Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 1 no. 48 July 23, 1991 1) Skotsl komt (Joseph Galron) 2) Shikse and Jew (Florian Brody) 3) Yente (Mikhl Herzog) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Jul 91 12:45:12 EDT From: Joseph Galron Subject: Skotsl komt I would like to add some bibliographic information that can help to the debate about the Yiddish expression Skotsl komt: Prof. Dov Sadan wrote an article about it: "Skotsl komt : tsu der biyografiye fun a bagris-forml" published in _Zamlbukh_ / aroysgegebn fun Farayin fun di shtriker fabrikantn tsum 25 yorikn aniversar fun der institut'tsye (Redaktor: Gershon Sapozshnikov) [Buenos Aires, 1961] pages 141-150. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 Jul 91 22:23 GMT From: A.MM@AppleLink.Apple.COM Subject: RE: Vol 1.46 on shikse & "Jew" On shikse The negative implication comes - at least that is the way I got it from home -from the fact that you can go out with her have fun, sex, (many things you would never do with a jewish girl who is a potential candi- date to be the mother of your children) - whatever, but you would never marry her because - she is (only) a shikse - my mother who was as non racist as you can possible be would say when one of my early relations at the age of 17 broke up " forget her, she is only ..." even though she had really liked her. On "Jewish" The question whether you tell people that you are jewish in Europe vs in the U.S. is a far more interest- ing topic. I recall a very intense conversation with a jewish girl at midnight on a stroll at the Pacific Shore in Long Beach some years ago on the fact that telling people that you are jewish means something completely different on the different sides of the Atlantic. Not that there is no antisemitism in the US - I understand that quite well, but there seems not to be this "it is unnecessary to tell people ... life is hard enough anyway" that you are told by your parents. And there are uncounted stories of kids finding out that they are jewish by remarks from other kids who have been told by their more-or-less antisemitic parents. It is even more difficult: telling people that you are jewish can really embarass them - you get reactions from "oh.." to blushing to "some of my best friends are Jews.." to complete helplessness and remarks like "my father was in the SS..." You may ask "is (s)he black / homosexual / catholic / a sex maniac but if you ask if (s)he is jewish then you are probably a Nazi. ... Peter Sichrovsky did 2 books - one with interviews of young Jews in Austria and Germany - how they feel, why they stay .. and one with interviews with children of members of the SS, SA etc. I think they have been translated into English. A story: I worked in a gov't office in Austria and one day in 1988 I found a WYWO msg by the personnel mgr. - he has to speak to me immideately - I tried to call him but he was already on the line again and he told me that if I want to I can have Sept 11, off - I don't have to fill out a request for a personal day off or tell anybody - it is OK if I just do not show up in the office - I asked OK but what? why? - so he told me that he has received a document by his boss and he is informing me - he would not tell me why me and he would not tell me what this is all about and only because we know each other for some time and are on a first name basis he would tell me finally that so-and-so had suggested to call and inform me and that this is the first time and because of the 50th "aniversary" (he did NOT call it that way but a member of parliament called it at this time) of the Reichskristallnacht, that they passed a regulation that you may have Yom Kippur off as an extra day. This memo explicitly stated absolutely NOT to poste it on info boards but to inform relevant people personally and confidentially!! It is OK to post infos relating to people with diabetes, of protestant reli- gion, even muslim or relating to special regulations for pregnant women, but the note would have had to include the word "Jew" or "Israelite" or something and this is an absolute NO-NO. You can write and talk about Israelis and Palestina as much as you want ... This poor guy was so embarassed that he had to call me up and tell me this ...(because it basically ment "although you did not tell the office, we have found out that you are jewish and have acted acordingly - today you get a day off, but tomorrow ..) There is another aspect that somebody might walk up and say "here we are again, we always knew it - the Jews and their privileges..." Florian Brody 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Jul 91 09:37 EDT From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.BITNET Subject: Yente To: Bob Werman Regarding the use of "yente" for males, do you mean as a given name or in a figurative sense? If as a name, can you dredge up a source for this bit of gossip? In a figurative source, of course, it's applied to males even today. MH ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 1.48