Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.117 December 3, 1996 1) Sholem Aleykhem's language(s) (Ellen Prince) 2) Sholem Aleykhem's language(s) (Louis Fridhandler) 3) Beregovsky archives (Izaly Zemtsovsky) 4) Inyonay khanike (David Herskovic) 5) Saying "please" in Yiddish (David Herskovic) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 02 Dec 1996 12:23:03 EST From: ellen@central.cis.upenn.edu Subject: Sholem Aleykhem's language(s) to bernard katz, who's astounded that sholem aleichem's granddaughter never learned yiddish at home, here's another astounding piece of yiddish(ist) trivia: one of the co-directors of the bund was a certain victor alter, at the mention of whose name many yiddishists get downright misty-eyed. well, his only son, jean, is a very good friend of mine -- and he doesn't know a word of yiddish. his mother was a french-speaking belgian (gentile) and the languages at home were french and polish. (they lived in warsaw until 1938 when jean and his mother moved to brussels, for obvious reasons. he never saw his father again and has only recently learned of his father's last years, now that the russian archives are finally open.) jean says that yiddish to him was one of the languages spoken behind closed doors when his father's business associates came over... he also says that the only interest yiddish had for his father was as a means of getting the bundist political message to the jewish proletariat -- to which the alter family most definitely did not belong. (his grandfather was in fact a railroad tycoon.) i think it's very easy for us to forget that eastern european jewry was very diverse in terms of social class, degree of 'worldliness', urban/rural, etc, and that yiddish, at least by the beginning of the 20th century, was certainly not evenly distributed across all the subgroups. ellen prince 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 12:59:32 -0500 From: lfridhan@aol.com Subject: Yiddish, Bel Kaufman's 2nd language. Astonishment? Bernard Katz reports that Bel Kaufman, Sholem Aleichem's granddaughter, a best-selling author in her own right, had to learn Yiddish as a second language. As to whether astonishment is appropriate, I can't say. As for me, I'm over any wonder about it. Seems like an ordinary process, given the circumstances. Let me try to set up what I believe are some controlling aspects of those circumstances. They apply most specifically to the people under discussion, but have some general significance. As English replaced Yiddish in homes of American Jews over a couple of generations, Russian similarly replaced Yiddish in homes of Russian Jews although stricter social isolation of Jews in Russia may have slowed that process there somewhat. No doubt there were exceptions in both America and Russia, but the general rule probably holds. Isolation in the shtetlekh no doubt helped retention of Yiddish there. What I think is often overlooked is that Sholem Aleichem during his mature adult life (mid-20s on) did not live in a shtetl. He was a Kiev businessman (for a while) and author. Olga, his wife, became a Kiev dentist. They brought up their children in metropolitan centers, Kiev and Geneva (and elsewhere). The children (including Bel Kaufman's mother, Lyala) were taught in Russian at their Kiev school. Surely, their parents must have encouraged their children to learn Russian at an early opportunity. Bel Kaufman knew her grandfather, Sholem Aleichem, for a precious, but short time. Her mother, father and she did not join Sholem Aleichem in his migration to New York in late 1914. She probably last saw him in Albeck or Copenhagen at the outbreak (or shortly after) of World War I. Her parents chose to move back to their Odessa home, and did not move to New York until 1923, seven years after Sholem Aleichem died. Her father, Mikhail,was a physician and therefore must have moved in circles where Yiddish was understood, but not encouraged, especially in professional life. In my experience, personal and home life often is shaped to harmonize with professional status. Odessa was a city of high Jewish culture, but not necessarily Yiddish culture. Russian was the respected currency, even in Jewish cultural life. Sholem Aleichem wrote in his will that his stories should be read at his yortsayt in whatever language is best understood by those present. Did he feel that Yiddish was hanging on in his family and in the world by weakening strands? I don't know. Apropos, he notes in one of his letters (I can't put my finger on it right away) that Israel Zangwill (a famous Jewish writer at that time) can't understand Yiddish. Louis Fridhandler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 12:05:17 -0800 (PST) From: izalma@u.washington.edu Subject: Beregovsky archives The Vernadsky Library collection has all materials of the former cabinet of Jewish Culture, including manuscripts, wax cylinders, and Jewish sheet music as well. There is no other relation between the set of microfilms etc., which Iosif Vaisman referred to [6.116], and the huge unpublished collection discussed in the previous Mendele issues. Izaly Zemtsovsky 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 02 Dec 96 19:15:10 EST From: 100114.750@compuserve.com Subject: Inyonay khanike Efsher vayst do eymitser di sibe farvos di hibreyistn hobn a nomen gegeyben a menoyre a 'khanukiya'. Vibalt der nes iz gesheyn in bays hamikdesh vi der lakhter hot gehaysen menoyre volt geveyn a poshete svore az khanike zol es okhet haysen 'menoyre' vos iz tatch a lakhter. likht tsi lekht? Iz der khilek tsvishen lekht in likht bloyz dialektish tsi iz ayns loshen yokhid in di andere loshen rabim? Why is the Chanukah candelabra known in Hebrew as a 'chanukiya' and not a 'menorah' as it is called in Yiddish? Since the miracle happened in the Temple where it was called a menorah it would make sense that the Chanukah one should also be known as a menorah which means a lantern. 'Likht' or 'lekht'? Is the difference between 'likht' and 'lekht' merely dialectical or is one singular and the other plural? David Herskovic 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 02 Dec 96 20:06:49 EST From: 100114.750@compuserve.com Subject: Saying "please" in Yiddish In response to David Sherman's note [6.114], while I accept that 'za azoy git' is a substitute in many places it only works with sentences beginning with 'give me'. A request especially by a child can begin with 'I want', 'can I have' and 'give me'. By insisting on 'za azoy git', you are restricting requests to a single phrase. David Herskovic ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.117