Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 08.038 August 4, 1998 1) Yiddish & Yisroyl (sylvia schildt) 2) Some thoughts on the nature of Yiddish (Noyekh Miller) 3) Yiddish and Knesset (Yoshua Kleiman) 4) Veltrat far yidish un yidisher kultur (Zachary Baker) 5) Politics on Mendele (Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan) 6) Yiddish in baroque opera (Jeanne Swack) 7) lachen mit yashtsherkes (Yankel Kurtzman) 8) A. Manaster Ramer (Gitl Dubrovsky) 9) symposia and programs (Refoyl Finkl) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 12:44:34 -0400 (EDT) From: creativa@charm.net (sylvia schildt) Subject: Yiddish & Yisroyl One of the banes of my life seems to be that people attribute meanings to my words and then shoot those meanings down. Dear Noyekh, I too celebrate the diversity of Yiddish culture, not only the intelligensia. And I too participated in the davenen discussion. And others. But if Yiddish culture does not survive, vet nit zayn mit vemen tzu redn. The clarion call I am trying to send out, very much sober zeal not shrill zealotry, is that the survival of Yiddish in the Israeli schools (among the young) is key to the continuing viability of Yiddish in the secular world. Yiddish in the world of orthodoxy will go on as always. The endangered species is secular Yiddish. In what other country can we demand (underscored) Yiddish as a limud in the schools if not Israel. In other lands we politely request. (And please note, that in a climate of 50%+ assimilation rates, Yiddish is not a top budget priority in the lands outside Eretz YIsroyl) In Israel, now that the Rock Ivrits (love that!) are not the way of things, the teaching of Yiddish to the young, is critical. And the law, thanks to Leybl Botvinik and his friends and associates, has been passed. (His last communication provides enough "protim" for immediate action.) Pressure needs to be judiciously applied now, so that the number of Israeli schools teaching Yiddish is increased. The number of hours given to Yiddish classes needs to be increased to produce students who speak Yiddish well, who can pass Yiddish on. Yiddish is not a shtifkind in Isroyl - not a "safah azit" -- it is the mother tongue of Ashkenaz and of the founding generation of Khalutzim and the literary generation that preceded them. We don't have to be shnorrer about it -- Yiddish has as much right to exist and be supported in the Israeli school curriculum as any other subject. And more importantly for those of us outside Israel, the respect accorded Yiddish in Israel helps reinforce our efforts. I would like to underscore Dr. Miriam Isaac's underscoring of my call for voicing concern. Between her shures, you see that there are many writers, poets, academics and others, as well as working people and retirees who came in their busloads, from all over Israel, to the Conference. There is a love and support in many parts of Israel for Yiddish. Among the new Russian immigrants, it is expressed through Yiddish folksinging, as the Ashkelon "Freyd fun Yidish" festival, an annual affair, testifies. And they sang their songs by Warshavsky, Gebirtig, Anonymous, etc. with such love and zeal. And to get to participate meant they work at it all year long. Every year. I was at a Kibbutz (Beit Zera) where the people came to see me and talk with me in a zis, unsullied Yiddish over a glezele tey and kikhelekh. Some younger, many old grey heads, some in walkers.Some had admittedly been Roick Ivritniks in earlier years, but had changed their thinking over time. Yiddish in Israel has a key role to play in global Yiddish. Example: I note that the current pages of the Forvertz are filled with the writers Israel has nurtured. Yiddish is yeasting and cooking in Israel despite the aparatchiks. But for the continuation of this, education of the young is a necessity. Thank you Sholem Berger and Mendy Fliegler, for the eloquent ways in which you also voiced support. There are other serious issues that came out of the Conference that also need to be aired. But this is a fire call and precedes the others which can be later pondered, studied and produced as appropriate reports and manifests. sylvia schildt baltimore, maryland 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 19:25:47 -0400 (EDT) From: Noyekh Miller Subject: Some thoughts on the nature of Yiddish I'm sorry that I misundertood Sylvia Schildt and glad that we're in general agreement. When I wrote that Yiddish as such is just another language. I also worried even as I wrote the line that it might be misunderstood. So I'd like to amplify my remarks on this point. There has been considerable debate over the years as to the "nature" of Yiddish, interesting debate, but not too long on conceptual clarity. In an effort to figure out where I stood I wrote down --primarily with myself as client-- a few ideas. These in turn metamorphosed into fables, known in some quarters as "thought-experiments". Here they are. May they not be misunderstood. ****** 1. In all the formerly Yiddish-speaking lands of eastern Europe an astounding change has taken place among its remaining Jews, particularly the young: an infectious wave of enthusiasm not only for Yiddish but for other (secular) aspects of Jewish life that had flourished before Stalin, Hitler and Stalin once again intervened. Jewish life has been constituted after a fashion. The same music, poetry, dancing as before. An unprecedented outpouring of first-rate Yiddish writing, not only fiction but in all intellectual spheres: physics, philosophy and plumbing, a khalyastre of Yiddish deconstructionists has taken over from Paris and Yale. There are of course no synagogues, no yeshivas. No one learns or uses Hebrew and the vocabulary has changed to that extent. No shabes, no kashrus, no pesekh. But Yiddish is very much alive. 2. In all the formerly Yiddish-speaking lands of eastern Europe an astounding change has taken place. First, every single remaining Jew has converted to Christianity. Not only converted but sincerely and enthusiastically. The rest of eastern Europe is first amazed, then impressed, finally ecstatic. Synagogues are converted to other uses (including monasteries), former rabbis and shokhtim take up posts as priests and deacons. The Jewish problem solved! Former Jews move into positions of prominence and power in all spheres, from President of Poland to Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church. Indeed their hegemony is so pervasive that Yiddish becomes first a lingua franca from Krakow to the Bering Strait and in short order the official language of this vast area. From being declared moribund, Yiddish has become a world language. Intellectual life is very rich. Every couple of months a Yiddish Dostoievsky or Gogol comes out with a masterpiece. The Yiddish chanting in Orthodox churches brings visitors from all over the world. And Yiddish itself changes, acquiring Kalmuk legends, Polish jokes, Cossack proverbs; at the same time the Semitic component connected to Judaism atrophies and disappears. Only Hebrew words such as "shoyte", "ganef", "meshuge" and oddly enough "meshumed" remain. 3. In all the formerly Yiddish-speaking lands of eastern Europe an astounding change has taken place. The Jews in those countries have all decided to drop Yiddish in favor of Hungarian. The old Germanic word "Yiddish" is replaced by the Magyar word for "Jewish". Just as in prewar Poland, a full-scale and multi-faceted Jewish life obtains, but every word, every song, every novel, every session of Talmud study is in Hungarian. Orthodox Jews had all along felt more comfortable in eastern Europe. They head for Transylvania, in the process emptying Williamsburg, Antwerp and Bnai Brak of their Yiddish-speakers. Yiddish may be in trouble. Noyekh Miller 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 09:46:54 -0400 (EDT) From: JGKleiman@aol.com Subject: Yiddish and Knesset Although I wish to see Yiddish grow and prosper I think it is wrong to insist that the Kenesset endorse it. Hebrew is the Lingua Franca of the Jewish state and the lovers of Yiddish should do as they do in the U. S., grow Yiddish as a private enterprise. Yoshua Kleiman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 11:25:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Zachary Baker Subject: Veltrat far yidish un yidisher kultur The August 2, 1998 issue of the Montreal Gazette has an interesting, if rather impressionistic article about the recent Yiddish conference held in Israel under the auspices of the Veltrat far yidish un yidisher kultur (World Council for Yiddish and Yiddish Culture). The citation: "For the love of Yiddish: a recent international conference billed itself as a celebration of the old language, but served as a lightning rod for anger and fear that Yiddish is in danger of disappearing." The author, Irwin Block, is a reporter for The Gazette who attended the conference, which took place in Ashkelon (as has been described in recent weeks by various Mendelyaner). The article can be found on The Gazette's web site: http://www.montrealgazette.com (Check the link to "Web Archives," and search for the August 2nd issue.) Zachary M. Baker 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 11:59:48 -0400 (EDT) From: SHirshan@aol.com Subject: Politics on Mendele What's a shames to do? [8.035] Ikh shtim az es volt gornisht geshat undzer balibter Mendele list oyb mir voltn zikh antviklt in a politishe makht - mitn zelbn tifn, likhtikn gayst vos dershaynt als a kultureln koyekh fun undzere mitglider. Lomir zikh onnemen mit mut, take probirn ibermakhn di velt.... Lomir onheybn mit Yidish's problemen in Yisroel. Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 12:17:26 -0400 (EDT) From: jswack@facstaff.wisc.edu (Jeanne Swack) Subject: Yiddish in baroque opera Dear Mendele list, I am a musicologist completing an article on the use of Yiddish in a group of early 18th-century operas by Reinhard Keiser. The author of the texts was not Jewish and seems to have gotten his Yiddish vocabulary from a number of sources. There are some words in these operas that I have not been able to identify, and wonder if anyone on the list can help me. Remember that the librettist often doesn't hear the words quite correctly from his putative informants. The most vexing of these has been: "Leiser humeck". The context is a card game between several Gentile characters and the Jew Schmuel. After a play by one of the Gentile characters comes the following line by Schmuel (as an aside): "Der Leiser humeck hat bald aus geprahlt." Leiser is in German type; humeck is in Roman type (which usually means a Hebrew-derived Yiddish word in this libretto). If anyone can help me, there are a few other words I'd like to check before I submit this. It's been a fascinating study. Many thanks, Jeanne Swack 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 14:57:34 -0400 (EDT) From: "Gilda and Bob Kurtzman" Subject: lachen mit yashtsherkes The translation of the phrase "lachen mit yashtsherkes " that I know is laughing with (bitter) tears.I learned from Clara Rapp that yashtsherkes is a lizard(s). In the COMPLETE YIDDISH-HEBREW DICTIONARY by M. Tzanin, page 234 two entries (1) yashtshereetze(s) l'taah, chardon, zachalit (three synonyms in Hebrew for lizard) ahnakah (groan, cry, moan) (2) yashtsherke(s) l'taah, s'mamit (night lizard). I never came across the translation "grin and bear it" that Clara Rapp presents.. It was most often the tragi-comic situation where one is laughing but with bitter tears. I have no idea from where the phrase comes. From what language is the word yashtsherkes? I would guess that it is from some Eastern European language. It does not sound like a word that would come from German, Dutch or French Yiddish. Knowing the origin of the word might tell us more about how the word was used and in what contexts. Without any connection except for the word laughing I am reminded of a Yiddish phrase which I do not understand and perhaps I have garbled the expression beyond recognition. Maybe someone in Mendele land can make me the wiser--Vawss lacht ehr? Dee Mameh hat ihm gehat! Freely translated -- Why is he laughing? His mother had him (or gave birth to him). Fifty years ago I asked a rabbi in whose home I was boarding what was the meaning of the above phrase. He replied:"Fregt mir a b'cherem ich veyss nit vawss dos maynt "You can ask me and even put me in excommunication for not helping you, I do not know what that means. Zei mir gezint un a gringen tawness tzu alle vawss fasten on Tisha B'av. Yankel Kurtzman 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 09:10:57 -0400 (EDT) From: GDubrovsky@aol.com Subject: A. Manaster Ramer I just want to say a word about A. Manaster Ramer. I have enjoyed his thoughtful postings on Mendele, and have learned a few things as well. I did not know he was in poor health. I can not provide the kind of help he needs, but I do wish him a speedy recovery. The world needs his reasoned approach to linguistic problems. Gitl Dubrovsky 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 12:54:24 -0400 (EDT) From: raphael@cs.uky.edu (Raphael Finkel) Subject: symposia and programs ikh vil dermonen ale leyeners az ikh hob geshtelt a reshime fun yidish programen un kursn af mayn vebszaytl: http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/yiddish/programs.html dort ken men gefinen yedies vegn yugntruf yidish-vokh, der konferents bay UCLA, un andere. vi bald ikh her fun a konferents, leyg ikh teykef an onvayz af dem vebszaytl. Just a reminder: you can find out whatever information I have heard about Yiddish programs and conferences at the web site listed above. I try to keep it up to date. Refoyl Finkl ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 08.038 Address for the postings to Mendele: mendele@lists.yale.edu Address for the list commands: listproc@lists.yale.edu Mendele on the Web: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/mendele.html