Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 5.073 August 2, 1995 1) Nitl (Irving D. Goldfein) 2) _Jerusalem of Lithuania_ (Linda Cantor) 3) Yidish haynt tsu tog (Khayem Bochner) 4) Yiddish teachers needed (Nathan Pinskier) 5) Skotsl kumt, vider a mol (Adrienne Maltz) 6) Transliteration (Sol Jaffe) 7) Yiddish into English (Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Jul 1995 15:29:56 -0700 From: goldfein@ix.netcom.com Subject: Nitl Mikhl Herzog's proposed etymology for "nitl" would apply nicely - for Easter. Christmas, of course, celebrates the birth... Irving D. Goldfein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Jul 1995 20:21:59 -0400 (edt) From: lincan@amanda.dorsai.org Subject: _Jerusalem of Lithuania_ Just read Andy Cassel's transcription of his conversation with Josef Levinson and thought I would add my comments. I just returned from two weeks in Lithuania and, on the recommendation of Andy, visited the offices of _Jerusalem of Lithuania_. I was impressed with the spirit and hard work that Josef Levinson, David Leibzon, and the others are putting into producing this newsletter about Jewish life in Lithuania. It is printed in Lithuanian, Yiddish, English and Russian and strives to tell the tale of Jewish life as it is now as well as before the Holocaust. It can't be easy to maintain a newspaper in a community with only 6000 Jews, many of them looking to leave for Israel and the U.S. Our support, financial as well as moral, is needed if this effort is to succeed. You can subscribe to _Jerusalem of Lithuania_ for $50 a year. It appears monthly. Write to them at Pylimo St 4, Vilnius, Lithuania (tel 227917, fax 370 2 227 915). Linda Cantor 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Jul 95 22:15:43 -0400 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: Yidish haynt tsu tog Ikh vil tsugebn, vi an entfer oyf dem vos Miriam Isaacs hot letstns geshribn, az bay mir iz nitsn a dialekt dafke nisht keyn grayz. Vi ikh hob shoyn a mol geshribn, volt ikh aleyn geredt galitsiyaner yidish ven ikh volt dos gekent ton oysgehaltn. Nor tsu fil verter hob ikh oysgelernt fun verterbukh, onshtot fun tate-mame :-( Iz vos den hob ikh gehat in zinen? Take gornisht ;-) Ikh hob dokh nisht ongehoybn di diskusye, un keyn dugmes hobn mir nisht gehert. Dos vos ikh hob gevolt ibergebn iz poshet: mir hot oysgezen az andere zogn az me tor nisht kritikirn. Keyn mol nisht! Abi me redt yidish! Mit dem bin ikh nisht maskem. Ikh halt az me ken shepn nakhes, un _oykh_ hobn taynes. Itst vil ikh ibergebn a maysele vos di mame hot mir letstns dertseylt. Zi hot geredt telefonish mit mayn tante, ir shvester, in Boro Park, un genitst dem oysdruk "halb elf", mitn taytsh 10:30, vi zi hot dos genitst a gants lebn. Hot di shvester, vos hot oykh oyfgevaksn in poyln, un oykh a mol genitst dem oysdruk, gelakht fun ir: "Bist an alte yidine! Keyner redt mer nisht azoy!" _Zi_ redt yidish tog-ayn tog-oys, un s'iz gevorn oys mode tsu nitsn dem oysdruk in Boro Park. Nu? Ver vemen meg kritikirn? Khayem Bochner 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 1 Aug 1995 00:22:43 +1000 From: nathan@melbpc.org.au Subject: Yiddish teachers needed My name is Nathan Pinskier. I am a 37 year old doctor from Melbourne Australia. I am also the treasurer of a small primary Yiddish day school (230 students). As far as I am aware, our school is the only Yiddish day school in the world. Melbourne has a vibrant Jewish community with over 5000 native Yiddish speakers. Unfortunately they are aging and it is therefore becoming increasingly difficult to find younger Yiddish speaking teachers to continue our work. With this in mind, the school has decided to organise an intensive Yiddish Summer School (in December - Jan 1996). We are looking for participants and suggestions. My brother Henry and his wife Marcia are currently attending a Yiddish Summer School at Oxford University in England. Mrs Bobby Zylberman (an expatriate New Yorker and current Yiddish teacher at our school) suggested that Sheva Zucker might be able to assist. If you have any suugestions please contact me. The school would be very interested in cortributing to the Web pages. Nathan Pinskier 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 31 Jul 1995 13:43:44 -0400 (EDT) From: akmaltz@cpcug.org Subject: Skotsl kumt, vider a mol Even though this subject "came and went", it happens that just this week I came across two examples in print: firstly, in a chapter of Mendele's *Fishke der Krumer*, wherein the "royter gonif" has trapped Fishke in a cellar and while gloating, notices that he is being overheard and, among other statements, says "skutsl kumt". Today I saw an illustration in Carl Lowe's book *Three Centuries of Jewish Life in America* (pub. 1992, page 84) of a front page of the Forward (Vol. I, No. 125) where an article is headed "skatsl kumt"; the secondary heading of the article states "lauis lemmer iz do". Unfortunately, the subsequent smaller print is too difficult for me to read. Adrienne Maltz Potomac, Maryland 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 2 Aug 1995 03:18:37 -0400 From: lakejaffe@aol.com Subject: Transliteration In Mendele 5.071, in the course of an interesting discussion about Yiddish nowadays, Miriam Isaacs mentions, as an aside, that she finds it awkward, in Latin letters, to sound Litvish. My reaction is, why would she want to sound Litvish? Texans don't try to sound like New Yorkers, and New Yorkers don't try to sound like New Englanders. The speech of educated Americans is equally acceptable everywhere, despite the dialectal differences. The same, I would think, should hold for Yiddish. The transliteration system employing Latin letters is like a sound recording. When used correctly (i.e., according to a consistent set of rules) it faithfully records the words the way the writer pronounces them. The rules (the "YIVO" system) may appear complicated as given with great precision in the introduction to the Weinreich dictionary, but it can be summarized quite simply as follows: The vowels: It's "a" as in car, "e" as in set, "i" as in ski, "o" as in horse, and "u" as in ruler. Also "ay" as in Mayan, "ey" as in they, and "oy" as in toy. The consonants: It's "sh" as in shoe, "zh" as the z in azure, "g" as in good, and "s" as in salt. Special consonents: "kh" is the throat-clearing sound, and "r" is pronounced the French way. (The Russian r is less common, but acceptable .) Letters not used: c, j (by itself), q, w, and x. Letters not mentioned are pronounced as in English. The beauty of the system is that you can make the reader pronounce the words your way. If you write "Vays ikh vues!" that's how we'll read it -- and we won't twist it into "Veys ikh vos!" or any other unwanted variant. Sol Jaffe 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 2 Aug 1995 08:28:36 -0400 From: shirshan@aol.com Subject: Yiddish into English Norm Fishman asks for comments and suggestions as he re-opens an ongoing debate: that Yiddishkayt be transmitted in English. Such a shayle could turn us all into Tevyes doomed to see both sides: wishing for perpetuation at any price, yet, on the other hand, demanding Yiddish remain vital, lively, pure, and clear as a diamond. Comments: I find it interesting that it is to Yosl Mlotek and the Arbeter Ring that he re-addresses this two-headed riddle. In addition to its philosophy of social justice, the AR, by definition, exists to perpetuate Yiddish. It has become the classical music of Yiddishkayt, its 'orthodox' movement. Asking it to embrace Yiddish in translation is like requesting that all of classical music be 'updated' to hard rock or rap to increase its audience, or like asking that orthodox synagogues davn in English to embrace more youths. It would stamp out its raison d'etre. Within the time-frame the Fishmans visited Mlotek seeking secular materials, our shula board often rehashed this problem desiring some English for programming, curriculum, and outreach to the parents (many of whom did not know what secular Jewishness meant, nor did they know Yiddish). Our teacher, Yankl Blank, passionate about Yiddish and its grammar and literature, used to respond. "A gezinte ki git milkh. Oib men vil fleysh muz men ir derhargenen. Ikh bin nokh gezunt un vel gebn bloiz Yiddish." Yosl was presenting his answer by forcing you to speak Yiddish. His answer, "Get thee to a shula, and learn Yiddish to embrace Yiddishkayt." Another thought: Just as the National Yiddish Book Center helped assuage the guilt of discarding the literary treasures of our parents, doesn't the AR go a long way to giving us a sense of relief or pleasure that someone somewhere somehow is still minding the store while we write in the roman alphabet, even on Mendele. Suggestion: Turning elsewhere, perhaps, might yield some results for the secular Yiddishkayt in English you seek. CAJE (the Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education) might be of help. It is 15-20 years young. The National Office is on 35th Street in New York City. Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan North Conway, New Hampshire ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 5.073