Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 4.074
July 29, 1994

1) The latest from Argentina (Zachary Baker)
2) Favorite quote (C. Hoffman)
3) Zaretski and verb-third (Dovid Braun)
4) Translation help needed (Jules Levin)
5) A Girl named Ge'tole (Zellig Bach)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 94 14:20:58 PDT
From: BM.YIB@RLG.Stanford.EDU
Subject: The latest from Argentina

Here is some up-to-date information regarding the fate of the Argentine
YIVO collections, as reported by the New York YIVO's Executive V.P.,
Larry Rubinstein:

I spoke to Shaul Bracher [Brajer] and Avraham Lichtenbaum from Argentina
today (Thursday, July 28th at about 1:30 in the after- noon) about the
status of things in Argentina.  They inform me of the following:

1.  The Central Library of YIVO is 90% recoverable.

2.  The archival papers are 90% recoverable -- however, they need to go
paper by paper and this will take a very long time since the removal is
under the eyes of the police and a judge who must approve everything.

3.  The front part of the library was completely blown up -- all of the
referral [reference] library, catalogues, video equipment, tapes, records
and printed music archives are gone.

4.  15,000 volumes of the masterworks [Musterverk] of Yiddish literature
were destroyed.

5.  They are still collecting books from the rubble.  About 300 youth are
working on the rescue operation.

6.  Approximately 96 people are dead.  The number is not absolute since
many of the bodies were blown apart and they are being identified through
DNA procedures.  They think that there are 10-15 bodies unaccounted for
although some of them may be recovered, but are in pieces and have yet to
be identified.

I will speak with Bracher and Lichtenbaum next week to get a further
update.  They have indicated that their concern at the moment is
fund-raising.  I asked them if they were doing fund-raising in Argentina
and they said they were.

[Relayed by Zachary Baker, YIVO Library, New York]

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu Jul 28 15:32:41 EDT 1994
From: choffman@nyplgate.nypl.org
Subject: Favorite Quote?

Do you have a favorite passage from a book you most revere?

New York's Grand Central Partnership, as part of a project to enhance the
midtown area around Grand Central Station, is renovating East 41st Street
between Park and Fifth Avenues, the blocks leading up to the main
entrance to The New York Public Library's Center for the Humanities
(formerly known as "the Central Research Library," "the main branch,"
"the building with the lions," etc.)  The Partnership has asked the
Library staff to submit literary quotations, 100 of which will be
embedded in the sidewalks on cast-iron plaques designed by artists.  The
quotations should be arresting to the walker who is unfamiliar with the
work as well as to people who read a great deal.

If you would like to suggest a quotation for Library Walk, read on:

The rules governing quotations are as follows:
1. The maximum length is 260 characters, or approximately 50 words. For
poetry, maximum length is 10 lines.
2. Quotations can come from all literatures and periods, but those
not in English must be translated.
3. Please provide, in addition to the quotation, the name of the author,
the title of the book, and a page reference. For a classic existing in
several editions, specify the edition. For a foreign-language work
published in several translations, specify the translation.

Fill in the following:

TEXT:



AUTHOR:

BOOK TITLE AND PAGE:

EDITION/TRANSLATION (if relevant):

NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, etc. OF PERSON SUBMITTING QUOTATION:


All submissions must be received no later than August 15th.

Send electronic submissions to:
choffman@nyplgate.nypl.org
and use as subject line: quote41

C. Hoffman

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 94 16:35:28 EDT
From: dovid@MIT.EDU
Subject: Zaretski and verb-third

Yiddish grammarian Ayzik Zaretski wrote two articles on verb-first and
verb- second in Yiddish (as well as discussing these in his grammar
books).  The articles were in _Di yidishe shprakh_, btw.  Question:  I
was told, perhaps mistakenly, that  he also wrote an article on
verb-third or treated it in some publication of his.  Does anyone know of
such a treatment and, if it exists, where it is?  (More generally, do you
know of treatment of verb-third by anybody else?  Mordkhe Schaechter's
_Yidish tsvey_ presents an appendix which lists numerous exceptions to
verb-second.  But this is the only list or treatment I know of.)  Thanks.

Dovid Braun

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 1994 14:10:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: JFLEVIN@UCRAC1.UCR.EDU
Subject: Translation help needed

I would like to request translation help from a fellow mendelnik.  I have
two letters in Yiddish, comprising 3 sides of old-fashioned lined paper.
They were written by my  paternal grandmother [in Chicago] and her brother
in Baltimore.  I made very clean copies, which  might even be faxable, and
certainly could be read from a snail-mail copy.  Both hands seem clean and
easy to read.

Apart from the sentiment--apart from old photos, the letter is all I have
from my Dad's mother--I am very anxious to find clues as to the origin of
her [and naturally, her brother] in Europe.  So I would really appreciate
if a fellow-linguist could look at the language and give an expert opinion.
Linguistically it might be interesting, since I have so far guessed from
circumstantial clues, that she came from East Prussia, just across the
Lithuanian border.

I would be happy to pay reasonable compensation for a good job.

--Jules Levin

Fax:  909-787-2160, office: 909-787-5007, home: 909-683-8726

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 94 19:25:28 EDT
From: Zellig@aol.com
Subject: A Girl named Ge'tole

Further to my posting "A Boy named Yi'vole" (Vol. 4.059, item 2) herewith
a brief note about a girl born in Ghetto where her parents were
incarcerated during World War II.  They named her Ge'tole, the diminutive
and endearing name from the Yiddish geto.  Her survival in the ghetto was
considered a nes min hasomayim--a miracle from heaven.

Naming her Ge'tole was thought of as an act of spite against the Nazis
and, symbolically, that the birth and survival of this little girl is a
kind of miniature message that am yisroel khay--the Jewish people live.
As Yi'vole's father was a writer, so was Ge'tole's father.  His name was
Yoysef Gar.  He came from Kovne (Kaunas), Lithuania.  He published a book
about his experiences in the ghetto.

Zellig Bach

______________________________________________________
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