Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.165 November 4, 1994 1) Introduction (Bill McAuliff) 2) Yidish teatr (Martin Davis) 3) Yitskhok Berliner (Charles Jones) 4) Yiddish books sought (Steve Jacobson) 5) Khoyzek (Yude Rozof) 6) Israel Ashendorf (Philip J. Leonard) 7) Groyser Verterbukh (Ruben Frankenstein) 8) Fedder-Fraynt (Avrom Yitzkhok Blair) 9) "Petschke" (Mottel Lakin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 15:39:18 -0600 From: womc3@gate.net Subject: Introduction My name is William McAuliff. I am a christian (a goy) who has fallen in love with G_d's chosen people, their languages, customs, and cuisine. Since begining taking a few years ago, I have delighted in studying the rich heritage and wonderful literature of the Jewish people. My language studies thus far have dealt only with Hebrew, and then only just enough to recognize letters and eak out a word or two. I am fairly fluent in Spanish, so Ladino might not be so difficult. And then there is Yiddish... Please permit me to ,as it were,and feast on the conversation. If there ever comes a time that it is appropriate for me to participate,then I most assuredly will. Shalom, William McAuliff (Bill) 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 3 Nov 94 11:56:57 -0500 From: davism@turing.cs.nyu.edu Subject: Yidish teatr Dvorah Halperin Biasca inquires about Yiddish theatre with simultaneous translation. It's been done often and I think is quite successful. My Yiddish comprehension is just good enough that I don't need it, but my wife enjoyed the English translation at the Ida Kaminska "Mirele Efros" at the NYC City Center many years ago; we were able to take my mother. The Folksbiene in NYC is doing Mirele Efros just now with simultaneous translation. I hope to take it in. We sometimes go to a Spanish language repertory theatre in NYC where my wife can take advantage of her fluency in that language while I resort to the available English translation. Very satisfactory. Martin Davis 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 03 Nov 1994 14:39:19 -0400 (EDT) From: jones@widener1.mhs.harvard.edu Subject: Yitskhok Berliner According to OCLC, other holders of Shtot fun palatsn are: Widener Library, Harvard Tulane Univ., New Orleans Univ. of Maryland, College Park Wayne State Univ., Detroit Cleveland Public Library Univ. of Texas at San Antonio Charles Jones 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 03 Nov 1994 15:48:08 -0900 From: ffsaj@aurora.alaska.edu Subject: Yiddish books sought I've been looking for two Yiddish books, "Hintergasn" and "Di Goldene Pave" both written by Iehoshue Perle in between-the-wars Poland. They are the second and third parts of a semi-autobiographical trilogy, the first part of which is "Yidn far a Gants Yor", which I do have. I've tried the National Yiddish Book Center for the two books I'm seeking but they don't have copies. Does anyone have or know of copies of these books anywhere? I'd gladly pay any reasonable price for xeroxed copies. Even a lead on non-circulating copies in a library somewhere would be appreciated. Steve Jacobson 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 23:57:37 -0500 (EST) From: jrosof@sas.upenn.edu Subject: Khoyzek In regard to earlier discussions on transliteration of Yiddish: I ask those who support transliteration of loshn koydesh as lashon qadhosh what to do with the Yiddish khoyzek. Here is a word of non Semitic origin which popular writing convention in Yiddish spells like a Hebrew word. Are we to write this thoroughly non-Hebrew-Aramaic word as h.ozeq? What about amoratsim? 'am ha-aras.othim is totally absurd, devoid of meaning and gramatically inconceivable in the Hebrew language. How does one write gekholemt--ge-h.alom-t? Are we going to transliterate the ancient Greek words in Hebrew such as awir (air) and mistorin (secret, mystery--Greek via Aramaic) according to Greek rules? What about the Yiddish "es shtinkt-- azan aver in der luft!" How have issues of transliteration been resolved in Muslim languages, written in Arabic script and containing a large corpus of vocabulary imported from Arabic. If I am not mistaken, Pharsi, eg. contains 25% Arabic derived words spelled in the original Arabic letters with the same spelling. Thus it would seem to present a close parallel to Yiddish. How is Pharsi transliterated? What about Ottoman Turkish or Urdu? Yude Rozof 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Nov 94 02:01:07 GMT-0600 From: mike@order.ph.utexas.edu Subject: Israel Ashendorf I am looking for information on the Yiddish Writer Israel Ashendorf. I believe that he was living in Paris before World War II and then moved to Argentina. Does anyone have any information about his family or how to find out who has the royalty rights to his books? Philip J. Leonard 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Nov 1994 13:54:46 +0100 (MEZ) From: frankens@mibm.ruf.uni-freiburg.de Subject: Groyser Verterbukh A sheynem dank Mikhl Herzog far dayn entfer oyf mayn shayle. Azoy iz di zakh. Tofasto merubo loy tofasto - ven du khapst zu fil - blaybstu mit gornisht (all covet - all lose! or: Who too much embraces, holds little). Iz emesdik a brokh, un a shod un a yomer! Ruben Frankenstein 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Nov 1994 09:54:15 -0500 (EST) From: ablair@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Fedder-Fraynt Tayere Mendelniks: The Fedder-Fraynt program is moving along very nicely. We now have correspondants writing to each other [mostly in Yiddish script, a few in transliteration]from places all over the Globe: Estonia, South Africa, Italy, Israel, Austrailia, Latvia and Russia. A few have already made firm friendships iwth their Fedder-Fraynt. I have four Fedder-Fraynt myself and have enjoyed our "mail friend- ship very much. In fact, that's where I got the idea for our F-F project. C'mon in - the water's fine! Avrom Yitzkhok Blair Write to me personally - for this, E-Mail is OK. For correspondence use regular mail (mit Yiddishe oysyes, az men ken). 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Nov 1994 10:14:00 -0500 (EST) From: mlakin@acpub.duke.edu Subject: Re: "petschke" and other quasi-obscenities The term "petschke" cited by a Mendelnik from MIT (Antschuldikt, I forgot who said it) was translated as "chin". I don't know the source or sources, but in my family the term was used to designate the male genital or penis, but was recognized as a childish term like a "pee-pee. Now the Russian word may have been related to Petsche (I think "stove" or even Petschal or sadness) Perhaps the source is not Russian at all but some sort of slavic or Polish "baby talk". Thanks for all the comments about the sources of "hefker petrushke": the idea that it is indeed parsley that belongs to no one,or that may be taken by anyone seems very convincing. But that everything is upside down or topsy turvy seems to me to refer to the Russian Punch and Judy shows. The core idea of hefker in Yiddish, as in the Hebrew, suggests lack of protection, and abandonment to the fates. Mottel Lakin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.165 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 Send change-of-status messages to: listserv@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele nomail b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail c. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele Other business: nmiller@mail.trincoll.edu