Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 6.204 January 20, 1997 1) Jewish culture in St. Petersburg today (Miki Safadi) 2) Yiddish language tapes (Ellen Cassedy) 3) Bialik's slippers (Ellen Cassedy) 4) _A Geshonken Lebn_ by Mario Meszel (Richard M. Low) 5) Mauscheln (Neyekh Zide) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 18 Jan 1997 10:44:54 -0700 From: msafadi@ucla.edu Subject: Jewish culture in St. Petersburg today Jewish culture is alive and well at Adain Los in St. Petersburg, Russia Adain Lo folkshule opened in 1991. They maintain a full-day kindergarten, Sunday school, adult classes in Judaica, Hebrew and Yiddish, and klezmer band. They have developed a unique curriculum of teaching Judaica through folklore, poetry, and music. Their aim is to renew Eastern European Jewish culture and the Jewish communities of St. Petersburg and Russia through intergenerational participation in the classes and clubs geared to different age groups, parents, and the entire family - some 200 people. Why "Adain Lo"? They explain that it is the answer given by the Jewish philosopher Rosentzvige when he was asked, "Do you put on tfillin?" "Not yet," he answered. For the Adain Lo shule, it is not yet time to define their Jewish affiliation. They feel that the need now is to renew Russian Jewish culture after 70 years of Communist oppression of religious and ethnic groups. For more information and to help you can E-mail: frenk@lea.spb.su or write them in care of: Larisa Pecherskaya, 20-1-43 pr. Khudoznikov, St. Petersburg, Russia 194295, Fax 812-311-5125 or telephone 812-597-3195. Miki Safadi 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 19:37:40 -0500 (EST) From: cassblum@aol.com Subject: Yiddish language tapes Leybl Botwinik inquires (6.198) about language tapes called "Yiddish 30," available from Barnes and Noble and also from Audio-Forum. This set of two tapes was my introduction to Yiddish six years ago. It includes a dozen or so basic lists (colors, numbers, parts of the body, greetings, kitchen utensils, etc.) in English and Yiddish, with a pause for the student to repeat the Yiddish. It progresses to three or four simple conversations ( -- Hello! I'm on my way to the Yiddish class at Columbia University! -- So am I! Let's go together!) I found the tapes to be a good way to "stick my toe in the water" and begin pronouncing Yiddish. I then went on to Weinreich's "College Yiddish" and the "I Love Yiddish" tape by Emanuel Goldsmith, etc., etc. I'd recommend the tapes for a beginner. Then, a beginner who decides to study intensively could look into Sheva Zucker's extensive and systematic set of tapes and book. Ellen Cassedy Bethesda, MD 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 19:37:44 -0500 (EST) From: cassblum@aol.com Subject: Bialik's slippers The letter from Sholem Aleichem to Chaim Nachman Bialik about the slippers Bialik left behind after a visit -- mentioned in a posting from Sylvia Schildt [6.198]-- appears in English in a volume available from the Workmen's Circle Book Center -- volume two of "The Three Great Classic Writers of Modern Yiddish Literature -- selected works of Sholem-Alekhem," edited by Marvin Zuckerman and Marion Herbst. It's pretty charming. Ellen Cassedy Bethesda, MD 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 22:35:57 -0800 From: informed@ix.netcom.com Subject: _A Geshonken Lebn_ by Mario Meszel By pure accident, I came across a fascinating book on the holocaust written in Yiddish by Mario Meszel, a man in his 80's born in Poland, who fought with the partisans during World War II, and who has lived in Argentina ever since. The book traces the life of a Jewish physician, Doctor Leon Blum, who was a key figure with the partisans in Poland, and later emigrated to the United States, where his previous life and his great heroism during the war remained completely unknown to everyone around him. Doctor Blum practiced medicine in New York and finally died in the late 60s without any honors ever bestowed upon him. His only contact with this incredible past were a few partisans living in Israel, and Mario Meszel, who had been very active in the Argentine Jewish community, and who had helped Arthur Schindler settle in that country after World War War, and who kept visiting his friend in New York during business trips from Argentina. After Blum's death, Meszel decided to write this amazing story. I met with Meszel and read his fascinating account in the Spanish translation from the original Yiddish [the book is called _The Story of a Survivor_ in Spanish]. It received excellent reviews by the Argentine press, and I feel certain that because of the language and regional barrier, the book did not become a world best seller as it could have been. Could someone advise me on how to get this book read in Yiddish and how to get it translated to English. The two lives of Doctor Blum would certainly make an extraordinary movie. Richard M. Low 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 20:31:43 -0600 (CST) From: n-zide@uchicago.edu Subject: Mauscheln I've been gratified and educated by the replies to my inquiry about mauscheln. We--I anyway--would appreciate more information on the linguistics of m., i.e. how does one mauschel (and, to Michael Steinlauf, do analogous things in Polish)? I would guess from what I take to be analogous phenomena elsewhere that phonology is crucial (even more on the stage than on the page), i.e. substitutions of certain sounds not found in Yiddish by 'the next best thing' (what is done with the German front rounded vowels oe and ue -no umlaut available here)?) --easiest to do, and intonation (again, more realizable on the stage) must be crucial. (This as partly mimickable in music, e.g. in one section of Musorgski's Pictures at an Exhibition?) What about 'peculiar' word orders in mauscheln, unidiomatic repetitions, catchwords and phrases, etc. Characteristic differences in morphology (e.g. verb conjugations?), syntax? Pragmatics? Neyekh/ Norman Zide ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 6.204