Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.106 September 20, 1993 1) Introduction (Marion Aptroot) 2) Lshana toyve (Ellen Prince) 3) Yiddish and the KGB (Dvosye Bilik) 4) Yontif (Bob Werman) 5) Mottele (Moshe Waldoks) 6) Introduction (Zachary Rosen) 1)---------------------------------------------------- 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 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Sep 15 15:04:29 1993 From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: Lshana toyve gut yontiv to everyone, a very special thanks to our esteemed shames, and an extra special round of applause for his spectacular holiday graphics! wow. Ellen prince [The shames, on the other hand, pleads guilty to the high crime of plagiarism. He adapted a greeting from his shutef, Victor Bers.] 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Sep 16 23:41:15 1993 From: Dorothy_BILIK@umail.umd.edu (db28) Subject: Yiddish and the KGB I read in a 1992 AJS newsletter that some Yiddish manuscripts were found in KGB files. Have any of you read any more recent references to this intriguing item? Hot mir ale a gezuntn mazldikn yor. Dvosye Bilik Db28@umail.umd.edu 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Sep 18 14:39:18 1993 From: RWERMAN%HUJIVMS.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: YONTIF In Mendele Vol 3.105, Amitai Halevi writes: >Since saying "Gut yontev" on Rosh Hashono is kosher according to >modern Israeli doctrine: Gut yontev - everyone. *********************************** May I add that it is not only MODERN usage; the Rambam specifically lists Rosh Hashanna as one of the yom tovim [yontif is the way I hear it] in halichos yom tov [zmanim]. It is standard practice among the p'rushim [yishuv yashan or old colony of religious] of Jerusalem among whom I have lived and prayed these twenty years to say "gut yontif" on Yom ha-Kipporim. __Bob Werman rwerman@hujivms.bitnet rwerman@vms.huji.ac.il 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat Sep 18 20:18:47 1993 From: WALDOKS@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU Subject: Re: Mottele TOM LEVERETT, Mottele, I beleive was the town Chaim Wizman was from. He refers to it in his autobiography. mit kovid, Moshe Waldoks. 6)---------------------------------------------------- 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 ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.106