Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.287 January 19, 1995 1) Bakenen vs. bakanen (Arre Komar) 2) Komponentn visigkayt (Arre Komar) 3) Tzeylem kop (Sam Juni) 4) Tzeylem kop (Michael Shimshoni) 5) Leng un breyt (Yude Rozof) 6) Mystery cabbage (Moshe Taube) 7) What is the business of Mendele? (Meylekh Viswanath) 8) Zumerkurs in yerusholaim (Mikhael Bordin) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 18:12:32 -0500 (EST) From: komar@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Bakenen vs. bakanen At least in one dialect, mayne eygene mames loshn, there is a clear distinction, e.g.: mir hobn uns bakent we got to know each other mir hobn uns bakant we recognized each other by no means interchangeable! Are others familiar with this distinction? Arre Komar 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 18:26:55 -0500 (EST) From: komar@yu1.yu.edu Subject: Komponentn visigkayt The shame that many Jews in America felt about speaking Yiddish (including many of my very close relatives), the belief that it it was an uncultured slang, (jargon), is completely analogous to the shame and denial found among educated American blacks with regard to the existance of a language called Black English, with its own well defined structure, gramatical rules, etc. Only those with komponentn visigkayt learn to respect and love their respective mame-loshns, and with that, their heritages and themselves. But I am not the qualified authority to talk about such linguistic matters. Josh Fishman, Are you out there lurking? Arre Komar 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 18 Jan 95 20:56:28 EST From: juni%snybksac.bitnet@yalevm.cis.yale.edu> Subject: Tzeylem kop In reference to Zellig Bach's elaboration of the Litvak as the Tzeylem Kopf: In my growing up days in the Chassidic Williamsburg community post WWII, the Litvaks were looked down (up?) upon because of their intellectualism and (by implication) their proximity to the Haskalah movement. The lines became blurred between the Apikores (heathen/atheist) and the meshoomud (convert to Christianity). Thus, the assumption that the heathen Litvak is really a closet Christian "in his head." Our heimishe "feliton" (humorous Socratic segment) went as follows: Why is a Litvak called a Tzeylem kop? Because he has a crucifix inside his head. How can you possible know that? Simple. Find a Litvak, break open his head, and you will find the crucifix. But what if you do not find a crucifix in his head? Well, so there will be one Litvak less in the world. Sam Juni 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 95 18:02:58 +0200 From: mash@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il Subject: Tseylem kop Zellig Bach as a Litvak gives their way of explaining why they were called Tseylem Kop. This, so I understand, was a term used by the Polish Khasidm who were not so well disposed towards their Litvak opponents. I, as a Yekke, am not involved in that dispute, but I have a story about it given in Alter Droyanov's (sp?) book of jokes and witticism (I own the Hebrew version and do not know if it had been translated). A "poylisher" boy asked his father why the Litvaks were called tseylim kop. Replies his father, "Take an axe and open a Litvak's head and you'll find a tseylem (cross) in it". The boy asks: "And what happens if I do not find a tseylem in his head?". The father was not perturbed and said "At least you got rid of a Litvak". But all this was a long time ago. These days all Jews love each other irrespective of their country of origin! Michael Shimshoni 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 05:39:43 GMT From: jrosof@sas.upenn.edu Subject: Leng un breyt Zelig, Reb Litvak! Kh'ob bamerkt vos ir shraybt leyng shtots dos geveyntlekhe leng. Khomir gekhapt makhmes ir zayt dokh a litvak. Kh'ob gemeynt az in Litvakland iz men nisht noyeg mavdil zayn tsvishn e un ey azoy vi af dorem. Iz ot ledugme zogn di poylishe yidn tsvay teYg beshas di Litvishe zogn tsvey teg. Bemeyle hob ikh gemeynt az ban a Litvak volt der aroysreyd gedorfn zayn "in der leng un in der breyt," un nisht "leyng" azoy vi ir shraybt. Oder efsher hob ikh gor a toes-- Git a tshuve Reb Litvak! Yude Rozof 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 95 12:06:00 PST From: taube@hum.huji.ac.il Subject: Mystery cabbage To corroborate the explanation given by Neil Jacobs: we called the stuffed cabbages my mother used to cook - golombkes. Moshe Taube 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 95 9:34:16 EST From: pviswana@andromeda.rutgers.edu Subject: What is the business of Mendele? Unzer tayerer shames Noyekh shraybt: > 2. Last but most important: Mendele deals with _Yiddish_, not with all > aspects of Judaism or of Jewish culture. Naturally it isn't easy to draw > a clear line here and there will always be gray areas. Nevertheless I > think we've included a number of topics (the most recent being the > lamed-vovnik) that might just as easily have been omitted. I hope no one > mistakes this for an anti-religious bias on my part. Khos v'kholile. > It's just that such matters have no immediate connection with Yiddish. > > And where there's greater restraint in posts about Talmudic figures > for example, there should be as much restraint in posts about secular > Jewish culture: unless there's a robust connection with Yiddish it > probably doesn't belong on Mendele. The etymology of prakes is in, > recipes are not. Ikh veys az Noyekh iz genug ungenumen mit vos mir shikn im shoyn, ober ikh volt firgeleygt az efsher volt me arayngelozt in mendele, afile diskusies vegn di lamed-vovnikes (ikh veys az noyekh iz nisht an anti-religiyezer) un retseptn, oyb zey zaynen af yidish. Khotsh me volt gekent leyenen (efsher) vegn azoyne zakhn af soc.culture.jewish, zikher ken men dos nisht tin af yidish! Efsher ken men aroyshelfn noyekhn mit andere mitln, lemoshl di komitet vos reb zelig (?) hot firgeleygt mit etlekhe vokhn tsurik. Meylekh Viswanath 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 95 05:13:00 PST From: bordin@hum.huji.ac.il Subject: Zumerkurs in yerusholaim raboysay, far di ale vos zaynen farinteresirt in yidish-limudim zumertsayt, volt ikh zey gevolt dermonen az aza program eksistirt shoyn a sakh yorn in hebreishn universitet in yerusholaim. a shod az me hot fargesn di zumerkursn in der kroynshtot fun dem yidishn folk. mit derekh-erets, mikhael bordin ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.287 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. 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