Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 5.149
October 24, 1995

1) Yiddish and the O.E.D. (Yosef Vaisman)
2) Asch's "God of Vengeance" (Dan Leeson)
3) Asch's "God of Vengeance" (Kalman Weiser)
4) Mogen oder mogn (Morrie Feller)
5) Mogen oder mogn (Arn Abramson)
6) Ya! (Jascha Kessler)
7) Yiddish literary street names (Joel Maxman)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 1995 17:41:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: iiv@mmlds1.pha.unc.edu
Subject: Yiddish and the O.E.D.

The list reposted by Dan Leeson from JewishGen is in fact the complete
list of entries in Oxford English Dictionary with "yiddish" in etymology
field. The list is available on-line at

http://liberty.uc.wlu.edu/~hblackme/oed/yiddish.html
or in the Shtetl library
http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/library.html

Iosif Vaisman

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 1995 15:30:33 EDT
From: leeson@aspen.fhda.edu
Subject: Asch's "God of Vengeance"

Ethal Magal mentions this Asch play and its complex and difficult theme
as having been produced on Broadway ca. 1920.  Am I correct in my
recollection that the writing of the play dates from around 15 years
earlier and that Asch had difficulty getting it produced because of its
sexual nature?  (For those who do not know the work, it takes place in a
brothel and, as I remember, the brothel's owner eventually sends his own
daughter to work there after he feels she has disgraced him.)

Dan Leeson
Los Altos, California

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 11:25:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: kiw2@columbia.edu
Subject: Sholem Asch's "Der got fun nekome"

Having worked in preparing Asch's archives while an undergrad at Yale and
having recently prepared a researcher's guide to Asch as a grad school
project, I advise anyone seriously interested in Asch's life and literary
production to visit Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and
Sterling Memorial Library.  Yale's wealth of materials on Asch (largely
manuscripts and correspondence) is divided between several collections in
the two libraries.

Concerning 'Der got fun nekome': housed in the Manuscripts and Archives
Dep't of Sterling Memorial Library are the Harry Weinberger Papers (Ms
533).  The Weinberger Papers contain letters, legal papers, notes,
newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous items concerning the 1923 court
case against the New York City production of Asch's "The God of
Vengeance" ("Der got fun nekome").  A reknown lawyer and civil rights
defendant, Weinberger assumed the position of manager of the play in
January 1923.  Despite the play having been performed in both German and
Yiddish for the preceding ten years without interference, Weinberg and
the entire cast were charged in March 1923 with presenting an "obscene,
indecent, immoral or impure drama, play, exhibition, show or
entertainment which would tend to corruption of the moral of youth or
others."  Despite Weinberger's defense of the accused, all were
convicted.  The decision, however, was ultimately reversed on appeal.

Boxes 23-26 of the lengthy collection relate both Weinberger's defense on
the obscenity charge and his duties as manager of the play. Through a
campaign of prolific letter writing, he succeeded in mobilizing
significant publicity and support for the play from prominent theatrical,
social, and religious leaders.  Among the letters present in this
sections of the Weinberger collection are those from Roger N. Baldwin,
Zachariah Chafee, Frank Crane, Felix Frankfurter, John H. Holmes, Fannie
Hurst, Percy Mac Kaye, Elmer Rice, and Stephen S. Wise.  The collection
also contains pamphlets, programs, advertisements, clippings, legal
briefs, actors' contracts, and financial materials connected with the
production.

Kalman Weiser

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 1995 15:39:23 -0700 (MST)
From: feller@indirect.com
Subject: mogen vs mogn

(Reference Mendele 5.147)

In response to Marjorie Hirshan's quandary, I have always assumed that the
term for Red Cross is a Hebrew term.  Therefore, mogen would be the
correct Hebrew pronounciation with the accent on the second syllable:
mo-geyn.

Morrie Feller
Phoenix

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 95 23:41:25 EDT
From: abramson@uconnvm.uconn.edu
Subject: Magen David

I hope I am not being gullible in believing that Marjorie Schonhaut
Hirshan is not joking in her complaint about the roman spelling _Magen
David_ for the Israeli counterpart to the Red Cross. It is, in fact, a
reasonable transcription--not transliteration--for the Israeli Hebrew
pronunciation of the name. It is approximately, in English othography,
MAHGHENN DAHVID.

Arn Abramson

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 1995 15:44:49 +0000
From: jkessler@ucla.edu
Subject: Ya!

"Yoy" is the way the sigh or cry or lament goes in Magyar.  spelled
"Jai." As in Oh ,god!  Jai, Istenem.  (Ishtenem)

Jascha Kessler

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 9:34:52 -400
From: jm400@rnc2.rosenman.com
Subject: Yiddish literary street names

New York also has an Isaac Bashevis Singer Street (a portion of West 86th
Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue).

Joel Maxman
New York City

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End of Mendele Vol. 5.149