Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.015 June 7, 1994 1) Book notice (Leah Zazulyer) 2) Kibosh (Sheldon Benjamin) 3) Shpilkes (Sheldon Benjamin) 4) YIVO, Shpilkes & Baltaxe (Yale J. Reisner) 5) Pro-drop (Ellen Prince) 6) Der Nister (Adam Weisberger) 7) Saturday night (Mikhl Herzog) 8) Farewell (Robyn Sassen) 9) Yiddish/Jewish comics II (Henry Sapoznik) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jun 6 10:27:31 1994 From: WATSON@UNO.CC.GENESEO.EDU Subject: Book notice Two by Leah Zazulyer: l. Siberia, by Israel Emiot*. (State Street Press, l991) A BILINGUAL edition of 24 poems written in and just after his incarceration in a Stalin era gulag. With an extensive biographical, historical, and literary introduction in English. Translated by Leah Zazulyer, with Brina M. Rose. $10.00 2. The World Is A Wedding, poetry by Leah Zazulyer on Jewish/Yiddish themes. ( FootHill Publishing, l993). $5.00. Both books have well-reproduced Jewish art on covers. Both can be bought through me at watson@uno.cc.geneseo.edu. * Israel Emiot, l909-l978; Poland, Russia, Israel, USA--NYC, Rochester. Leah Zazulyer 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon Jun 6 23:50:45 1994 From: sbenj@MIT.EDU Subject: Kibosh Dan Kirshner doesn't ask lightly about the likes of kibosh. We spent much of our Shabbat dinner together last week researching this question. That night we came up with the Turkish bos (bosh). Now I see the OED has cabosh or caboche from the French referring to removing the head. This is apparently related to cabbage, too. What was Leo Rosten's evidence in favor of a Yiddish origin? (we were told he presented evidence both pro and con). I can't see what Yiddish word it is related to. Sheldon Benjamin 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 00:22:19 1994 From: sbenj@MIT.EDU Subject: Shpilkes Shpilkes are pins. Zetsn af shpilkes is more or less being unable to sit still. Shpilkes are, of course, one of the elements in the psychiatric diagnosis, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Our poor shames will be up to his pipik in responses to these queeries. Sheldon (Sholem Ruveyn) Benjamin 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 06:14:54 1994 From: REISNER%PLEARN.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: YIVO, Shpilkes & Baltaxe YIVO (Kinkley): Acronym for yidisher visnshaftlikher institut, Jewish Scientific Institute. Last alef read as kometz-alef for mellifluous 77onunciation, perhaps? Shpilkes (Kinkley): "Pins," as in Polish szpilki, "pins." To be "af shpilkes is to be "on pins and needles," i.e. nervous or impatient. Baltaxe (Mullish): Alexander Beider's Dict. of Jewish Surnames shows Baltaxe as an Odessa region name meaning "tax farmer" < Heb. ba'al + "tax". Court- related names usually contain the particle "bad," for bet-din, as in Shabad, shaliakh bet-din, court messenger, or Babad, ben av bet din, son of the chief rabbinic judge, etc. Yale J. Reisner 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 00:46:06 1994 From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: prodrop to: delphine bechtel thanks for the warning about _der nister_ but i'm looking for what people have said about prodrop, not for facts about prodrop itself. so please don't anyone be reluctant to give me a reference just because you think what it says is wrong. thanks. ellen prince 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 08:31:05 1994 From: amweisbe@COLBY.EDU Subject: Der Nister Does anyone know if anything by Der Nister can be found in English trans- lation? I teach a Yiddish culture class here in the January term and would love to include something by him in the syllabus. I have found him perhaps the most fascinating of Yiddish writers, but I have only read him in Yiddish, and for this course, nebekh, I must use English materials. A sheynem dank, Adam Weisberger 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 01:52:40 1994 From: ZOGUR@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Subject: Saturday night A question to Germanists: Yiddish renders the expressions "Sunday night", "Monday night" (through "Thursday") as "zuntik af/of der nakht", etc. Not so "Friday/Saturday night" which are either "erev shabes" and "moytse shabes", respectively, or "fraytik tse (=tsu) nakht" and "shabes tse (= tsu) nakht" and, far more frequently, a variant of "shabEYsenakht" for the latter. The problem: Each of the three, "fraytik tse (=tsu) nakht", "shabes tse (= tsu) nakht", and "shabEYsenakht" has a widespread variant, with "nakhtS" rather than "nakht". Thus "shabEYsenakhtS". Question: Is there any apparent basis for the "nakhtS" form in German? Any reason to think that this construction may have required a genitive? Mikhl Herzog 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 06:08:27 1994 From: 023CYRIL@witsvma.wits.ac.za Subject: Farewell To all Mendeleniks and Mendelenitses Although I have only really been a lurker and a learner on this list, only submitting an introduction when I began, I feel it is my duty to bid you farewell. I am in the process of changing jobs, where chances are, I wont have access to e-mail. I have taken printouts of every single posting for Mendele that has come my way since I discovered you, and through this have widened my knowledge and understanding of the culture from which I originate, quite considerably. In my new vocation, which is in the private sector, I aim to continue with my Masters degree which will focus on questions of Diasporism, and still hope to learn Yiddish to the best of my ability. All I can do it reiterate how much pleasure this mailing list has given me, and as a parting shot, give you a new subscriber, whom I believe you all know - Joseph Sherman. I was quite astonished to learn that he doesn't yet have access to Mendele. A grose dank.. Robyn Sassen [Mir veln zikh nokh bageygenen! Nisht azoy, khevra? nm] 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue Jun 7 11:11:10 1994 From: Sapoznik@aol.com Subject: Yiddish/Jewish comics II Though it's come awfully close, it doesn't seem like there were Yiddish comics in the same way we now know the comic. There was plenty of editorial, satirical and humorous single panel art such as that found in Der Groyser Kundes or on the pages of the Yiddish dailies, but no strips ( the dailies DID carry multi-panel cartoon advertisments but they were simply translations from the English.) The presence of Jews in the comic industry goes back to before its beginnings. For all intents and purposes the modern comic was invented in 1933 by Max Gaines by anthologizing Sunday color comics under one cover. Later, Gaines' son William along with the late Harvey Kurtzman went on to found Mad magazine whose use of Yiddish ("farshlugener", etc.) made it all the more a unique humor magazine. In 1939, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, sons of immigrants created the ultimate super-immigrant: Superman. In fact, the Superman story (escape from danger in a small craft, being found by benevolent passerby, etc.) is simply an ingeniously updated story of moyshe rabeynu! There is no evidence that Shuster and Siegel ever employed Superman in the fight against the Nazis though other comics did, such as Captain America, the Boy Commandos, Captain Marvel, etc.) After the war Jews begin to show up in mainstream comics. The premier issue of the short-lived comic "Impact" (1955) published by William Gaines featured the B. Kreigsman story "Master Race" about a Jewish concentration camp survivor who meets the former camp komandant on the subway and exacts his revenge. Later, a Marvel comics W.W. II series did address the issue of the Jews where "The Avengers" introduced the character of "The Golem" in 1986. Conveniently transplanted from Prague's ghetto in the Middle Ages to Warsaw's during the war, this Golem -- called to life by a yeshive bukher mit payes -- fights Nazis for several issues. Last, and certainly least, are the crudely drawn and poorly written comic strips on Jewish history and famous rabonim that appear in New York's "The Jewish Press" ("Tales of the Gaonoim", etc.) along with the new generation of Orthodox comics like "Mendy and the Golem". Henry Sapoznik ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.015 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. Provide a meaningful Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu