with Pesakh Fiszman and am very pleased to hear of the existence of MENDELE. Ikh bin Stephen Dowling. Ikh bin der Mendele Moykher Sforim fun der Yiddisher Bikher Tsenter in New York. Mir farkoifn Yiddishe Bikher un tashmes, Cds, un verterbikher. Ikh bin geven a talmud fun Pesakh Fiszman un ikh bin zeyer Tsufridn tsu heren vegn Mendele 59)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Aug 6 05:18:35 1993 From: jdowling@vax.ox.ac.uk Subject: Introduction I am presently a DPhil (PhD) student at the University of Oxford entering into my (mirtsashem) final year. I am specializing in 17th/18th century Yiddish chapbooks which feature women as major characters. I also enjoy looking at riddles and folk-medicine, which constitute my major distraction when I am in the library. I have two children who think that "speaking Yiddish" means American English with a bunch of "oy veys", "a sheynem dank" and "zay gezunt" thrown in. Zayt-zshe gezunt, Yasminke Dowling 60)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Sep 1994 20:25:40 -0700 (PDT) From: len-duhl@violet.berkeley.edu Subject: Introduction and klal Yiddish I have been lurking in the Mendele shadows for awhile, reading my morning Mendele news, feeling the joys of knowing there is a community of folks who love Yiddish and are keeping it alive and lively. I am working on a dissertation in clinical psychology on the Yiddish lullabies which were written during the Holocaust. (A labor of love. Fortunately there are enlightened advisors who see that this is a worthy task even for a psychology student.) I have found much in Mendele to help me in this. Regarding Zellig Bach's invitation to comment on his 9/8 posting on making efforts to use standard Romanization: What I know of Yiddish is mostly self taught and for a beginning Yiddishist, it is very helpful when the Romanization corresponds to the actual Yiddish spelling of words. This enables beginners like me to look up words and have an inking about how to pronounce them more or less understandably. The YIVO rules for transliteration are remarkably straightforward and consistent (especially compared to English spelling). I can see though, that for people who come by their Yiddish from having heard it spoken, naturally in other words, and never had the opportunity to learn to write it or read it, Romanization could present a challenge. Having some reasonable rules to follow like YIVO's might be quite useful. It would also enable Mendelniks with a dialectological bent to discover where y'all are coming from (s'cuse pun) since it would be clear what sounds were being represented by your ey's, ay's, oy's, etc. (as opposed to various ejs, eis, ie's, ea's, ai's, aj's, oi's, oj's, etc.) A gut yor, a zis yor, un a sheynem dank an alemen. Lisa Duhl 61)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Nov 6 19:26:00 1993 From: heather edgar Subject: Introduction I am a second generation american of mostly Austrian heritage. My parents spoke yiddish around the house, but I never really picked it up as a second language. I was just hoping to learn something by just sitting back and listening. So that's my general "hello" to everyone. Heather Edgar 62)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 May 1995 19:40:42 -0400 (EDT) From: eisner@delphi.com Subject: Introduction I, like more than a few other subscribers, apparently, am a mathematics professor. I teach at Mount Vernon College in Washington DC. I grew up in Brooklyn, in the Bay Ridge area, where there are few Jews. My parents understood Yiddish but didn't teach it to me. I'm fairly ignorant of Yiddish. What I know are mostly songs: I have long had _Great Songs of the Yiddish Theater_, which I enjoy very much, and I recently got the two song volumes from the Arbeter Ring. Last fall, I took a Yiddish class at the JCC of Northern Virginia with Lee Goldberg, who told me about Mendele and showed me some printouts. I also found Mendele in the Internet Yellow Pages. When I got on line, I subscribed. I particularly like when you publish parallel Yiddish and English texts so I can study them word by word. By the way, I don't think any of my ancestors belonged to an "Aysinerfareyn" (see Mendele 5.003.1), but perhaps they should have. Milt Eisner 63)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 13 01:26:33 1994 From: rafoelg@aol.com Subject: Introduction Transplanted first generation Brit.living in Texas for 17 yrs. My parents were from Kovno & Baranovich respectively. Education : Orthodox day schools, C of E high school, & University College London. Hobbies: Talmud, squash, theatre, reading. For : health insurance reform. Nor uf simchas!! Rafoel ben Yehuda Eliezer 64)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Jun 91 13:47:01 CST From: Nicholas Subject: Introduction Hi. My name is Nicholas Eshelman. I am a catalog librarian at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS. Cataloging is very boring, but KU has a good basket ball team, which helps. I used to work at the New York Public Library, also as a cataloger, where I worked some of the time with Yiddish books, which was better than basketball. My Yiddish is OK as long as I don't try to speak or write it. I enjoy the list very much and am pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the contributions. I will offer some low quality contribu- tions as soon as I can. We just moved and I'm living in the middle of a big confused mess, so it may be a while. 65)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 23 09:27:47 1993 >From teshelma@esu.edu Subject: Introduction In real life teshelma is Tom Eshelman, teacher of philosophy at East Stroudsburg University in East Stroudsburg, PA. Raised in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood I knew little about Judaism and nothing about Yiddish until after World War II when, through a teacher who had survived the Holocaust and a young Reform Rabbi, I became acquainted with the culture and the language. My two most joyful discoveries were a) the work done by Uriel Weinrich on behalf of Yiddish and b) the poetry of Itzik Manger. Tom Eshelman 66)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Jul 1994 15:55:53 -0400 From: faber@haskins.yale.edu Subject: Introduction I'm interested in the (linguistic) history of Yiddish. I have published a few articles on the subject, but my current research interest is more generally in the phonetics of dialects and of language change. People have told me that I should be on Mendele, and after much procrastination, here I am! Alice Faber 67)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 06 Jul 1994 05:52:01 -0400 From: rfalbel@cumc.cornell.edu Subject: Introduction I learned most of my Yiddish from singing Yiddish songs. But I also heard Yiddish at home (my father's side of the family) although it was mixed with Viennese German (my mother's side). I was born in Vienna, German was my first language but since I was a baby when we made it out in 1939, my knowledge of it was limited until I went back to Vienna to study in the mid-sixties. My father came from Lvov (he always called it Lemberg). I understand spoken Yiddish and can usually make myself understood in a kind of "vardaytchtes Yiddish." I'm working on a project of transcribing, and eventually translating hundreds of family letters from Vienna, Israel, Italy and Lvov (1914-1947); they're mostly written in German but some are in Yiddish and Polish. I haven't dealt with those yet. I've been enjoying the conversations here, especially the transliterated Yiddish and derivations of Yiddish expressions. Rita Falbel 68)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 00:48:13 -0400 From: harfein@aol.com Subject: Introduction I've been enjoying Mendele for over a month; it's time I said hello. As a child I heard a good deal of Yiddish, but like so many others I never learned to speak. In recent years I've had the very great pleasure of studying Yiddish literature in Rabbi Ben-Zion Gold's ongoing class held at Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel. From several of my classmates I heard about 'mendele.' Thanks to the research of Andrew Cassel I learned a good deal about the birthplace of my father's family, Keidan in Lithuania. My mother's parents came from Aysin, a town in Podolia, near Odessa. My mother remembers her father going to meetings of the 'Aysinerfareyn' in Philadelphia, where we lived. I knew nothing else about the place till I came across the name in two Railroad stories by Sholom Aleichem, "The Convoy" and "The Miracle of Hoshana Rabo", which I read in translation. There it was spelled "Heissin" but I surmised that this could be a fictionalized portrayal of the same place. In those stories the town has a large fair and a prison. Does anyone know whether this is fact or fiction? Does anyone whose parents or grandparents belonged to an 'Aysinerfareyn' have more information? Thanks. Harriet Feinberg 69)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Nov 94 08:16:32 CST From: ga3613@siucvmb.siu.edu Subject: Introduction Hello. My home is in Carbondale, IL. I like dogs, cats, and music. Just one comment. My impression has been that a main feature of Yiddish is that it developed partly at least due to the fact that Jews used Hebrew characters to write their languages. Thus, apropos romanization, it seems that the converse should be of interest. Namely, how to write English (e.g.) using Hebrew characters. Philip Feinsilver 70)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 11:17:48 +1000 From: danielf@werple.mira.net.au Subject: Introduction Greetings from down-under. I have been learning Yidish for the last 3 years under the tutelage of Bobbi Zylberman in Melbourne, Australia. We meet once a week to read, discuss and (with great difficulty, since my family spoke German) learn grammar. I have recently discovered the joys of the Internet and specifically the mendele group. It is always interesting to read about the on-going search for meaning of words, discussions on history and cultural activities. It gives me a warm feeling to be part of, what seems to be, a growing community of Yidishists. Just a question on the cd-rom issue, which is a great idea, however, is there any Yidish work on diskettes? I don't think it would be difficult to have a dictionary, novels and other works on diskette. In fact, we can probably get most of the work on the internet itself. I would be interested to know if it is possible. Danny Feldman Melbourne, Australia 71)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 28 Feb 92 22:07:59 EST From: Linda FELDMAN <42161_655@uwovax.uwo.CA> Subject: Introduction My FULL name is Linda Ellen Feldman. If you want to call me Hinda, that's fine: I'd like to hear the name used once in my life! Despite my address, my place of work is really at the University of Windsor , where, contrary to what one might expect, I teach German. (That makes me the resident Germanist in drag? Or are there any others out there in the electronic wilderness?) I am currently working on a research project on the Zichroynes of Glikl Hamil, or, as I usually call her, Glueckel von Hameln. Specifically, I am studying the question of marginality in the genesis of her - and eventually - early modern German autobiographical writing by women. I won't bore you with the tedious details unless I am asked. . . >From working on the project, I have had the lonely task of confronting Western Yiddish on my own, and my interest in post-renaissance reading materials in Western Yiddish has been aroused. So I suspect that, should I survive Glueckel, I shall march determinedly toward the Brantspiegel, and who knows what else after that! My approach is interdisciplinary, which can be stimulating, but also extremely frustrating: to my knowledge, there are few early modernists in the two fields, which means I soliloquize a lot. This is where the list comes in: I hope it will forge a few useful contacts, provide bibliographical references, increase my awareness of on-going debates in the field of Yiddish lit, stimulate my imagina- tion and provide a recipe for earthly happiness! I have also taught courses on the Holocaust in western lit and film, but that probably lies outside the scope of the list's discussion. My only credentials as a Yiddishist is that I sing in the Yiddish choir at the Windsor JCC. (:-) Still, I hope that my voice will occasionally be heard in the land of mendele. A gut yomtov. Hinda Linda Feldman 72)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 3 Dec 92 12:49:18 PST From: feldman@math.berkeley.edu Subject: Introduction / parodies In connection with Sheldon Benjamin's query about erev nitl, let me call attention to the work of Milt Gross, who - in addition to his writings about Looey Dot Dope - wrote many parodies, not in Yiddish but in Yinglish, among them a parody of "Twas the night before...". I remember it as very funny. By the way, let me introduce myself:Jacob (Jack, Yankl) Feldman, a Math. Prof. (soon to be Emeritus) at Berkeley. I was raised in Philadelphia; my parents and their friends were involved in Yiddish culture (deeply) and leftist politics (slightly) of the JPFO brand, and some of it rubbed off on me. I was grateful for the clarification, or maybe a better word would be elaboration, of the etymology of those all-important words "schmuck" and "putz" in recent issues of Mendele. Finally, here's a yak from childhood. Riding in an overfull car on a hot Sunday through slow traffic towards Atlanyic City, we would pass billboards advertising hotels. Minnie Silverman , with obvious delight, read aloud two of the names:"Stacy Trent, Hildabrecht". I was too young to understand. Yankl Feldman 73)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 03 Jun 1995 00:27:23 -0400 (EDT) From: wexfeld@delphi.com Subject: Introduction I am an attorney working for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. I began studying Yiddish last fall at the D.C. JCC, in a class taught by Mendele subscriber (and contributor) Leybl Goldberg. I started slowly, and began seriously studying the language only in January, 1995. By now, I can work my way through a good deal of the Forverts each week, and I can speak and under- stand the spoken language more than a bisl. I like to play my tapes of Yiddish children's songs for my 7- and 4-year old children. My parents are from Philadelphia. My grandfathers both died before I was born. My father's mother (who came from near Kiev) spoke Yiddish, which I heard on my frequent visits to Philadelphia as a child. (My mother's mother, who was from a well-to-do family in Budapest, frowned on Yiddish and, as far as I know, never learned to speak or understand it.) I also occasionally heard Yiddish spoken when I was growing up in Washington, by elderly relatives of friends, etc. I remembered very little of the language, however. I have always been very interested in history. Yiddish is for me a natural entry point to begin to understand my own past, and the (Ashkenazic) Jewish past. Besides, it is a beautiful and expressive language. And, perversely, the decline of the number of Yiddish speakers over my own lifetime (I was born in 1950) has made it seem to me more worthwhile learning. Yisroel Feldman 74)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 11:08:04 -0700 (MST) From: feller@indirect.com Subject: Introduction I have been a subscriber and occasional contributor to Mendele for about six months, but I did not introduce myself. I am a retired chemist, retired Hebrew teacher, retired Yiddish teacher, and the Phoenix area zamler for the National Yiddish Book Center. I still maintain an active interest in the promotion of Yiddish by leading a small leyenkrayz and working with my wife who formed, and conducts, a Yiddish chorus at our temple. Our shames once responded very graciously to my previous request for information about how many members there are subscribing to Mendele. In view of his recent comments as to the number of new subscribers, I think it would be nice to know when we pass a milestome such "700" members, "800" members, etc. With respect to the comments about putting Yiddish on a CD-ROM, just today I have read about the Vatican's project in collaboration with IBM to put many of their rare books and manuscripts in a data base. This would allow much greater access to these treasures. Why not do the same for great, rare Yiddish classics (NYBC please note)? Morrie Feller Phoenix 75)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Mar 25 23:38:39 1994 From: DFERLEGER@delphi.com Subject: Introduction Hello. David Ferleger here. New to internet. Lawyer - do civil rights law. Child of Holocaust survivors - my mother was in the Warsaw Ghetto till it was destroyed and then in Maidanek and Auschwitz etc. And my father, from Chmielnick, Poland, survived in a hole under a stable. So I grew up hearing Yiddish and Polish both. I understand a bissel Yiddish, but dont speak Yiddish. And found this little mail list as I looked for Yiddishe places in Internet. I live in Philadelphia, PA USA. david ferleger 76)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 2 Jan 1995 18:06:57 -0800 (PST) From: mfields@netcom.com Subject: Introduction I have been a subscriber to mendele for aproximately two months and am finally getting around to writing an intro for myself. In view of the discussions of the past two months, I thought I better write in English :-). I'm a baby-boomer who lives in California. Like many of the others whose introductions I read I recall fondly of my bubbe talking to me in Yiddish as a young child. I feel a real connection to the language and would like to improve my capabilities for reading, understanding and writing Yiddish. I also have a goal to be able to read the Yiddish authors in the original. I am particularlly interested in Isaac Singer's work and would be greatful if anyone could tell me where I could acquire any of his work in the original Yiddish, especially the short stories. A shenem dank. Marvin Fields 77)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 16 13:44:46 1994 From: afineber@llnj.ll.pbs.org Subject: Introduction I've decided it's time to stop lurking and introduce myself. I grew up in a very Jewish neighborhood in Jersey City, with Yiddish-speaking grandparents on my father's side of the family and English-German speaking grandparents on my mother's side. When I tried to speak Yiddish to my father's mother she would wince at the germanness of it. But I still love Yiddish, since it carries with it so many memories for me. My other languages are Spanish and Esperanto. Mendele has been a real treat, and an educational one, for me. There is something that I have wondered about, and perhaps one of the non-Jewish German-speaking Mendelniks can answer this. My wife has many non-Jewish relatives on her father's side of the family in Germany. When they have visited here, I have played Yiddish music for them, and otherwise exposed them to the Yiddish language, hoping to initiate some conversation on the subject of the German/Yiddish connection, a subject of great interest to me. Yet there never is any reaction from them, as though this strange tongue, which must seem tantalizingly familiar and yet unfamiliar to them, was something they are seemingly deaf to. I can't understand this lack of curiousity in their part. Is it some kind of misguided politeness, or just a lack of curiousity, or what? Anyhow, to the shames and all my fellow-Mendelniks, greetings and salutations from Fair Lawn, N.J. Allan Fineberg 78)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 16 23:47:26 1994 From: 70724.2130@CompuServe.COM Subject: Introduction I have been a Mendelnick for about a month and I thought that it was about time to introduce myself. I'm a retired engineer from General Electric Co. and I speak, write, and understand Yiddish to some degree. In the last two years I've been using the language quite a bit with some Russian immigrants who are in my age group. The Yiddish is not perfect but we manage to make ourselves understood. The greatest difficulty I have is when I take one of them to the doctor and act as an interperter. A large number of the medical terms are beyond me and we have to revert to pointing to words in an English-Russian dictionary. I want to thank Shleyme Axelord for quoting the source for the translation of [cargo] hold on ship or plane. I have a sort of tattered Yiddish-English dictionary with a missing title page. When I looked up the reference, I realized that I have a copy of Harkavy's English-Yiddish Verterbukh. Ich dank dir nach amohl. Herbert Fishman 79)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 4 Mar 1995 15:42:15 -0800 From: normf@ix.netcom.com Subject: Introduction/Plurals ending in "-im" As a new subscriber, I must first apologize for my lack of knowledge of the official transliteration of Yiddish. I read the Hebrew characters with difficulty, but my reading of transliterated Yiddish is improving, thanks to mendele online. I was born and raised in Petaluma, a former farm community in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco. My parents immigrated from the Ukraine (mother, via Palestine) and Belarus (father) in 1915-1916. They met and married in San Francisco and arrived in Petaluma in 1919 along with a large group of Jewish poultry farmers who had settled there during about 1910 - 1920. Half of the 300 Jewish farm families were there presumably to learn the business in preparation for aliyah to Palestine. They founded and were active in all the Zionist organizations . Poale Zion, Farband, Pioneer Women, etc. The other half of the community were the "linke" who supported Birobidjan, and formed the left wing organizations. Petaluma was a vital center of Jewish life. The JCC (and shul) was built in 1925. Yitzhak Ben Zvi, Golda Meyerson and the gamut of Zionist leaders, as well as Yiddish authors, poets, theatrical personalities, and the like, visited the West Coast with lectures/performances/meetings in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Petaluma. Our parents were all Yiddish speakers, and all the functions at the Center were held in Yiddish. Several attempts were made to organize Yiddish schools for the children, but few lasted beyond one year. I was too young to attend the classes taught by Berkowich and his wife, Leah, Sholom Aleichem's daughter. We grew up knowing and understanding spoken Yiddish; few young people could read or write Yiddish. My wife, a native of Philadelphia, grew up in a similar environment. We conversed in Yiddish when we didn't want our children to understand us -- our parents did the same in Russian when we were children. During the 1970's and early 1980's, we were able to use our Yiddish when we visited family in Israel. Unfortunately, the generation of our parents has now gone, and the richness of their Yiddish is no longer available to us. I miss the road shows (z.b., Al Harris for the Farband) that came to Petaluma, and I miss the traveling singers and actors who came as refugees to Petaluma from the Polish theater in 1938-1942. We are heartened by the resurgence of Yiddish in the Universities, in the revitalization of YIVO, and by the activities of Aaron Lansky and the National Yiddish Book Center. We enjoy mendele online very much and kvel with each report. Now, as to plurals that end in "-im". I'm certain that someone among you pointed to "goy" and "goyim". But has anyone presented "shaigitz" and "shkutzim"? Norman Fishman Menlo Park, California 80)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Jan 92 15:31 GMT From: DFRANK@VAX.OXFORD.AC.UK Subject: Introduction I am a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies. My field is NOT Yiddish (I specialize in Medieval Jewish History and Hebrew Literature with an emphasis on Jewish culture in the lands of Islam and more specifically, Karaitica). Nevertheless, I am very much interested in Yiddish (Read, Understand, Speak it). Please regard me as a dedicated amateur. Dr. Daniel Frank Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies and Wolfson College Oxford 81)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jun 7 19:31:25 1993 From: Rob Frantz Subject: Introduction Ikh, Rob Frantz, a 47-yoriker hot ongehoybn tsu lernen zikh aleyn Yiddish tsvey yor tsurik. In di farloyf fun mayn leben, kh'ob gelernnt etllekhe shprakhn-Loshn Kodesh baym Hebrew School un in Erets Yisroel, Arabish baym University of Washington (4 yorn), Frantsoysh, Daytsh un, afile, Esperanto. Mayn interes in Yiddish iz di shtarkste fun alts. Kh'bin a mitglid fun di Seattle Yiddish Group vos treft zikh yedes tsveyte zuntog. Kh'ob gelernt fil yiddishe lidern un kh'ob gegeben tsvey farshtelungen fun azelkhe lidern bay mayn khevre group, di Sno-Isle Jewish Community. Hagam, ikh shpil harmonika un gitara un kh'ob kompozirt fil lidern (in English avade!). Akhuts fun muzik, kh'lib sport, bezonders beysbol. Kh'arbet baym University of Washington vi a Financial Administrator. Kh'lib tsu leynen Yiddish literatur-proza un poezia-nit nur originalen, ober iberzetsungen fun fremde sprachn oych. Lemoshil, kh'ob letstens geleynt a zeyer sheynem iberzetsung fun Flaubert's Trois Contes (oder " Dray Dertseylungen"), velkhe kh'ob es gefunen baym Seattle Public Library. Akh,kh'muz geyen aheym. Biz noent. Rob Frantz aka Robele 82)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 21:39:38 EST From: rfreedman@shrsys.hslc.org Subject: Introduction We are Bob and Molly Freedman. Bob is a senior partner in a Philadelphia law firm and Molly is the office manager and salesperson in a center city real estate brokerage firm owned by their son. In our spare time we have assembled, currently maintain and constantly add to a Judaic audio library which is now approximately 1700 LP's, cassettes and CDs. Approximately 60% of the collection are recordings of "Yiddish Music" or recitations and most of the remainder is Hebrew. We are interested primarily in Yiddish recordings. The collection has been catalogued and information dealing with each album "cut" can be retrieved by title, author, composer, performer, first line or subject matter. The database also will identify publications in which original text, translation, transliteration and melody line of the recorded song or poem can be located. The database is multilingual. Infor Information is entered in English, Yiddish, Hebrew and transliteration. Bob is also interested in incorporating Yiddish into the computer and is able toenter, display and print hard copy of Yiddish, Hebrew and English in almost any DOS program. We use WordPerfect 60.a and Dbase 4.15. We also have several thousand 78RPM recordings but these have not been archived.They will have to wait for our retirement or a young ambitious musicologist. Mir vuntshn undzer mendele khavarim a zis un gezunt yor in a velt fun sholem. Bob and Molly Freedman 83)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Dec 1994 12:53:16 -0800 (PST) From: hfreedm@sierra.fwl.edu Subject: Introduction/nasidale I have waited until I had a worthwhile query before introducing myself. I live in San Francisco, am 28, and was so deprived of the Yiddish language in my youth that I did not fully comprehend that it was spoken as a first language until I was out of college. Since that time, I have spent much of my life trying to learn Yiddish and make it a part of me. I coordinate the Yiddish Song Circle in the Bay Area, which has met monthly for the past 3 1/2 years to maintain a heymish environment for people of all backgrounds to share in the language and culture. My query emerges from a translation I am doing of a "souvenir journal" from a dinner given in America (at Garfein's Restaurant--does anyone know the location?)in 1946 by the Shumsker Relief Society to benefit survivors from Shumsk, the Ukrainian shtetl in which my great-grandparents were born. The word in question is "nasidale" and it occurs in the following context in the discussion of those laborers who worked in Shumsk and lived in nearby Rachmanov: File vos hobn gevoynt in Rakhmanov, gemuzt kumen tzu der arbeyt un aheym geyen farnakht shlofn, fun vos me hot geshpast: "Zey geyen kayn Rakhmanov oyf der nasidale." Dos vertel geyt an in Shumsk biz hayntign tog: "Gey kayn Rakhmanov oyf der nasidale." The meaning (and humor) is lost on me without understanding the term "oyf der nasidale." The closest I've come is learning that "nasidale" probably comes out of a Slavic root meaning "to sit." Can any mendelniks enlighten me further? A dank! Howard Freedman 84)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Mar 6 12:51:00 1994 From: Louis Fridhandler <74064.1661@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Introduction I'm Louis (Lou) Fridhandler. Retired professor U.C.I. I am a researcher: before retirement, biochemistry; since retirement: Sholem Aleichem's life, works, times, milieu, associates, sources of his ideas, etc. Found some works unknown to today's Yiddish readers. Translated a number. Published some. I live in California's Orange County which is not fertile ground for a Yiddishist. I only just learned about MENDELE, and it seems to offer a source of info and stimulation. I want to learn more. Louis Fridhandler. 85)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Sep 94 11:55:21 EDT From: HarveyF953@aol.com Subject: Introduction Born in Cleveland, Ohio-moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1980-Electrical Contractor in Arizona. I speak beginning Yiddish. Although I've spoke it for over 35 years I never developed the language due to the lack of people in my community to speak with. I am active in many associations related to the construction industry and I am an avid physical fitness person. Harvey (Khayim Ber) Friedman 86)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Dec 1994 23:34:32 -0500 From: marvinf629@aol.com Subject: Introduction and request I live in San Francisco and have recently begun to study Yiddish, which I heard my parents and relatives speak when I was growing up in the Bronx in the '30's and '40's. Why have I waited so long? Who knows? But now I'm trying to make up for lost time. Like many other Mendelniks, as a kid I usually heard the adults speaking Yiddish when they didn't want us to understand. One of the unexpected but satisfying side benefits of my studies is that I am emotionally re-connecting to buried, half-forgotten childhood memories. It's like finding lost treasure. Some of the technical discussion on Mendele about orthography and phonetics is over my head, but I agree that correct grammar and spelling is a necessary standard. I especially enjoy the transliterated anecdotes and messages which afford me a chance to test my limited translation skills. Now my request - I attend a weekly conversation group. One member is an elderly Russian immigrant who does not speak a word of English. He writes poetry in handwritten script. I would be grateful if anyone out there on the list could provide information on where a Yiddish typewriter (not a software program) either manual or electric might be obtained. A dank. Marvin Friedman 87)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 9 Jul 91 22:22:36 EDT From: Joseph Galron Subject: Introduction My name is Yossi Galron-Goldschlaeger. I am the Hebraica & Judaica cataloger at the Ohio State Univer- sity Libraries. Yiddish is not my mame-loshn. I was born and lived most of my life in Israel and my mother tongues are Hebrew and German (my parents immigrated to Palestine from Austria and Czechoslovakia). In Tel- Aviv I worked at the Tel-Aviv University (1973-1988) as cataloger and as automation librarian. To date I've published three bibliographies: the writ- ings of and about Yisrael Yeshyahu (Yemenite Mapainik - Histadrut leader, Cabinet minister and Speaker of the Knesset - some of his articles were translated into Yiddish and published in Di Goldene keyt); the writings of Prof. Dov Sadan (Berl Stock) - Prof. for Jewish literature (Hebrew and Yiddish) (I am sure that I don't have to introduce him to the Mendele Mentshen); and a bibliography of the writings of Yeshayahu Avrech, an essayist of the daily Davar and winner of the Israel prize for essays. I compiled another two bibliographies that have not yet been published: A critical bibliography of and about Nathan Alterman (Israeli poet and writer) and a completion of my bibliography of Dov Sadan (his writ- ings from 1984 to 1989). Now I am working on the bibliography of Abraham Shlonsky. Beside my bibliographic work I am cataloging at the Ohio State University in Columbus. Most of the books are Hebrew books (Hebrew literature, Israel -politics, geography, history, etc. and Rabbinical literature) and Yiddish (most of them Yiddish literature). Our collec- tion in OSU is big and with the help of the Melton Center for Jewish Studies we are trying to keep our place as one of the leading collections in the Big Ten. 88)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Jun 17 15:53:25 1994 From: david_gasser@merck.com Subject: Introduction As someone with absolutely no formal introduction to Yiddish (I speak Dutch fluently but my parents never spoke Yiddish), I still understand quite a bit when it's spoken. I have only rarely seen it written. I have more trouble reading the (transliterated into English) language. Are dictionaries published in English characters? Are there conventions for the transliteration? Can you recommend any material which I could use to teach myself? I'm a quick study with languages and would really like to speak Yiddish well. I would appreciate your insights. Thanks. David Gasser 89)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 22 Dec 1994 19:02:50 EST From: hrmv59a@prodigy.com Subject: Introduction My name is Gerald Gerger (Jerry). I live in the Detroit area which has a rich Yiddish history and I speak and understand what is called "Amerikanisher Yiddish". I am teaching myself to read and write the "Mameloshn" and have a fierce interest in biblical history. I am a pharmacist (own my own pharmacy) ,work 3-5 days a week (a total waste of time) and my wife is a social worker in private practice. Am looking forward to contributing "vos ikh ken" and taking "vos ikh darf". "Ich bin fir und zekhtsik". Jerry Gerger 90)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 15:45 PDT From: EGERTEL@FULLERTON.EDU Subject: Onteylnemen in der "Mendele" elektronisher post program Sholem-aleykhem Mendele! Kh'veys nisht vi genoy ir zent un oykh nisht vu ir zent nor bakumen hob ikh ayer adres fun mayns a khaver rafuel. Iz zayt azoy gut un loz visn vi azoy me ken nemen a vort un oykh zikh "tsuhern" in der elektronisher post program ayerer. Ikh bin a biblioteker bay der kalifornier shatisher universitet, fuler-ton (CSU, Fullerton). Yidish ken ikh fun kindvayz on vayl tate-mame redn mame- loshn in der heym. Het shpeter (tsum ershten mol in a formalen oyfn) in 1984 bediek bin ikh geven a talmed bay der yivo-kolumbia zumer program. In 1985 bin ikh geven a doktorant in yidishe lemudim bay der oksforder universitet. Tsum badoyrn hob ikh (nokh nisht!?) derendikt dem doktorat. Avek in 88stn yor fun dortn mit an "em. fil." (M.Phil.). Dernokh gezukht un gezukht a shtele vu es zol nisht zayn. A loy-yutslekh bi ikh geven. A bisl tsayt geforsht farn yivo. Nokh a diplom bakumen far a yorn in bibliotekeray in leksington, kentoki. S'hotnokh a yor genumen biz kh'hob sof-kol-sof in a mazldiker sho gekrigen ot di shtele. In dorem-kalifornie bin ikh nor fun zint september. In leksington hob ikh gelernt yidish in farshidene erter, af an ofenem kurs bay der universitet fun kentoki arayngerekhent. Kh'hob oykh dortn gefirt a yidish shmuez-grupe velkhe, im yirtse hashem, iz mamshekh a dank rafueln. Efsher kent ir mir a bisl dertsteyln vegn aykh un vegn Mendelen oyb ir'tazoy gut zayn. Efsher ken ikh aykh? Zayt moykhl. Kh'hob shier nisht in gantsnfargesn aykh tsu zogn vi azoy ikh heys! Af english: Elliot Hersch Gertel. In mame-loshn heys ikh Elyet oder Elye. Ikh kuk aroys af der tshuve ayerer. Kol tuv dervayle un bin ikh ayer Elye(t) Hersh Gertl (Elliot Hersch Gertel EGERTEL@FULLERTON.EDU) 91)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 22 14:33:47 1994 From: Subject: Introduction I come from a Hanseatic Protestant family that established themselves about 150 years ago in Chile and Peru. My family was very involved in the Peruvian foreign service, and my grandfather represented the Peruvian government in Berlin up to World War II; it was there that my father was exposed to Yiddish. When I was 14, I discovered Yiddish and have been fascinated with the language ever since. People tell me I talk like a Litvak, probably because I learned the pronunciation of the literary standard. I also speak the stage standard and code-switch a lot back and forth, lemoshl: I always say "shteytl" instead of shtetl, but I always say "nokh" not nukh. Anyway, my father would give me samples of words he heard in Berlin. I pooh poohed his knowledge for the longest time, until I got interested in Mayrev Yiddish. It turns out that my father was right after all. For example, in Eastern (standard) Yiddish one says "revekh", and further South the pronunciation "reyvekh" was common. What my father learned was "rebakh" (note the b), which I found listed in a Juedisch-Deutsch text. Mayrev Yiddish is my current passion. Also, we talk a lot about Daytsh- merizmen; it worked both ways. Mayrev Yiddish crept into Dutch (sjofel = schoufel, meaning shabby) and into German (akhlen, to eat) and "Juss" meaning "ten"; the latter must be very old, old enough to have predated the Highland shift of final t to s. One final anecdote; my father had an uncle in Germany who spoke fluent Yiddish. He made up pet names for everyone. My father, now Enrique (we Hispanicized our names in solidarity with the Allies) was called Heinrich then, and his uncle called him Henekh; so if I have a Yiddish name, that's it (though we followed the German Christian minhag lehavdl of naming kids after their fathers). I look forward to being a member of Mendele. Rick Gildemeister 92)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Aug 13 08:07:49 1993 From: slg3@cornell.edu (sander l. gilman) Subject: Introduction My name is Sander Gilman. I'm the Goldwin Smith Professor of Humane Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. I'm former director of the Jewish Studies Program here and have taught Yiddish literature and culture here in the past. I'm the author or editor of over thirty books, many of them dealing with topics of interest to students of Jewish and Yiddish subjects. I'm available via e-mail as slg3@cornell.edu. sander l. gilman 93)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Sep 10 16:02:16 1993 From: slg3@cornell.edu (sander l. gilman) Subject: Introduction I teach (among other things) Jewish Studies at Cornell. I have taught Yiddish and Yiddish culture here and have had as my focus 19th and early 20th century Jewish cultural studies. Sander Gilman 94)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995 13:16:04 From: paul@pg.win.net Subject: Introduction Allow me to introduce myself. I am a retired professor of Information Systems and Statistics, residing in California. I was born in France and spoke Yiddish at home until the age of six. When I moved to Israel after the war, I learned Hebrew and a modicum of Arabic as well. (In those days, for obvious reasons, the use of Yiddish was discouraged. Questions asked in that language were usually answered in Hebrew.) After so many years of neglect, my Yiddish is fragmentary at best. As a result, my participation in Mendele will clearly be by way of questions. Paul Gilon Joshua Tree CA 95)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 Jun 91 16:24:50 EST From: Bens Subject: Introduction Mein nomen iz Ben Tsion Ginsburg. Meine freint rufen mir "Bentz" Offiziel, auf English, heis ich "Benson". Azoi vi ich bin nisht kein mayven oif shprachen, shreib ich prost fonetisch. Ich bin a professor velcher shtudiert die genetike fun marck un "behavior" (vie azoi zogt men "behavior" oif yiddish?). Mein institutzie iz The University of Connecticut. Ich hob oich a proyect in Yisroel un vel dort zein noch Simchas Toire, beim Hebreishen Universitat in Yerushelayim. Mein ershte sprach iz geven Yiddish. Azoi vi mir hobn nisht gevoint in kein Yiddishn gegnt, hob ich gehat a lerer vos iz gekumen tzu unz in hoiz. Shpeter hob ich zich gelernt in die fareynigte mittel shule in Detroit. Dos iz geven a fareinigung tsvishen Arbeiter Ring, Farband, un Sholem Aleichem shule. Hebrayish hobn mir nisht gelernt, un dos vos men hot unz vorgeleigt in Yiddish hob ich shoin gevust. Vi azoi kum ich tzu MENDELE? Ich hob gehat dem fargenigen zich tsu bakenen mit Noyekh ven mir hobn beyde farbrangt a voch in Amherst, in a "workshop" vun Yiddishen Buch Zenter.Ich hob shoin gezamelt a gantzen band fun MENDELE shriften. Ihr vet fun mir heren shpeter veil durch dem zumer bin ich nor tsufalig beim "computer". 96)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 2 Mar 92 11:15:54 est From: mg@xp.psych.nyu.edu (Murray Glanzer) Subject: Introduction Murray Glanzer Professor of psychology, New York University. Family from Lemberg (Lwow). 97)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 23:16:05 -0400 (EDT) From: mgodfrey@runt.dawsoncollege.qc.ca Subject: Introduction Ich derman zich oyf di kinderyorn in Montreal. Vi pasirt zich a mol, mein eltern flegn Yiddish gereden azoy az ich zoll nit fershtayen. Ayn mol, mole-kass, hob ich di holtz gerisn shreyendik: "Stop speaking French!" Shpayter fiftzig yor dreyen zich di reder un ich oych bin du in shatn lokeren. Ich heys Melech-Yidl (Michael) Godfrey un siz gantz zeit (noch leynen etleche monaten in mendele) mich tzu farshteln vi a bar mitzvah bocher. I teach English at Dawson College in Montreal, including a course in Jewish Literature. My class list includes three Jewish students, three Muslims, one Greek, one wasp, one Quebecoise (my A plus student) and four Chinese (one of whom aggressively wants to know why I don't accept his saviour -- I don't suppose he means the Buddha) and all of whom are convinced Jews have a strong sense of family, are devoted to their ancestors and are, to a man, fabulously wealthy, oyf mir gezugt gevorn. Michael Godfrey 98)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Mar 17 10:50:13 1994 From: egold@epas.utoronto.ca Subject: Introduction I've been lurking for some time and I figure it is time to introduce myself. My name is Elaine Gold and I am a PhD student in Linguistics at the University of Toronto. I have been doing some work on Yiddish syntax and history. I am not a native Yiddish speaker, but learned Yiddish at kheder and at university. I've been enjoying the wide-ranging discussions on Mendele, but of course I'm most interested in linguistic topics. Elaine (Khave Menukhe) 99)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jul 91 18:13:27 PDT From: xidak!poseidon!bob@uunet.UU.NET Subject: My biography Robert (Bob) Goldberg = nissen refoeyl ben yitskhak leyb. Born in Long Branch, NJ in 1953. Grew up in Silver Spring, MD. Ph.D. from Rutgers, 1982 (Computer Science). Work at XIDAK, Inc. Have lived on the San Franscisco peninsula for the past 9 years. Wife: Char- lotte. 4 month-old son, Max. My parents were born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. My grandparents emigrated from Austria-Hungary and South- ern Russia prior to WW I. I'm self-taught in Yiddish. I sing in a Yiddish chorus at the Albert Schultz JCC in Palo Alto. I enjoy word- origins and meanings. Not very knowledgeable in Yiddish lit., but have an interest in it. ... Bob 100)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jul 91 09:37:58 -0700 From: Jack Goldberg Subject: Introduction Dear Noyekh, here is the brief biography you requested. Thanks for your contributions. Yakov Jack (Jacob, Yakov, Yankl, etc.) Goldberg : born San Francisco CA 1926. Father from Staczow Poland via Linz Austria, Mother from Trab, Vilna guberniu, met in SF. Married to Shula(mith); 4 children. Attended talmud torah and joined zionist youth movement in SF. Member Beth Jacob, conservative congregation, Redwood City CA. UC Berkeley EE `50, Stanford MSEE `54. Computer Scien- tist; employed in Computer Science Lab, SRI Interna- tional since 1951. Weizmann Institute fellowship 1957-9, many trips to Israel since; wife's brother in Hadera. Working knowledge of Hebrew; fair reading and understanding but poor speaking ability in Yiddish. 101)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Feb 93 14:00:17 EST >From JG13922@SWTEXAS.BITNET Fri Feb 19 13:29:30 1993 Subject: Introduction Ich bin a Yid fun a yor funfzig un hob mameloshen studiert bei Univ. Txas bei Itzik Gottesman. Fun zeyt zu zeyt schikt men mir briefe zu uberzetzen. Jetzt hob ich a spiel auf yiddish geschriben in 1910 fun a Galitziener. S'iz gefullt mit yiddishms. Ich hob bei mir ib hoyz a computer mit einem modemun oft bin ich da arbeiten. Ich geh in die Schle hier s'heyst southwest texas state univ. A kleyne aber a sheyne. A g'riss zu c'lal fun mendele. Joel Goldman Was a simcha a bissl yiddish zu reden bei dem computer. 102)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 14 Nov 1994 16:38:00 -0500 (EST) From: lgoldberg@worldbank.org Subject: Introduction Leybl (Lee) Goldberg is a 37-year old Yiddish kultur-tuer and educator in the Washington, D.C. area. Learned Yiddish from his Ukrainian-born grandmother and studied in Weinreich program in Columbia Univ. in 1976. Active in D.C. Yiddish activities for past four years (Leyenkrayz, Yiddish of Greater Washington, Arbeter Ring Branch 1100); teaches Yiddish language and Yiddish film at area JCC's; presently Board member of Yiddish of Greater Washington; organizer of two Yiddish conversation groups, including the AR-sponsored "Shmues-Krayz" which meets Tuesdays at lunchtime in downtown Washington (visitors, new participants welcome!). Current interests are improving his command of Ukrainian Yiddish dialect and expanding availability of Yiddish radio and TV. Lives with his wife, Baibai, in Bowie Maryland; works as economist in Washington. Leybl Goldberg 103)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 19:06:22 -0700 From: goldfein@ix.netcom.com Subject: Introduction Ikh "lurkeve" shoyn finf khadoshim (un hob groyss fargenign!): s'iz tseit zikh tsu forshteln. Born and raised in Toronto, 1948. Since they spent most of the war years as "guests" of Stalin's resorts in Siberia, my parents did not consider themselves to be survivors. Most of the family was murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka, the fields of Poland and the Ukraine, etc. First raised in Yiddish and Hebrew, acquired English in school ("the Associated") and on the streets. Community Hebrew Academy, Camp Revivim (HeHalutz HaTza'ir/DROR), Camp Ramah in Canada, University of Toronto, Tufts, Hebrew U.; M.Ed. (Instructional Media), Ph.D. (History Education); until '82 was principal of Jewish schools in Toronto, Brooklyn, and Rochester, NY., Hebrew instructor at U. of Rochester, etc. Since '82 have been running my own business as a producer of informational/educational film and video, and living with my wonderful wife (a psychotherapist) and three terrific teenage children (a gezunt oyf alle zeyere keppelekh), in Southfield, Michigan (meshuge darf men zayn..) During the last couple of years have moved into software development and multimedia projects, and have a new company called Media Judaica, Inc. Currently one of three partners in a new Israeli venture which has acquired the rights to produce the cd-rom version of the _Encyclopaedia Judaica_, and deeply involved in so doing. Tsu alle Mendelyaner, a freilekhn Yom Ha'Atzma'ut! Irving D. Goldfein 104)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Feb 95 16:54:49 EST From: 73051.2257@compuserve.com Subject: Introduction and a Cheer I grew up in a secular Jewish home. My father was in the labor movement and also wrote short stories and articles for the "Forverts". As a child (9 or 10) I went to Arbeter Ring Shule 3 in the Bronx. Although I only attended for a few years a lot of the mameloshn stayed with me. When I was 13 I went away for the summer to "kemp ganeden" (Camp Eden), in Cold Spring NY. I am a mostly retired CPA and despite my Yiddish shortcomings, I enjoy lurking in Mendele. My children went to Camp Boiberik for many years and I cherish the relationships that my wife and I made there. I remember a camp cheer which we used in Camp Eden (Yiddish naturally): Akachika boom boom risha risha Ekhla pekhla shmunya Di rebbe un rebitzen hobn gatantzd Un hobn forloyrn alles in gantz Ain tzvai ut azay Forvets tageblat hooray Alakazoo gezoo gezam We don't give a damn Alamem alemem Alemem etasha ishkeda boom boom Rah rah rah rah Team team team What memories! Dorian Goldstein (Dovid Moishe) 105)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Oct 18 18:14:58 1993 From: CXAG000 Subject: Introduction Hi, my name is Ben Gonshor from Montreal and I am currently a student at Marionopolis College. I was interested in this list for various reasons. I suppose the most the most significant one is that I come from a family of Yiddish speaking immigrants from Poland. a gutten tog ben. 106)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 05:41:40 -0700 From: greenjz@ix.netcom.com Subject: Introduction I am a newcomer to Yiddish, stricken with all the symptoms of new romance. I am likewise new to Mendele, and hope to understand more in the coming months. What is the possiblility of a Yiddish Ulpan, like the Hebrew ones, or the Middlebury summer language school, total immersion, with grammar and readings available at several levels as students wish? I believe there would be much interest for a summer four or six week session, as well as one week or ten day sessions in fall and spring. Perhaps the NYBC in Amherst could be tempted to start one. Joann Zazofsky Green 107)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri May 20 17:01:44 1994 From: bsg@world.std.com Subject: Introduction My name is Bernard S. Greenberg, you can call me Bernie. I'm 44,n a free-lance software consultant in the Boston area. I grew up in an unknowledgeable but ethnically paradaisical vanished-land called 50's Brooklyn, and was raised as a Jew, and strongly exposed to a certain brand of Ashkenazic Jewish culture. Today I am an ardent atheist, a secularist, and =deeply= involved in "non-Jewish" art forms (read, "Bach sacred music"). Nonetheless, I retain an avid interest Jewish issues, although often by way of comparison to "non-Jewish" ones. Language being a particular area of my intrigue, -vor-allem- German, Yiddish holds a particular charm for me (I can squeeze out the meaning of a Yiddish newspaper with a bit of sweat). I read the history of Jewry out of the multilingual tapestry of the Yiddish lexicon and grammar. I am deeply affected and moved by the tragedy of the Holocaust and the murder of a civilization; no historical event has more formed my outlook or affected my thinking, although the secularist message I read from it disturbs many. I am awed by the Vanished World, its imagery, its ways, its modalities -- even if they are not the ones I would choose for myself today (and its music -- I collect and cherish classic Cantorial recordings.) So I'll see what we have here....thank you for your welcome. Bernie 108)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 11:13:57 CDT From: "Marc L. Greenberg" Subject: A few lines of introduction My name is Marc L. Greenberg and I'm an Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Kansas. My specialization is Slavic linguistics,at the moment particularly pertaining to Slovene and Croatian/Serbian. I'm sorry to say that I do not know Yiddish (my great-grandparents were the last speakers in our family) though I can figure out much of it from my reading knowledge of German. Yiddish is one of the languages on my wish list, and I hope to set aside some time in the near future to learn it properly.(Kelberne hispayles.) So, I hope no one will mind if I just "audit," unless I can be of some help with Slavic languages. Marc Greenberg Internet: greenber@ukanvm.cc.ukans.edu/Bitnet: greenber@ukanvm Slavic Dept., 2134 Wescoe Hall U. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045-2174 (913) 864-3313; fax: (913) 864-4555 109)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Sep 10 16:29:24 1993 From: FGREENB@ocvaxa.cc.oberlin.edu Subject: Introduction My interest in Yiddish is real but uninstructed. Please allow me to be a "lurker" - a passive kibitzer. I teach Latin and Greek. I have some German and Hebrew. I remember going to the store and buying "Der Tog" for my father. He claimed it was superior to the other Yiddish newspapers. Was it? Nathan Greenberg Department of Classics Oberlin College 110)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Apr 12 19:42:38 1994 From: gutman@nosc.mil Subject: Introduction My name is Lewis (Leib) Gutman. I have been trying to teach myself Yiddish for the last year or so, and have slogged my way through Weinreich's "College Yiddish". I can read (very slowly) di Forverts, with a lot of help from my dictionary, and have picked up four or five miscellaneous books from the Nat'l Yiddish Book Center. A problem I have here in San Diego is that, though there are Yiddish discussion groups here, they all seem to meet in the middle of a working day. Because of that, I can't practice with anyone (until now :-). Ich ken layenen besser vi redn oder shraybn. Please excuse my spelling and grammar. I just ordered Schaechter's intermediate textbook, and that's my next assignment. Anyway, I've read a lot of the Mendele archives with gopher over the last couple of days and enjoyed them a lot. I grew up on Long Island, and neither of parents spoke very much Yiddish, just a phrase here and there. My contact with Yiddish was limited to a neighbor's father who retired from his profession of kosher butcher. He spoke mainly English with my family. Does anyone have a suggestion for a lexicon of Yiddish slang and colloquialisms? Also, does anyone know where I can get (facsimile) copies of back issues of di Forverts and other Yiddish newspapers? I'd like to read issues from before World War I. Looking forward to reading the next issue of mendele, Zei gezunt, Lew Gutman 111)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 02 Jul 92 17:50:20 MEZ From: Martin Haase Subject: introduction Zint nokh-Pejsah hob ikh arejngekukt in Mendele, dokh hob ikh nisht gekunt kejn jidish far zelber cu tun a zog. Un an onfanger bin ikh nokh imer. Ikh bin a "visnshaftlikher asistent" (vos in Amerike iz an "assistent professor") in lingvistik in der universitet fun Osnabrik. Hi hobn mir a jidish-kurs a klejnem, fun vem der melamed iz Utz Maas (a profesor azojner hot nokh nisht kejn "email" in Ejrope). Mit a halbn jor cirik bin ikh gekumen aher nokh Osnabrik. Afrier hob ikh gemakht a Ph.D. iber der baskisher shprokh, vos iz ict gevorn a bukh mit titel "Sprachkontakt und Sprachwandel im Baskenland" (Hamburg: Buske 1992). (Ikh hof, ir vilt mir fargebn di reklame.) Mer vel ikh zogn shpeter. Zejt gezunt! Martin Haase (mhaase@dosuni1@bitnet, ...@dosuni1.rz.Uni-Osnabrueck.de) 112)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Jan 95 17:50 PST From: ibenbfx@mvs.oac.ucla.edu Subject: Introduction/Glatshteyn My name is Janet Hadda and I already know many of you. I am a professor of Yiddish at UCLA, a practicing psychoanalyst--and, I confess, a Mendele lurker. But I am encouraged to write now because of Dan Leeson's request to know more about Yankev Glatshteyn, one of my great loves. Glatshteyn (1896- 1971) was a founding member and theorist of the literary group In Zikh, which flourished in New York during the 1920's and 1930's. A native of Lublin, Poland, Glatshteyn immigrated to New York in 1914 and spent the rest of his life there. In addition to his poetry, Glatshteyn wrote novels and was a prolific literary journalist. He is often remembered for his riveting Holocaust poetry, but he deserves recognition as well for his vibrant exper- imentation with the Yiddish language, which started in his days with the In Zikhistn (or Introspec- tive Poets) but went far beyond those tenets. I've written a book about him (Yankev Glatshteyn, G.K. Hall, 1980) which details his poetic development. My current work is a biography of Isaac Bashevis Singer and I would welcome any first-hand anecdotes about meetings with him, etc. Janet Hadda 113)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 18:57:37 +0300 (EET-DST) From: MHALKIN@LIB.HAIFA.AC.IL Subject: Introduction I feel like an imposter introducing myself on Mendele, as I really know no Yiddish beyond a few common words and phrases. I'm here at the request of my brother, Hillel Halkin; he does know Yiddish, but hasn't an INTERNET connection, so I'm serving as an intermediary. We both live in Israel, Hillel in Zichron Ya'akov, and I in Haifa. He translates (Hebrew, mostly, but you may know his Sholem Aleichem translation) and writes. I'm a reference librarian at the Haifa University, subject specialist in psychology and education. The Mendele connection may motivate me to try to learn a little Yiddish. I went looking in our library to see what Yiddish textbooks we have, and came up with Uriel Weinreich, which looks reasonable, although not really set up for do-it-yourself. Is there anything better? Is there anything on cassettes that's available either here or in the U.S.? I'll probably be in NY over the Yamim Nora'im, so if anyone knows of any good teach-yourself-Yiddish stuff, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Miriam Halkin 114)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 1 Aug 94 08:04:00 EST From: HARLAP@biosta.mskcc.org Subject: Introduction Susan Harlap (Kharlap - rashei teyvs of course). I'm a scientist and educator in NY; formerly Prof of Epidemiology and Public Health at Hebrew University - Hadassah Medical School. A dilettante student of Yiddish. Susan Harlap 115)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Feb 11 13:27:02 1994 From: Daniella.HarPaz@um.cc.umich.edu Subject: Introduction sholem aleikhem! I am excited to have joined you all on "mendele" I am a lecturer in Yiddish at the University of Michigan. I have my MA from here in Near Eastern Studies, specializing in modern Hebrew (having focused on literature and comp. lit. more than language). I am currently browsing through PhD options for myself, not yet totally decided on the specific field...my interests being both in literature and language education. I'm not quite sure what else to tell you about myself in this e-mail intro. format...so if anyone would like to know more, please ask! zayt ir ale gezunt, Daniella HarPaz 116)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 13:15:24 -0400 From: hershl@aol.com Subject: Introduction Since I've posted a few times and have had many responses--a sheynem dank alemen--I do suppose it's time to make it official. I am Hershl Hartman, now of Los Angeles, once of New York. I am the Educational Director of the Sholem Community Organization, affiliated with the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations, and a member of the faculty of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism. I am a graduate of the kursn far lerer un hekherer yidisher bildung, School for Teachers and Higher Jewish Education, an alumnus of Camp Kinderland, and was, in my youth, a reporter for the Yiddish daily newspaper, "morgn frayhayt." (After my first Mendele posting, I was reminded by someone I hadn't seen or heard from in almost 50 years that we had both been members of the Yiddish Theatre Ensemble, the successor to the fabled Artef, directed by Benyomin Zemach.) I have also translated many Yiddish works into English, including the first book-length g'vee'es eydes (eyewitness account) of the Holocaust, published in Munich in 1948, and Itzik Manger's "megile leeder." Enough already. Hershl Hartman 117)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 13:22:59 +1200 From: rhj@waikato.ac.nz Subject: Introduction I live in New Zealand where there are about 5,000 Jews. Not many are in Hamilton, where I live, but there are a few here at the University of Waikato. Two are north Americans who speak Yiddish. I was born in England and learned a lot of Yiddish words and phrases from my Lithuanian grandparents. Sadly I can't speak it fluently, and can understand transliterations up to a point and Yiddish in Hebrew characters with extreme difficulty. I would really like to be able to speak and read fluently. I belong to the National Yiddish Book Centre and enjoy der Pakntreger. Rivkah Hasman-Judd 118)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 14 Jul 1994 14:40:53 -0400 From: Susan_Hauser@QuickMail.Yale.edu Subject: Introduction A guten tog, choshiver tzuhehrer. Sholem aleichem. Ich bin a neie mitglied tzu diesem listserve un tzu alle listserves. Ich arbit af Yale Universitat. Ich bin do a sach yoren. Ich interesiere mich far jiddish sprach un kultur. I hob keinmal nisht gehot a gelegenheit reden yiddish un yitst lern ich leynen. Es iz sehr langsam. Ich well mich sehr freuen fun eich allemen zu heren. Susan Hauser 119)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Jan 21 14:07:53 1994 From: khellers@sas.upenn.edu (Kathryn Hellerstein) Subject: Introduction Sholem aleykhem, khaveyrim! I've just gotten on e-mail and subscribed to Mendele. My name is Kathryn Hellerstein. I teach Yiddish language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and I translate and write about the works of Yiddish poets, most recently, women poets. My mailing address is: Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures/ 745 Williams Hall / University of Pennsylvania / Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305. Someone at Princeton recently inquired on Mendele about Yiddish programs at universities -- I hope that person will add Penn to his list. Greetings to friends and colleagues, especially Dorothy Bilik, whose letter about Grade and Singer was fun to read. Zayt gezunt! Kathryn Hellerstein 120)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 Jun 1995 15:09:06 -0400 (EDT) From: sherschorn@dawsoncollege.qc.ca Subject: Introduction I teach psychology at Dawson College, a CEGEP, CEGEP which is unique to Quebec. I have spent a year learning to speak Yiddish. I am not quite flisig as yet, but am very hopeful. By the bye, if anyone has a copy of any of Doyle's sherlock Holmes stories translated into Yiddish, I would greatly appreciate hearing about it. Susan Herschorn 121)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1995 01:12:15 -0500 (EST) From: ahershko@aecom.yu.edu Subject: A question about a frage, a shayle, and a kashe First, a belated introduction. I have been listening with wonderment and enjoyment to the discussions of the Mendele khvere. I did send a message but I did not identify myself. A am a retired professor. I have always been interested in Yiddish affairs -- but sadly not very active. I was born on the lower East Side in NY to A Russian-Polish family. My primary language as a child was Yiddish. I speak and understand it passably well. Some Yiddishist would probably term it "proste yiddish". As for reading and writing the language, I find what was easy at one time extremely difficult. No doubt, that is because it has always been an oral language for me. Mendele has rekindled a desire to read and write the language that I hold very dear. Second, to the specific question I would like to pose. Many of the Mendele subscribers ask questions. Some ask a _frage_; some ask a _shayle_; some ask a _kashe_. I note that these terms are used interchangeably. This is as it should be. I'm certain there can be no misunderstanding in this. But, it does arouse my curiosity. I don't mean to quibble or to be pedantic about it, but it does seem that these terms have different origins and derivations. It would be enlightening to determine how they merged. I'm sure this was not always the case. Herewith, I submit my simplistic notion of the differences or nuances of these terms. I stand ready to be corrected and educated. A frage is a question about a matter of fact; of seeking information. A shayle is an inquiry regarding the interpretation of facts. A kashe is a query about how different fact a/o intepretations can be reconciled. In short: A frage demands a direct answer, a shayle requires a decison or interpretation, a kashe (I know you can't eat it) calls for a discussion. And, while we're at it, let me burden you who are interested with some other questions about questions. Is there a Yiddish term for a rhetorical question? How about a nonsense question? I would like to hear what others have to say. Or, do we have to wait, as the Talmud says, for the coming of the Messiah. Aaron Hershkowitz Bronx, NY 122)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 02 Jan 92 20:52 PST From: "David Hirsch, Bibliographers Group" Subject: Introduction Ikh heys Dovid Hirsch un ikh bin a bibliotekar inem bibliotek fun UCLA. Ikh hob zikh gelernt Yiddish fun di bobe un in University of Pennsylvania ober yetst ikh hob alts fargesen. Ikh hob gevoynt 3 yor in Mitsrayim vo ikh hob geredt a sakh yidish mit a gevezene aktrize fun der Keniglikhe Yidishe Teater in Kairo. Oyb ir vilt, ikh ken epes shraybn vegn di Yidishe khile in Mitsraim. dovid 123)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 18 Dec 1994 10:40:21 -0500 From: shirshan@aol.com Subject: Introduction Brooklyn born and bred, I am a graduate of Brooklyn College (M.A. in Education, circa 1950) and of the vastly enriching Workmen's Circle educational program (through two years in the seminary). Currently a Florida resident, I have organized, and lead, a community Yiddish Club of almost 200 members where every meeting is a simkhe. Winters, I teach Brandeis University Women Study Groups (Women in the Bible; Jewish Women's Issues). My husband, Stanley (Bob) Hirshan, a retired New York Board of Education principal, now studying for a law degree, is a computer mavn and advocate. His Yiddish was learned at his wife's knee and he is conversant and interested in its perpetuation. I have been published in MOMENT, LILITH, JEWISH FOLKLORE AND ETHNOLOGY REVIEW, THE FORWARD, to name a few. Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan 124)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Jun 1995 23:36:04 -0400 From: avih@inch.com Subject: Introduction Mayn mameloshn iz Yiddish, ikh bin 37 yor alt un ikh bin gaboyrn in di Bronx. Ikh arbet shoyn yorn lang in Yiddishn teater, un ikh hob afile gearbet mit Don Byron un zayn klezmerishe layt. Ikh ken aykh dertseyln a sakh mayses, ober nisht haynt. Ir kent mikh gefinin do, lozt mikh visn oyb alts iz in ordining. Avrum Ber (Avi) Hoffman 125)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Oct 25 09:56:56 1993 To: "Mendele: Yiddish Literature and Language" Subject: Introduction I am a recent joiner of Mendele... siz a heartfelt nachas for me to find such an Email group. I have been a Yiddish folksinger for decades and also sing Ladino and Hebrew and Russian songs..particulaly those that tsemish Yiddish words and Russian words. My Yiddish is a tsebrochene...I mix in a lot of English when I cannot find the Yiddish word. However, I particularly need Yiddish words for parts of the body now, as I have begun to sing the song: Shlof, shlof shlof, der tate fet foren in dorf Vet er koifen an eppele 'svet zayn a gezunt oifn keppele to my grandchildren. SO far, I have made up rymes for other parts of the body that I know in Yiddish...but do not know how to say words like elbow or cheek or eyebrow or knees etc. The rhymes I have sung them already are for hezele and nezele nisele and fisele yaichele and baichele faygele and eygele perele and herele If you can suggest other rhytming gifts and parts of the body in Yiddish, I should be most appreciative. Incidentally, I am a professor of Child Develoment at Syracuse University, and when I teach Language develoment in the Spring semester, sometimes I sing a bit of this lullabye....and last spring One young man lit up and said that he remembered his bubba singing that to him! Thanks for the words and rhymes in advance! Alice S. Honig. 126)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 1 22:44:27 1994 From: PQH5922@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU Subject: Introduction I have been lurking on this list for months and want to take advantage of our shames' suggestion to share information of a Jewish cultural nature. My name is Paula Horwitz; I was born of Jewish parents and raised in a secular home. The only Yiddish spoken in my midst was when my parents conversed and it wasn't meant for my ears. However, being a native New Yorker I have a limited vocabulary of Yinglish. I also have a strong sense of Jewish identity and therefore have been enjoying the numerous informative discussions by the many learned people who so avidly contribute their knowledge to this list. In fact I have shared several of those messages with my friends and family. Paula Horwitz 127)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Aug 1994 20:24:31 -0700 From: ghudis@ix.netcom.com Subject: Introduction I am a Data Processing professional that works in NYC, lines in NJ where I attend a monthly Yiddish Club. Interest in Yiddish language, modern Yiddish poetry, Jewish History, Klezmer music. I am beginning to translate sections from 2 Yizkor books dealing with SW Ukraine, willing to forward if anyone interested. Gregg Hudis 128)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Apr 11 12:32:03 1993 From: Regina_IGEL@umail.umd.edu (ri1) Subject: Introduction I was born in Brazil. My parents are of Polish origin, went to Brazil at different times and ages. My mother was 14 when she arrived in Sao Paulo. In her home, in Kolomeia, they spoke very little yiddish, mostly Polish or other languages. In Brazil she developed further her yiddish... My Dad speaks yiddish since he learned to speak. I understand everything (or almost everything) mainly on a colloquial level. Lack exposition to classical yiddish. I do speak it when needed, but hesitantly. --- I attend several musical/literary functions available in the Washington DC area when yiddish is spoken/sung/recited. --- My other languages are Portuguese, Spanish and French. I am an Associate Professor at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Maryland, COllege Park Campus. Rifka Igel 129)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Nov 3 16:43:42 1993 From: Jack Jacobs Subject: Introduction A few words by way of intro: I am an associate prof. of political science in CUNY with a long-term interest in Yiddish culture. My own writing has dealt primarily with the interaction between socialists and Jews, and has included work on the reception of socialist ideas by Yiddish-spe aking writers and activists. I am presently working on critical theory and the image of the Jew. Jack Jacobs 130)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 19 Jan 93 18:16:32 EST From: Neil G Jacobs Subject: New subsriber to Mendele Sholem-aleykhem. I am a new subscriber to Mendele. I'm a Yiddish linguist at The Ohio State University. My work is primarily in Yiddish phonology and Yiddish historical linguistics. I have been a subscriber for approximately 3 weeks now, and have enjoyed the interaction. This is my first message to Mendele, and I have a question and/or suggestion: Question: Is there already a Yiddish term for 'e-mail'? I have tried out the term "elpost" < elektronishe post on a few Mendelnikes, and they understood/liked the term. Has this term already been used? Is there another term in use? Thanks. Neil Jacobs 131)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Oct 7 13:51:21 1993 From: STEVEN A JACOBSON Subject: Introduction I'm Steve Jacobson, by trade I teach and research the Yupik Eskimo language at the Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks. I've been interested in Yiddish for several years now and have learned to read the language fairly well. My speaking skills are somewhat behind the reading. Last summer I attended the Oxford program. in Yiddish. Steve Jacobson 132)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri May 21 11:46:40 1993 From: Subject: introductions all around Hello to the Mendele community, My name is Lisa (Leah) Jenschke, and I'm a graduate student in Yiddish and German at Ohio State University. I only recently fell in love with Yiddish and I have to heartily thank Neil Jacobs here for his (unpaid) tutorials and both him and David Miller for taking me on as a graduate student. I grew up in the flat, hot city of Dallas, did my undergraduate work at UPenn in Philly and now I'm here in central Ohio, wondering when I will ever get all my reading done. I wanted to respond to the non-literature types who feel they have nothing to add to a discussion of Yiddish literature. I think many an author would be dismayed to think that only literature types could respond to and discuss his/her work. As an author, I would feel that I had failed to connect with the reader, to suspend his or her disbelief, to strike a responsive chord. I guess I believe that most people read because they are looking for part of themselves in the text. They want to find out more about themselves. So, unless all linguists are inhuman, they are probably looking too. I'll get off of my soapbox now. Hopefully, this struck a chord somewhere. Please feel free to send me e-mail at ljenschk@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Hope to hear from you, Leah 133)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 26 Nov 1994 18:51:35 -0500 (EST) From: jochnowe@is.nyu.edu Subject: Introduction Raboisai, My name is Eve Jochnowitz. I am doing graduate work in Jewish Food History at New York University's department of Performance Studies. I am delighted finally to be getting Mendele. Eve Jochnowitz 134)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Sep 1994 20:33:26 +1000 (EST) From: celiaj@melbourne.DIALix.oz.au Subject: Introduction It took about five tries to join this list as I'm fairly new to internet and get confused with all the different addresses and commands. I'm a 47 year old teacher librarian who has been living in Australia for the past 22 years. Originally, I was born in Brooklyn, NY and lived in California before I immigrated to Australia. I am married to a wonderful man of Welsh descent and have a 20 year old daughter Erica, two grown stepchildren and two step grandsons. You can't tell by my Anglo-Saxon surname, but I am Jewish, though I am not a practicing Jew. My parents spoke Yiddush at home, and I can understand spoken Yiddush even though I can't really speak it myself. I have read all of Isaac B. Singer's books, stories by Sholom Alechem and enjoyed other books by Yiddush writers, and I joined this group because I want to get in touch again with my Yiddushkeit. Hope to get to know some of you soon. Celia Jones 135)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 4 00:55:29 1994 From: JONES@WIDENER1.mhs.harvard.edu Subject: Introduction I'm a librarian and have always had a keen interest in languages. So far, reading the Forverts every week and rereading Weinreich and Dovid Katz take up all the time I have to devote to Yiddish. I'm delighted to have discovered Mendele for two reasons. First, because I find that Yiddish is such an eclectic language that the standard reference works, excellent though they are, never answer all my questions. Second, because connecting with people who know and use the language is what makes it come alive. Charles W. Jones 136)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Sep 2 16:35:55 1993 From: sbjones@MIT.EDU (Susan B. Jones) Subject: Introduction Dan Kirschner told me about this list and sent me a summer's worth of back issues to get my feet wet. I would like to join the list as a "lurker" :-) My Yiddish is practically zilch, but a background in Hebrew, a smattering of German and Russian, and of course a long major in English help me decode bits and pieces. Anyway the topics are interesting and I promise I'll be quiet. I have a Master's in Near Eastern Languages and Literature (major Hebrew, minor Arabic). But that was then ... now I write about computers and the Internet. Susan B. Jones Sr. Technical Writer MIT Information Systems 137)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 01:41:49 -0500 (EST) From: ao107@freenet.carleton.ca Subject: Introduction/ The Yiddish of Hasidim I'm new to Mendele--I've only been around for a week or so--but I'm about to throw my tsvei groshn's worth into the arena, so I figure I should introduce myself first. I'm a 21-year-old Orthodox student, taking Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Toronto. I'm not really fluent in Yiddish, but I'm close enough to understand most everyday spoken Yiddish, and I can force my way (slowly) through a newspaper with some help. The Yiddish that I do know I picked up mostly from a whole bunch of family members (including my parents and grandparents) who are native speakers, and with whom I've spent a lot of time speaking Yiddish over the last 5 years or so. I've also spent a considerable amount of time in (litvishe) yeshives and in chassidishe shtiblach and hoyfn where Yiddish is spoken often or always. Which brings me to the topic upon which I wish to hold forth: the use of Yiddish by contemporary chassidim, brought up by Henry Mullish and Martin Davis in Mendele no. 4.279. I am responding on the basis of my first-hand exposure to many different chassidim, in many different communities; I've never done any systematic or scientific research on the issue. If chassidim really intended their use of Yiddish as a shield to "protect their young from the temptations of the modern world," then they'd be failing miserably. Practically all Yiddish-speaking chassidim are more fluent and comfortable in the local language (English in America, Hebrew in Israel) than they are in Yiddish. (Most of the exceptions are older chassidim who grew up in pre-war Europe speaking only Yiddish, and for whom the local language is a second or third language.) Indeed, the Yiddish spoken by most chassidim today is so replete with borrowings, (whether in terms of individual words, morphology [word structure], or syntax,) that one who is not familiar with the local language could not possibly understand it. (If anyone out there is doubtful, I suggest obtaining a copy of Satmer's weekly "Der Yid" and counting the proportion of loan-words in their classified ads.) I think that those chassidim who make an effort to perpetuate the use of Yiddish do so for other reasons: a) Doing as previous Rebbes/generations did--among most chassidim, there is a desire to do exactly as previous Rebbes (or previous generations of chassidim) did, not only WRT language, but also dress, food, music, mannerisms, and just about anything and everything else one could mention--chassidim usually have their eyes on the past. b) As part of an attempt to re-create/re-live/perpetuate an idealized image of the society of pre-war Europe, where all the Jews were pious, G-d-fearing chassidim who spent their entire lives "in lern'n" (learning Toireh) and doing mitsves. [This is related to (a), but not quite the same]. c) As a rejection of and attempt to overcome what is perceived as the moderne/Tsiyoinistishe/freie/maskilishe attempt to do away with traditional Eastern European religious culture and values, whose language was Yiddish, and replace it with a modern, secular Israeli culture whose language is Hebrew. ["Moderne," "Tsiyoinistishe," "freie," and "maskilishe" have strongly pejorative connotations among most or all chassidim.] d) In Israel--because of a reluctance to use the Holy Tongue--the local Hebrew--for everyday matters, on religious grounds, Yiddish is used for anything other than Toireh. (All of these apply as well to certain parts of the non-chassidishe 'ultra-Orthodox' community, usually to a lesser degree.) The desire to "protect their young from the temptations of the modern world" is real, and a serious issue for many Orthodox Jews, including most chassidim. But the means employed by chassidim to protect their children are usually social--restrictions on education, socializing, jobs, exposure to external media (regardless of language--the Forverts is as treyf as the NY Times, if not worse,) the formation of closed, close- knit neighbourhoods or towns, etc. This attempt to seclude oneself from the world 'out there' is common to chassidim who speak Yiddish and chassidim who don't. The common language can help cement this sense of community and keep "their young" (what are we talking about, wolves?) within the fold, but the use of Yiddish does not originate in a focus forward on the dangers facing the next generation, but in a focus backward on the history of previous generations. Hailblum writes that "the Yiddish world that I loved, that was aboil with artistic and social ferment, that world is truly gone." Chassidim (and others) reject that world, on ideological grounds. It was always treyf for them, and they have no desire to perpetuate it or preserve it. They use Yiddish for their own objectives and their own society, for purposes both secular and religious (especially those whose use of Yiddish stems from the fourth reason cited above,) and avoid secularism, irrespective of language. The Yiddish world of haskoleh has disappeared not because the only remaining community of Yiddish-speakers has rejected it, but because those who have an interest in it--secularist Jews--have transferred it to other languages. One last gripe: "It is as if the Amish were the sole surviving English speakers." The tone of that comment makes it sound (to me) like a gratuitous sideswipe at both Chassidim and the Amish. Anyone else think so too, or am I reading too much ts'vishn di shures? Eliyahu Juni 138)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Jan 95 12:48:21 EST From: juni%snybksac.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu Subject: Introduction Post-WWII baby (from the left-over Jews' baby boom). Parents Polish, Hungarian, Carpathian, Czecheslovakian, Russian, Belgian, Roumanian (imagine if they had an air-miles program then). Orthodox hasidic-like early upbringing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Educated in mainstream yeshiva in N.Y. went on (left turn) to Brooklyn College, YU, SUNY at Buffalo. PhD in clinical psychology, specialize in differential diagnostics (no, don't know what that means). Spoke only Yiddish until I was able to reach the top shelf of our ice-box. Read all Yiddish language books in the N.Y. Public Library Boro Park Branch until I left for boarding yeshiva at age 14. I am fluent in Yiddish, and hope to become fluent in English (If I can break my Internet addiction and get some time to study). Eek out a meager living being a psychology professor at NYU, which makes my mother proud (but also sad, since I'm not a rabbi). I she would rather I was a rabbi, in which case she would be really proud (but sad that I was not a professor). My career has precious little to do with Yiddish, and my diagnostics practice has precious little to do with Jews. I also subscribe to Mail-Jewish and Psy-Jewish. Given my subscriptions and occasional meals and purges, I have roughly 9 minutes left daily to go to minyan at the local shtibl and to settle world crises with the person in charge (my mother). There is a term used in the Carpathian Yiddish circles "shalaten shames." It pertains to one who is basically a gopher, a shames who is not even a (quasi)important shames. (No offense to our dear moderator, who seems to wear this badge with distinction.) It may relate to an underling whose job it is to prepare shalaten (lettuce of some sort?). My nephew is a budding linguist in Toronto who was curious about this, and he annoyed my mother (who, as a mother, is a linguist by definition), and neither knows the true deriva- tion of this term. Is there perhaps a shalaten shames on the list who can help us with our dire family problem before my Mexican brother and his sons get involved and make it an International affair? Sam Juni 139)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Sep 1994 15:21:01 -0700 (PDT) From: hkagan@hsc.usc.edu Subject: Introduction A gutn tog freint. After "lurking" for the past week or so, I would like to intoduce myself to the folks on mendele. I was raised in Los Angeles in a home where Yiddish was, at least for my early years, the language most used. (My father is from Vilna and my mother is from Kovna.) Unfortunately, now that I am 45 years old what meager Yiddish skills I was able to acquire at the Workmen's Circle school at the age of eight have long since withered. I am, however, able to understand pretty well. Listening in on the mendele postings this past week has been a true delight. There is little I can contribute to discussions about Romanization of Yiddish or the obscure origins of Yiddish usages. But if you'll allow me to warm myself by the "sound" of mame loshen on email (somebody pinch me) I look forward to being a part of the group and maybe even adding a posting here or there when I have something worthwhile to share. A zissn yor tsu allemen Lee Kagan 140)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Apr 24 16:22:18 1994 From: kaminsky@augsburg.edu Subject: Introduction and Query I have been eavesdropping now for more than two years and I guess it's time make an introduction. I'm a statistician working in the mathematics department of Augsburg College (with a strong Lutheran connection) in Minneapolis. Strangely, my first formal study of Yiddish was here at Augsburg when I sat in on a Yiddish reading course taught by a linguist colleague in the Language Department. Since then I did the Columbia/YIVO summer course in 1989 and now I'm just coasting. My mother was a native speaker of both Yiddish and Russian, but, alas, she did not pass either of them on to me. As with so many other second generation American Jews of my generation (b. 1938), Yiddish was a secret language spoken by the parents and grandparents. I was left with only a few phrases stored away for opening decades later (eyn kleynekeit, nisht gefelech, etc., etc.) and a good accent. That's enough introduction for now. About my query. I have a copy of an album of Yiddish songs sung by Theodore Bikel. Does anyone know if any of his Yiddish albums are available any more? How about on CD? I have a video he did in Austrailia a few years ago, but the sound reproduction is not so good. Thanks Mendelnicks. Ken Kaminsky 141)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Jun 24 09:12:26 1995 From: kanowitz@uchastings.edu Subject: Introduction I am a professor emeritus at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, having "retired" from active law teaching four years ago (although I am still active as a labor arbitrator). During my 30 years of teaching, I was also on the law faculties of Saint Louis University (1 year) and the University of New Mexico (8 years). As a visiting professor, I taught at the following university law schools: Harvard, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, Washington U. in Saint Louis, Grenoble and Nantes. I've also lectured on American labor law in Japan, Korea, Yugoslavia, Switzerland and various French-speaking countries in Africa: Benin, Togo, Gabon and Cameroon. Among my 12 published books are: Women and the Law: The Unfinished Revolution (1969), which sold 55,000 copies; Alternative Dispute Resolution (1985); and a translation from the Japanese of a labor law treatise by Kazuo Sugeno of the University of Tokyo Law Faculty, entitled "Japanese Labor Law" (1992). Although I am proficient in several languages, (French, Japanese, German, etc.), my Yiddish needs much work. Before entering the U.S. Army during WWII, I was taught by my father to read and write Yiddish so that we could correspond while I was away. Yiddish was also our language at home in the Bronx. That was over 50 years ago, and I have rarely used it since. Having discovered Mendele only recently, I look forward to relearning Yiddish. Because my Yiddish has grown rusty, I suspect that my "contribution" to the discussion will be rather limited for a while, and will consist more of questions -- I am submitting one as a separate message today -- than of answers. Leo Kanowitz 142)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 01 May 1995 16:49:32 EDT From: kass@umbsky.cc.umb.edu Subject: Introduction I am a professor of mathematics at the Univ. of Massachusetts in Boston and I grew up in Brighton Beach, the first child of an immigrant family (Bessarabia & Minsk). Yiddish was my primary language until kindergarten. After coming to Brookline from Hyde Park, Chicago, where we lived for 14 years and raised two children, I began attending Rabbi Ben Zion Gold's Yiddish class at Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel. In the summers of '85 and '86 I studied Yiddish in the Oxford Yiddish Summer Program, under two superb teachers: Dovid Katz and Itzak Niborski . I published an article in the June 1986 Packentrager describing and reflecting on the experience. Thereafter, two times I was fortunate to be able to attend Niborski's Sunday seminar in Paris, which starts at 10 in the morning and ends at five. Something like the Boston Marathon. Through the Albert E. Marks Charitable Trust, a family foundation, my wife Judith and I have been supporting a series of talks in Yiddish at the Boston Workmen's Circle (1782 Beacon Street). The seventh and last speaker this year is Rakhmiel Peltz, Director of Yiddish Studies at Columbia University. The date is Sunday, June 18 at 2.30. The title is: "Yiddish and Jewish Nationalism in the Early 20th Century: The Case of Ber Boroknov". All are welcome. Shimen Kass 143)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 08:13:14 -0500 From: kastner@cam.org Subject: Introduction As a child, I went to the Lubavitcher yeshiva for my first six years of schooling. At the time, in the forties, Hebrew was reserved for davening and for holy studies. Yiddish was taught as the language of business and the street. But my yiddish has fallen into disuse, for obvious reasons. I even had to learn a completely different Hebrew when I lived for a short time in Israel. Therefore I was very happy to find Mendele, as it gives me the opportunity to once again read yiddish. I especially love the little poems, stories and jokes ( got a lot of mileage out of the Ex-Lax jingles, I can tell ya!) I look forward to each digest of Mendele, and will try and contribute at some point. (I am even thinking of the week in the Berkshires!) Murray Kastner 144)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Apr 92 17:40:38 PDT From: katz@Sonoma.EDU Subject: introductory Mayn vort frier: Heysn heys ikh Elye Kats oder, af goyish, Eli Katz. A hartsikn grus ale af dem Mendele reyster, vos ikh ken zey, un ale di vos ikh ken zey nokh nit, un a bazundern grus Mikhlen. I teach linguistics at Sonoma State University and do Yiddish when I can. If anyone is interested, I recently published a bi-lingual edi- tion of 16 Peretz stories (my own translations together with the originals, in modern orthography, on facing pages). It can be obtained from the Zhitlowsky Foundation for Jewish Culture, 1133 Broadway, Room 1019, New York, NY 10010. Eli Katz 145)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Jun 91 18:12:43 EDT From: harry@nonvax.alf.dec.COM Subject: Introduction My name is Harry Katz. I am a member of the National Yiddish Book Center and an amateur translator of Yid- dish literature. I learned to speak Yiddish from my parents and grandparents, but have not had to use it much since leaving home. As I never had any formal training in Yiddish, and had to teach myself how to read Yiddish, my knowledge of Yiddish is more or less elementary. I find that I do not know any adult vocabu- lary, but only the simple words that children use. However I am trying to correct that. I have been to a Yiddish Translation Workshop in Amherst, sponsored, of course, by the NYBC, and I have translated several Yiddish short stories by Afraim Koganovski and Zusman Segalovich. These are Polish writers, whose work I found in an anthology called, "Yiddish Shrayben in Poyln Tsivishn Di Velte Milkhomes." I would like to circulate some of these translations, but I am not sure what copyright restric- tions apply. I need to contact the original publisher, CYCO, to try to obtain permission to publish these translations. If anyone has had any experience getting such permissions, I would be glad to hear from them. I am also trying to locate a book of short stories by Zusman Segalovich called, "Goldene Pahves." The anthol- ogy I cited above names this book as the source for the Segalovich stories that I have translated. My only source of Yiddish books currently is the NYBC, and they have not run across a copy. I am also trying to set up a newsletter for exchanging information among Yiddish translators. This is a hard copy print venture, not an electronic mail venture, because I suspect many of us do not have access to a computer or the e-mail network. Harry 146)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 15:21:33 -0400 (EDT) From: skearse@wam.umd.edu Subject: Introduction I'm a *returning* (don't we love those polite euphemisms!) graduate student in American Studies at the Univ. of Md. at College Park. Since I am an African American, my years long self-study of Yiddish has raised a few eyebrows... I've taken to telling people that my interest in Yiddish language and culture is a "past-life bleed through"--which raises the brows even higher! Now that I'm back in school, I've found a "real" use for my Yiddish (as if the pleasure of speaking and writing and reading such a wonderfully expressive language were not real enough!)--my academic interest is in the culture of the first large Yiddish-speaking communities in the U.S.--the Jews who lived in New York during the late nineteenth century. I'm finally in a real Yiddish language class and my teacher is a model of patience (thank you Dr. Bilik!) with the hodge-podge of mispronounced phrases and semi-understood grammar rules I've picked up over the years! So perhaps, someday I will finally realize my ambition to earn those magic letters after my name...NNY--(Noted Negro Yiddishist)! :-) Sharon Kearse 147)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 19:50:12 -0500 From: ckent7500@aol.com Subject: Introduction I'm actually a snowbird from Toronto where many long years ago I completed "mittle shule" at the Workmans circle Peretz Shule. However for the next 50-60 years I had little opportunity to put my knowledge to use. Can speak and write easily but when it comes to reading dos iz an andere tsure. Well this is a begining. Alevay. Charles Kent 148)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 2 Feb 1995 11:54:40 EST5EDT From: kerend@roba7.library.utoronto.ca Subject: Introduction; a tchaynik hakn Hi, My name is Dana Keren. Like many others I heard Yiddish at home, in Poland. My parents didn't want us kids to understand what they were saying, so we quickly learned. I also learned German, Russian and Hebrew so understanding Yiddish was easy. When I try to speak it, it comes out in German. Like at least one other person, I was drawn to the list by the command: to unsubscribe "kholile" ... I was in stitches! Well, the list certainly brightens my days. Some people are known to me from other lists (Rick Gildemeister - Autocat). I am a librarian at the University of Toronto Library. I took a two year Yiddish course in Montreal and enjoyed it immensely, although my parents' Yiddish is galitsyaner, so it differs from the so-called "received pronounciation". And now for my question. I often say to my young child: hak mir nisht ka tchaynik. I know what it means and when to use it (having heard it often enough from my mother), but my son demands a translation. I only know how to translate it into Polish (nie zawracaj gitary) but not into English - not without stretching it into a mini-lecture. Can I get some help from you, learned Yiddishists? Thanks in advance, Dana Keren 149)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 Apr 92 21:54:53 -0800 From: Brett Kessler Subject: Introduction Sholem aleykhem, 'kh heys Brett Kessler. Ikh tu arbetn in Natural Language forshung in Hewlett Packard Labs in Palo Alto, Calif, un in der fraytsayt shtudir ikh lingvistik in Stanford. In an earlier life fleg ikh katalogirn di Yidish-zamlung in der bibliotek fun Indiana University, un der teglikher kontakt mit 'n loshn felt mir zeyer a sakh hayntike tsaytn, kuk ikh aroys af Mendelen mit groys kheyshek. Brett Kessler 150)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 16:45:02 ARG From: administ@kijak.recom.edu.ar Subject: Introduction Khosheve mitglider fun der reshime, koidem kol vil ikh zikh forshteln far aikh. Ikh bin an argentiner psikhiater un psikhoanalitiker. Ikh hob ongeshribn farshidene arbetn oif idish, un a bukh: "froid un der psikhoanaliz". Ikh halt in tzugreitn an arbet vegn a teme vos iz biz atzind nisht bahandlt- gevorn: di oifshriftn oif vikhtike bikher oder sforim vos men flegt gebn vi matones (geveindlekh flegn es ton eltern tzu kinder). Biz atzind hob ikh zikh ongetrofn bloiz mit tzvei. ken emitzer mir aroishelfn? Moises Kijak 151)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Sep 26 11:06:41 1993 From: Subject: Introduction My name is Robert D. King, and I teach at the University of Texas at Austin. I work on Yiddish linguistics and, especially recently, on the ways that linguistics tells us something about Jewish history. Right now I'm a bit more into research on India than anything else--my work on India being mainly historical and having nothing to do with Jewish matters. Regards, Bob King 152)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 04 Dec 1994 22:13:00 -0500 (EST) From: kingra@maspo2.mas.yale.edu Subject: Introduction/Yiddish in Chicago I am a child psychiatrist at the Yale Child Study Center. Growing up, I heard Yiddish spoken at home, but, as I suspect was common, most often when the conversation was for adult ears only. My interest in Yiddish has revived as I have children of my own and as I have become more interested in child development in Yiddish-speaking communities here and in Israel. (My family's yiddishkeit was very much of the left-wing flavor; my mother taught at the Jewish People's Institute in Chicago during the Depression.) Regarding M.-Yankl Sweet's query re YIVO in Chicago, there is an exhibit on "Yiddish in Chicago" at the Chicago Public Library's downtown main branch through the end of December. In addition to the exhibit itself, the curator may be of further assistance. Robert King 153)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 24 16:38:40 1993 From: Gregg Kinkley <70410.1373@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Introduction My name is Gregg Kinkley, and I am the new kid on this block. Regretably I know no Yiddish (though I can struggle through a newspaper from my knowledge of German and Hebrew). I am here to learn and enjoy. I am also a goy turning ger, so I am new to this community as well. I am happy there is such a thing as Mendele, and I think I will like it here. My bubby and zaydie may not have been as wonderbread as my father thought. They came from Germany, spoke little German around the house, but what my father remembers sounds very suspiciously Yiddische. For instance: "ippis" for "etwas". Can you folks confirm that this is Yiddish!? Thanks and shalom! Gregg Kinkley 154)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 08 Jul 92 11:53:29 EDT From: "Blossom S. Kirschenbaum (Blumke Shteynberg)" Subject: A bakoshe and an introduction Dear Ellen Prince, please send me your material on Menashe Skulnick. I feel on the verge of making my brother Ira very happy by sharing it with him. I've been tuned in to MENDELE for some weeks but this is my first note. I was born in Manhattan, grew up on West Burnside Avenue in The Bronx, went to Hunter from 7th grade through B.A. My parents spoke Yiddish for privacy until the kids caught on, then switched to Russian but froze that in the Cold War--I still consider it my "lost language" and delight in hearing it at work (in same building as Slavic Department). In 1986 through the Weinreich Summer Program of YIVO I studied at Columbia and became literate in Yiddish--what a thrill! I went to elementary, inter- mediate, and advanced classes, understood everything, a velt fun yiddish. Leonard Wolf was teaching translation; I actually published a translation of an A. M. Orzycer story in Queens College journal YIDDISH. (Most of my translation though is of Italian fiction by women.) MENDELE is like my daily vitamin tablet now. Greetings too to other friends whose names have crossed my screen--and I blow a kiss to you, Dovid Braun! Blossom Kirschenbaum 155)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 11:11:51 MEZ From: klein Subject: Introduction I am a student of Computational Linguistics, German and English at the University of Trier, Germany. The German curriculum allows for specialization in Yiddish; Trier has got one of two Professors for Yiddish Studies in Europe. I'd like to hear from other students of Yiddish. Alexandra Klein 156)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 02 Aug 1994 10:58:21 +0100 From: ROKLEIN@MZDMZA.ZDV.UNI-MAINZ.DE Subject: Introduction Hi all, it's time to introduce myself after reading Mendele for more than a half year. I'm a 22 year old goyishe student of math and computer sciences. I'm interested in Jewish culture and history (amatorial) and therefore subscribed to Mendele to learn some yiddish. (Some people told me that I'm getting a strong accent, maybe that's from Mendele :-). I'll try to be a more active member of this very intriguing list from now on. Robert Klein 157)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Feb 1995 21:14:47 -0500 (EST) From: mkleiner@astro.ocis.temple.edu Subject: Introduction I am Michael Kleiner of Philadelphia, Pa. I was raised a secular Jew, attending the Jewish Children's Folkshul. I also taught there for five years. During the '80s, early '90s, I was active in the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations (CSJO), particularly around young adult and continuity issues. I was on conference planning committees, delivered a couple of speeches, facilitated some workshops and handled publicity when the conferences were held in Philadelphia in 1988 and 1993. I know that at some of those early conferences I met Miriam Jerris. After a number of years as a journalist and public relations person, I returned to school and will receive a master's degree in educational media from Temple University in August. The program has allowed me to be very creative with a number of projects. During the fall semester, I had a course on Designing Instructional Resources, in which the students had to write a teacher's guide/curriculum or training manual on a topic of their choice, and produce the media -- videos, slide shows, overhead transparencies -- to complement the instruction. I chose Eastern European Jewish Immigration 1881-1924. I produced a slide show, which included my mother singing in Yiddish. This project showed a progression from my shule days. As a student, the teacher had us interview our grandparents who were immigrants. When I taught the course in 1987, I had the students interview immigrants, but we put together a slide show with music and the students presented the reports at the closing assembly. That was before I knew of educational media and how to do it right. In my teacher's guide, I also have the students doing interviews with an end product of a video or slide show or CD-ROM. Although I don't know Yiddish, I am interested in the culture, music and literature. I also recognize the language's importance. In 1969-70, our family spent a year in Norway. We also traveled in Europe. Wherever we came into contact with the Jewish community, it was my mother's Yiddish that enabled us to communicate (with the possible exception of Norway, where they knew English). My mother translated for us. We learned a great deal about the experiences of people during WWII. My grandmother spoke a lot of Yiddish. My aunt is translating Yiddish material for a man who is writing a book about a righteous Gentile. Michael Kleiner Philadelphia 158)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Jun 25 14:01:29 1994 From: pete@pko.rhein-main.de Subject: Introduction My name is Peter Kluehs and I live with my wife Lore (Tajbele) in Wehrheim, a small town in the Taunus mountains near Frankfurt am Main. I was accepted today to your list and I look forward to many interesting contacts. I am 62 and as far as I know I have no jewish ancestors. However, a grand-grand-grandfather of mine was called Nuernberger!?!? Anyway, one of my many hobbies is studying languages. When I got hold of Salcia Landmann's book JIDDISH, I wanted to learn as much as possible about this language. There is practically no literature in Jiddish available here, but I am listening every day to the Jiddish edizie of kol israel from Jerusalem on short wave. I started only a month ago on the Internet and I still have much to learn about the intricacies of the net. So please have patience with me. Schalom mit aich Peter Kluehs 159)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Feb 92 08:27:26 PST From: "Roger S. Kohn" Subject: Boruch hanimsoh Ich hob bakumen dein E-M. Unter iz meyn address. Zey gezundt un stark, So much for my Yiddish. If you wish a short statement about myself for the list, I am the curator of Hebraica and Judaica for Stanford University Libraries, i.e. I buy books in Hebrew letters and about Jews for the Jewish Studies Program here since September 1991. Roger S. Kohn (cn.rsk@forsythe.stanford.edu) Mailing Address: Green Library Phone Number: (415) 725-1054 Mail Code 6004 Fax Number: (415) 725-1068 Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305 160)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 6 Jul 94 15:19:31 -0500 From: mk@usia.gov Subject: Introduction My name is Michel Konstantyn, son of Yosl (Jozef) Konstantyn (Przemysl) and Fajga Brucha Janowska (Lodz). I was born in Paris in 1952 and have been a librarian with the American Embassy in Israel for the past 15 years. My spoken Yiddish is good, I write and read pretty well (but not enough -- to my utter shame), and, as Baruch Leib Gale put it (4.042), the world of Yiddish that is no more fascinates me, it is an essential part of me and I cannot, as a child of Shoa survivors, disconnect myself from it. My old Zionist education (Hashomer Hatzair) is only partly matched with the thinking ways in Israel, so that the "Diaspora" (galuti) aspect of Yiddish in Israel and its speakers still tickles one in society, although mentalities change and we can hope for this somewhat unforeseen revival of the mame-loshen here. My father used to write fiction (and other materials?) in Yiddish magazines in Poland before the war, but, here again, the famous intergenerational "Holocaust Silence" reigned and I have no idea about those. My uncle, David Stettner, now writing editorials on foreign affairs in UNZER SHTIME, Paris, used to be the editor of DER FRAYER GEDANK, published in Paris in the 50's and 60's. To everyone his/her own brand of Yiddish and culture that survived as a twig in a plurality, a vivid presence of this burning, intimate past that mirrors today's reality in an acute, sensitive fashion. I shall be glad to enrich my learning from such bright participants in MENDELE, some of whom I know, and perhaps, in my own way, I shall be able to contribute. One remark: for other recipients' enlightenment, could references to postings in previous issues be clearly stated (ex. : 4.044), so that they can easily be retrieved? Yisher koyekh un a gute hatzlohe! Michel Konstantyn 161)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 17 14:34:28 1993 From: HRK@PSULIAS.PSU.EDU Subject: Hello from a New Member My name is Henry Koretzky, and I'm employed in the library at Penn State at Harrisburg, located in Middletown, PA. My knowledge of Yiddish is negligible, but I'm serving as an electronic mediator for 2 friends who are more familiar with the subject: Simon Bronner, a folklore professor here at PSH who has been learning Yiddish over the past few years; and Susan Leviton, the singer for the klezmer band with which I play. Hope my quiet presence is acceptable to all. Thanks, -Henry 162)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 4 Feb 1995 19:22:10 -0600 (CST) From: jay_kraut@mbnet.mb.ca Subject: Introduction Shalom mine nomen iz Zevi ich bin 12 yor alt on ich leb in Winnipeg. In Winnipeg me chot kimat kyn menchen mine elter vos redn Yiddish. Oib do canst redn Yiddish canst do mir postn storik. Jay Kraut 163)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 Jul 1994 13:18:20 -0700 From: ac655@lafn.org Subject: Introduction Nathan Kravetz, retired professor, Lehman College, CUNY, now in the SF Valley of LA. I'm a Yiddish reader, Krumer speaker of the Galitzianer variety, once writer! What is the MENDELE group about? I'm also editor (Borgo Press) of the series on Judaica and the Holocaust. Nathan Kravetz 164)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Oct 20 14:34:34 1993 From: Ernest Kurnow Subject: Introduction I am Ernest (Ernie) Kurnow. In Yiddish Ezra. I'm Professor Emeritus of Statistics at New York University,but am still teaching. I've been bilingual from the day I learned to speak. I'm a 1927 graduate of the Arbeiter Ring Mittelschul. Are there other alumni out there? Seit mir alle gezunt, Ezra 165)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Jan 92 05:57:15 -0800 From: Philip Kutner Subject: Introduction As editor of der bay, I want to add to contacts. It is sent 10X a year and started as Yiddish activities in the SF Bay Area. Now there is (TYN) The Yiddish Network in 78 cities in the US and 11 other countries. There are directories of Yiddish teachers, clubs, Yiddish/Klezmer groups (bands), and Yiddish radio announcers. Hope to be a clearinghouse for club and teacher information. Requests have been filled for teaching positions, gigs, and speaking engagements. I do not charge, but receive contributions to the Peninsula JCC which lets me use their facilities for our Yiddish club and mails the newsletter. No apologie--only a fact, I am just starting to begin to initially learn how to use this wonderful piece of equipment. Please let me hear from you. My home address is 1128 Tanglewood Way, San Mateo, CA 94403 USA, and the home phone is 415-349-6946. Please leave a message or respond on this medium. Philip "Fishl" Kutner 166)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Apr 25 19:01:01 1993 From: lkuzmack@sytex.com (Linda Kuzmack) Subject: Introduction & Comments I have been quite interested in reading the last couple of months of Mendele and would like to introduce myself. Please excuse the English, but the transliteration tsebrekht di finger. My name is Arnold Kuzmack (my wife, Linda's, name is on the Internet account, so her name will automatically appear on messages). As a child, I studied Yiddish at Arbeter Ring schools in New York for four years, then four years of mitlshul. My grandparents spoke Yiddish among themselves and with their friends and also took me to various meetings and functions that were conducted in Yiddish. As an avocation, I did a fair amount of reading in Yiddish linguistics in college but have not kept up with it. I am now active in Yiddish activities in the Washington, DC area and edit the Yiddish section of the newsletter of Yiddish of Greater Washington. My day job is as a specialist in water pollution at EPA. I'd like to comment on some of the subjects discussed recently: Du and ir ========= We were taught that ir is used as the plural and the polite form. Apparently, who one uses the polite form with varied in different social circles. We used it with parents and other relatives as well as adult family friends. In other languages/societies with similar forms, using the wrong form was a faux pas of considerable magnitude. Using it with a woman married to someone else could get you into a duel. (Avade nisht bay undz!) I believe the great Russian poets wrote love poems using the polite form, and when the woman allowed a suitor to use the familiar form, it meant acceptance. Years ago, I read that a then newly-independent French-speaking country passed a law forbidding Europeans from saying "tu" to Africans without permission. Re dutsn and duken, I checked Harkavy's 1898 "Jewish-English English-Jewish Dictionary", and it also had only dutsn. Could duken be by analogy with Russian (and I presume other slavic) tykat'? BTW, Russian also has the much more expressive byt' na ty s... Arnold Kuzmack 167)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 16 18:32:13 1994 From: Subject: An introduction and a frage My name is Yonah Moshe Lakin and am currently studying Yiddish at McGill University. My professor mentioned Mendele, and being the computer freak that I am, I thought subscribing to Mendele would be a fun way to learn things about Yiddish that I wouldn't learn in my class. Now the frage. In my class we were going over some sentence translations. One of the sentences we had a big debate over. Here it is: Were you at home at when I called you? We came up with a translation of: Bistu geven in der haim ven ich hob dir/dich gerofn? Now the frage is the use of rofn in this case accusative or dative? Yonah Moshe Lakin 168)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 31 Oct 1992 19:33:40 -0500 (EST) From: STU_RWLANTZ%JMUVAX.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: introduction A gut woch! Mein namen ist Yankel Lantz. Bin anber bei der liste. Bin 51 joyor alt und woin in Timberville, Virginia USA. Ich schaffe wie techniker bei a steinerei. (Mein Deitsch ist wahrscheinlich eppes besser wie mein Yiddish.) Kennt ihr rekomendiren a buch for Yiddish ze lernen? Yankel 169)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 25 14:05:39 1993 From: Placid Venus Subject: A Short Introduction My name is Jay Lee and I am two courses away from completing degrees (BA) in Germanic and Russian literature and an Area Certificate in Russian and East European Sudies at Indiana University. There are two reasons why I subscribed to Mendele. First, I am greatly interested in Yiddish folklore, but have had little ex- posure to the literature. I joined this list in hopes that I might expand my reading list (So far I have read only Scholem Alechem, Isaac Bashevis Singer, then branching off from only Yiddish writings, Elie Wiesel and Bruno Schulz). Secondly, I only have a passive knowledge of the Yiddish language. I understand it when I read it or it is spoken to me, but I cannot reconstruct it or speak it. I hope that by reading it on e-mail, seeing it transliterated, I might be able to turn my passive knowledge to active. A sheynem dank, Jay Lee 170)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Feb 10 19:29:48 1994 From: leeson@cedar.fhda.edu Subject: Introduction My name is Dan Leeson and I live in northern California. It has been years and years since I spoke Yiddish and I am afraid that I have forgotten much of it. Like most children, I lived in a bilingual Yiddish/English household but when my grandparents died, little need for bilinguality existed. Years later in Paris, while shopping for a challah on the Rue de Rosiers, I began speaking Yiddish to the shopkeeper and she laughed, saying "You speak Yiddish like a child" which was true because I had not spoken it since the time I was a child. I miss mamaloschen. It is comfortable like an old shoe. And, heartbreakingly, I never learned to read or write Yiddish so I cannot console myself with Peretz or Sforim or even Gimpel the fool. I am a retired businessman who plays clarinet with the San Jose Symphony orchestra and does historical research. A shaynem dank Dan Leeson 171)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 May 1992 15:25 EST From: BPHKNL@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Brief introductory statement fun mir R`shames Ich bin a geborener litvak. Main mameloshn is idish ober ich bin nit keinliterat. Ich bin a scientist un interesir sich mitn meiach,basunders mit vision. Ich bin fun lite avek als a teenager un hob geendigt meine studies in england. In1960 bin ich gekumen mit main familie in amerike. Eibe ir wilt hobn additional information please let me know. seid gegrist, Nissan Leibovic. 172)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 13 Aug 1995 03:58:23 -0400 From: lithhands@aol.com Subject: Introduction Andy Cassel introduced me to Mendele last week. My parents left Lithuania in 1939. I was born in 1943 and Yiddish was my mameloshn. I am an orthopaedic surgeon in the Los Angeles area. I have a (Jewish) humanitarian project in Lithuania and just returned from my sixth visit. I may be of help to those with an interest in Lithuania. Benjamin (Binyomn) Lesin 173)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Sep 15 09:52:27 1993 From: thomas leverett Subject: Introduction Allow me to introduce myself. I am an ESL teacher in Pittsburg KS. My wife is a teacher at our local temple (Joplin MO) and takes care of our two boys. I am applying for teaching positions in Israel & hoping to go there in May or Aug. '94; also hoping to find a way to defray the expenses (4-6000) of getting there. I'd appreciate any leads or help with this. Having said that, I am also interested in Yiddish: who's using it, how much, etc. I have linguistics training and know some German but understand about half of what I hear in my in-laws' house. My wife's grandparents, by the way, came from a town called Mottele in Belorus. Good to meet you all, Peace, l'shanah tova Tom Leverett, IEP, Mitchell Hall, Pittsburg State University Pittsburg KS 66762 USA leverett @ ukanvm.cc.ukans.edu 174)---------------------------------------------------- DATE: Tue Feb 1 19:07:18 1994 From: Subject: Introduction Shalom, all. I'm a Baltic and Slavic linguist. My yiddish is bad-- 3rd generation Am pidgin yiddish. But I'm a Lithuanian specialist, so perhaps occasionally I can have something to contribute re coteritorial lang. I'm esp. interested in yid. borrowings in Lith. I've been back to Lith twice, including my grandparents' home village (Shaky [Lith shakiai'], pop. as of 1892 3000 Jews, 2000 Lithuanians) I'm a real Litvak. ---Jules Levin 175)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 1 21:33:57 1994 From: NKRR12B@prodigy.com Subject: Introduction I wish I could write to you in Yiddish but I don't have a command of the language. I came from Yiddish speaking parents and I have a profound love of the language and its literature. I'm not sure what you send though the system but my Mom is still alive and 88 yrs. old and I'm sure she would enjoy your stories even if tranliterated. I read about you in Hadassah magazine. Thanks. Ruth Levine 176)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 18:52:36 -0600 (CST) From: schmuel@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu Subject: Introduction My name is Glenn Levine. I've been a subscriber to Mendele for a few months now, but have been hesitant about introducing myself because I wasn't quite sure if I was going to remain a subscriber. You see, as a devoted Yiddishist and a serious linguist, I am disconcerted and even saddened by the pointless, and I'm afraid to say, petty debate going on in Mendele over "romanization" etc. I really don't believe it matters how you transcribe Yiddish, as long as the message comes across. The important thing is that we DO Yiddish, that we don't give it up. I hope I haven't offended those involved in the ongoing debate over transcription: it's just that I feel there are so many substantive issues of Yiddish literature, culture and linguistics that are more worthwhile, and in the long run, more fruitful. I am a graduate student in the Department of Germanic Languages in Austin, Texas. I am currently working on dissertation research with Dr. Robert King and Dr. Itzik Gottesman. I'm investigating the Yiddish spoken by the first generation US-born children of Yiddish-speaking immigrants. Anyone who knows Yiddish speakers in the central Texas area, whether American-born or not, should please let me know, as I am always on the lookout for new people I can interview for my study! I suppose by the presence of my introduction here you can see that I've decided not to quit Mendele, though I'm sure the discussion of transcription will drag on. I find Mendele a valuable source of information; being in a place like Texas it's nice to know one isn't alone. In closing I will throw out a question that has been occupying my mind for some time: What is the nature of the knowledge of Yiddish of a person who learned it from her or his parents as a child, but then ceased using it at about school age. 60 or 70 years have now gone by, little thought has even been given to Yiddish over the years, yet when asked to produce sentences in Yiddish, most can do it relatively easily. What is the nature of this knowledge, and to what extent can this person be said to 'know' Yiddish. Glenn (Schmuel) Levine 177)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 23:52:13 -0400 (EDT) From: mashinke@wam.umd.edu Subject: Introduction I am thrilled to have finally arrived on Mendele's list. My formal studies in Yiddish started in 1983 at YIVO's Columbia Univ. summer program. Currently I'm studying Yiddish at the University of Maryland with Dr. Dorothy Bilik, at the DCJCC leyen krayz with Dr. Max Ticktin, and a small group of lovers of Yiddish. Adrienne is already on Mendele. As you can see, Adrienne, I finally made it! My husband, Meyshe, and I hold a class, Mishpokhe Yiddish, for 3 to 7 year olds, in our home. Parents and/or grandparents are encouraged to participate. We present Yiddish stories, (puppet shows), for children 3 to 93 years young. "s'is take a mekhaye." yidn, zayt bagrist. a gut yom tov. a gut yor. mashinke Marcia Gruss Levinsohn 178)---------------------------------------------------- From: hlewin@polyglot.uvm.edu Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 19:21:35 -0400EDT Subject: Introduction I was born in Kovno to Yone and Gite (Salat) Wisgardisky. We went into the Kovner ghetto when I was 1.5 years old. I was hidden by my parents in the apartment and 2 years later smuggled out to their Lithuanian friends. Luckily both parents survived and we were reunited . We were in a D.P. camp in Germany several years, lived in Israel for four years and came to Montreal in 1953. I went to a Hebrew High and spoke Yiddish at home. I also studied Yiddish and Hebrew at the United Jewish Teachers Seminary. I came to the USA in 1963. I teach Hebrew and Yiddish at the University of Vermont and am director of Hillel and the Jewish Action Coalition. Henny Lewin 179)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 23 Dec 1994 17:59:35 -0500 From: llipson@mail.law.yale.edu Subject: Introduction Though born in the United States, as the eldest grandchild on both sides of unassimilated immigrants I picked up the usual scraps. They were spiced a bit by the collision of regional flavors (Lithuanian on one side, Volhynian on the other): differences in pronunciation (zog'n/zug'n, kum'n/kim'n), occasional lexical differences (shulter/pleitzes, bitokh'n/gloib'n, bezukhn/vizityv'n), differences in nig'n and temperament (the relatives from Birz thought the relatives from Koretz too wet; vice versa, too dry). I hope that Mendele will help me a little 'a lad tsi makh'n' of my Yiddish scraps and deepen my knowledge of a great culture in which I should like to feel at home. Leon Lipson 180)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Feb 18 19:57:33 1994 From: FAC_ALBERT@GSBVAX.UCHICAGO.EDU Subject: Introduction I am a Professor of Business Administration at the University of Chicago, and a native speaker of Yiddish. My hobby is to read (and even give classes on) Sholom Aleichem. I am also a big fan of Yitzhak Manger. Other vital statistics: Age 59 (biz hundert und tzwantzig). One other hobby: I collect picture postcards of synagogues (as well as postage stamps depicting synagogues or other Judaic items). I own postcards depicting well over 400 synagogues throughout the world. Al Madansky 181)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 22 21:21:21 1994 From: akmaltz@cpcug.org Subject: Introduction I am new to Internet and have been lurking in Mendele's halls for some weeks. There is not much to tell except that I heard and understood my grandparents' and other's Yiddish as a child, but had never heard a child speak Yiddish -- so I didn't either. Because of that, I suffer some lack of confidence. I call myself a perpetual student of Yiddish, an amateur, without credentials but with great curiosity. I come forward to write because of recent mention by some mendeleniks that they have heard some people say that Yiddish is not a real language. Why would it not be as real as French, Spanish and Italian, all derivatives of Latin? Vos iz der untersheyd? Adrienne Maltz 182)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Mar 14 20:05:20 1994 From: klezmer@aol.com Subject: Introductory statement Sholom aleichem I am a new Mendele subscriber, but not new to the Yiddish world, having been a klezmer clarinet player with Kapelye since its inception in 1979. I grew up in the Bronx, NY, during the late 40s...mid-sixties; a place where Yiddish was interchangeable with English on the street. In addition to my work with Kapelye, I teach music in the public schools and am an official with the Amer. Fed. o f Teachers. and now I'm glad to be a part of Mendele. Ken Maltz 183)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 Aug 1994 09:01:08 +0300 (EET DST) From: mangaard@cc.helsinki.fi Subject: Introduction Shole ale! Mayn nome iz Johnny Mangaard un ich bin a lingvist (shtudent) who's interested about Yiddish studies (I feel a bit insecure writing more in Yiddish). I've been working about ten years as a nursery school teacher but recently have concentrated myself on linguistics. Yiddish is known to me solely from Yidishe lider which I've heard some twenty years. The only person I have spoken Mame-loshn with is librarian at the Synagogue of Helsinki. My parents don't speak it (my dad speaks nothing because he's dead). Now a hopefully not too big request: if any one could aid me advising to any Yiddish corpuses so I would welcome any help I can get. Sheynen Dank! Johan George Mangard 184)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 16:59:53 -0400 From: Sheine_Mankovsky_at_MTCAOM01@cclink.metrodesk.metrotor.on.ca Subject: Introduction I am a neophyte on internet. I am a public servant in the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, and a part time Yiddish teacher. I teach a grade 10 course in Yiddish in the North York Board of Education, one of the six area municipalities which comprise the "federation". I have three daughters who attend Bialik Hebrew Day School and have been learning Yiddish since the third grade. I am very proud that my second daughter is pursuing volunteer work at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, and numbers among her skills the ability to speak (not bad) and understand (flisik) Yiddish. In Toronto, not traditionally known in the past for its Yiddish atmosphere, it is now possible to study Yiddish from pre-school to the Ph.D level. A lot of work by a lot people, particularly one Sylvia Lustgarten. Shik mir noch a brivele. Sheine 185)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 07 Sep 1994 23:35:45 -0400 (EDT) From: IMARCUS@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Introduction I teach law at SUNY (Buffalo). Parents spoke Yiddish but as the "adult" la language. So, I am familiar with the cadejnces and some phrases but need to focus on acquiring greater knowedlge. This past spring was my second time teaching law in Poland at Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Have travel;led extensively in Poland and spent time at Jewish sites in various cities, have done research on domestic violence in Poland (which I am now writing up), am still coping with the complexity of what I experienced there, as well as in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Serbia where I have spent some time. Isabel Marcus 186)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 5 Dec 1994 02:07:56 -0800 From: garrym@netcom.com Subject: Introduction Re: Tsugetschepet Does this bring back memories! My parents told me: "Tschepe nisht!" every time my fingers went near my adolescent acne. I'm officially de-lurking, so I should introduce myself. My parents and I were born in Canada, and their parents came from Byelorus. Although my first language was Yiddish, I can no longer speak or write it because of years of neglect, but I am enjoying decoding the Romanized Yiddish I find here. I teethed on Yiddish music (my mother sang Yiddish songs semi-professionally), and I greatly enjoy the current klezmer revival -- it's my soul music. My father did English translations of some Peretz stories, collected under the title "As Once We Were", which was much admired by the relatively few people who read the private publication of them in the early '50's. As a young teenager, I was a member of the Yiddishe Kinder Theater, a Los Angeles group which performed exclusively in Yiddish, under the direction of Than Wyenn and, later, Benjamin Zemach. Despite my parents' zeal in attempting to preserve the Yiddish language, however, I lost contact with Yiddish for a number of years, and I am delighted to see the resurgence of interest in its rich heritage. Ver vays? Maybe I'll be able to start speaking it again! My parents do not have Net access, so I am forwarding copies of Mendele mail to them on computer disk, and I hope I will be posting contributions from them on their behalf. Gershon Margolis 187)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 10:31:44 +0100 From: patrick.markowicz@eurostat.cec.be Subject: Introduction I am Patrick Markowicz, 36, 4 children and live in Metz (France) near the Belgian, German, and Luxemburger border. I show issues of MENDELE to my father Benjamin (71 years, born in Sosnowiec, Poland). He doesn't understand very much computers and internet but he would like to know if someone could send us by e-mail funny stories or funny books in yiddish. Thank you very much in advance. Patrick Markowicz 188)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 13 22:04:05 1993 From: Sean A Martin Subject: Introduction I just subscribed to Mendele and, at Noyekh Miller's request, am providing an introductory statement. I'm a second-year graduate student in Yiddish and history at Ohio State; I'm working with Professors David Neal Miller and Neil Jacobs. I look forward to reading the list. Sean 189)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 May 92 21:22:11 -0700 From: matisoff@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: Introduction Hi, this is Yankl Matisoff, from the Berkeley Linguistics Dept. (Please not to confuse me with my colleague, Yakov Malkiel, zol er sayn gezunt un shtark.) My line is really Southeast Asian linguistics, but Yiddish is close to my heart too. Lozt fun zikh hern. Yankl Matisoff 190)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 05 May 95 16:20:00 PDT From: melnick@gwscstam.groupw.wec.com Subject: Introduction I am a newcomer to Mendele. I am a single, 37-year old male, currently living in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. I am an attorney working in Stamford for Group W Satellite Communications, a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Corp. involved in the field of cable and satellite television and radio programming distribution and other media-related technical services. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, lived in Manhattan since graduating from law school and moved to Connecticut only recently. I am "2G" (Second Generation). My mother, from outside of Prague, Czechoslovakia, was in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. My father, from Pietrikov and then Tomasczov (forgive any spelling errors), Poland, was on the run in Russia during the war. Of course, both lost most of their families. My parents spoke Yiddish to each other in my childhood household. (Until I was around ten, they called me "Mendele.") I was a "good Jewish boy" for much of my youth, then a rebel, and now I have returned to Judaism, not as a religion but as an ethnic and cultural identity. I am an avid fan of klezmer and other Jewish music. My Yiddish language skills are sketchy; I can understand the gist of spoken Yiddish at best. I have become computer-literate only in the last few months. I stumbled upon the Mendele mailing list (and a few others related to Judaism) pretty much by accident. Mark Melnick 191)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 16:14:10 -0400 (EDT) From: ind01917@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu Subject: introduction Nu, vos ken ich aich zogn. I am a retired teacher of English from NYC who landed in Orlando,FL. Somehow I got myself a volunteer(read unpaid) job as the host of a weekly Jewish Hour on the radio here. I've been on for over three years now playing all kinds of music of the Jewish people;Yiddish folk songs,theatre songs,Israeli music, khazones, klezmer both old and new,Ladino,etc. I'm on every week for an hour on Sunday morning at 8AM on WUCF 89.9FM,the station of the U. of Central Florida. I'm the gantze tzimmis;the producer, the on air host,the editor,etc. I am always on the lookout for Jewsih music. Ich bin take a shnorrer. I have found Yiddish music at the Smithsonian, in the Library of Congress, wherever. I very much enjoy Mendele and Fish'ls Der Bay. Zeit ale gezunt. Ven ihr zent bay Disneyvelt git mir a geshray. 407-365-6387 A shaynem dank. Chaim, der alter zayde in Florida. Hy Meltz 192)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Jan 28 16:01:00 1994 From: Richard Menkis Subject: (Long overdue)introduction I have been violating the etiquette of electronic mail by lurking before leaping, but I shall lurk no longer. My name is Richard Menkis, and I teach in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. My area of research is Canadian Jewish history, presently with an emphasis on describing/analyzing the religious self-definitions of Canadian Jews. Although I have received no formal training in Yiddish, over the past two years I have been going through introductory college Yiddish texts,have had fun reading early twentieth century brifenshteller. I am also fortunate that there is a very lively Yiddish reading group in Vancouver, and when I have the opportunity--not frequently enough--it is a delight. In Vancouver, you ask (and it's been asked before)? Imagine, in this Yiddish reading group are two distinguished authors and translators, Miriam Waddington and Seymour Levitan, whose translations appear in the Howe and Wisse Sholem Aleichem volume. I introduce them as well, because I have passed on to them what happens in Mendele, and I shall pass on to you their comments, if they should so desire. And, in fact, such is now the case. When I informed Seymour Levitan that Korn's poetry was being quoted on Mendele, he was of course thrilled that more and more people are enjoying her work. While I was not able to tell him whether this poem was one of the poems he had translated, whether it was or wastn't, he wanted me to remind you, Mark, that these poems do not appear in English out of nowhere, and that mentioning the translator would be appropriate. Rifke Lillian had asked about further information regarding Korn. Her papers are at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal, and in their catalogue of MSS they have some biographical information. They will also have more information in the clippings files in the Canadiana room in the Jewish Public Library, some of which will be synthesized in Ch L Fuchs, One hundred years of Yiddish and Hebrew Literature in Canada (in Yiddish). I enjoy the comments, debates, etc of Mendele, enormously, especially when dealing with questions of history and literature.(Which is why, I suppose, I am enjoying the present text being read in the Yiddish reading group here, IJ Singer's wonderful autobiography). Richard Menkis 193)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 Jan 92 17:10:04 EST From: lmeyer@eniac.seas.upenn.edu Subject: Introduction I am a grad student who knows little yiddish, but has great interest and little time. I have been reading mail.yiddish for some time; that's how I heard about this list...I read to learn what I can. I also share mail.yiddish (and probably this as well...) with friends who know more yiddish but have less net access. Basya Meyer __________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.130 Mendele: Yiddish literature and language 194)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 24 Sep 1994 08:06:18 +0200 (EET) From: power@actcom.co.il Subject: Introduction I am a new subscriber to mendele. I was born in Vilna in 1938 and came to Israel when I was 12 years. During the war my mother, uncle and myself survived on "Arian papers." I did not I am Jewish until the war ended. I learned Yidish in Israel. I read and enjoy Yidish litereature and poetry. Such interests are far away from my daily business which is lasers and electronics. I am pleased and grateful for being a subscriber to Mendele. The argument is always full of vitality as befitts Mendele Mokeher Sefarim (Sefoyrim?). Aharon Meytahl 195)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 4 12:05:10 1994 From: SZ0435@daphne.rrze.uni-erlangen.de Subject: Introduction My name is Pavel, I am 24 years old, I study eastern european history, political science and slavonic studies in the 5th year at the university of Erlangen/Nuremberg in southern Germany (ca. 100 miles north of Munich). My specialization is Jewish history of Bohemia and Moravia. My background is sort of crazy, but I want to explain a bit, maybe it helps to solve strange questions... I come from a family with 4 nationalities and 3 (4) confessions and live since 1975 between Germany and the Czech republic. I am Czech-jewish, my mother is Czech-atheist, her 2nd husband Serb-Orthodox, my step-sister German-CzechoYugo, my father Czech-atheist, his wife Czech-catholic and their children tend to be something Italo-Czecho as they live in Italy. Excuse me for this crazy goulash, but it explains in a way my own schizophrenia... but if you ask me where I am at home: It's Prague. I have studied some Yiddish at my university, but unfortunately there are nearly no genuine native speakers around here to converse with. But I love the language and the culture connected to it, so I am happy for every opportunity to get in touch with the "Yiddish world". I don't know if I will be able to contribute on a high level to the fascinating professional discussions on the server, but I speak fluently a couple of languages, so if anybody has any questions on slavonic, germanic or francophone particularities, maybe I can help. Personally I am especially interested, where and how Yiddish is still in use worldwide and to learn about some personal experience the mendeleyniks have made or are making. I speak following languages: Czech, German - mother tongues English, French, Russian, Serbo-Croat - very good Italian, Dutch - good some Slovak, Polish, Spanish, Hebrew... Pavel Miladinovic-Cernoch 196)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Dec 2 10:10:03 1993 From: "Irving F. Miller 6-5711" Subject: Introduction I am currently Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Director of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Why is an engineer interested in Yiddish? Because it was my first language. My parents spoke Yiddish at home, and I attended Arbeiter Ring schools from age 6 through 13. At that time, my Yiddish was reasonably fluent, but I have not used it for 45 years. I joined the network because I want to resurrect my knowledge of Yiddish. As I read material on the network, I will contribute as best as I can, when my memory returns. Of course, at my age memory tends to get worse with time. I intend to buck that trend. We will see if I succeed. Irv Miller 197)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 16 22:39:13 1994 From: mjmiller@freenet.columbus.oh.us Subject: Introduction I am the Eams Chair in Yiddish Culture for the Bendin Program abroad. Formerly a passive reader, I can finally come out of the cyber-closet. I have ties (chains) to the Yiddish program at Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. I have authored many works on Natural Gas Pipeline testing and Telephone Network Automation, and hope to follow with some writings exploring my Bendin roots (Vortslen). Marcy J. Miller 198)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 04 Feb 92 From: nmiller@trincc Subject: A glossary When Yude-Leyb Proger took temporary leave of us early last summer to visit Oxford, most of us expected that he would spend his time among the dreaming spires doing just that. A nekhtiker tog! One sees at last the error of projecting one's own slothful ways onto one's betters. At any rate, nos. 164 through 166 will contain a particu- larly useful and welcome contribution. I'll go further: it's a _wonderful_ contribution and Mendele is proud to present it. A riziger yasher koyekh aykh, Yude-Leyb, fun unz alle. Noyekh 199)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 12:27:39 -0700 (PDT) From: remiller@netcom.com Subject: Introduction Ikh hays Raizl. This summer I am attending the Uriel Weinrich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture at Columbia University through Yivo and Columbia. I volunteer at Yivo, where I am currently cataloging a collection of photographs by Menachem Kipnis taken in Poland in the 1920's. Also I serve as a docent at the Jewish Museum in New York City. I am interested in Yiddish language and literature and Eastern European Jewish history. A sheynem dank. Renee "Raizl" Miller 200)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 02 Nov 1994 03:17:39 GMT From: roland.millman@weiser.com Subject: Introduction New "lister" on Mendele, Ruvn (Roland) Millman is a film-maker who has been working primarily in the corporate arena for the past ten years with film, videotape and television. Roland is a graduate New York University's Film and Television Department. He is now making a documentary film with his wife Beverly (Brurieh) Miriam Post named "Double Heritage". Double Heritage is about the post-war adoption of Holocaust orphans by American Jewish families. Ruvn and Brurieh are filming people, chronicling how the adoptees fared in their new lives after the war. How they came from various European countries and learned a new language, changed cultures, took-on a new family, new name, new relatives...and locked away their lives from before the war. Ruvn has been learning Yiddish at YIVO evening classes since 1993. He is a member of Yugntruf and Workmen's Circle's Yiddish speaking youth branch #105. Ruvn will be at Yugntruf's "Yidish Vokh" (god willing) this coming summer. Roland Millman 201)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Jul 91 06:19:45 PDT From: Martin Minow 02-Jul-1991 0908 Subject: Introduction I'm Martin Minow. My Yiddish is almost, but not quite, non-existant (it was the language my parents spoke when they didn't want the kids to listen), but I did pick up some at an evening course at Harvard Hillel a few years ago. Since my handwriting is so bad even I can't read it sometimes, I adapted a text editor for Yiddish (showing that the spirit of Krasvilevke [spelling?] is still alive in America). (If anyone's interested, I do have software that lets you print Hebrew/Yiddish from an Atari PC.) During the 1960's and 1970's, I was a linguistics grad. student in Sweden, where I saw the disappearance of the formal-informal pronouns -- the recent discussion in Mendele on formal-informal in Yiddish sounded very familiar. One other thing worthy of note here: my mother's maiden name is Rose Mitnick. She was in the same high-school class as Leo Rosten and thus appeared as the heroine in "The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N." (I'd like to find a copy of that book, by the way.) Martin Minow minow@ranger.enet.dec.com 202)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 24 Nov 1994 11:03:49 +0100 (MET) From: dagmar@sietec.de Subject: Introduction Sholom aleichem. Mayn nomen iz Dagmar Mirre. Ikh hob ongehoybn lernen yidish mit nur tswey yorn tsurik un, der iker, shver iz mir shraybn mit englishe oysyes. Ikh hof, az ir sayd mir moykhl oyf mayne toesn. Ikh hob lib leyenen teksten fun Bashevis Singer, Leyb Kvitko un Abraham Sutzkever. Weyzt emitzer, wu ikh ken gefinen a bukh, a zamlung fun poemes fun Sutzkever oyf yidish? Dagmar Mirre 203)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 6 15:22:08 1994 From: kleyzemer@aol.com Subject: Introduction Greetings. I am a Yiddish-impaired Klezmer accordionist from Sebastopol (not far from Santa Rosa), California. I currently play with a band called Sevastopol (not far from Simferopol). Michael Alpert suggested I join this mailing list, so here I am. Mine is the typical story; parents only spoke Yiddish when they didn't want me to understand. It worked. I've enjoyed the writings and ramblings of Michael Wex. Wex, are you out there? I know what my last name means in Yiddish, but I haven't gotten around to figuring out whether it denotes optimism or procrastination. Perhaps someone can help me figure it out? Pleased to be here, Marty Morgenbesser 204)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 Sep 1994 15:47:28 +0800 (PST) From: hcedu012@huey.csun.edu Subject: Introduction Es freyt mir zeyer zich onshliessn in der internatzionaler chevra Mendele,liebhober foun Yiddish. Mein tateh alevasholem, is geven yorn lang a principal un lehrer in Arbeiter ring Shuln in springfield Mass. un in Los Angeles. Deriber nootz ich dem nomen Traister als mettle-nomen, l'koved zein ondek. I am a psychologist teaching at Cal. State U.,Northridge,(yes among earthquake ruins, in makeshift bungalows). I also have a clinical practice in which I specialize in helping Holocaust survivors. As an outgowth of my book on Child Survivors (Shocken,1983) I co-founded rap-groups for people who were children during the Holocaust and such groups have become an international movement. I write poetry and thanks to a wonderful workshop with Prof. Avram Nowerstern last December,sponsored by the National Yiddish Book Center, poems have begun to arrive in mame-loshn.. The struggle for primacy between Hebrew and Yiddish as seen through the eyes of Yiddish poets has begun to fascinate me and I have written a paper on it. Sorkeh Traister Moskovitz 205)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1992 16:27 EST From: MULLISH@NYUACF.BITNET Subject: Introduction This is my first contribution to this newly discovered Yiddish list and in response to Noyech's request just received I shall say a brief word about myself. I am a teacher of computer programming and software here at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU where I have worked since leaving my native England in 1956. I was born into a Polish-Russian family where Yiddish was the common tongue although I must say that I have lost most of my fluency, to my regret. However, I speak fairly fluent Hebrew being married to a Yemenite who insists on speaking only Hebrew. By the way, I would like to offer the following anectode which is absolutely true. My mother of blessed memory used to use a particular expression when she became angry with me -- which was quite often. It was: gey kebetten materi. As a child I had no idea what it meant. Since my mother died in 1956 I have not heard the expression at all and in fact it vanished from my consciousness. You can imagine my shock, a few years ago, when I made my wife angry (true to my form) and she came at me with: gey kebetten materi! It transpires that the phrase is so common today in Israel that even the Yemenites use it constantly when the occasion demands. What is my current connection with Yiddish? I am an avid member for the last 4 years of the Workmen's Circle Yiddish Choir under the direction of Zalman Mlotek. I have to rush off now because I have a rehearsal to attend. We are perf orming at the annual Third Seder on April 12 and if you want to "kvell" more than you have ever kvelled before, I would suggest you come to this incredible event. It is the big day of the year for me. Zei gezint, Henry Mullish 206)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Aug 17 13:29:36 1993 From: "London, Bonne R." Subject: Introduction My name is Bonne London as, as I have access to e-mail, I am functioning as a shaliach for my good friend Mr. Charles Nadler. Mr. Nadler is originally from New York but has been an active leader in the Jewish community of Sacramento California for over 40 years. He twice served as President of Congregation Mosaic Law and, with his late wife Aileen, was one of the founders of Kenesset Israel Torah Center, the orthodox synagogue in Sacramento, where he also served as President. Mr. Nadler is the retired Dean of Instruction of Sacramento City College. In addition to training scores of Sacramento children for Bar and Bat Mitzvah, he served as Hebrew School Principal for the Sacramento Bureau of Jewish Education. Mr. Nadler is an active supporter of Chabad of San Francisco and Chabad of Sacramento. He reads and speaks yiddish and for many years has written a column "Yiddish Corner" for the Sacramento Jewish newspaper. Mr. Nadler can be reached by writing to brlondon@ucdavis.edu. Bonne London 207)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 24 Sep 1992 10:19:29 -0400 (EDT) From: ANAKHIMOVSKY@COLGATEU.BITNET Subject: brief introduction My name is Alice Nakhimovsky. I teach Russian language and literature at Colgate. I've come to this through something of a back door - that is, I have studied and written about Russian Jews, 1860s to present (whatever I could figure out as of last year is in a book called Russian-Jewish Literature and Identity, Johns Hopkins 1992). Last year for the first time I managed to collaborate on a course that included Yiddish lit in translation. It was wonderful and I hope to do it again if the educational establishment here permits. So I'm here mostly to listen, unless someone has a question about Russian. My Yiddish is pretty primitive - if someone has information about worthwhile language tapes (not lit on tape) let me know. Alice Nakhimovsky Department of Russian Colgate University Hamilton N.Y. 13346 USA anakhimovsky@colgateu.bitnet tel 315-824-7274 fax 315-824-7176 208)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jan 17 14:50:39 1994 From: Holger Nath Subject: introduction; re: query by K.Weiser I have been receiving Mendele for a couple of months and I think it's time to introduce myself: My name is Holger Nath and I am a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia U. I am currently working on my thesis which deals with the standardization of Yiddish in the Soviet Union between the two World Wars. I intend to compare the planning of Soviet Yiddish with its co-territorial languages, Ukrainian and Belorussian. I am generally interested in language contact (in particular with Slavic languages) and in language revival, especially of Yiddish and Catalan. re: Kalmen Weiser's query: I am not familiar with Western publications, but I came across some Soviet books/articles/references during my research. Some, if not all of them should be found at YIVO, the New York Public Library, Columbia, or Harvard: Ukrainishe Visnshaft Akademye. (1935). Matematishe terminologye. Rusish-ukrainishe-yidishe, mit a yidishn indeks. Kiev-Kharkov: Ukrmelukhenatsmindfarlag Vaysrusishe Vinshaft-Akademye. institut far yidisher proletarisher kultur. (1926). Yidishe terminologye, num. 2: Matematishe terminologye. proyekt. Minsk: Institut far vaysruslendisher kultur. Zaretski, A. (1920). "Yidishe elementar matematishe terminologye" Kultur un Bildung 25-26: 29-38. Zaretski, A. (1923). Treminologisher [sic!] materyal: [Review] M. Zabludovski. Aritmetike: praktisher kurs far dervaksene: ershter bukh. Byalistok. In Yidish (Kharkov) 1: 23 Zaretski, A. (1923). "Yidishe elementare geometrishe terminologye" In Yidish (Kharkov) 1: 15-19. I also remember a reference to a math-textbook at Harvard, translated, I believe, by Zaretski. I'll look it up when I get a chance to go to Widener next week. Holger Nath 209)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 8 Aug 1995 09:48:01 +0200 (METDST) From: nefts@inet.uni-c.dk Subject: Intoduction A scholem aleykhem fir alle ! Ikh bin nay oyfn Mendele konferentz, az ikh vel zikh presentirn: Ikh bin der Efraim (mayn zsidowskie psoydoniim). Mayn rikhtige name iz Flemming Ravn Neft; ikh bin 31 johr un woyne in Malkes-Denemark Ikh bin bay der jiddischer schprakh selber-gelernt ; ikh finde jiddisch zayr scheyn un mit fiil cheyn :-))) A gutn tog nokh fir alle. Alles gutes un fraylaches, vintsche ikh, Efraim Neft 210)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Feb 12 22:56:48 1994 From: Kathleen_NOE@umail.umd.edu (kn11) Subject: introduction after a voyeuristic-like rapport with mendele for a couple weeks now, i think it is time for me to speak up and introduce myself. my name ist kathleen rose noe, i am a phd student in german lit at univ.of maryland. started yiddish one and a half years ago, but don't really have any regular shprakhpartners since the yivo zumerprogramm at columbia ended (in july). ober ikh ken zogn az ikh bin azakh tsufridn mit dem nays vos ikh derfar fun mendele un s'iz oykh interezant tsu zen fun vanen zenen di layt vos interezirn zikh mit yidish. right now in a seminar with Dr. Dorothy Bilik we are reading Glikl von Hamels memoirs and in case anyone is interested in a 17th century Hamburg Jewish woman's perspective on life and the world, i recommend it highly. every time i sit down with it i feel like i'm sitting in der shtub listening to her tales. to daniella harpaz: you were recently talking about schindlers list and is the portrayal of human behavior in the ghetto realistic or not... i haven't seen the movie yet, but thought that you and maybe others might be interested in a recent publication: the chronicle of Jewish ghetto policeman Calel Perechodik, which he wrote from may-oktober 1943. i read an excerpt, it is hard to read because the suffering and agony this man was in just jumps out of every line. he seems to feel that many jews sold each other out on purpose, for privileges, out of spite, whatever. he himself died in 1944. the manuscript had lain in the jewish institute in warsaw for 50 years and nobody cared to publish, cite, or critique it. in case you're interested, the publisher is pawel szapira, warsaw:Karta, 1993. its in polish, the title is: "Czy ja jestern morderca?" kathleen rose noe 211)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Feb 20 02:45:30 1994 From: Robert Novick Subject: Introduction I'm Bob Novick, age 55, married and living in Los Angeles. I grew up in New York, The Bronx, to be exact, attended Stuyvesant High School and C.C.N.Y., majoring in psychology. After graduate work in psychology at Boston University and Brandeis, I taught for a while at Oswego State College in New York. That was in the 1960s. Later I began work in marketing and public opinion research and now work as a consultant here in Los Angeles. My parents came from Poland and Russia and my first language was Yiddish. I attended a secular Jewish school and learned to read and write Yiddish as a child, but have lost some of my capabilities in the language since then. Three years ago I attended Klez-Kamp in New York and re-kindled my love for the language, the songs and met some old friends, including the daughter of one of my Yiddish teachers. I'm very interested in communicating with others who share my Jewish heritage and love of Yiddish. In Yiddish, mine nomen is Elia, ich vais nisht farvos. Elia Novick 212)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 08:03 CST From: Harriet Ottenheimer Subject: Sneezing and an introduction It's difficult to imagine why sneezes seem to go uncommented-on here in the midwest unless you consider the fact that the region (especially Kansas and Missouri and Nebraska) was "host" to a rather large influx of German immigrants in the 1800s. For a time there were German-speaking churches and schools and German newspapers. All of this changed rather dramatically after the turn of the century in response to Nativist initiatives (such as the "English-only" laws in Nebraska (1911, I think) and of course the anti-German sentiment associated with WWI and WWII. Most German Americans in the region went out of their way to assimilate and I would imagine that giving up such German-sounding words as "gesundheit" would have been an element of this effort. Of course this doesn't explain why there was no substitution of English equivalents, but it's a start. By the way, I was at a meeting the other night and someone sneezed and I said "Bless you" (figuring noone would appreciate tsu gezunt) and everyone looked at ME! Oh, well. Gotta test the situation every so often. Oh, yes. I never introduced myself. I'm here at Kansas State University (have been for 22 years) teaching Anthropology and (for the past five years) directing an interdisciplinary American Ethnic Studies Program. I grew up in Brooklyn and although I was one of those "good kids" who never learned Yiddish because it was my parents' "secret" language, I know some of the more commonly used words and phrases. I still sometimes feel like an "other" here in the midwest and I find reading Mendele quite comforting. Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer 213)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 14:14:34 -0500 (EST) From: CLAPALEY@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Introduction Sam Paley directs the Judaic Studies Program at SUNY Buffalo. Although a field archaeologist working in Israel and Turkey, he has a general interest in what Mendele is doing and will pass on relevant info of use to his adjuncts (JDS at Buffalo is the director and a crew of adjuncts). So I am happy to be here. All the best, SMP 214)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 14:48:44 -0500 From: pparsky@k12.ucs.umass.edu Subject: Introduction Sholem aleykhem. I'm Frayde. I live in Western MA. I teach English to aliens now, but for years, I was a student of Yiddish literature and Jewish history (and still am). I also translate Yiddish and have been singing in a Yiddish band in the area. Ikh gris alemen gor frayndlekh! Paula Parsky 215)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 27 Nov 94 09:52:50 EST From: 75332.2735@compuserve.com Subject: Introduction My name is Paul (Pinchos) Pascal and I live in Toronto, but was born and raised in Winnipeg. My education included seven years of Yiddish day school, at the I. L. Peretz Folk School, a school which began its life prior to World War I as the "Jewish Radical School", but was relatively tame by the time I arrived there in the early fifties. The truly radical Yiddish school in Winnipeg at that time was the Sholem Aleichem School, which, we were told, took its orders from Moscow! In addition to the grade school education, I took a few Yiddish courses at university. My parents each spoke Yiddish as their first language, but did not maintain it as the language of our home, except when we were visiting grandparents. My mother, a Litvakeh born in Slutsk, had a decidedly different accent than my father, a Rumeynisher, Canadian-born, and this mishmash has created interesting problems for me since. For example, this past summer I spent several weeks doing genealogical research in Romania, Belarus, and Israel. Jews I met in Romania had the benefit of my Rumeynish Yiddish, those in Belarus my Litvish Yiddish; but when visiting relatives from both sides of my family in Israel, I had to switch back and forth so frequently and quickly, that I often realized afterward that I had probably left my relatives wondering if I really was related to them. Back on this continent, a relative which I discovered in Long Island, is, as it turns out, heavily involved in a semi-professional group that performs Gilbert and Sullivan in Yiddish. The results are hilarious, with the original G+S humor overlaid with a layer of Yiddish humor. Since they do gigs all over the place, Toronto last year had the pleasure of their performance--to sell-out audiences. Toronto, it seems, still has some Yiddish ta'am. In fact, Toronto is fairly active Yiddishly, relatively speaking. There is a strong organization which sponsors regular Yiddish events and Yiddish classes, known as Friends of Yiddish, and Canadian Jewish Congress (the overarching Jewish organization in Canada) has a bureau devoted specifically to Yiddish. This past year, the annual Jewish Film Festival was joined later in the year with a specifically _Yiddish_ film festival, in which films of quality were the mainstay. Paul Pascal 216)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 30 Apr 95 19:36:27 EDT From: 75332.2735@compuserve.com Subject: Introduction The request from our shames to new subcribers to provide an introduction has reminded me that I did not, to my recollection, do so when I arrived here at Mendele. If I actually did so, but have forgotten, ikh bet aykh zayt mir moykhl. Born in Winnipeg in 1947 of a Vays-Russishe Mame and a Canadian-born Rumeynisher Tate, I was sent to the Yiddish day school, I. L. Peretz Folk Shule for seven years. At that time, the school, which was called the Jewish Radical School when it was founded around 1914, was losing some of its dogmatic fire, happy simply to be a Jewish school existing in an encroaching sea of assimilation. There was a "competitor", the Sholem Aleikhem Shule, which was still doggedly a bastion of Bolshevism--at least that was how we saw it from our viewpoint. The first language of both my parents was Yiddish, but they never used it with each other. Outside of school, I used Yiddish only to communicate with my grandmother. I took some Yiddish courses at university, but it stayed pretty dormant until the last eight years or so, when I went travelling the world from time to time and found it incredibly useful, especially behind the late and unlamented Iron Curtain. Since I had close relatives in the Soviet Union, and have been otherwise engaged in pursuing family roots, Yiddish has helped me forge new and strong bonds mit mayne kroyvim un mit yidn umetum. A couple of anecdotes: my sister's Israeli friend, settled in Canada, had her mother visiting, and her only common language with my mother was Yiddish. Of course, the visitor's Yiddish was 50% Yiddish / 50% Hebrew, while my mother's was 50% Yiddish / 50% English. As a bystander who knew all three languages, I think I was the only one who actually understood what they were talking about; they themselves must have had only the vaguest idea what the other was saying. Still, they chattered away happily for hours! When I myself was living for a year in Israel, I would regularly visit the woman described above. At the time, my Peretz Shule Hebrew was shvakh, so we conversed in Yiddish. At some point during the year I realized we were no longer speaking Yiddish but Hebrew. It was a strange experience because I did not make a decision to switch; I only realized after the fact that it was now easier for me to speak Hebrew than Yiddish. In the years since then, my Hebrew has had plenty of reinforcement and it is probably true that despite my formal schooling, I speak Hebrew more fluently than Yiddish. But it gives me pause that, even so, I find Yiddish is easier to read to this day. A couple of months ago I submitted to Mendele a posting about a book I acquired last summer in my mother's home town of Slutsk (Belarus), called Noifes Tsufim, printed in 1850. Mendele subscribers were very helpful in clarifying for me what exactly I possessed. I would now like to tell about two much more recent books, which are also amazing--but amazing BECAUSE they are recent. The first I found in a Minsk bookstore, also last summer. It is a hardcover book called Rusish-Yidisher Vertbukh, printed in Moscow in 1989! It is very high quality for the USSR, at least in its format. I find it incredible that such a book should be published in such a place at such a time. The other book is probably known to many Mendelyaner, since it was edited by Uriel and Beatrice Weinreich, but it was new to me and still fascinates me. It is a Yiddish phrase book for travelers, called Say It in Yiddish. I bought it but a few years ago. It tells world travelers how to say such phrases as "please change the oil", "I have nothing to declare", and "I want to open a checking account", in Yiddish. It is a testimony either to the Weinreichs' optimism or to their sense of humor, that they could imagine situations in which the traveler might find (and know that he/she found) a Yiddish-speaking auto mechanic, customs officer, and bank clerk, on their trip abroad. And it is an endorsement of such optimism or sense of humor that such a book is still being sold--and bought. Paul (Pinkhes) Pascal Toronto 217)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Apr 12 23:59:40 1994 From: dmp@psych.rochester.edu Subject: Introduction My name is David Perlmutter - I'm a theoretical linguist, now at the University of Rochester. I've been "lurking" on mendele for a while now, so it is high time I introduced myself. I spoke Yiddish for a very brief period in my childhood - a brief exposure for a matter of months when I was four, then for a year or so when I was six. My first and strongest language was English, which was the sole language of the household all the time I was growing up. My periods of exposure to Yiddish were the times we lived with my grandparents, who spoke only English at home. But the people who came to the house - writers, poets, theatre people, educators - they all spoke Yiddish. So I quickly got the message: English was an everyday language, a "kitchen language," while Yiddish was the language of High Culture! And I went to a Yiddish school besides during that period, with the result that I now read Yiddish reasonably fluently, though I haven't really spoken it for a long, long time. Reading mendele has been a wonderful experience. Like so many others, I had thought Yiddish was moribund, if not altogether dead. And the truth is that most of us are not members of a community where the language is used. Who would have thought that the Internet would CREATE a community that would enable the language to go on living for those of us who have no other contacts with it! Di gelegnhayt tsu leyenen yidish oyf mendele hot mir gebrakht a sakh hanoe. A hartsikn dank aykh alemen! Dovid Perlmutter 218)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Mar 4 08:23:09 1994 From: rjplaut@MIT.EDU Subject: Introduction I am a fan of Yiddish, growing up in Israel hearing my late grandmother Nechama Yanich speak to my mom in Yiddish. On occasion my grandfather contributed my grandmother's folk poetry to the Forward newspaper in the 1920s and 1930s. Eventually all of my grandmother's poetry was collected into a privately published volume entitled "mayn weltl" (my world) which includes 75 poems. One poem "mayn tefilah" (my prayer) was put to music by Sidor Belarsky. I have taken the Oxford Yiddish summer course in 1990, and need to refresh my knowledge of the language. I am also interested in Judeo-Spanish and Sephardi history and culture, at the present time I am completing a 70 year history of Jewish life in the Greek provinces before and after the Holocaust. Finally, I am a free-thinking rabbi, mindful of tradition, working as Hillel chaplain at MIT and serving a congregation in Martha's Vineyard. Last but not least, I do photoethnographic exhibitions, the most recent on Jewish life in Central Asia (Bukharan Jewish culture), as well as documentations on Jews in Greece, Turkey, New Zealand and the American South. Joshua Plaut 219)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Sep 22 19:00:15 1993 From: poe@keps.com (Bob Poe) Subject: Introduction I'm a new subscriber, but I've been reading someone else's copy of Mendele for a while now. (Thanks, Harold!) My mother was a native Yiddish speaker, but she taught us only a few isolated (but colorful) phrases. After I took a year of German in college and perceived the obvious relationships, I tried to learn some Yiddish in various ways: from my mother, from friends, from folk songs, etc., eventually from Weinreich's _College_Yiddish_. That was about 30-35 years ago, and I was not terribly successful in the effort. How I wish that Mendele existed at that time . . . or, rather, that I was 30 years younger today! My mother's uncle, Pinkhus Rudoy, was a Yiddish scholar. I believed he participated in a YIVO project to assemble an etymological Yiddish dictionary (analogous to the Oxford English Dictionary). Does this exist? Is it what I have seen referred to here as the Weinreich dictionary? He also wrote novels, that were serialized in the Forvert, I believe, under the name Pinye Bal-loshn; at least one of them, _Oyf_Amerikaner_Erd_, was published in book form. In response to Martin Davis's comment in Vol. 3.108, my mother and her family also said manse for mayse, but they mostly spoke a typical SEY dialect. (They lived in Olaskov--which has disappeared--, Golta, and Odessa.) Where does the `n' come from, and was it prevalent in CY and SEY both? Bob Poe 220)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 05 Jun 91 14:35:55 -0400 From: Ellen Prince Subject: RE: Vol 1.14 Introductions first, let me join mina graur in congratulating you on your initiative and thanking you for your hard work. my name is ellen prince, and i'm a professor of lin- guistics at the university of pennsylvania. my main interest is the discourse functions of syntax--how we know in what contexts to use the many syntactic forms that we can generate. i work on english and, for the past 8 years or so, on yiddish, and have also been involved in research on a bunch of other european, asian, and african languages. a secondary interest of mine is in language contact phenomena--what happens when languages interact in the heads/mouths of bilinguals--and have worked or directed work on yid- dish-english, yiddish-spanish, arabic-english, fula- mande-french (senegal), catalan-spanish, tagalog-span- ish-english (philippines), and japanese-english lan- guage-mixing. and i'm always happy to hear comments and anecdotes from all you bilinguals! a dank aykh. 221)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1992 20:44 EST From: RABINRL@SNYBUFVA.BITNET Subject: Introduction I am Associate Professor of Communication, NY State University College at Buffalo. I teach college students how to stand up in front of an audience and not embarrass themselves or the audience. I also teach them how to program computers (as a secondary appointment). I grew up in a home where Yiddish was spoken, and they spoke it to me, but did not bother to teach it to me. I learned to understand enough that I could tell if I was in trouble and the nature of that trouble so that I could refute it; but I refuted it in English. I joined the list to learn. Ronald Rabin 222)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Mar 23 17:07:30 1994 From: rabson@meeker.ucar.EDU Subject: Introduction I am an archivist in Boulder, Colorado, and also a member of the Boulder Yiddish Vinkl started by Dvorah Halperin Biasca. I don't know much Yiddish, but would like, eventually, to be able to speak and read Yiddish literature, most likely through a formal course of study somewhere. Recently, my uncle told me that his father (actually my great-grandfather who hailed from Vishnevo, now in Belarus) spent his free time writing Utopian stories in Yiddish, filling notebook after notebook. Unfortunately, none of the notebooks seems to be in existence any longer. For Andrew Cassel, who inquired about the definition of "salte-nosis": my maternal grandmother (who is still alive at 101) is from Keidan originally, and she made the "best" saltinosis (according to my mother). It's a triangular-shaped kreplach filled with cottage cheese and my grandmother usually floated it (them) in "milk-soup," and added dollops of sour cream. She was also known to occasionally fill the kreplach with ground-up meat (not hamburger), fried it and served it on the side with brisket. My mother has a recipe for it from a Pesach cookbook, believe it or not, and said she would send it along. I was pleased to see the discussion about the pronunciation of "bubbi" and "zeydi" versus "bubba" and "zeyda" because we have an ongoing dispute in our family about that...no we're not Toronto vs. Montreal, but upstate New York (Syracuse and Rochester) versus Brooklyn. The upstaters say, bubbi and zeydi, and the New Yorkers (downstaters) just the opposite. Lest I perpetuate the war between these two factions, I would just like to say that some years ago when I said "latkee" and "blintzee" to a friend who had grown up on the Lower East Side, I was roundly condemned by her and told that "my" pronunciation was ignorant... My sister believes this really is an issue of where you grew up in America (or in Canada) not where your ancestors came from (two grandparents from Lithuania, one from White Russia, and one from Hungary--her family spoke German not Yiddish anyway). Diane Rabson (Dvorah Masha) 223)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Apr 26 21:44:36 1994 From: bosno@aol.com Subject: Introduction Yiddish was my first language. I learned English together with my immigrant parents, who were liberated from Auschwitz eight years before I was born. I forgot Yiddish sufficiently so that by the time I went to Stanford, I could take an introductory course that emphasized that" Yidn voinen oyf alle continentin." I have recently forgotten Yiddish again and have had the distinction of being told by the head YIVO librarian that my Yiddish grammar is "shreklech." Joseph Ramek 224)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Oct 20 01:52:50 1993 From: "Joyce Rappaport" Subject: introduction I am an English professor at Chapman University, specializing in eighteenth-century poetry. My Yiddish connection is that I attended the Workman's Circle elementar-shul and middle-shul in NYC. My grandmother was the poet Malka Lee, and my other grandparents helped to establish the Jewish People's school in Montreal. Lately I've been haunted by the fact that all this "yichus" means nothing if I don't carry on the Yiddish tradition. That's why I have joined this group. Joyce Rappaport 225)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 1 18:33:01 1994 From: REISNER%PLEARN.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Introduction Some of you may recall my occasional comments from Moscow last year. Now we're in Warsaw. I am now Director of Research and Archives of The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, a private, U.S.-based foundation doing educational and cultural work in Central Europe. My task here is to assist the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland in its library, archives and expanding museum of Polish Jewish history and culture, in a variety of ways. My wife, Helise Lieberman, is also a Foundation employee, and she will, be-ezras HaShem, be opening Warsaw's first Jewish elementary school in decades this fall. (THe foundation has supported a kinder- garten for nearly four years already.) It's quite exciting. I welcome queries on Poland or Lithuania. Zayt mir gezint. I look forward to fruitful collaboration and enjoyable discussion. Yekhiel-Yoisef Reisner 226)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Aug 22 20:46:05 1993 From: uap@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu Subject: Introduction [I'm] a sociologist of the Jews located at the City College and Graduate Center of CUNY. I have just completed a vlume on the evolution of Jewish Learning in American Universities and am now working on population history of NY Jews. Paul Ritterband 227)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 11:05:52 -0400 (EDT) From: blrosen@umich.edu Subject: Introduction I'm a new "member" of Mendele and want to introduce myself. My name is Barbara Rosen (blrosen@umich.edu) and I'm the Judaica cataloguer at the University of Michigan. I'm really enjoying Mendele a lot so, a sheynem dank!! Barbara Rosen 228)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Sep 19 21:26:40 1993 From: Zachary Rosen Subject: Introduction We live on the Upper West Side of New York, and belong to the West Side Shule, a school for our ten year old daughter that is devoted to "secular" aspects of Judiasm and Judaic culture. Gerry Segal, President of the Shule, and Yiddishe Cyberman extraordinaire told me of this internet facility as I was just becoming enmeshed in it. At the Shule, we enjoy the comraderie of shared Jewish and Yiddish heritage and custom, and try to convey the same to our kids (more or less successfully - my hope is not as badly as was conveyed to me in "Hebrew School," where I think Yiddishe culture and Judaism were blandidized and judgmentalized to cancel out any interest in children at all). For me, becoming involved in this Mendele group means trying to connect to my Jewish heritage in a variety of ways, some of which are still not clear to me. Some of these connections are so-called "secular" and have to do with enjoying hearing songs, seeing a Passover meal, listening to Yiddish tales and parables, and realizing what it is to be Jewish. There is another connection that remains elusive, that of the more religious/spiritual realm, that is more than elusive and more than likely will not be met by this format. In any event, that is somewhat of where I/we are coming from in connection to Yiddish study. Looking forward to future interactions. Zach Rosen 229)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Jan 95 19:17:50 PST From: nrosenbl@interserv.com Subject: Introduction I have been "lurking" about, enjoying this delightful group. I have been a bit shy about participating as I am really a novice regarding Yiddish. My parents were immigrants, and although Yiddish was the first language I learned to speak, it is only recently that I began to learn to read Yiddish. You see, it was several years after I myself became a zedeh that I realized the importance of preserving Yiddish. We grow too soon old, and too late smart. I began using "College Yiddish," and did well with it. I then tried to continue using "Yiddish Tsvay" but found that text to be difficult. It is heavy on grammar and I'm not quite ready for it. I need intermediate level material with which to develop my reading skills. I subscribe to the "Forverts," and that is the level at which I can now read, though slowly and with a dictionary near at hand. Can anyone recommend reading material which will help me. My goal is to be able to read Yiddish novels and essays with ease. I suppose literature written for young people would be the most helpful. I support YIVO and the NYBC, and I attend local meetings of the SPY here in San Diego, California. A shaynem dank for any and all assistance. Nukhum Rosenblatt 230)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1994 18:10:07 -0500 From: rockrosen@aol.com Subject: Introduction I am new to the Internet and to Mendele. I have been immersed in Yiddish personally and professionally all my life. I am an alumnus of the Folk-shule (Montreal), Camp Hemshekh, the Yiddish Drama Group with Dora Wasserman, Yugntruf in the 60's, professional Yiddish Theater, Yiddish radio, the Bund, Workmen's Circle, un azoy vayter...Currently, I write news for the Forverts, broadcast the news daily on WEVD, and book many Yiddish performers in North America, and some in Europe I am happy to have joined Mendele, knowing that so many friends and colleagues are here as well. I look forward to this important connection. I have one project which I would like to mention. The Bund is planning to produce a documentary about Camp Hemshekh. If there is anyone who wishes to be involved, or can supply archival materials, film footage, audio, photographs, or would be willing to be interviewed for the film, please get in touch with me. We're at the pre-preliminary stages. Moishe Rosenfeld 231)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon May 23 11:35:20 1994 From: lrosenwald@wellesley.edu Subject: Introduction My name is Larry Rosenwald, and I teach English at Wellesley College. I've probably corresponded with some of you, during the time when I was co-editor of a prospective Schocken anthology of American Yiddish prose. (The anthology is on hold, by the way; I don't know what plans Schocken has for it.) I learned my Yiddish from Pearl Kahan, at the University of Chicago; I've done a little translating (a story by I. J. Singer) and some teaching of Yiddish material. Two questions, one general and one specific. 1) I'm working on a big project I call Multilingual America, on scenes of language and dialect contact in American writing. I'd like there to be a chapter on Yiddish as an example, neither typical nor unrepresentative, of what happens to immigrant languages in America. I have some sense of what English texts are central for me; but I'd appreciate any suggestions of Yiddish texts that reflect on, or portray, the relations between Yiddish and English in America. 2) I had a student this last semester working on Yiddish who did a translation of a Peretz story called "A Khanike-Lempl." In that story there's a phrase about someone eagerly seizing something "vi tsu/oyf [I can't remember and have no access to the book at the moment] a heysn poplinik." I can't find poplinik, either in my dictionaries or through consultation with Slavicist colleagues. Anyone know the word or the phrase? A sheynem dank, Larry Rosenwald 232)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 3 May 95 20:52 GMT From: rothr@infomail.infonet.com Subject: Introduction I am a very recent member of Mendele, connecting from Belgium, Brussels Area. My name is Rudi Roth, mathematician and working today in data-commmunications. I started Yiddish a good year ago at a 2-week summer course (a Pintele of Yiddish) in the University of Brussels and continued since. Got this tuesday my Yiddish exam and cross my fingers. I managed since some days to type in correctly yiddish under Word6 and would like to see how we could exchange yiddish typed texts over the Net. In Europe, we use X.400 as mail system and you can just attach any file with your mail. Over the Net it is somewhat more complicated today. Any candidates? I have also two suggestions for Mendele: 1. Calender of Yiddish activities. As I have seen in Mendele, there are several events taking place regarding yiddish activities, why not make a kind of rolling-over calender issued once a week or a fortnight and containing those such as Mamelosh '95, Ashkenaz, Yiddish convention in Miami, a yiddish summer programme in Polen and Galicie,...? It could consist of activities of a certain duration that are worth the trip, the detour or that someone travelling in the area could attend. I know of some other activities in Europe that are worth mentionning and I just list here what I have and know. If Mendele wants to make a calender, this could be a start and why not already somewhat structured (I just add a suggestion hereafter, feel free to adapt): Dates,Location,Activity,Organizer,tel,fax,contact name,price 18 JUNE,25JUNE,Krakau(PL),Yiddish song festival (no more info available) 3 JULY,14 JULY,Brussels(BE),A Pintele of Yiddish (course and activities),Martin Buber Institute of the free University of Brussels,+32 2 650 33 48,+32 2 650 33 47,Mr W. BOK 17 JULY,11 AUGUST 95,Oxford(UK),Yiddish Summer Course,Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies,+44 1865 798989,+44 1865 798987,Marie Wright,450-975USD 2. Yiddish and etymology. My other suggestion concerns etymology and it could become a part of the now "well-known" yiddish on cd-rom. Several languages have imported words from yiddish and accepted them as part of the "official" language. A lot of the words came from hebrew, but were derived from the yiddish form. Why not search for those in several languages. I have some in french and dutch and I am sure that there are "tons" in english, but also in other languages. That's it for now. A gut yor. Rudi Roth 233)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 27 Sep 91 23:01:15 -0400 From: ROBERT.ROTHSTEIN@SLAVIC.umass.edu Subject: Reply to Welcome Since I'm new to , I don't know how much information--and what kind-- you'd like. Is the following sufficient? I am professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and of Judaic Studies at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where I've been since 1971. I'm a Slavic linguist with interest as well in Slavic and Yiddish folk and popular music and in Slavic-Yiddish cultural connections. I'm an occasional contributor to the Mloteks' "Perl fun der yidisher literatur" in the Yiddish "Forverts". Bob Rothstein P.S. Is there a list of list members? [There is, and Mendele would like to hear from _all_ of them.] 234)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 24 Sep 1994 01:17 EDT From: rozas@binah.cc.brandeis.edu Subject: Introduction Tajere Chavejrim! I am a Lithuanian student studying at Brandeis University. I have been in the U.S. for a little bit more than a year. I grew up speaking Yiddish as the main language although Lithuanian started pushing it somewhat once I started going to school . I did not have any significant education in Yiddish for obvious reasons, however I did learn to read and write recently. I just joined the list and it seems to have huge waves of discussion regarding latinization of Yiddish. I was tired to read the entire discussion, but it seems that people have their strong opinions and will stick to them. I will stick in a couple of Lithuanian letters for Yiddish sounds once in a while, so please do not get angry. It is just easier for me. Since we do not use the right letters anyway (Hebrew, that is) I do not see the reason for a huge argument. Just for your reference c is more convenient than ts or tz or the German z. Z could actually stay as z (like in zoo). Eastern European languages having an entirely phonetic spelling might be more useful as a base for "latinization" of yiddish. Actually the "latinization" does not sound as a very inspiring term. We know where Latin is /nit af unz gezogt/. I will welcome any further comments or questions. I do have some information on Lithuania if anyone is interested. Simon Rozas 235)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon May 17 12:48:07 1993 From: nrubin@s1.csuhayward.edu (martha rubin) Subject: Introduction I am a professional musician, and a past student of german. I have an interest in yiddish because of my husband's slight knowledge of it, wanting to share a bit of that heritage with our 10 year old daughter, and because of my (not entirely fluent) knowledge of german. I also am interested in yiddish folk songs. martha rubin 236)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 08 Nov 94 08:24 PST From: izzydz3@mvs.oac.ucla.edu Subject: Introduction I'm a Ph.D student in Applied Linguistics at UCLA. For my dissertation, I hope to focus o n teasing in Yiddish conversation. Through Mendele, I hope to get in touch wit h other scholars interested in this topic, and people who speak Yiddish regular ly at home, especially young parents and their children, or grandparents who li ve with their grandchildren. My data sets are based on video and audio tapes of Yiddish conversation. I've been enjoying and finding useful the communications I receive from Mendele and will begin contributing as well. Miki Safadi 237)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Apr 19 14:42:21 1993 From: ASAFER@WCHESTER.BITNET Subject: Introduction I am new to the Internet and was browsing through some listservs and chose to s ign up to yours because of personal interest. I work for New York State's Board of Cooperative Educational Services, Regional Information Center. We support 67 school districts in Westchester, Rockland a nd Putnam Counties in computer/educational technology. We set up networks, pro vide teacher training in software applications and create educational programs using the latest in educational technology including multi-media and telecommun ications. Internet is one of our new projects. I look forward to hearing more from your group and hope to be able to contribute. My Yiddish education is informal. Yiddish was my first language. It was spokent in my home when I was growing up. Annette Fashing Safer 238)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Dec 1 22:35:08 1993 From: HQS5713@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU Subject: Introduction I studied yiddish for many years in a Sholem Aleichem Folk Schule but lost contact with it, unfortunately. Subscribing to Mendele is my way of retaining contact with at least the culture. Howard Sage 239)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 25 Nov 1994 20:35:13 -0500 From: yankl191@aol.com Subject: Introduction I did not grow up in a house with a strong Jewish cultural identity. We were Reform Jews, and only one of my grandparents, Philip Salant was born in Europe: Lomzhe, Poland. Yiddish held a certain fascination for me as a nisht-far-di-kinder-shprakh. "gotenyu," "gvalt," "mitskin derinen," and "meshuge ke' me' vern" are about all I remember from those days. Minimal Hebrew school and a Bar Mitsve did, at least, prepare me with alef-beys literacy for my later involvement in the Yiddish svive. Having studied French, Italian and German as an undergraduate at Rutgers, I entered the Columbia Yiddish Studies Program in 1985. Since that time I have worked consistently in the field of Yiddish. While in the Columbia program, I worked for Mikhl Herzog on the Great Yiddish Dictionary, punching definitions from existing dictionaries into a database file. (My letter was vov.) I'm pleased to hear that the project may proceed. I have taught Yiddish to children in various shules around New York, and for the past few years, have been teaching in the children's program at KlezKamp. In the summer of 1991, I was elementary Yiddish instructor in Columbia and YIVO's Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture (Yiddish Summer Program), and after co-directing the program in 1993, have become the Director of Yiddish Language Programs at YIVO, including the Yiddish Summer Program and YIVO's evening Yiddish classes. I will be posting a detailed announcement soon about the Yiddish Summer Program, but for now, here are the dates: June 26-August 4, 1995 on the Columbia University campus. If you want a brochure when they come out early in January, call YIVO at (212) 246-6080 and leave your address. You will be put on the mailing list. It's been a mekhaye reading contributions of people I've known for years. zayt mir ale gezunt un shtark. a freylekhe khanike alemen. yankl salant 240)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Mar 21 10:32:10 EST 1995 From: rsaltzma@nyplgate.nypl.org Subject: Introduction; Singer in Gaelic My name is Roberta Saltzman, and I'm a librarian in the Jewish Division of The New York Public Library. I catalog books in Hebrew and Yiddish and I also work at the reference desk. I've completed a bibliography of I.B. Singer's Yiddish works from 1960-1991, which will (I hope) be published this year. And this brings me to my main reason for writing, which was a query in Mendele Vol. 4.372. Jonathan Dembling asks about the origin of a Gaelic translation of a Singer story "the title of which translates into English as 'Jealousy' ... The title could also mean 'Zeal.' I've only just started to read the story, but so far there is a Zalman and a Rabbi Meir in the village of Radoszyce." I know of no Singer story that has "jealousy" or "zeal" in the title, but I believe Mr. Dembling has a translation of one of the stories that involve Zalman the glazier (who always tells about his village, Radoszyce) and Meir the eunuch. I know of five stories in which these characters appear: 1. "Dray mayses" appears in Yiddish in book form in "Der shpigl" (Jerusalem, 1975). It was translated into English as "Three tales" in "Short Friday, and other stories" (NY, 1964) 2. "Mayses fun hintern oyvn" appears in book form in the collection of the same name (Tel Aviv, 1971) and in "Der shpigl". It was translated into English as "Stories from behind the stove" in "A friend of Kafka" (NY, 1970) 3. "Tayves" appeared in the journal "Goldene keyt", no. 87 (1975), pp. 16-26. It was translated into English as "Passions" in the collection of the same name (NY, 1975) 4. "Tsvey hasenes un eyn get" appeared in the "Forverts" on April 24, 1977 (pp. C1, C2 and C19). It was translated into English as "Two weddings and one divorce" in "Old love" (NY, 1979) 5. "Moon and madness" in "The collected stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer" (NY, 1982). I haven't been able to identify the original Yiddish of this story. Of course, you need more plot details to determine which of these stories was translated into Gaelic, but this is a start. Roberta Saltzman New York, NY 241)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Jun 91 08:23:32 -0400 From: beatrice@unagi.cis.upenn.EDU Subject: Introduction i'm a linguist interested in the germanic languages, so therefore i'm interested in yiddish. i wrote my doc- toral thesis on the change in the history of yiddish of the position of the tensed verb in subordinate clauses. yiddish subordinate clauses start out by looking pretty much like german ones, but by the time east yiddish has split off from west yiddish and west yiddish has de- clined, they look pretty different. i'm currently working on a further word order change: the order of untensed verbs and their objects. in early yiddish, the order is generally obj-v, but again in modern yiddish, it's the other way around. when did this change happen? how fast did it happen? did it happen both in west and in east yiddish? this is the type of stuff that keeps me up at night. given that i've mostly mucked about in the early yiddish literature, my knowledge of modern yiddish literature is fairliy abysmal, but i'm educable! 242)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Mar 7 10:12:31 1994 From: sapoznik@aol.com Subject: Introduction I am a Yiddish music historian with a specialty in klezmer music and Yiddish-American popular and folk culture. In 1979 I founded the "Kapelye" klezmer ensemble (still VERY active!) and then designed and directed (until quite recently) the Max and Freida Weinstein Archives of Recorded Sound at the YIVO Institute. In 1985 I founded and continue to direct the Yiddish FolkArts Program ("KlezKamp") now under its new aegis of"Living Traditions". Currently, I am co-researching a National Public Radio documentary and book on the history of Yiddish radio in America (1925-1955) and am host and producer of the all-Yiddish radio show on New York's WEVD, The Forward Hour. Henry Sapoznik 243)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 30 Jun 1995 09:56:46 -0500 From: normans@escape.com Subject: Introduction and query My name is Norman Savitt and for the last two months I have been forwarding printed copies of Mendele at the eager request of my parents, Isaac Savitky and Sara Berman, who although not yet official members of the computer revolution have been enjoying this list none the less. They both were born and lived in a shtetl called Slonim on the Russian-Polish border from the 1920's till the war, speaking yiddish, polish, russian and some ukranian. During the war they, unfortunately unlike most of their families, were able to escape to Russia. Afterwards they lived in Germany, France and Cuba, where I was born. They each speak many languages fluently and are familiar with many cultures but consider yiddish their main spiritual core. I also occasionally forward printed copies to my friend Tuli Kupferberg, who also grew up with yiddish as his first language but in the New York City of the 1920's and 30's. One of the original Beat poets, he is also an acomplished cartoonist and songwriter often using traditional melodies. He also is an avid collector of yiddish songs, poetry and prose. My own knowlege of yiddish is quite limited to tidbits from my parents and from what I can glean off Mickey Katz records, which I find quite amusing despite a limited understanding. My mother asks: "Does someone know the origin of the yiddish expression "Lakhn mit yashtcherkes"? I know it means "laugh with lizards" but why?" Thanking anyone who cares to respond in advance, Norman Savitt 244)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Dec 94 13:10 EST From: 22966lbs@msu.edu Subject: Introduction My name is Larry Schiamberg. I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago, in the South Shore community. The neighborhood was replete with delightful relatives and friends of parents who all spoke yiddish. As the oldest of three,now all somewhere in middle age, I was fondly referred to with the code word--"Der Groisser," particularly when the discussion turned on matters not intended for my ears(although I did a pretty good job of cracking the code, while feigning innocence).In short yiddish was--and still is--a part of my life that I wish to rekindle and expand. I note, with interest,that the Mendele list address is at Yale, where my youngest son is a junior, and from whence he returned for the summer with a tape of yiddish music which he borrowed, and copied, from a classmate, with the admonition---"I must get this for my father!" I did my Ph.D. in psychology, with a focus on human development, at the University of Illinois--Urbana/Champaign in 1970, with a subsequent stop at the U.of Wisconsin/Madison. I have been at Michigan State University in East Lansing since 1973. My wife, three children (two in college, one a senior in high school) and basset hound (registered as "Spartan Spirit Schiamberg")all reside in Okemos. Larry Schiamberg 245)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Jun 10 13:20:39 1994 From: glschm@minerva.cis.yale.edu Subject: Introduction/query I am a newly-hatched member of the Mendele list (as of this morning) and have been having a great time all day reading some of the past issues. I do not speak Yiddish, understand it fairly well (my parents, Polish Jews from Warsaw and Wieruszow [Western Poland, near Wielun] spoke it constantly at home and had to resort to Polish to speak "over our heads") and read it with more or less facility, depending on the material. I can handle historical publications, e.g. about the Holocaust, with relative ease, but have appreciable difficulty with more literary works. I would like to ask for help with the following. Some years ago, I read, possibly in the now-defunct magazine Present Tense, a humorous anecdote, of which I unfortunately remember only the punch line, which I cite here, in the hope that one of your readers will recognize it and be able to supply the rest of the story (and possibly also the source): At a meeting in China between a western traveler and a group of local inhabitants, the visitor makes somes remarks at the end of which one of the incredulous Chinese members of the audience leans over to the visitor and murmurs "emes?" As I recall, the point of the story was to emphasize the ubiquitous utility of "mame loshn". Gaston L. Schmir 246)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 24 Sep 1994 23:07:25 -0400 From: srs3@crux1.cit.cornell.edu Subject: Introduction and query Well, I am a grad student in electrical engineering, and don't know any Yiddish. So perhaps I shouldn't be on this list, but I was interested in learning, so if anyone has any suggestions for books and tapes that have been found useful from personal experience I would be glad to hear about it. I haven't had any luck in meeting anyone who is willing to teach me Yiddish. ps: since my only experience with Yiddish has been observing its use among relatives who wished for me not to understand what they were saying no one should turn around and be surprised that i never did learn it. mordechai steve seidman 247)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Apr 20 09:14:01 1994 From: shapiror@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Introduction I'm very new to the Internet and Mendele. I'm a specialist in the history of Polish Jewry in the 20th century and teach at Yeshiva University. My interest in Yiddish goes back to infancy when Yiddish was literally mame-loshn for me. I've participated in the Uriel Weinreich Summer Yiddish Program at Columbia/YIVO and in Oxford's Summer Yiddish Program. Two of the best Yiddish teachers I've ever known are Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter and Dr. Yitskhok Niborski, khotsh zey trogn nisht keyn akhrayes far mayne shgiyes, tausim un grayzn. I've taught Yiddish at the Baltimore Hebrew College and at Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University. This summer, I will again teach Yiddish to the interns laboring at the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA. My most recent completed projects include a translation of Pinkhes Minc, Lodzh in mayn zikorn (Buenos Aires, 1958), a book of memoirs by a native of Lodz, Poland, who lovingly and skillfully portrays Lodz during the two decades before the outbreak of the First World War. In many ways, Minc's memoir is an important complement to the image of Lodz in I.J. Singer's Brother's Ashkenazi. Minc came from a Gerer Hasidic household, but grew to become a socialist, initially in the Bund, then in the Polish Communist Party's Jewish section. By the early 1930s, Minc had broken with Stalin's Communist Party and began a return to the fold of the Bund in Paris. During the Second World War, Minc was active in the Jewish resistance in France and edited a clandestine Yiddish newspaper. Minc spent his last years active in the Bund and Jewish cultural life in Buenos Aires. Mit groys derekh-erets, Ruvn-moyshe Shapiro 248)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jul 20 10:29:09 1993 From: SHAVELSON%BRANDEIS.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: Introduction Hello, I'm very happy to be a new Mendele participant! I am a University of Michigan doctoral candidate in the Program in American Culture. My thesis is on Jewish immigrant women's Yiddish and English autobiographies. I began my study of Yiddish in the summer of 1989 at YIVO, and then continued for two years at Michigan. My mother, who spoke Yiddish as a child, is thrilled that once again she has someone to speak with. Susanne Shavelson [Tsipe Khana] 249)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 14:37:01 -0700 From: spaceman@gn2.getnet.com> Subject: Introduction My name is Arthur Sheppard (Art to friends) and I've just started to learn Yiddish. I come from a very non-jewish home. In fact I had my Bar Mitzvah two years ago at the age of 66. Our Temple Chavurah has just started a "Yiddishkite Chavurah and I and my wife are both members. My wife (Bobby) and my sister-in-law both speak and sing in Yiddish since their mother and father were members of the Yiddish theatre in Pittsburgh many year ago. I am a retired Communications Engineer and spent many years travelling around the world in that capacity. The sobriquet "Spaceman" comes from my many years connected with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. We have four children worldwide. A son in Denver, another son in Redondo Beach, California, a daughter in Israel, and another daughter in Los Angeles, which gives us four grandchildren. So you can see my wife and I still do lots of travelling. Art Sheppard 250)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 23 01:57:08 1994 From: 071JOS@witsvma.wits.ac.za Subject: Introduction As a newly joined member of _Mendele_ I should like to introduce myself to you all, with the hope that we shall be in correspondence for a long time to come. My name is Joseph Sherman, and I live in Johannesburg, South Africa where I teach English Literature in the University of the Witwatersrand, although my major research interest is Yiddish literature. My special areas of specialisation in Yiddish are South African Yiddish writing, the brothers I.J. and I.B. Singer, Ayzik-Meir Dik and Sholem Asch. I wonder how many of _Mendele's_ readers abroad know that there is a considerable body of Yiddish literature entirely indigenous to South Africa? I have published, in English translation, a volume of Yiddish stories about South Africa entitled _From A Land Far Off_, as well as several critical articles on Yiddish topics in journals both here in South Africa and in the States. Yiddish was a home language for me; my parents and grandparents both spoke it all the time, and I studied Hebrew to Matriculation level in a Jewish Day School here. The Yiddishists lost the battle hopelssly to the Zionists here in South Africa, and during my childhood and adolescence, many parents (not mine, borukh hashem) were actually ashamed that their children should know or speak Yiddish. I should be particularly interested to hear from other readers about the potential level of interest there might be in America and elsewhere in the world about South African Yiddish literature. If I were to translate, edit and annotate a major Yiddish South African novel, would there be readers (and buyers) of the book out there? I should mention that the novel I have in mind was written by my late uncle, Jacob Mordecai Sherman, who was for over fifty years the leading figure and guiding spirit of Yiddish literature and belles-lettres here. The reason I ask about this novel, in possible English translation, is that I am trying to persuade my university's press to publish it, and they are (I suppose understandably) reluctant to do so without knowing what kind of market there might be both here and abroad. Lost visn, khevre. Ikh vil shraybn vegn etlekhe andere inyonim, ober s'iz do shoyn genug far dem ershter mol. A tsvetyn briv vet kumen iber a por minutn arum. Al dos guts Joseph Sherman 251)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Dec 1994 10:14:29 -0500 From: sashifrin@aol.com Subject: Introduction My husband, Paul Shifrin, is a proud graduate of the Workman's Circle shule in Detroit. I heard Yiddish spoken by my great-grandmother and grew to love it, though I am far from fluent. Yiddish songs are part of our Chanukah and Pesach celebrations as we attempt to pass on some of its richness to our four children in Ann Arbor. We are new to the internet and are thrilled with finding so many enriching Jewish resources. We look forward to learning with you. Sari Wolgel Shifrin Paul Shifrin 252)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 17:35:48 -0500 (EST) From: ashuchat@wellesley.edu Subject: Introduction I've been receiving and contributing to mendele for a while, but haven't gotten around to introducing myself. Ikh bin a matematiker bei Wellesley College, vu Larry Rosenwald oikh arbet az a maven fun english. Ven ikh bin geven a kind, mayne bobe iz gevoint mit undz. Zi un mayne eltern hobn a sakh yidish gredn, az di kinder zoln nit farshteyn. Hob ikh gelernt a bisl yidish af "self-defense." Ven ikh bin geven etlekher yor elter, hob ikh geleynt dem bukh fun Weinreich un hob afilu geshriben briven zu di bobe. Zi iz geboyren gevoren in Bessarabia ( Soroki), un mayne andere bobe-zayde zenen gekumen fun Ukraine (Tolne, vu der alter zayde iz geven a khazn), un ikh red der yidish fun dorten. Yetzt zukh ikh bikher af der yidisher leben in Bessarabia un Ukraine fun zeyer tseit. 'Siz far mir a fargenigen laynen yidish bei mendele. Yasher koyekh zum shames far zein arbet. Alan Shuchat 253)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Mar 14 04:27:07 1994 From: Subject: Introduction Dear Mendelniks, after more than two months of reading Mendele, I think I owe you an introduction, just to say "Ahem, I'm with you". I am a fifty year old mathematician, currently (and probably for good) working as a sysadmin for the computing center of TU (Technical University) Berlin. In spite of my last name I'm as gentile as they come. My connection with Yiddish... Well, it's rather superficial, at least by Mendele standards. When I try to remember, I think I became aware of the existence of Yiddish when I was about fifteen years old when I read a German dime novel which had a Jewish background. To add some color, the author had thrown in -- well, not Yiddish phrases, but some double negatives and some characteristic inversions, and for some reason I was charmed. My interest was revived some ten years later when I heard my first Yiddish song. It was "Yokh, mayn libe tokhter" by the Barry Sisters, of all things. I was a part-time amateur folk singer then and soon made this, and some more Yiddish music part of my repertory. Soon I became aware that, in order to know what I was doing, I had to learn more about the language. So I got myself some books, most notably Birnbaum's _Grammatik der Jiddischen Sprache_, and tried to learn what I needed for the purpose. I have given up folk singing since then (it was never much to write home about), but my interest for Yiddish has remained. So I was delighted to learn about the existence of Mendele in the beginning of 1994 and subscribed immediately. I have been lurking ever since, only occasionally replying by direct email to a question when I thought that my knowledge of modern German might be useful. Anno Siegel 254)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jan 17 14:08:22 1994 From: Steve Silbert Subject: Introduction My name is Steve (Schmuel) Silbert. I am an engineer in the Mid-Atlantic. My interest in Yiddish has come about for two reasons, both of which can be traced back to my Zeide. As long as I can remember, Zeide has told me stories about when he was growing up on the family farm in Hamilton, Ontario. His parents (Alle Hashalom) spoke no English, only Yiddish. He and his multitude of siblings grew up speaking Yiddish in the home and english outside. My Zeide is a gifted (although not always 100 percent accurate) storyteller and writer. As he has gotten along in years I began to feel closer to him. I think that with his eventual passing, both of us were afraid that much of the family history and the history of our people would be lost. Because of this, I began to TRY and write letters to he and Bubbie in Yiddish. Without any real training, it takes about two weeks of spare time to translate about one page of Yiddish. As a side note, I have since purchased a program for Windows called Heb Type from Kabbalah Software that has the Hebrew character set and works as a Yiddish word processor. My Yiddish is good enough that Zeide recognizes it as Yiddish, but my grammar is non-existent. He still shows off my letters to his friends at the local shule gatherings (except the one letter that I wrote everything backwards -- it took Zeide a little while to figure out my secret code) Since I was married two years ago, I have gotten the genealogy bug from my Zeide. He started working on a family tree and newsletter in the early 80's but that died off due to a lack of the funds necessary to mail each letter. I have taken on the task of tracking down lost relatives, obtaining stories, etc. As I began to talk to some of the older relatives i found that though they spoke English it was more meaningful to them that I could understand at least some of a Yiddish conversation. I also found that the stories were conveyed in a warmer, more expressive and meaningful way when they were told in Yiddish. I have since become interested in literature by Yiddish authors (so far I have been reading Shalom Aleichem and Isaac Singer). I would be grateful for any suggested readings. For the present I have been confining myself to English translations. I am looking forward to future conversations with others of similar interests. Thank you to the administrator(s) of this listing for providing this service. Schmuel 255)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Aug 1995 13:37:05 -0700 From: adwriter@sierra.net Subject: Introduction Thanks to Morrie Feller, I have found my way into Mendele and you are all stirring up wonderful memories of growing up in a large family in New York and Connecticut. While my Yiddish is limited to a few words and phrases, reading the Mendele mail is pushing me to learn more. As a further incentive for me to join this active group, I had an Aunt Yetta Zwerling who co-starred with Menasha Skolnick (pardon the spelling) in the Yiddish theatre. She would have loved this. Thanks for keeping Yiddish alive, Dennis Skigen 256)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 01 May 1995 22:59:36 -0700 From: sklansky@newport.ece.uci.edu Subject: Introduction My name is Jack Sklansky. I grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn during the thirties. At that time and place, at least four Yiddish newspapers were published. My father read one of them, chosen somewhat arbitrarily, each day. He taught me to read them. Until the age of 6, Yiddish was my primary tongue. But, sorry to say, I lost most of my fluency in it as I grew older. I am a semi-retired Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering living in Newport Beach, California -- which is a great cultural distance from the Yiddishkeit of my youth. So it is with great pleasure and gratitude that I sense a wonderful renewal of the Yiddish language and culture of my parents and their ancestors in Belarus and Ukraine. A hartziken dank zu mendele. Jack ("Yankel") Sklansky 257)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 14:31:21 -0700 From: slobin@cogsci.Berkeley.EDU Sunbject: An introduction and a query I am Dan Slobin, a psycholinguist at the University of California at Berkeley. I'm not a native speaker of Yiddish, but when I was six my mother sat me down after dinner--in Detroit in the forties--and taught me to read and write Yiddish, first working through "Der Onheyber" and later "Mayn Shprachbuch." Many years later, my first published article was on Yiddish pronouns of address (Word, 1963, 19:193-202), submitted with encouragement from Uriel Weinreich, and based on interviews with my grandmother and her generation. Over many years I corresponded with my grandmother in Yiddish, and have a corpus of several dozen letters that she wrote to me. I have been analyzing these letters from various points of view (formulaic language, representation of kinship structure, epistolary organization). Here's my query: I once asked my grandmother how she learned to write letters. She was born in 1888 in Uman, Ukraine. She told me that her father hired a tutor for her and a small group of girls--it must have been somewhere around the end of the last century--to ensure that they would be literate in Yiddish and Russian. She remembered that they used a letter-writing manual as a guide. I have found several such manuals in the YIVO library, but they only present model letters, with no explicit instructions. Does anyone know of manuals that also gave instructions about how to write letters: what to include, what opening and closing forms to use, how to organize them, etc.? I'm eager to know the extent to which my grandmother's very formulaic letters might have been based on explicit instruction in the art of letter writing. Dan Slobin (slobin@cogsci.berkeley.edu) 258)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 08 Aug 94 16:03:00 edt From: SolomonJ@wwpo.nidr.nih.gov Subject: Introduction I am a new user. My name is Janice, and I would like to learn more about Yiddish. My grandparents speak Yiddish to each other when they want to tell secrets, but I really understand very little. I hope this is a good place to learn. Janice Solomon 259)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jul 12 10:04:16 1994 From: hjs@nrc.gov Subject: Introduction Ikh heys Harvey. Mayn yidishe nomn iz Hersh, but that was only used by immediate family, and only my brother dares use it now. Parents were native speakers of Yidish, but spoke unaccented (well, New York accented) English at home. Father born in Galitzian shtetl near Dembitz and Yaslo, mother's family from Poltusk, north of Warsaw. Standard story of English spoken in the home, Yidish at family gatherings. Grandmother lived with us many years; she spoke Yidish to us, we answered in gehakte Yidish. I'm 43, live in golus (Virginia suburbs of DC), married to daughter of German Holocaust refugee (hence a yeke, in whose family Yidish was held in low regard). Our kids (Joseph 7 and Shoshana 4) understand the gemutchte Hebrew we speak at home, but also hear tapes of Yidish songs. Each kid, at about age 3, demanded "Der Rebbe Elimelech" as his/her nighttime song every night for about six months. Have quite a large collection of Yidish books (thanks to family, book sales and NYBC). Can't speak worth bopkes, but enjoy slowly reading (with dictionaries close by) Sholem Aleykhem stories, some Peretz and Singer brothers. I attend and enjoy Professor Max Tiktin's leyn krayz in Washington, DC, where we're reading Peretz short stories in Yidish. I love spoken Yidish tapes. Have several by Dzigan, NYBC (Tevye, Motl Peysi, Reyzen), several others. Would like to hear of sources of tapes of Yidish readings by native speakers. Also would like to hear about Yidish children's material for all ages (I have Workman's Circle catalogs). Harvey Spiro 260)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Feb 93 12:02:10 EST From: gt5549d@prism.gatech.edu Subject: Introduction My name is Aviva Starkman. I am a senior at Yeshiva High School in Atlanta and at the same time I'm taking some courses at Georgia Tech. Next year I will be at Tech full-time. All of my grandparents come from Poland and they are also survivors. I don't think I need to explain how my parents learned Yiddish, and that I have learned from them. I'm not very good with Yiddish at all but I am very interested to learn more. I hope to have fun with this list. P.S. My brother's name is Mendel! 261)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Jun 92 14:36:44 EDT From: "J. J. Steinberg" Subject: Introduction My apologies for not responding to this request. Between papers, grants, presentations, chickenpoxs, and a new child - I'm a little behind in my responses. I am an associate professor at Einstein in the Bronx (New York). We have a "yiddish kreise" that has about ten participants every six weeks. The circle discusses literature, events, words, and "yiddish language self-help" (sich alein). It is composed of faculty with an average age of 68. The circle was the innovation of Julius Marmur (who will try to join your list) who came a hair-breadths away from a Nobel prize for his work on DNA in the early 1960's. (The Forvarts carried his discoveries under the title of "der yerusha material"). He is a gem. We are joined by many other "stars" (I am der yingvar, and clearly littlest in stature of the group at the age of 41). Any other information - I would be delighted to supply. My thanks for allowing my participation - Julius will follow. JJ 262)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 11:21 am EDT (15:21:44 UT) From: "Ted L. Steinberg" Subject: Introductory statement Hi. I'm Ted Steinberg from the State University of New York College at Fredonia, which is not a center of Yiddish studies. I generally teach courses in medieval and Renaissance literature, but I have a deep interest in Yiddish literature. I wrote a book on Mendele (1977) and have written several articles on aspects of Yiddish (and medieval Hebrew) literature. Given the absence of anyone here who shares these interests, I was delighted to learn about the existence of MENDELE. Ted Steinberg 263)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 15:31:13 PDT From: Max Stern 310-524-6152 Subject: Introducing myself Sholom: My name is Max Stern, but don't let the name fool you: I don't speak mamaloshen. I know a few expressions, and I can dope out a package label in Yiddish, but I am definitely _NOT_ fluent. On the other hand, I am very interested in knowing more, and in the idea that this wonderful language should be kept alive if at all possible. That's why I joined this mail group. My Great-grandfather Samuel Joachim Stern was born in Cracow and migrated to the Goldene Medineh in the 1840's. I was born in 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio. In between, ah, what a world of difference. Although I remember my great-grandparents Sam and Nettie Toffler, who died when I was seven or eight, I don't remember that they spoke Yiddish -- but I expect they probably did. The Tofflers arrived in the U.S. via Austro-Hungary and Glasgow. Religiously, I am sort of Conservative, trying to find my ground between liberal and traditional. I daven at the Library Minyan of Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles. I live in Sherman Oaks, and work as a systems software developer at NCR Corporation (formerly Teradata) in El Segundo, California. I sing in a Jewish chorus called Kol Echad Chorale, and we frequently include Yiddish songs on our lighter programs. "Sheyn Vi Di Levone" and "Bei Mir Bist Du Shoen" are our favorite encores. We have also sung less light-hearted Yiddish pieces like "Partizaner Lid" and "Zog Nit Keinmol". I am looking forward to increasing my Yiddish literacy in this group. Max.Stern@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com 264)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Aug 1994 16:31:03 -800 (PDT) From: durian@coyote.csusm.edu Subject: Introduction We are a triad. The first is Charles Eisenberg,who is completely trilingual in English,Yiddish and Hebrew.He taught many languages in the New York City school system. He also taught languages in Israel and China. The second is Libby Taylor who spoke only Yiddish and some Hebrew until she was 18 years of age.She left Poland just before WWII. Her entire family was wiped oput by Hitler and she dedicated her life to perpetuate their memory and of the "shtetel"by teaching the Yiddish language.They are a national Jewish treasure. The last,and least,is myself whose love of the language , Jewish History and computer literacy makes me the spokesperson. Harry Stillman 265)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 25 Sep 94 18:33:39 EDT From: 74722.1215@compuserve.com Subject: Introduction First let me state my credentials. I was born in Baltimore in 1917 of Jewish parents who had emigrated from Russia. The first language I heard spoken was yiddish. I learned yiddish by ear I never learned to read or write yiddish. My first impulse on reading Zelig's message was, I don't belong here. However Axlerod's reply has encouraged me to add a thought or two. I thought that Mendele would an opportunity to converse in yiddish though not vocally at least I would feel it was. Yiddish is mir engebakn in de beyner not so much the language as such, but the people who spoke it. es darmont mir of mayn tate, mame, und bube, lang shoyn af de bessere velt. So yetst darf ich reydn tsu zich aleyn. Which reminds of a little story from Olsvanger's Royte Pomerantsn. If I may I would like to show it here. Eyner a id iz amol gegangen tsun dokter un hot em gezogt azoy tsum dokter "Dokter lebn, ich hob a zeyer shlechte krenk vos ich layd fun ir Iyoyvs tsores, ich reyd tsu zich aleyn. "Zogt der dokter tsu-n-em: "Meyle. es iz nit aza shreklache krenk: ot vi ir zet mich, red ich oych amol tsu zich aleyn! Ma rash? Macht der id: "Ye, dokter ! Ober ir veysst nit, vossara nudnik ich bin!" I really dont understand every expression but I certainly appreciate the yiddish. Incidentally that is the the yiddish is transliterated. Olsvanger has credentials. Zelig zollst lebn biz hundert un tsvantsig, und loz mich oych lebn. A sheynem daynk Al Strauss 266)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 17 Aug 94 21:10:50 EDT From: 74722.1215@compuserve.com Subject: Introduction Nu? vos zoll ikh zogn? I am going to be 77 years old next month. After living with alle goyim for many years I returned to Baltimore, and moved into a condominium of all Jewish residents, 192 units. Hob ikh ungefangen reydn yiddish noch amol. Ikh reyd a proster yiddish. I am, I suppose, a secular Jew. I don't know my aleph, beys, so I can only read yiddish in transliteration. I am aware of the YIVO prescribed method of spelling, my 1964 version of The Encyclopedia Brittanica has Yiddish-English Dictioary which conforms to the YIVO style. Recently, in our Condo news letter, I wrote about a Sunday breakfast that condo had, I wrote it was "takeh a mekhiah", someone called me and told me I spelled it wrong. I think in yiddish anything goes in spelling and pronunciation. Avrom Itzchok 267)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Dec 1994 10:53:44 EST From: jstraussman@maxwell.syr.edu Subject: Introduction I am a professor of public administration at Syracuse University who does not speak Yiddish--other than the small number of words and phrases I heard as a youngster in my grandparents' apartment. (My Hungarian is similarly limited--and has the same "roots".) I play trombone (classical and jazz) and, as of last Sunday, Klezmer as well. I am interested in learning some more Yiddish as well as the literary and historical characteristics of the language. Suggestions for a beginner are welcomed. Jeff Straussman 268)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Dec 94 22:24:34 MST From: ad330@rgfn.epcc.edu Subject: Introduction We are Ruth and Ben Taber, retirees in El Paso, Tx. Ben is from Providence, Ruth is from NYC, where she attended Arbeiter Ring Shule 3, in the Amalgamated Houses, Bronx, NY. No mittel shule - too busy with music lessons at Music and Art H.S. The closest Ben got to Yiddish was studying German and picking up stuff from Ruth. Ben is a retired MD; Ruth is a retired accompanist and health educator. Here in El paso, we are active in the Center For Lifelong Learning at UTEP. And among the many classes offered next semester, starting in January - beginning Yiddish! Over 35 people have already signed up for the class. We have three kids - two girls, one boy, 35,34,32, all single. They're all in California, where we lived for 25 years. Not too much yiddish in their lives, but our oldest is planning to take a class in the Bay area. and - a gut voch -(my mom was a Varshava) - zal zein gezunt! Ruth and Ben Taber 269)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 19 Oct 94 10:08:39 EDT From: atanzman@rr7.modicon.com Subject: Introduction My name is Allan Tanzman. I grew up in Long Island and after some wandering around I settled in the Boston Area. My grandparents spoke Yiddish but unfortunately my parents did not. As a child I enjoyed hearing Yiddish being spoken but all I ever learned was a couple of phrases. I was also taught in hebrew school that it was important to learn Hebrew, not Yiddish!! What a shame. I signed up to learn more about Yiddish. A special thanks to Harvey Spiro for telling me about Mendele. Allan Tanzman 270)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 29 Aug 1995 20:44:40 +0200 From: svahlne@algonet.se Subject: Introduction I am a translator and writer living near the small town of Kungalv, just north of Gothenburg, Sweden. My interest in Yiddish was aroused in the beginning of the seventies, when I happened to listen to a radio program about writers in New York. Among the authors mentioned was a Yiddish writer by the name of Isaac B. Singer. This was before the Prize. Somehow this radio program fueled my imagination and made me want to know more about Singer and about Yiddish. I went to the municipal library and found ca. 20 Yiddish books. But I hadn't realized that Yiddish is written with Hebrew characters! I couldn't even begin to read them. So I went looking for a textbook, and found Salcia Landsmann's "Jiddisch: Die Abenteuer einer Sprache". When I started perusing this rather nice book, I soon came upon the next hurdle: many words were of Hebrew and Aramaic origin and followed a quite different system of spelling than those of Germanic or Slavonic origin. It was deeply unsatisfactory not to be able to make out a words pronunciation from its spelling. I had to learn Hebrew! So I did that. :-) When I became "wired" to the Internet I checked out for Hebrew and Yiddish newsgroups and mailgroups, and I was very happy when I discovered Mendele. So far I have been kind of lurking in the doorway, listening in on the conversation, not knowing if I dare step in and introduce myself. Now I have. Mendele is a pure delight. I have downloaded a lot of the back issues and started reading them. Thank you Noyekh Miller and all of you other mendelyaner! You have already taught me a lot. Sven Vahlne 271)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jun 3 15:21:17 1993 From: Diane Valsamis Subject: Introduction I usually just sit on the sidelines and try to absorb all the news but since I'm new here's my introduction. My Bobbi and Zeide were from Noveselitz, Romania and spoke Yiddish at home. They moved to Bogota, Colombia in 1938 and my mom was born there. Her first language was Yiddish. I was born here but learned both Spanish and Yiddish from my grandparents, unfortunately much more Spanish than Yiddish. I'm hoping to brush up on my Yiddish by reading this list and if anybody has any suggestions for textbooks on Yiddish please either post them or send them to me directly. Diane Gold Valsamis 272)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 5 15:25:22 1994 From: vogel@mail.loc.gov Subject: Introduction Having just become aware of Mendele, and being impressed by the quality of its exchanges, I thought I'd subscribe. Presently I catalog fine art materials here but earlier I also did some Hebrew and Yiddish cataloging. My interests are broad, generally historical, and they include Eastern European--especially Galician and Lithuanian--Jewish life and culture. (Another interest is the American relationship with the Holy Land. Plug: see my book TO SEE A PROMISED LAND published in 1993 by Penn State Press). That's about it. Lester I. Vogel 273)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 18:04:25 EST From: walfish@vax.library.utoronto.ca Subject: Introduction My name is Barry (Berl) Walfish and I am the Jewish Studies Librarian at the University of Toronto Library. I am especially interested in information concerning recent Yiddish publications throughout the world and other events and activities related to Yiddish. Berl Walfish 274)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 20:12:44 -0400 From: tazio57@aol.com Subject: Introduction The notice about introductions finally has goaded me in to action. My name is Van Wallach, I'm 37, and I have been getting Mendele since last fall and have found it very useful. I am a magazine writer in Westport, Connecticut, a zamler for the National Yiddish Book Center and a contributor to der bay on Jewish film and music subjects, although I have not written anything lately. I also write a column for a local newspaper, The Minuteman, called Ongepatshket, about the experience of being a new father. I have a long interest in Yiddish. Besides the historical and cultural meaning, I just love the sound of Yiddish. I like writing about Yiddish culture (in English) and am constantly looking for outlets. I also want to introduce it to my son, and already play "On Wings of Song," Tex Klez, the Klezmer Conservatory Band and other tapes to him so the sounds and moods will be familiar to him. If anybody else is giving their children a Yiddish introduction, I would like to hear about it. Van Wallach 275)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 12 Nov 1994 19:21:00 -0500 From: warschauer@aol.com Subject: Introduction I am a Klezmer musician. I play guitar, mandolin, and tenor banjo, and I sing in Yiddish and English as well. I play with the Klezmer Conser- vatory Band, the Lipovsky/Mlotek/Warschauer Trio (mostly in Europe), and the Jeff Warschauer Klezmer Ensemble. I also teach at KlezKamp and Buffalo on the Roof, etc... My Yiddish language skills are at what you might call an intermediate level-I took one semester when I was at school, and did one summer of the Oxford Programme. Since then, I have tried to improve my Yiddish by attending meetings of a Yiddish club that meets at a senior citizen's center here in Boston, thought lately I have not been able to do that as much as I would like. It is really great to see so many familiar names here on Mendele. If I had known, I'd have been here sooner... Jeff Warschauer 276)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 24 Jul 92 12:18:30 EDT From: dorothy wasserman <71201.3150@CompuServe.COM> Subject: By way of introduction If anyone out there is interested in attending a free demo and seminar at the Apple Marketing Headquarters on International Languages - Hebrew - Yiddish - Arabic and others call 1-800-944-9628 ext 800 any time before Friday July 31, when it will be held at 10 AM - 12N. 57th St and Lex. I will be making the presentation. Also, we finally have the ability to scan in Hebrew ( without nikud ) and bring the text as text into Nota Bene, Einstein and on the Mac into NISUS. Enough for a beginning. Zay Gezundt. Dorothy Wasserman 277)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Oct 3 20:19:15 1993 From: BIASCA DEBRA HALPERIN Subject: re: Northern Exposure: "smaykl/shmaykl" Now that I've got Pinchas and pinkes straight (thanks, everyone), what about last week's Northern Exposure episode? It was about an apparent connection between Yiddish and the Native American language spoken by the Alaska natives on that program. The word which piqued the doctor's interest was "smaykle" which was supposed to be close to "coax" in Yiddish (maybe "shmaykle", but the Alaskans didn't have "shm. ." so it came out "smaykle") . Although there were some other Yiddish words involved (rather humorously, in fact--"halta coka as the Native "Old Venerable One", which the doctor implied was a near cognate!), I don't think this one was authentic. Would anyone correct me on this? With so many great Yiddish words to use, why would they make one up? Debra Halperin Biasca 278)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 Aug 94 19:31:23 EDT From: LEXAL@aol.com Subject: Introduction ich bin a yid und ich bin du . . . mein ganz leben (fuftzig yur) hob ich kein mul nisht gehert a yiddish vort zol tadzhen "survivor" fin english . . . ich bin aufgevaksen kleinherheit aushern geshirten fin farshidener yidn fin farshidener pletzer vus hobn derlebt der kriegzeit . . . ich ken dertzelen azoy fil gesheertn (vizoy schreibt men yiddish ??? azoy feel vegen . . . azoy feel geshirten . . . vus heist a yid??? ich bin geboyren in 1944 . . . ich hob nish gevist ich bin a yid bis 6 oder 7 yur shpeter . . . bei der dritn yur, hot men gevoynt in Brissel (Brussels, Belgium) ofn tzveitn shtock fin a gebau aun a WC . . . me hot nisht gelozst inz yidn gebrauchn der eintzick WC in dem gebau . . . dus iz geshain yurn nuch der "holocaust" . . . farvus dertzail ich dus? ich vays grade nish . . . efsher mizt ir lezn "maus" tzu hubn a ta'am fin vus ich red efsher kent ir mich lozn visn vus ir meynt . . . az ir vilt, kent ir mir freg'n a p'oor kashes . . . vus noch? . . . yetz bin ich mid . . . ich mis mich tzileig'n . . . bis shpeter . . . Alex Weinberger 279)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Nov 1994 19:07:17 -0500 (EST) From: bmw6@columbia.edu Subject: Introduction My name is Benjamin Micah Weiner (Binyomin.) I'm a senior at Columbia, studying Yiddish with Miriam Hoffman. As of now, my major Yiddish passion is with the poets, but in class, we are reading (very slowly) some of Chaim Grade's prose which I also like very much. So how's that for a brief introdcution? Looking forward to having more to say, Binyomin Weiner 280)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 9 Aug 92 07:55:27 -0400 From: amweisbe@COLBY.EDU Subject: brief introductory statement for Noyekh siz a mekhaye zu sein a member (mitglied af yiddish?) fun der mendele network. Ikh heis Adam Weisberger un ikh bin a professor far soziologie bei Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Siz nisht do a sakh yidn do, not to mention yiddish redndike. I have studied Yiddish at the Columbia/Yivo summer program and love to read, mendele, sutskever, I.L. Peretz far hanoeh. I returned a month ago from a year in Berlin and find that German has wrecked my Yiddish. I would like to try to do a little something to revive my active command of Yiddish, as well as catch some live Yiddishkeit over the computer network. Adam Weisberger 281)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Jan 15 10:01:31 1994 From: "Keith Weiser (TD 1994)" Subject: Introduction and query My name is Keith (Kalman) Weiser and I am a senior at Yale College, Yale U.I am double majoring in German and int'l studies here, and have recently aaplied to graduate programs in Yiddish language and literature with Jewish history. I am eager to speak with any grad students (or others) who are pursuing similar studies and who could inform me about university programs. In particular, I am seeking information about McGill, U. of Texas at Austin, UCLA, Columbia, and Harvard - the five schools to which I have applied. I am very much interested in the interaction between Yiddish- and German-speaking Jews, including the process of linguistic and cultural assimilation of the so-called "Ostjuden" in places such as Galitzia, Vienna, and Berlin. Ikh bin a mitglid fun a leyenkrayz du un es vet mir hanoe tun zu bakumen ayere entfern oyf yidish. A sheynem dank alemen, Kalman Weiser '94 (weiserki@minerva.cis.yale.edu) 282)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Feb 15 13:35:53 1994 From: "Werb, Bret C." Subject: Introduction + Music Hearsay Bret Werb tapping in.. Born Los Angeles, aged thirties, musicologist. Recently married. Working as a consultant to US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC. Both parents are native Yiddish speakers; myself I don't speak at all (feels too clumsy) but can cope with written text, esp if there's lots of time. The workplace only recently signed on to Internet and reception/transmission is still spotty. But when I find time and the file (via columbia.edu), I read through Mendele's archives. Thank you for creating this service! I recall seeing in the archives a request for information about a Yiddish tune sung in Vietnamese. 2-3 years ago, in LA's Chinatown, I too heard a Vietnamese rendition of a familiar hit from the Yiddish theater. The song was "Dona Dona Dona." When I asked the lady in the booth the song's title, she said: "Dona Dona Dona." The song is an international hit, so a Vietnamese version didn't surprise me enough to make me want to buy the cassette. It's possible that the Vietnamese artists learned it from the French, as your correspondent supposes, or (my guess) from a Japanese commercial recording. Anyway, this ends my first transmission. Thanks again for Mendele. Bret Werb 283)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 4 16:00:37 1993 From: glaa273@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu (Stanley Werbow) Subject: Introduction Sholem aleykhem, y'all! My main claim to membership is that I instituted the program in Yiddish here at The University of Texas at Austin many years ago and even taught in it one year when we were between teachers. Our teacher now is Itsik Gottesman who is doing a great job of interesting students and faculty in the Yiddish language and literature. Though I am not truly a Yiddishist, I'll enjoy learning more about the field and its workers. I do medieval German language and literature here, and I taught a short course in Yiddish at the University of New Mexico German Summer School in 1989. If anyone does not know about our program and wishes to hear more, please ask. Zeyt gesund! Stanley N. Werbow Department of Germanic Languages E. P. Schoch 3.102 University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 78712 Phone (512) 471-4123 E-Mail GLAA273@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu 284)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Oct 91 10:19 +0300 From: RWERMAN@HUJIVMS.HUJI.AC.IL Subject: Golda Introduction: I was born in Berlin, Germany, grew up in the United States and live in Jerusalem since 1967. I am married to Robert Werman, Professor of Neurophysiology at the Hebrew University. We have four children. I have a Ph.D. in English Literature and Jewish Studies [my dissertation, much of which is published in MILTON STUDIES, deals with the midrashic sources of _Paradise Lost_]. During the trial of Ivan Demjanjiuk, which was broadcast live on Israel TV, I developed an interest in Yiddish and in preserving Yiddish literature, the only surviving remnant of the rich Jewish life that had existed in Eastern Europe. I have since published translations of stories by Peretz [in the PARTISAN REVIEW and in _A Peretz Reader_, ed. Ruth Wisse] and have translated an entire book of Anski: stories, history, folklore and a new translation of _The Dybbuk_, which will soon be published by Schocken Press. I teach Yiddish in English Translation at the Hebrew University. Golda Werman rwerman@hujivms.bitnet rwerman@vms.huji.ac.il 285)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 10 Dec 94 17:02:24 From: gil.wiedermann@chrysalis.org Subject: Introduction I have been very interested in Yiddish for a long time. I have started trying to really learn Yiddish for a few months now. Here in Dallas we have started a small Yiddish group -- just 4 of us. One of our members took the University of Wisconsin correspondence course, and another has attended the Oxford summer program. I am studying Uriel Weinreich's College Yiddish in my spare time. I studied Der Yiddisher Lerer several months ago to sort of "jump start" my Yiddish from literally nothing. I wish I could take off a few weeks from work and go to the Columbia or Oxford program but I can't take off from work that long. My current plan is to take the University of Wisconsin correspondence course soon. However before I do that I would gladly accept any comments or suggestions from anyone on good ways to learn Yiddish. I live in Dallas and unfortunately the "pickings are slim" for learning it. Nevertheless, challenges are meant to be overcome. I would like to know about any programs, courses, methods, etc. that someone could suggest. I realize it would be better to spend a few semesters in class, but "a bisl un a bisl vert a fule shisl" as they say. I found out about the mailing list from Itzik Gottesman who teaches Yiddish at the University of Texas at Austin. A little extra about me: I'm 31 years old, single and looking, a CPA with the power company here, TU Electric. I have a BBA from UT Austin and an MBA from UT Dallas. That's really all about me. I'm ready to read and learn from the rest of you! Gil Wiedermann 286)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 20 Dec 1994 11:29:23 -0500 (EST) From: iww4028@email.unc.edu Subject: Introduction I am a first-year grad. student in the Curriculum of Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The main language that I work in is German, so an interest in all things Yiddish may seem appropriate. I also work in French and American Lit. I suppose that working in German lit., especially that of the early 20th century, has made me wonder about Yiddish; I hope that my lack of knowledge and desire to learn from this group will be welcomed by its members. I hope to find new opportunities through your group. Ian W. Wilson 287)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun Dec 5 02:10:33 1993 From: Dia Winograd <72674.3235@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Introduction If you think my computer expertise is bad, wait till you hear my Yiddish. However if enthusiasm counts, I'll be a member of the first water. I heard Yiddish as a child, but I spoke for the first time when I went to Russia in May of this year. For much of my three weeks there I spoke nothing else by necessity. I even appeared on T.V. speaking in Yiddish and having it translated into Russian. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Liba Yenta Winograd 288)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 09 Jun 1995 14:29:44 -0400 (EDT) From: kwishnia@ccmail.sunysb.edu Subject: Introduction I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature at SUNY Stony Brook. As the name of the field implies, I have many varied interests, but the relevant one for Mendele subscribers is my work in translation (Yiddish to English). An article on the topic and my translation of Sholem Aleichem's "Mister Boym in Klozet" is now in press at _AJS Review_. Sometime within the next several weeks I will begin a new Yiddish translation project, and I look forward to the advice, insight and experience of the Mendele users to assist me. Credit will of course be given where appropriate. You'll be hearing from me! Kenneth Wishnia 289)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 11 Oct 94 23:21:34 EDT From: Steven_A._Leibo@MTS.RPI.EDU Subject: Introduction Since I've been lurking on and off for at least six months, it is time I introduce myself (since others have been brave enough to introduce themselves...) I am a passive bilingual as far as Yiddish is concerned but grew up speaking Yiddish and Spanish in Havana (thus I'm a Juban). Though I attended a Yiddish day school there, I've lost nearly all speaking ability and answer my father in Spanish when he speaks Yiddish (as he normally does) to me. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading Mendele, though I've a huge backlog at the moment, and perhaps may feel confident and knowledgeable enou knowledgeable enough in the future to contribute. Thanks. Sara Zaidspiner-Leibo By the way, if anyone on Mendele came from Havana and is in their late thirties, write and maybe we knew each other and can get re-acquainted. 290)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Apr 9 15:13:07 1994 From: WATSON@UNO.CC.GENESEO.EDU Subject: Introduction By way of introducing myself, Leah Zazulyer, new member: I'm a writer of poetry and prose, a (co) translator, and have also had a varied and long career in special educ., school psych, educ. mediation. Parents from shtetl Shershev, lebn Pruzany, l8 k from Brest. Grew up in Los Angeles; parents active in Yiddish circles but alas also rendered children "Yiddish impaired" (great phrase!). As adult have studied Yiddish privately WHEN could find teacher in Yiddishly inhospitable Roch. N.Y., and also at Columb. and Oxford...currently with a Moldavian refugee...Have been (co) translating and rescuing the poetry of Israel Emiot, born Ostrov-M., Poland 1909, died Roch. N.Y. l978. Knew him in local literary circles...I am very interested in Yiddish literature, esp. poetry. Have also done some interviewing etc of holocaust surviors. A novice in e-mail world. Greatly enjoying Mendele. Ziit Gezunt! Leah Zazulyer 291)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 4 Dec 1994 13:58:08 -0600 From: kunanbay@facstaff.wisc.edu Subject: Introduction For the moment I'm a Russian citizen but stay in Madison this academic year thanks to my dear wife Alma who is working here. We very hope to be in the USA much longer thanks to my Jewish studies in the USA (I'm a participant of two joint Russian-American programs in Jewish music). I was born in St.Petersburg (Russia) in 1936 to a very Yiddish family which descended from Nevel shtetl (this is the former Vitebsk gubernia well-known thanks to Mark Shagal). I was named 'Izaly' because of my grandfather's name 'Israel' who passed away in 1934 but in Russia that time was not so easy to have such Jewish name and my family decided to change it a little with some associations with a flower 'azalea' which blossoms just in Russian February. Yiddish was our family's language but, in my antisemitic time, not for children, unfortunately: it was a language for adults, for relatives who would like to say something secretely from us, the kids, and from 'goim-hazeirim', of course. But I was inquisitive enough and mastered my Yiddish 'in silence'... I graduated in St.Petersburg with degrees/diplomas from three faculties: as folklorist I have gained from extended contact, both personal and professional, with eminent Russian folklorist, professor Vladimir Propp, with whom I studied for fifteen years, and he became my second father (my own father was killed by Nazis in 1941); as musicologist and composer simultaneously in our Conservatory. Now I'm a full professor, doctor and so forth, head of Folklore Department of the Russian Institute for History of the Arts, and Vice-President of the Jewish Musical Society of St.Petersburg. I have already 19 books and about 400 scholarly articles including a few of Jewish folk music (in Russian). My last publication - "Jewish Folk Songs", St.Petersburg, 1994. 448 pages with music, in three languages -- Yiddish, Russian, English. This is a gift edition with nice illustrations. I hope the distributor of this book in the USA will be John Rauch, President of the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, Los Angeles. His address: 423 N.Palm Dr. # 102. Beverly Hills, CA 90210. FAX (310) 479-3209. (He is a wonderful person, and contact with him should be for your pleasure). This book is the first and only anthology of Yiddish folk songs with music published in Russia. The songs are published as originally documented, and interesting variants are provided in the commentary. The Yiddish texts are published in transliteration utilizing the Soviet (sorry!) system of Yiddish romanization, for which a guide is provided. Russian translations, most of them in verse, have been created for the majority of songs, and English synopses are given for all selections. You know, of course, the name of Moshe Beregovsky (1892-1961). It was I who twice have saved his musical archives -- from Kiev to St.Petersburg in 1966 and from St.Petersburg to the USA two years ago (thanks to the support of the YIVO). In 1992, October, on Chanukah,in St.Petersburg I organized the First International Conference on Jewish Music. Now I am working on the unpublished materials of Moshe Beregovsky, David Maggid, Michael Gnessin and Zusman Kisselgof from Russian Archives. I would be glad to find the archives of Lazar Saminsky, Jewish composer and scholar, partly because I am Sominsky myself from one mother's side (from other mother's side I am Berezin, and from father's side I'm Monosov and Zemtsovsky, -- all last names are from Nevel). As to my Yiddish, today it's a passive enough, and that is so naturally in my Russian-Soviet case. I'm much more familiar with Jewish music, and my first Russian musicological publication in Yiddish song dated 22 years back, in 1973. At that time it was a sensation, a kind of a bomb... Such is my saga in brief. Being 58 years young, I start new life mainly in the Jewish field and I feel myself 'at home', but I am in need of the Yiddish cultural society. Let it will be not so active but thanks to you, I hope, I will be much more close to my linguistically hidden native culture. My dream is to apply my big knowledge in Slavic-Turkic-Baltic- Finnish musical field and to put it into my Jewish ethnomusicological studies. Thank all of you in advance for your attention and support. Izaly Zemtsovsky 292)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 3 Dec 94 19:28 EST From: zucker@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca Subject: Introduction I am a professor of Computer Science at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada . I am from South Africa, so my Yiddish is Litvish -- or it would be, if I could speak it. In fact, my Yiddish is rudimentary (picking up a bit from my parents). I am trying to learn Yiddish now, by working through Weinreich's book. I have also acquired Sheva Zucker's book (no relative, to my knowledge). There are two reasons I'm interested in Yiddish. One is that I'm interested (at an amateur level) in linguistics. I already know a fair amount of Afrikaans and Dutch (having spent some time in Holland), and am fascinated by the similarities and differences of these with Yiddish (ignoring temporarily the vocabulary of Heb./Aram. origin). The other is because of an emotional attachment (now _not_ ignoring the vocabulary of Heb./Aram. origin). Although I am trying to work through Weinreich on my own, that is obviously not as good as attending a class. Although there are classes given in Toronto nearby, I cannot fit any of them into my schedule. So my first question is: Are there any on-line (via Internet) exercises or study aids, or other resources? Assuming not, here is another idea: is there some kind soul out there, who would be willing to mark my exercises from Weinreich (or S. Zucker, if you prefer) on a regular basis -- for a fair remuneration, of course. I'd email you my exercises in YIVO transcription, and you'd email me back the corrections. Obviously, this is not as good as the classroom experience, but it's something. Is anyone interested in this? Jeff Zucker 293)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Jun 29 09:36:16 1994 From: Cheeseman9@aol.com Subject: Introduction Hello, my name is Brian Zumhagen, I am a 25-year-old public radio journalist in San Francisco, and my knowledge of Yiddish is low-intermediate, but as I am fluent in German, I am already able to understand a great deal. I hope to one day attend one of YIVO's summer courses. until then, I am gobbling up as much information as I can through wonderful services like this one. I can be reached at zipora@aol.com Brian Zumhagen 294)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Mar 10 01:49:29 1994 From: Subject: Introduction We have finally been able to find our way onto the Internet and of course Mendele. By way of introduction, we are both active in the Yiddish community in Melbourne Australia, Bobbi being a Yiddish teacher at the Sholem Aleichem College and also conducts Yiddish adult language and literature courses. I am active in the Bund, SKIF and Yugnt Bund in Melbourne. We are always interested in receiving information and we are happy to pass on this info. to our community. I guess something to do with the tyranny of distance. zeit gezunt Bobbi and Michael Zylberman