Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 2 no. 90
November 5, 1992
 
1) Update on Dubnow interview (Zachary Baker)
2) Mess (Mark H. David)
3) A shayle vegn fis (Yankel Lantz)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  Nov. 3, 1992
From:  Zachary Baker (bm.yib@rlg.bitnet)
Subject:  Update on Dubnow interview

I have located a copy of the article by A. M. Kayzer, "In
der [y]idisher 'Yasnaya Polana':  a sho mit Dubnov'n (a
bletl fun mayne rayze-ayndrukn."  I first came across this
article in 1976, when I was working at YIVO as a microfilm
camera operator. It is an undated clipping from the
newspaper [Y]IDISHE SHTIME (probably Kovne/Kaunas), where
it must have appeared at the end of 1939 or in the first
half of 1940, i.e., after the beginning of World War II but
before the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states.

In the article, contrary to my recollection, Dubnow is not
quoted as using the word "khurbm"; instead, he uses the
phrase "oysrotungs-tendents" ("trend toward
extermination"):

     Aza oysrotungs-tendents fun dem [y]idishn folk vi es
     ekzistirt haynt iz shver tsu gefinen in der [y]idisher
     geshikhte. [It is hard to discern a trend toward the
     extermination of the Jewish people, such as currently
     prevails, in Jewish history.]

In the course of the interview, Dubnow called for the
compilation of a "Black Book," consisting of "all materials
reflecting upon our current anguish...  The 'Black Book'
should, I believe, appear especially in English, because
the English-speaking world above all is one which we have
to reckon with."  Looking ahead to the postwar world,
Dubnow remarked:

     The primary demand is the re-establishment of Jewish
     life everywhere that it was destroyed.  The second
     demand is to create opportunities for emigration to
     America and Palestine.

This comment displays Dubnow's continued adherence to the
concept of "doikeyt," one sustained by his views on the
future of Jews in Poland:

     To be sure, there is a minority among the Polish
     people which is still untainted by anti-Semitic
     poison; with them we shall be able to have something
     to discuss.  We mustn't forget that among the 20
     million Poles there will remain a ten percent minority
     of Jews in Poland, and that some sort of life will
     have to be created for them.

Toward the conclusion of the article, Dubnow's own future
(he was almost 80) was discussed.  Even though he possessed
that rarest of commodities, an American visa, he had
decided to move to Vilna, not the United States.  He would
donate his personal papers to the Vilna YIVO (still
functioning, albeit under heavy Soviet influence) and to
the Jewish National and University Library, in Jerusalem.
Kayzer, a Yiddish journalist based in London, concluded his
article with the following rumination:

     As we rode back on the bus from "Yasnaya Polyana" [a
     name based on that of Tolstoy's estate], each of us
     had a prayer in his heart:  "God grant him strength
     and many years, enough years for him to finish the
     bloodiest chapter in our history -- and who knows when
     and in what way it will end?"

According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, Dubnow was murdered
by a Gestapo officer (a former pupil of his) on December 8,
1941, when the Jews of Riga (he had not moved to Vilna,
after all) were deported by Nazi Einsatzgruppen and
executed en masse.  An apocryphal story has it that
Dubnow's final words were an exhortation, "Yidn, gedenkt,
farshraybt!"

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 3 Nov 92 18:05:11 EST
From: gensym!israel!mhd@harvard.harvard.edu
Subject: Mess

How do you say "mess"?  The definitions of Mess in
Weinreich's MEYYED, Harkavy's EYYED, and Schaechter's
"Trogn, Hobn, un Friike Kinderyorn" all differ.  How do you
native speakers/parents say

   1. The child made a mess.
   2. Don't make a mess!
   3. What a mess?!
   4. Your face is a mess!

Is there one universal "mess" in Yiddish, or do you have to
specify whether it's a liquid mess vs. a dry mess (cf. Eng.
pour: ongisn [pour liquid] vs. farshitn [pour dry stuff,
e.g., sand]) vs. a mess that's just chaos or disarray vs. a
mess that's like a screwup?

Mark H. David   mhd@gensym.com

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 03 Nov 1992 22:12:27 -0500 (EST)
From: STU_RWLANTZ%JMUVAX.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu
Subject: der fuss

I saw a copy this evening of my introductory message.  It
got a little garbled. Sorry about that.

Ich wel eppes fregen.

This is a question which has intrigued me for years and
I've never had the opportunity to ask a real Yiddish
speaker about it:  How does one distinguish between "foot"
and "leg?"

Yankel

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End of Mendele Vol 2.90

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