Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.002 May 18, 1994 1) Preglen (Leigh Lisker) 2) Program/book notices (Louis Fridhandler) 3) Oyvr botl (David Sherman) 4) Gershenzon (Zachary Baker) 5) Eastern European Travel (David Gerber) 6) Grine Felder (Ellen Prince) 7) "Jewish ship" docks in Salonica (Rick Gildemeister) 8) Singer on Yiddish (Greg Davis) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun May 15 12:18:17 1994 From: llisker@babel.ling.upenn.edu Subject: preglen Why should there be a Slavic source for preglen, which I am familiar with in the phrase gepregelte matze (not mentioned so far as I know in discussions of this tasty dish). In the Muret-Sanders Deutsch-Englisch dictionary the word bregeln = braten is cited as "mitteldeutsch." Maybe a germanist should be brought into the discussion. Leigh Lisker 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun May 15 14:06:31 1994 From: 74064.1661@CompuServe.COM Subject: Program/book notices A freylekhn dritn geburtstog, Mendele. I note with gratitude that our shames welcomes notices of lectures, etc. as well as notices of books and articles. I have had a natural reluctance to tout my participation. It seemed too self-serving. However, I agree such announcements relevant to Yiddish language and literature are appropriate. I naturally welcome comments and criticism. Thank you Noyekh. Here goes: On Sunday, June 5, 1994, 2:30 to 4:30 pm, there will be a program called Ashkenazic Culture and Music: a Yahrzeit (sic) Commemoration for Sholem Aleichem. [Of course, I'd prefer yortsayt to yahrzeit, ober vos ken men tun?) It will take place at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Orange County in Costa Mesa, California. Inquiries may be made to JCC at (714) 751- 0608. There will be bilingual readings, brief talks on history of Yiddish literature, theater, and performances of dances, music, etc. I am a participant. Something else: A new anthology on the works of Sholem Aleichem has just been published: The Three Great Classic Writers of Modern Yiddish Literature, Volume II. Selected Works of Sholem-Aleykhem. Ed. Marvin Zuckerman and Marion Herbst. Malibu, CA: Joseph Simon/Pangloss Press, 1994. My participation: (1)_A brief psychomedical examination of Sholem-Aleykhem's untimely death, "Was His Death Too Soon?" (2)_An analysis of "Place Names and Their Meaning in Sholem- Aleykhem's Work." (3)_A translation of the first piece for which Rabinowitz used his pseudonym, Sholem-Aleykhem, "The Election" [Di Vibores, 1883]. (4)_A translation of the 1887 version of Legboymer. The 1903 revision is quite different and rather defanged of its vigorous protest. Louis Fridhandler. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun May 15 17:21:44 1994 From: dave@cai.lsuc.on.ca Subject: oyvr botl Funny... I'd never heard the expression until the recent discussion on Mendele. Yesterday, in shul, an older gentleman who I'm friendly with was looking for his coat and hat in the cloakroom. I asked whether he'd perhaps not brought them (since it was a warmish day). His reply: "I'm oyvr botl, but I'm not that far gone!" (Turned out his coat was in the next row over from where he was looking.) David Sherman 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun May 15 19:39:46 1994 From: BM.YIB@RLG.Stanford.EDU Subject: Gershenzon The only Gershenson/Gershenzon listed in the "Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur" (vol. 2, col. 327) is M. Gershenzon, and details about his life and works are sketchy. The "Leksikon" describes him as a Soviet Yiddish dramatist, satirist and composer of fables or parables (mesholim), who was from the Ukraine (no place or date of birth given) and who belonged to the generation of Yiddish writers that came to prominence on the eve of World War II. He was best known for his plays "Hershele Ostropolyer" (about the legendary Jewish prankster) and "Mayn zun." He fell at the front in 1944. Several articles about M. Gershenzon are listed at the end of the paragraph-long article in the "Leksikon." His works -- also under the name M. (not Y. or J.) Gershenzon --- are listed in the bibliography "Jewish Publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1960," edited by Khone Shmeruk (Jerusalem: 1961), item nos. 1130 (the collection "Heymland," published in Moscow, 1943) and 1447 ("Hershele Ostropolyer," published in Kiev, 1939). From this sparse data it is of course impossible to verify whether or not M. Gershenzon (J. Gershenson is probably an error) is related to Howard Gershen. The geographical distribution of Jewish surnames in the former Pale of Settlement is documented in Alexander Beider's monumental new book -- to which I do not have access during the Shevues holiday, alas. Zachary Baker, YIVO Library 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun May 15 20:07:18 1994 From: HISDAVID@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: Information on Eastern European Travel I am posting this note on behalf of four academic friends, scholars and roots-seekers, who are now teaching at the Jagiellonian University on Krakow for a month, and would like to travel after that time to their bubbe and zayde's villages in Belarus and in the Western Ukraine. They have asked me to ask you (1) whether anyone knows if reports regarding the dangers of travel in the Western Ukraine are indeed true - bandits, thieves, muggings of tourists, etc.; and (2) if anyone can identify people to contact who may serve as guides and/or drivers in Belarus, in the areas of Omstibova; Pruzhany; Minsk; and Grodno. I thank the participants in Mendele in behalf of my friends for your assistance. David Gerber 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon May 16 19:47:35 1994 From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: query: grine felder does anyone out there have access to a published english translation of hirschbein's _grine felder_ and could check something in it for me? a dank. (if anyone has a published translation of the play into any other language, that would also be very much appreciated.) ellen prince 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue May 17 13:02:25 1994 From: EEGLC%CUNYVM.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: "Jewish ship" docks in Salonica I found an article where Bob Hoberman might have found the story of the "Jewish ship" (really a Spanish ship) docking in Salonica and the sensation it caused; Dzhudezmo was the native language of about 90% of the population of the city, and non-Jews simply called it "Jewish" the way a lot of people here do when referring to Yiddish. The non-Jews had never been exposed to Spanish, which is very close to Dzhudezmo,and made the cognitive leap that Dzhudezmo = Jewish; Spanish = Dzhudezmo; ergo, Spanish = Jewish. Estrugo, Jose M. "Tradiciones espa~nolas en las juderias del Oriente Proximo (reminiscencias y apuntes). In: Sefarad. A~no 14, fasc.1 (1954). It also contains the anecdote I posted about Sephardim joining their families in Latin America and their puzzlement at being in a country "where *everybody* talks Jewish". Rick Gildemeister 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed May 18 10:34:49 1994 From: gdavis@isnet.is.wfu.edu Subject: I.B. Singer on Yiddish There is a quiet humor in Yiddish and a gratitude for every day of life, every crumb of success, each encounter of love... In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us all, the idiom of a frightened and hopeful humanity. Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel Lecture, 12/8/78 Greg Davis ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.002 A Table of Contents is now available via anonymous ftp, along with weekly updates. Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files Archives available via gopher on: gopher.cic.net Mendele has 2 rules: 1. 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