Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 5.047
July 11, 1995

1) Bono Wiener (Goldie Morgentaler)
2) If u cn rd Hbrw, u cn rd Ydsh (Harvey Spiro)
3) Kids' reading materials (Harvey Spiro)
4) Tevye, Toviah (Naomi Cohen)
5) Help with a legal word or two (Henry Campbell)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 1995 19:40:47 EDT
From: brlv@musicb.mcgill.ca
Subject: Bono Wiener

S'iz gefaln a demb.

This is to inform all Mendelniks that a great lover of Yiddish and a big
fan of Mendele has passed away.  Bono Wiener, originally from Lodz Poland,
then Melboune, Australia died on Sunday, July 9th, 1995, in Montreal,
Canada, his second home.  Bono was among the founders and supporters of
many Yiddish institutions such as the Sholem Aleichem School in
Melbourne, and the Melbourne Holocaust Centre. He was a leader of the
Jewish community in Melbourne and a staunch Bundist. He will be greatly
missed.  We who knew him well are heartbroken.

Koved zeyn ondenk.

Goldie Morgentaler
Montreal, Canada

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon Jul 10 15:58:28 1995
From: hjs@nrc.gov
Subject: If u cn rd Hbrw, u cn rd Ydsh

When my son was 7, he could slowly read Hebrew children's books, thanks
to extensive parental efforts and Jewish day school.  One day, I handed
him a picture book with very simple Yiddish vocabulary, accompanied by
pictures.  With minimal instruction on the vowel system, he was able to
pronounce the Yiddish words.  For a while this held his interest.

Daniella HarPaz commented on the difficulty of introducing a Yiddish
course at a Jewish day school.  Several years ago, my kindergarten son
took an elective in Yiddish at a Maryland day school, taught by Mendele's
own Marsha Gruss-Levinsohn!!

For us, the difficulties in trying to teach the kids Yiddish at home are
a combination of time, availability of quality materials, kid's interest,
parent's ability, and (once again) time.  With parents working, and the
kids in a dual Hebrew- English curriculum, there's minimal energy left to
put into learning yet another language that "no one else speaks."  Kids
are very pragmatic and fickle.  Ours also simply have little free time,
and that's with almost no TV!

I've tried to get our current day school to inject some Yiddish
programming into their curriculum.  Here I come up with Ms. HarPaz's
problem of money, plus once again time and interest. Day schools make
valient efforts to cram twice as much into a school day, but some subject
area always gets shortchanged.  Unfortunately, even among the Jewishly-
committed parents found in day schools, given a choice of adding Yiddish
but taking the time away from phys ed or music or computer or science,
most parents will opt not to add the Yiddish.  I'll try again this year
at our day school.  Wish me luck.

Harvey Spiro
Vienna, Virginia

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon Jul 10 16:05:25 1995
From: hjs@nrc.gov
Subject: Kids' reading materials

Daniella HarPaz asked about children's reading materials.

Workman's Circle in NY has several children's texts named Yidishe Kinder
Alef, Beys and Gimel.  Unfortunately, the books are somewhat dry and
dated.  My kids devoured Hebrew versions of Dr. Seuss and Sesame Street
books, but obviously there isn't much of a market for Yiddish versions of
books that will hold a modern child's interest.

Please let me know if anyone has found decent kids' material;  I'd love
to be proven wrong on this one.  Does anyone know what is used in places
like Montreal or Mexico, which I understand have had notable success in
bringing up another generation in Yiddish.

Harvey Spiro
Vienna, Virginia

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 1995 16:53:43
From: ncohen@sjuphil.sju.edu
Subject: Tevye, Toviah

Ikh bin tsurik in kontakt mitn kompyuter nokh a por khadoshim hafsoke
nokhn hobm a kind.  S'iz geven take zeyer interesant far mir tsu zen, az
s'iz geven letstns af mendele a langer shmues vegn di nemen Tevye un
Tovya.  Mir hobn tsufalik gegebn undzer zun dem nomen Toviah Eliezer, un
voltn gevolt visn dem yidishn aroysred.

Naomi Cohen
Philadelphia

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 95 16:52 EDT
From: percepti@inforamp.net
Subject: Help with a legal word or two

Does anyone know how to say "Your Lordship" in Yiddish? Our group, the
Richmond Street Yiddish Association, meets for lunch regularly and we
always try to learn a new Yiddish word or two. This one has us confused.
Can someone provide the answer to several very good lawyers and a couple
of very good businessmen? As a matter of fact what about the word
"M'Lord" also used to address a Judge of the court?

Henry Campbell
Toronto

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End of Mendele Vol. 5.047

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