Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.140 October 15, 1994 1) Bakenen zikh un Yugntruf (Brukhe lang) 2) Red and yellow (Rick Gildemeister) 3) Transcription of Yiddish (Schmuel Levine) 4) A Yiddish anecdote (Leybl Fridhandler) 5) The Itsik Manger Prize for Yiddish Literature (Zellig Bach) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 15:01:51 -0400 (EDT) From: bl67@columbia.edu Subject: Bakenen zikh un Yugntruf Ikh heys Brukhe Lang un bin a graduier-student in tsveytn yor fun der yidish-program in Colombye universitet. Ikh leyn Mendele fun tsayt tsu tsayt shoyn zint etlekhe khadoshim, ober kh'hob zikh nokh keyn mol nisht forgestelt. Ikh kum fun england, vu ikh hob ongehoybn zikh lernen yidish in oksford, un ikh hob gehat dem mazl tsu kenen mamshikh zayn mayne limudim do in Nyu-York. Nyu-York hot a groyse mayle: yidish iz do faran nisht nor in universitet, nor oykh in a sakh kulturele organizatsyes, vi limoshl Yugntruf - Yugnt far Yidish. Kh'bin bald gevorn a mitglid fun Yugntruf, vos brengt tsunoyf yunge mentshn, vos redn yidish un vos viln farbrengen af yidish. Far yene, vos veysn nisht vegn Yugntruf, vil ikh a bisl dertseyln vegn dem. Yugntruf organiziert farsheydene tsuzamenkumen in Nyu-York durkhn yor: a shraybkrayz, a shmueskrayz, a leynkrayz, Pripetshik (a 'zuntikshul' far yidish-redndike kinder) un andere. Yedn sof-zumer kumt for di 'yidishvokh' in di Katskil berg: a vakatsye vu alts iz af yidish. Yugntruf git oykh aroys a zhurnal 'Yugntruf', vu yunge shrayber af yidish kenen drukn zeyer verk. Oyb ir hot nokh nisht gehert fun Yugntruf iz keday zikh ontsukhapn in dem! Iz vos vet forkumen in november? Zuntik dem 6tn nov. 2.30pm. Shmuezkrayz: "Zoln yidn shtimen merstns loyt yidishe kriterye?" 535 West 112 Street, NY 10025. Dinstik dem 8tn nov. 7.30pm. Shmuezkrayz far onheybers. 535 West 112 Street, NY 10025. Donershtik, dem 17tn nov. Shraybkrayz. Yugntruf-byuro, 200 West 72 Street, Suite 40, NY 10023. Oyb ir vilt vayterdike informatsyes, oder ir vilt zikh aboniern inem zhurnal, zay azoy gut un klingt in byuro: (212) 787-6675, oder shraybt: 200 West 112 Street, Suite 40, NY 10023. Nokh eyn meldung: a lektsye in Sholem-Aleykhem-Kultur-Tsenter: Zuntik, dem 20. nov. 1.00pm. Prof. D. Roskies vet redn af der teme: "Rokhl Fishmans poetisher gang." 3301 Bainbridge Ave, Bronx, NY. Do hot ir mayne reklames -- to kumt un farbrengt mit undz! Brukhe Lang 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 13:28:54 EDT From: eeglc%cunyvm.bitnet@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Subject: Red and yellow I'm glad that the subject of blond/red came up. In modern gentile Spanish "rubio" means blond. In Judeo-Spanish, "ruvio" means red. The business about Litvishe Yidn being blond leads into another area. While most gentile Americans perceive Jews as somehow "dark", in fact in other areas of the world there are different opinions. I know an Ashkenazi woman who grew up in Soviet Armenia; she said the population there was 95% Armenian and 5% Jewish. The Jews were considered fair, and she told me she regularly dyed her hair black so as not to look Jewish. It is said that it is a dubious skill that West Indians have that they can somehow detect immediately "Negro blood" in someone. It is said of the Poles that they can always spot a Jew. Redness is one of the criteria used. In Eastern Europe red hair is a trait that is considered Jewish. There are Romanian folk songs of "beautiful Jewish red-haired girls". In Poland and the Ukraine, red hair was always a tip-off that the person was Jewish. The gentile population has an ash blond appearance with none of the ruddiness and strawberry blondness one sees especially among Litvaks *and* Irishmen! Well, this is getting away from Yiddish, but it is in the right context. I wouldn't have felt right bringing it up myself, but it is especially interesting to me, because I grew up gentile with their preconceptions, and am now, shoyn lange yorn an oyev-yisroel velkher geyt shpatsirn oyf der yidisher gas, un ikh ken etlekhe yidishe "soydes" oder inyonim, vos yidn haltn nor far zikh, un lozn di goyim nisht visn dos vos hot tsu ton mit krume nezer, royte hor, un andere zakhn vos me treft zeyer oft ven me zet az keyn goy iz do nisht faran. Rick Gildemeister 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 17:48:17 -0600 (CST) From: schmuel@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu Subject: Transcription of Yiddish As I have already realized from several responses I received to the comments I made in my introduction, I should probably clarify my point about the "romanization" debate going on in Mendele. When I expressed the view that this discussion was "pointless," I did not mean that it was pointless to have a standard transcription of Yiddish in the Roman alphabet. On the contrary, as a linguist I am aware of the need to have standard transcriptions that most people recognize, such as the YIVO transcription. What seems pointless to me is to waste so much valuable time and intellectual energy on an aspect of Yiddish which, when you get right down to it, really carries very little weight in the scheme of things. We have the YIVO transcription, and whether you love it or hate it, it is the one most scholars recognize and use. Thus there doesn't seem to be a whole lot more to it than that. Again, I hope I haven't offended those involved in the discussion. Schmuel Levine 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 14 Oct 94 20:05:13 EDT From: 74064.1661@compuserve.com Subject: A Yiddish anecdote It was kind of Peter Kluehs to post the news (the other day) that my Yiddish anecdote about Mark Twain was enjoyed by him and his whole family. This encourages me to post a little story known to readers of Royte Pomerantsen. I hope it encourages those who don't know enough Yiddish yet to learn more. Here's the story. Ven Nikolay der tsveyter iz geven der tsar hot men nit derloybt a yid tsu zayn in Peterbarg on a pas (a passport). Ven me hot gepakt a yidn on a pas, hot men im geshtroft on rakhmones. Ot iz a maysele vegn dem inyen. A por yidn hobn shpatsirt afn gas in Peterbarg. Eyner hot men gerufn Moyshe, der anderer Yankl. Yankl hot gehat a pas, ober Moyshe hot nit gehat keyn pas. Zey hobn geshmuest vegn farshidene zakhn. Plutsem derzeyen zey fun der vaytn a politsiant. Oy vey! Az me khapt a yid on a pas iz er nit zikher mitn labn. Moyshe hot getsitert azh fun moyre. Zogt Yankl, "Moyshe, ikh hob a pas. Du zolst nisht hobn keyn moyre." Zogt Moyshe, "Ober vu bin ikh? Vos vet zayn?" Makht Yankl, "Ikh hob a pas vel ikh onheybn loyfn. Du shtey afn ort, gants ruik. Der politsiant vet zeyen az ikh loyf vet er mikh nokhyogn, un er vet dikh lozn tsu ru." Yankl hot zikh genumen di fis af di pleytses un hot ongehoybn loyfn, take loyfn loyfndik. Der politsiant hot im derzeyen. Az a yid loyft, darf a politsiant im nokhyogn. Er hot Yanklen nokhgelofn a sheyn shtik veg biz er hot im gekhapt un opgeshtelt. Fregt der politsiant, "Host a pas? Az nit, vestu haynt zitsn in tfise!" Entfert Yankl, "Vos far a frage! Avade hob ikh a pas. Vos zogstu?" Un funem keshene nemt er aroys zayn pas. Der politsiant kukt es on, un zogt, "Take, du host a gutn pas. Nu, farvos hostu moyre gehat far mir?" Zogt Yankl, "Ikh hob gor keyn moyre nit gehat far dir." Fregt im der politsiant, "Far vos, den, hostu azoy gikh avekgelofn. Efsher hostu epes geton!" Yankl makht zikh tamevate un entfert, "A sheyne mayse nor a kurtse. Der dokter hot mir gegebn zeyer a gutn proshek, azamin refue; un er hot mir ongezogt az bald vi ikh zol aynnemem dem proshek zol ikh nokhdem teykef loyfn a halbe sho, zikh nit opshteln." "Nu, iz dos a guter terets," zogt der politsiant, un fregt vayter, "Ober du host gezeyn az ikh hob dir nokhgelofn, to farvos hostu zikh nit opgeshtelt?" Zogt Yankl, "ikh hob gemeynt az _dayn_ dokter hot dir geheysn aynnemen dem zelbn proshek." Leybl Fridhandler 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 21:20:41 -0400 From: zellig@aol.com Subject: The Itsik Manger Prize for Yiddish Literature Meyer Vaisgal, the indefatigable fundraiser for the Weizmann Institue of Science in Israel and one of the principal founders of the Itsik Manger Prize for Yiddish Litrerature, wrote in 1969: "... Simkhes Toyre bin ikh geven in Yerusholayim un gezen yidn tantsn mit a seyfer toyre... nor bay yidn zet men dos... iz mir ayngefaln a gedank: az ikh leyen Itsik Mangern vilt zikh mir tantsn un zingen... es bet zikh tantsn... yedes vort vos kumt aroys fun zayn feder tsezingt zikh in mir..." He then asked to join him in this cultural endeavor the then Israeli President Zalmen Shazar and the Cabinet Secretaries of Education and Finance, all of whom gladly accepted the invitation. Then he went to see in person the famous Hebrew writer Sh. Y. Agnon, later Nobel Prize winner, and said to him: "Reb yid, ir shraybt dokh af yidish, nor ir zetst dos iber af hebreyish, vil ikh ir zolt zikh bateylikn in undzer inyen." Hot er mir gezogt: "Azoy vi ir kumt tsu mir mit a shlikhes, bin ikh greyt dos tsu ton." And this is the way the Itsik Manger Prize for Yiddish Literature came into being. Zellig Bach ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.140 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a meaningful Subject: line 2. Sign your article (full name please) 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 Send articles to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu