Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.307 April 3, 1994 1) Matza Pizza (Adam Albright) 2) More on s/z; Learning Yiddish 3.Germany 4.Trenen (Mikhl Herzog) 3) Kalender (Fishl Kutner) 4) Paysakh Meikhl (Zalmen Itzik Clare) 5) Amerike ganef (Zachary Baker) 6) Gefrishhte matse (Dvosye Bilik) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Mar 31 23:19:47 1994 From: aca1@cornell.edu Subject: Matzah Pizza Blumke Shteynberg (Blossom S. Kirschenbaum) writes: >We never just buttered the steamed matzoh. ... When I lived in Rome, >someone in the community told me that in her family matzoh was used as >the basis of Passover pizza; I was surprised; my surprise surprised her, >and she asked "Ma perche non?" (why not?) and I've been doing that ever >since--does anyone else do it too? interesting that you should mention it, because 'matzah pizza' is one of the staples of passover foods available at our dining halls here at cornell. i never would have imagined the stuff before coming here, but now that i've been living off it for the greater part of the week, it seems as natural as gefilte fish and matzah brei! :) actually, i think cornell dining must have asked someone once what one eats for passover and got the response, "gefilte fish and horseradish, hard-boiled eggs, matzah, and chicken soup" because for the entire week they show up at every meal as the "passover option." it makes the pizza (whose name is distressingly like "macchu picchu"!) a welcome break -- a naye pesakh maykhl farn 'nineties' i guess... (will it be a new seder course in 100 years, right after the hillel sandwich?? maybe with some maror???) :) but now back to our regularly scheduled programming... -adam albright 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Apr 1 10:50:46 1994 From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Subject: 1.More on s/z 2.Learning Yiddish 3.subscribers in Germany 4.trenen 1. More s and z Eli Katz: a gezunt dir in di beyner! That's the most convincing. that's the ONLY explanation I've ever heard for Yiddish say(dn). Can I cite you in Volume III (Eli Katz, personal communication)? 2. Learning Yiddish, particularly (but not exclusively) for German speakers: There is an unusually good dictionary, number 24 in the series Duden Taschenbuecher (1992), "Jiddisches Woerterbuch, mit Hinweisen zur Schreibung, Grammatik und Aussprache" by Ronald Loetsch. I met Loetsch in what had recently been "East" Berlin several years ago, and his obvious sensitivity to the specificities of Yiddish provided dramatic evidence of how permeable even that wall had been. 3. Mendele subscribers in Germany: If you make yourself known to me directly, I would like to acquaint you with my work in Germany. I expect to be in Marburg, Mannheim, and Duesseldorf later this month, and will take the opportunity of sending you a separate message. 4. Shnayder-loshn: If I'm not mistaken, "trenen" in its familiar usage, derives from shnayder-loshn, where it simply means 'to rip a seam'. That's also the source of such terms as "damske shnayder" and "botn hol-makher" ('button hole') for 'father of girls'. Does anyone have more to add to this treasury? In the same vein as "George Brent and Helen Trent", there' another that stems from a personal sojourn in a place called Cream Ridge, New Jersey. Anyone who knows where that is will probably know why and when I was there. In any event, we'd go into Trenton, from time to time and, if my memory serves me, there were two hotels there, the Stacy Trent and the Hilda Brecht. Can anyone confirm that. When I lived in Cream Ridge, the rousing Yiddish songs from the Soviet Union were popular, including Zhankoje. The English version thereof had a sequence which we later learned referred to "the cream extractor". For years we wondered how they could have been referring to our "Cream Ridge tractor". To be added to the list of Mondegreens". Mikhl Herzog 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Apr 1 11:41:05 1994 From: Subject: Kalendar Wonderful Yiddish programs are bursting out. Whether it is "just for fun" or a true educational experience, indulge yourself in a Yiddish vacation. Listings from der internatsionaler kalendar in der bay. Here are the early announcements der bay has received. Your choices include: conferences, institutes, elderhostels, sof vokhn, etc.. June 3-5, Fri-Sun, Annual Friends of Yiddish Weekend, Saugerties, NY, Call 718-224-5497 20-7/29 Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, YIVO and Columbia Univ., Dept. of Germanic Languages, Call 212-535-6700 26-7/3 Sun-Sun, NYBC Annual Program in Yiddish Culture at Asilomar, Pacific Grove, CA, Call 413-535-1303 July 1-9/8 THE JEWISH CULTURAL EXPERIENCE AT CIRCLE LODGE, 3-6 Day Programs, Hopewell Junction, NY; Call 212-889-6800 xt 272 10-13 Seminar on Jewish Studies, POB 1198 Hamilton, New Zealand 16-8/13 Oxford Summer Program in Yiddish, Call 44 865 311 030 18-8/12 Summer Yiddish Institute, Bar Ilan, Israel, Call 212-337-1270 18-31 Mike Eisenstadt Israel Trip, Call 813-886-6393 Aug. 14-18, Sun-Th., CAJE Conf, IN U; Bloomington, IN; Call 301-933-3520 25-28, Charlotte Yiddish Institute, Charlotte, NC; Call 704-366-5564 Oct. 6-9 Thurs-Sun., Institute V, Perlstein Park, Call 312-743-7680 7-10 Fri-Mon, THE SECOND INTERNATIONALYIDDISH CLUB CONFERENCE, Toronto, Canada, Call 416-787-0526 Dec. 20-25, Tues-Sun, National Yiddish Book Center, Call 413-535-1303 25-30, Sun.-Fri., KlezKamp, Write 430 W. 14th St. #514, NYC 10014 27-30, Tues.-Fri., AAPY Annual Conference, as part of the MLA Convention, San Diego, CA; Prof. Joe Landis, Call 718-997-3622 Elderhostel: 75 Federal St., Boston, MA 02110, or Call 617-426-8056. Fishl 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Apr 1 12:57:30 1994 From: CLARE@vms.cis.pitt.edu Subject: Paysakh Meikhl Since we are on a Paysakh meikhl kick, I still love a teller fil mit borsht, smetene, geshnitene ugerkes, un tzubrokhene stiklakh matzeh. Vos ken besser zein? Efsher hayseh borsht gemakht fun rossel. Zeit mir aleh gezunt un hot ale a ziesn yontif. Sheldon Irvin(Zalmen Itzik) Clare(It was Klor in Lithuania). 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Apr 1 15:52:11 1994 From: Subject: Amerike ganef We receive many inquiries from readers in the YIVO Library, in person, by phone and by mail, and we try to answer them ourselves as best we can. Today, however, a letter arrived which I will excerpt in the hope that MENDELnikes might be able to throw in their two cents' worth, thereby helping us to answer the reader's questions. It has to do with the phrase "Amerike ganef," "which [our reader continues] Rosten defines or rather describes as a phrase of 'admiration, awe, gratitude, and a declaration of possibilities beyond belief and without limit.' He continues, 'To say "America gonif" [sic] was to say: "Anything is possible in this wonderful land".' My question concerns its usage. Rosten suggests that it is used to comment on the nature of the place, rather than the abilities of an individual. I wonder if it is possible, whether it has been used in this latter context." The reader cites an example, "Grandfather writes from Poland, How is my America gonif?" (which she composed and proposes to include in a poem). "I find myself in a quandary regarding the phrase 'America gonif,' find myself caught between the need and responsibility of adhering to correct usage and my attachment to my own apparent misreading.... So I am turning to you for help, first in determining the possible and correct usage of the phrase, and second, finding a possible alternative, if necessary and if one exists." The reference to Rosten is p. 139 of The Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968). For my part, I would be interested in hearing what MENDELnikes have to say about our reader's poetic quandary, and any and all concrete illustrations of the use of the phrase "Amerike ganef" will be most appreciated. By the way, a former colleague of mine from Ukmerge (Vilkomir), Lithuania, once corrected me when I uttered the words "Amerike ganef," and said that, properly, it should be "Ameritshke ganef." (I assume that this is how he heard it in his youth; he remained in Lithuania until the 1970s and eventually made his way to Montreal, where I met him in 1981.) On another occasion, this same colleague informed me that the use of Yiddish "takae" was prost -- "non-U," as our English friends might say. I wonder where he got THAT? (His father taught in a Yiddish school in Ukmerge and he himself studied in a Yiddish gymnasium in Kaunas/Kovne, just before World War II [where one of his teachers was the lexicographer Yudel Mark].) Zachary Baker 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri Apr 1 16:15:30 1994 From: Dorothy_BILIK@umail.umd.edu (db28) Subject: Gefrishhte matse Mendelnikes un nitses, I have no wish to initiate a lengthy discussion since culinary makhloykes are only second to linguistic ones in their intensity. However, bay unz in der heym hot men gegesn "gefrishte matse" which our correspondent described as " steamed matse" as well as matse bray (brei) which is then fried after the boiling water has been quickly drained from the gebrokte matse. My ten year old grandson made a batch for the assembled multitude this Peysakh. Mit a gutn apetit, Dvosye Bilik ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.307 To subscribe, send SUB MENDELE FIRSTNAME LASTNAME to: LISTSERV@YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net