Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 3.200
January 16, 1994

1) Introduction (Ted Alper)
2) Introduction and query (Kalman Weiser)
3) College Yiddish (Stephen Dowling)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Jan 14 17:24:47 1994
From: Ted Alper <alper@CSLI.Stanford.EDU>
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

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat Jan 15 10:01:31 1994
From: "Keith Weiser (TD 1994)" <weiserki@minerva.cis.yale.edu>
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)

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat Jan 15 16:45:10 1994
From: stephen dowling <71072.2134@CompuServe.COM>
Subject: College Yiddish & M.Lakin's post on learning Yiddish

It isn't that College Yiddish is a "bad" book. It just isn't good if
you are studying at home alone. For a beginner, it doesn't provide
enough examples and explanations. Of all the Yiddish teachers that I
have met, none depended solely on College Yiddish for their lessons.
I wouldn't recommend it if you have no one around to ask questions
about what you have studied.

I usually recommend Learning Yiddish in Easy Stages by Zuckerman and
Harbst for such people. It is not as intense as College Yiddish. It
has eleven chapters, a dictionary and song section and quick
descriptions of Yiddish organizations.

Stephen Dowling

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 3.200

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