Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.035 July 21, 1996 1) The akeda in Yiddish literature: a query (Daniel Soyer) 2) Social class differences in Yiddish (Mikhl Herzog) 3) Anti-Yiddish sentiment in Israel (Sylvia Schildt) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 18 Jul 96 23:36:49 EDT From: 74212.2700@compuserve.com Subject: The akeda in Yiddish literature: a query I cannot remember which Yiddish writer it was who wrote in his memoirs of bursting into tears while learning in heder about the akeda. When the melamed asked him why he was crying when Isaac was spared, he responded that he was thinking of what would have happened if the angel had come too late. The rebbe explained that an angel of God could not come late, but the boy was not consoled. Can anyone help me locate this anecdote? Daniel Soyer 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Jul 96 01:04 EDT From: zogur@cuvmb.columbia.edu Subject: Social class differences in Yiddish Rick Gildemeister's raises a serious question about social class differences in Yiddish that may be virtually impossible to answer. I'd hesitate to transfer our own (American) criteria for determining social class to a society as remote in time and culture as the Yiddish speaking world of Eastern Europe. Did learning (i.e. _lernen_), for example, equal or outweigh economic factors as a criterion of class? Did the _nogid_ really want his daughter to marry a _yeshive-bokher_? The situation is complicated by the suggestion that, after the Emancipation/Enlightenment? the "upper class" of Jewish society in Eastern Europe essentially left the Yiddish-speaking community altogether. What remained would then have covered a much narrower range of "class" differences. The social situation surely varied regionally, too. Galicia was generally an impoverished area. Some areas were heavily Hasidic, others not. All these things mattered but I don't know if we can still correlate them with dialect differences. The problem is further complicated by a "city-shtetl dichotomy". The social class situation in Warsaw was infinitely more complex than in the neighboring _shtetlekh_ but, I'd venture a guess that the language of the _shtetlekh_ shared features of the "lower class" speech of the neighboring big city. As for _sabesdiker losn_, my guess is that the differences in its retention that Rick discovered has several other dimensions than he suggests: (i) differences among the various parts of Jewish "Lite": Lithuania proper, Latvia, Belorussia. (ii) _shtetl_-city differences. (i presume to know how to correlate all of these factors. The inaccessibility of sociolinguistic data is a serious but unavoidable shortcoming of Yiddish dialectological studies. We were deprived of the opportunity of traveling from shtetl to shtetl and interviewing informants, in situ, that represented the socially distinctive groups that we might have encountered in each community: different sexes, different age groups, professions, educational groups, religious affiliations. Actually, there may still be a way of retrieving/salvaging some otherwise inaccessible sociolinguistic data, but it would take a number of very qualified people to do it. It can only be done in the Hasidic communities in the US, Israel, (elsewhere?). I'd nominate a few of our Mendele friends for the job. (They/you know who they are.) I'd even offer to help. Mikhl Herzog 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 11:19:26 -0400 From: creativa@charm.net Subject: Anti-Yiddish sentiment in Israel ikh shrayb iber mayn briv tzu leybl botvinikn un meyn az dos redt oykh tzum inyen - tzi shtarbt yidish tzi nit? ikh farendik mit di verter vos ikh hob forgeleyent baym mame loshn 96 ovnt. ... " ikh bin ibertzaygt az eretz un goles zayen nor 2 zaytn fun der zelber matbeye -- un az es vet mestome azey blaybn. un ikh bin oykh ibertzaygt az on yidish iz nito kin ashkenaz -- un az ahskenaz iz a 1000 yorik teyl fun der yidisher geshikhte. di altmodishe hase tzum goles un ashkenaz hot men amveynikstns gekent farshteyn in kontekst fun uflebung fun hebreyish als a moderne shprakh, als di ofitziele shprakh fun medinas yisroyl. ober ... dos eyfele iz shoyn flink ufgevaksn un ken lebn tsuzamen bsholem mit azelkhe raykhe goles-shprakhn vi yidish un ladino. benugeye yidish gufe blaybt nokh a vikhtik punkt. hitler un zayne antisemitishe mithelfer hobn gevolt farnikhtn dos yidishe folk bkhlal -- un yidish bfrat. mir torn im nit opgebn a nitzokhn nokhn krig. ven men shtitzt mame loshn shpayt men di sonim in ponem. ven men harget yidish (azoy vi es tut der burg) iz men a shutef mit di ale natzis un andere antisemitn vos hobn im azoy frayvilik aroysgrholfn. es shrayen di beyner fun mayn bobe-zeyde, mayne tantes un feters, mayn gantze oysgekoylete mishpokhe in vilne un malat -- es shrayen di 6 million karbones. vey! burg, vos shpaystu af undzere ashn?" Nokh A Lid L'Koved Yidish (mayns a lid forgeleyent baym Mame Loshn 96) Oy a vunder, oy a khidish Aza oytzer loshn yidish Shprakh fun bobes un fun zeydes Bist far undz a trayer eydes, Aza glantzndiker bekher Vos heybt undz uf nokh hekher, hekher. In dem bekher, kidush vaynen Fun doyres vayte, liblekh shaynen. Yidish, shprakh fun toyznt yorn Frish bistu vi ersht geborn. Getzoygn hobn di vagonen Tzum umkum, undzere milyonen Tates, mames, kleyne kinder An altitshke, an orem blinder. Poshet folk un oykh rabonim Hobn umgebrakht di sonim. Nor zeyer kol iz nit farloshn Es hilkht nokh haynt in mame loshn. Yidish, shprakh fun toyznt yorn Lebst af tzung un in zikorn. Un iber s'shrayen fun di shekhter Hert zikh yidishlekh gelekhter. Folksgezang un mayses shteyen Vi soldatn in di reyen, Gebn mut undz un bitokhn Biz mir dergreykhn dem nitzokhn. Un yidish kusht, mit kreft banayte Neshomes fun di ersht bafrayte. Yidish, shprakh fun toyznt yorn Vey geshrey fun payn un tzorn. Ver zogt as yidish geyt shoyn unter? Hert mayn vort do frish un munter. Yidish lebt, un vet nokh lebn Kol-zman mir shtaygn, hofn, shtrebn, Veynen, lakhn, libn, bentshn, Zukhn yoysher tzvishn mentshn. Morgn fri vet undz gelingen Yidish vet men vayter zingen. Yidish, shprakh fun toyznt yorn, Dor-doyres alt un nay-geborn. geshribn ershter may 1996 Sylvia Schildt ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.035