Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 4.356 March 8, 1995 1) Paul Robeson (Hershl Hartman) 2) Yiddish on Florida PBS (Dvorah Halperin Biasca) 3) YIVO's loan from Lithuania (Zachary Baker) 4) Khasn-kale af Yidish (Dvorah Halperin Biasca) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 13:12:45 -0500 From: hershl@aol.com Subject: Paul Robeson In addition to the incident described on radio by Paul Robeson, Jr. which also appeared in print in Jewish Currents magazine some years ago, it is interesting to note that when Hirsh Glik's partisan hymn zog nit keynmol was first sung in the US by Yiddish choruses immediately after the khurbn (holocaust), it was sung slowly, as a dirge. To the best of my recollection, it was Paul Robeson's magnificent bass-baritone voice that first sang it as intended by the author, who had set his lyrics to a brisk march by the brothers Pokras. Robeson's profound feeling--as an African-American--of soidarity with the Jewish resistance against nazism was awesomely expressed in the vehemence with which he always sang the last lines, placing the greatest stress on the word, naganes: "dos hot a folk tsvishn falndike vent dos lid gezungen mit naganes in di hent!" Not having yet heard the archival record referred to by Dvosye Bilik, I can't be certain that the tumultuous response she refers to came at that point but, if it did, it would have echoed the reaction at the many times Robeson sang zog nit keynmol here, especially during the years when he was held a virtual prisoner by the State Department's refusal to grant him a passport for travel abroad. Incidentally, Robeson recorded a number of songs in Yiddish and, according to his friend Israel (Srulik) Freed, managing editor of the Yiddish daily newspaper morgn frayhayt (Morning Freedom), had planned to make a record of an all-Yiddish repertoire before his voice and his health began to fail him. Hershl Hartman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 12:10:32 -0700 (MST) From: biasca@horton.colorado.edu Subject: Yiddish on Florida PBS Mendelniks in Florida: I understand that Channel 2, Dade County Florida (Miami?) will be having a special Yiddish night--Monday, March 13th from 8pm - Midnight. They will be broadcasting such memorable pieces as "The Shlemiel, the Shlemazzle and the Doppes" and "Bobe Mayses--Grandmother Stories." Since it's 4 hours (including their fundraising shtik), there will be other programs as well. Dvorah Halperin Biasca 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Mar 95 12:16:58 PST From: bm.yib@rlg.stanford.edu Subject: YIVO's loan from Lithuania In response to Dan Leeson (Mendele 4.355), I should have made it clear that YIVO's agreement with the Lithuanian authorities is indeed a *loan* agreement, which stipulates that materials sent to New York are to be preserved, arranged, microfilmed, and returned. The question of receiving and returning it in installments is complicated; from the archival point of view it makes the most sense to organize the whole body of material into as coherent a whole as possible, rather than organize and return chunks of it at a time. Suffice it to say that the Lithuanians are aware of the justifications that have been put to them by YIVO's archivists and the matter is under discussion. What proportion of the whole was received at YIVO? Based on the 110 or so boxes that YIVO representatives have been shown during visits to Vilna, I'd say that approximately 25%-30% was sent to New York last month. Zachary Baker 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 13:26:07 -0700 (MST) From: biasca@horton.colorado.edu Subject: Khasn-kale af Yidish Early on in my reconnection with Yiddish, I noticed that the notion of bride and groom seemed different from the English usage. I recently ran across an article by Aileen Pace Nilsen in Language Awareness (6th Ed, St Martin's, 1994) in which she claims that words describing women and men exhibit interesting (sexist, she argues) differences. While most expressions referring to males and females put the male reference first (I just did it here, too), as in 'boys and girls' (but, 'ladies and gentlemen' she fails to note) (which is M'sieurs-Dames' in French, BTW), 'his and hers', 'guys and dolls', 'kings and queens', 'brothers and sisters'. (I don't know about Yiddish, but it is a question to ask). The exception to this pattern that she does note is 'bride and groom,' claiming, in a Sapir-Whorfian way, that this means (along with some other evidence she mentions) that weddings are more important to women than to men. (For non-linguists, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis claims a strong connection between language and thought) . Excuse this long introduction, but I felt the context might be interesting, as well as the question of gender bias in Yiddish, which we might want to address some time. Then again, we might not! The point which caught my eye was that Nilsen then states: A woman cherishes the wedding and is considered a bride for a whole year,but a man is referred to as a groom only on the day of the wedding. While I don't know if this is generally true for all speakers of English (I think of 'bride' as being a relevant term only on the wedding day), after which she is one of two 'newly-weds'. Maybe the new husband can refer to her as his 'bride' a little longer; I'm not so sure about this. I have the feeling that this isn't true of the Yiddish Khasn-Kale. It is my impression that a bride and a groom begin to be referred to as such in Yiddish (in the Shtetl, anyway) from the time of the engagement until the wedding. Am I right? If so, this seems to open up an interesting issue of language vs culture. Did this concept in Yiddish affect the speech of immigrants to the US? Any lasting effects in areas where Yiddish once predominated? Comments, anyone? Dvorah Halperin Biasca ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 4.356 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. 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