Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.194 January 6, 1994 1) The New Testament in Yiddish (Yude-Leyb Prager) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu Jan 6 05:36:52 1994 From: Leonard Prager Subject: The New Testament in Yiddish I see there has been some interest of late in Mendele in Yiddish translations of the New Testament. I collect material on this subject and am interested in updating my brief entry in my -Yiddish Culture in Britain- (1991). Perhaps the following can serve as a re-entry gesture after my long absence on -Mendele-. I would be happy to have corrections and additions for the following: -New Testament-. The story of translations of the New Testament into Yiddish, while but a miniscule part of Christendom's immense if largely fruitless effort to convert the Jews, stretches over several centuries and many lands, with first Germany and later Britain occupying the central position. The first effort at a Yiddish translation of the New Testament seems to be that of Johann Harzuge, a convert. His version (Cracow, 1540), which does not include Revelations, follows Luther's German version and is printed in Rashi script {see D & M 4482}. The next attempt at a Yiddish NT (Strassburg, 1592) was that of Elias Schadeus, who translated only five books, also following Luther {D & M, Pt. II, p. 550}. Christian Moeller translated all of the NT into Yiddish (Frankfurt, 1700, 151 ff.) {D & M 4486}. Offenbach is the place of publication of yet another Yiddish version, the work of Johann Heinreich Reitz, three years after the Frankfurt edition. Churchmen were among the first to study Yiddish systematically and may be regarded as the founders of Yiddish philology. They entertained the hope that Yiddish would be a key both to the Jewish Scriptures and to Jewish hearts. This hope proved fanciful but in the course of nursing it, a few German Christians like J.H. Callenberg made a real contribution to Yiddish studies. Callenberg had established an institute for missionary activities at Halle in 1728 and published Yiddish translations of the New Testament in parts from 1732 to 1744 {Rep: BL} (as well as of other Christian writings). Ber Borochov*, who in addition to being the ideologist of socialist Zionism also wrote a pioneering bibliographical study of research in the Yiddish language, fully acknowledged the role of non-Jews, mainly Germans, in the infancy of Yiddish scholarship. At the end of the eighteenth and through the nineteenth century, tens of thou- sands of Jewish youths equipped themselves with a "kultur-Sprache" by learning German from Moses Mendelsohn's translation of the Pentateuch (Berlin, 1780-1783). Written German was sufficiently close to written Yiddish (especially in Galicia and Western areas of the Pale of Settlement) to make mastery of the former relatively easy. The learning of German was sometimes the first in a long succession of steps leading ultimately to acculturation, assimilation or even apostasy. Prior to Mendelsohn's German translation, the missionaries had produced a New Testament in German with Hebrew characters. Thus the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews in 1820 published Luther's New Testament as transliterated by Judah D'Allemand. This apparently was not really understandable to most Yiddish speakers and the following year the same organization published its first Yiddish version of the NT, the work of a Polish-Jewish convert to Christianity, Benjamin Nehemiah Solomon*. The missionaries knew that many German-speaking Jews in the nineteenth and even the early twentieth century could not read Latin-letter texts. From ancient times on, Jews had avoided -galkhes-, the Latin and therefore Christian alphabet. In Germany, from the beginnings of emancipation in the second half of the eighteenth century well into the twentieth century, we have the phenomenon of German in Jewish script. Even today (1989) there are elderly German Jews who write letters in German using Jewish letters. It is therefore not surprising that as late as 1901 the Mandelkern-Haendler German NT in Jewish characters was being published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in London. In the same year, 1901, that the older tradition was being continued, the same society, albeit in Berlin, was trying to produce a Yiddish version of the NT which would provide a standard text for the three main dialectal varieties of Eastern Yiddish. This attempt to create a pandialectal literary language seems to have gone unnoticed among Yiddish linguists. In Berlin in 1901, the B.F.B.S. invited J. Rabinowitz, W.I. Nelom and Joseph Lerner, native speakers, respectively, of Bessarabian, Lithuanian and Galician Yiddish, to revise Hershon*'s NT translation. The Mildmay Mission to the Jews* (whose main center was in Whitechapel, London) distributed one hundred thousand copies of this edition* {see D & M 4523, Pt. II, p. 558}. It should be remembered, however, that Yiddish during the time that this translation was being prepared was a rapidly changing language, one that was fueling and being fueled by a great cultural resurgence. Inevitably, within a very few years, this translation was dated. It should also be remembered that for a substantial number of educated Jews in Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century, the literary language of choice was Hebrew and the missionaries did not ignore Hebrew. The first Hebrew translation in Britain was published in London in 1661. (Mathew and Mark appeared in Hebrew translation in 1798 and the translation of T. Fry and W. B. Collyer in 1813.) In London in 1854 there was issued a Hebrew translation of the New Testament (-Seyfer bris hechodosho al pi hamashiach-) {Rep: JNL} at the very same Operative Institution*, Palestine Place, which would be publishing thousands of copies of Yiddish New Testaments following the mass immigration of the 1880s. In 1871 the four Gospels in Hebrew were published in London under the title -Habesurot hakedoshot learbaa hamevasrim- ('The Holy Gospels of the Four Evangels'). -Der brif tsu di romim- ('Epistle to the Romans'), translated by Paul Isaac Hershon, {London. 1874}, 61 pp. {14 cm.}. Rep: CtY. -Der brif tsu di ivrim- ('Epistle to the Hebrews'), translated by Paul Isaac Hershon, {London, 1874}, 46 pp. {14 cm.}. Rep: CtY. -Der briv tsu di yidn- ('Epistle to the Hebrews'), {Translated from the Greek by Aaron Krolenbaum*}. London: Scripture Gift Mission, {1958}, 40 pp. Rep: SOAS. -Dos naye testament, oyf's nay aroysgegeben in yudish-* {...ofsnay aroysgegebn in yidish} ('The New Testament, Newly Issued in Yiddish'). Translated by M.-Sh. Bergman*. London, 1887; another ed., London: London Missionary Society, 1908, 512 pp. Rep: NN {1887}, JNL {1908}. -Dos naye testament fun dem meshiekh-* ('The New Testament of the Messiah'). Translated (from Greek) by Binyomin-Nakhmiye Solomon {= Benjamin N. Solomon}. London: London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews {printed by A. Macintosh}, 1821, 150 leaves {299 pp.}; another ed., London, 1840; another ed. {Translator not given; Rashi script}, London: {printed by Operative Institute}, 1852, 150 leaves {298 pp.}; another ed., London, 1866; another ed. {from Greek; translator not given} London: {printed by Operative Institute}, 1869, 635 pp. Rep: BL {1821 and 1866 eds.}, DLC {1821}, JNL {1821, 1852 and 1869 eds.}, MA {1821}, MH {1821}, NN {1840 ed.}, NNYI {1852}. -Dos naye testament fon dem messias-* {...fun dem meshiekh} ('The New Testament of the Messiah'). Translator(s) (from Greek) not given. Rashi script. London: {Printed by Macintosh}, 1820, 591 pp.; another ed., London {printed by Operative Institute, Palestine Place}, 1862 {a reprint of the 1820 ed., also in Rashi script}, 591 pp. This is not a Yiddish version of the NT, but is German in Hebrew (i.e., Jewish) characters. Darlow and Moule explain that Judah D'Allemand "transliterated" Luther's version of the NT, using von Meyer's Frankfort edition of 1819 {cf. No. 4490 in Darlow and Moule, p. 553}. D. & M. add that "Editions were also issued from the same plates of (1) the Four Gospels (273 pp.), and (2) the separate Gospels, e.g. Matthew (80 pp.). Rep: DLC {1820}, JNL {1820, 1862}, MH {1820}, NN {1820}. -Dos naye testament fun dem meshiekh-* ('The New Testament of the Messiah'). Translated (from Greek) by Binyomin-Nakhmiye Solomon {= Benjamin Nehemiah Solomon}. London: London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews {printed by A. Macintosh}, 1821, 150 l{eaves} (299 pp.) {Rashi script}; second ed., London: A. Macintosh {= L.J.S.}, 1840, 150 l{eaves}; another ed. (also called "Third Printing") {Translator not given; Rashi script}, London: {printed by Operative Institute}, 1852, 298 pp.; another ed., London: London Jews Society, 1866, 318 l{eaves}; another ed. {From Greek; translator not given; without vowel-points}, London: {printed by Operative Institute}, 1869, 635 pp. {see D & M 4903}. Rep: BL {1821, 1866}, ICN {1840}, JNL {1821, 1852, 1869}, MA {1821}, NN {1840}, NNYI {1852}. Ref: Darlow and Moule No. 4491 (p. 553). -Dos naye testament, oyf's nay aroysgegeben in yudish-* {...ofsnay aroysgegebn in yidish} ('The New Testament, Newly Issued in Yiddish'). Translated by M.-Sh. Bergman*. London, 1887; another ed., London: London Missionary Society, 1908, 512 pp. Rep: NN {1887 ed.}, JNL {1908 ed.}. -Dos naye testament-* ('New Testament'). Translated by Yankev-A. Adler {= Jacob A. Adler} London: Gezellshaft gegrindet tsu ferbreytung unferfelshter iberzettsungen der heyligen shrift {!} {printed by Carl Fromme in Vienna}, 1891, {2}, 862 pp. Reprinted in 1896. Highly germanized (almost standard New High German). Vocalized text. Rep: JNL {1896}, NN. -Dos naye testament fun dem meshiekh- (New Testament) Translated by M.-Sh. Bergman. {= Bergman's Revision of 1912} London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1912, 668 pp.; another ed., London: {printed by William Kloyez (sp?) and Sons, London}, 1913, 451 pp.; another ed., London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1917, 451 pp.; another ed., London, 1928, 451 pp.; another ed., London: 1928, 688 pp. This B.F.B.S. Revision Committee New Testament is the first in good Yiddish style. The 1913, 1915 and 1928 (451 pp.) editions appear to be identical. Rep: BL {1912, 1913}, NN {1912}, JNL {all but 1912}, NNYI {1917}. .*compare both 1928 eds. at jnl -Di heylige psure toyve fun masye-* {!!!} ('The Gospel According to St. Matthew'). 10 parts. {The version of T. Fry and W. B. Collyer revised by P. I. Hershon}. London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1872-1878 {12mo}. Rep: BL, JNL {Part 1, 142 pp.}. -Die brif fun dem apostol paul...-* {Di...} ('The Epistles of Paul to the Galatians, Ephesians, Collossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon'). London, 1878, 62 pp. Rep: JNL. -Dos naye testament, oyf's nay aroysgegeben in yudish-* {...ofsnay aroysgegebn in yidish} (The New Testament, Newly Issued in Yiddish) Translated by M.-Sh. Bergman*. London, 1887; another ed., London: London Missionary Society, 1908, 512 pp. Rep: NN {1887 ed.}, JNL {1908 ed.}. .sk 1 -Die frohe botshaft fon masyo-* {= German} 'The Gospel According to St. Matthew'. Translated by Yankev-A. Adler {= Jacob A. Adler}. London: Gezelshaft tsur ferbreytung unferfelshter iberzettsungen der heyligen shrift {!} {printed by Carl Fromme in Vienna}, 1891, 2, 114 pp. Identical with text in the 1896 Adler edition of complete New Testament. Rep: JNL. -Di fraye botshaft fun markos-* {!} 'The Gospel According to St. Mark'. London: Gezelshaft tsur ferbreytung unferfelshter iberzettsungen der heyligen shrift {!} {printed by Carl Fromme in Vienna?}, 1891, {2}, 68 pp. Rep: JNL. .sk 1 -Dos naye testament-* (New Testament) Translated by Yankev-A. Adler {= Jacob A. Adler} London: Gezelshaft tsur ferbreytung unferfelshter iberzettsungen der heyligen shrift {!} {printed by Carl Fromme in Vienna}, 1891, {2}, 862 pp.; another ed., London: (same publ.), 1901. Highly germanized (almost standard German). Vocalized text. Cf. Darlow and Moule No. 4513 (= London: T.B.S., 1895). D & M give a 1900 Vienna printing as well {4522: London: T.B.S., 1900 (printed in Vienna)}. Rep: JNL, NN; NNYI {1901 ed.}. -Dos evangelyum fon mati oyf idish nay iberzetst-* {!} ('The Gospel According to St. Matthew'). London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1904, 41 pp. Rep: BL. -Die heylige psure toyve nokh markus-* {!} ('The Gospel According to St. Mark'). Translated by the British and Foreign Bible Society Revision Committee. London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1911, 98 pp. Rep: BL. -Dos naye testament fun dem meshiekh-* ('New Testament') Translated by M.-Sh. Bergman {= Bergman's Revision of 1912}. London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1912; another ed., London: B.F.B.S. {printed by William Clowes and Sons, London}, 1913, 451 pp.; another ed., London, 1917, 451 pp.; another ed., London: B.F.B.S.,, 1928, 451 pp.; another ed., London, 1928, 688 pp. .*BL has nt and psalms, London, BFBS, 1912, 668, 162 pp. This B.F.B.S. Revision Committee New Testament is the first in good Yiddish style. The 1913, 1915 and 1928 (451 pp.) editions appear to be identical. The 1913 edition, which is pointed, is called -Habris hachodosho/Dos naye testament-. Rep: BL {1912 and 1913}, DLC {1928}, JNL {all eds.}, NN { 1912}, NNYI {1917}, NNYSI {1928}. .* compare both 1928 eds. at jnl -Di apostol-geshikhte-* ('The Acts of the Apostles'). Translated by M.-Sh. Bergman {from Bergman's Revision of 1912}. London, 1913. Rep: BL. -Di heylige psure toyve nokh mati, nay iberzetst un revidiert- {!!!} ('The Gospel According to St. Matthew') {"as prepared by the British and Foreign Bible Society Revision Committee"}. London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1916, {1}, 62 pp. Good Yiddish for most part. Vocalized. Rep: BL, JNL. .* check BL date. -Di frehlikhe psure loyt masi, in dar nayer un ferbeserter yudisher iberzetsung-* {!} ('The Gospel According to Matthew'). London: Barbican Mission to the Jews, 1944, 100 pp. Rep: JNL. .* cf. Einspruch, Baltimore, MD. 1941; 2nd ed., 1959. More about the NT: Maks Erik writes that Pawel {Paul} Halicz (or Helic), a converted Jew, issued Luther's New Testament in Jewish letters in 1540 (-Di geshikhte fun der yidisher literatur-, Warsaw: Kultur-lige, 1929, p. 209). Khone Shmeruk includes this work in his list of Yiddish imprints in Poland before 1648/9 (-Sifrut yidish befolin-, Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1981, "for the sake of completeness" (p. 78), but his description makes clear that it is a Jewish-letter version of Luther's German translation. Moshe N. Rosenfeld includes this item in his bibliography of Yiddish printing to 1558 ("The Origins of Yiddish Printing," -Origins of the Yiddish Language-*, pp. 111-125), and refers to it as "the New Testament in Yiddish" (p. 111). Brad Sabin Hill mentions this work in the Introduction to his -Hebraica- (1988) catalogue, referring to it as a Yiddish translation by Paul Helic (Halicz), Cracow, 1540 and informing us that it formerly was in the Valmadonna Trust Library and is now in the British and Foreign Bible Society library in Cambridge. Yiddish Books on Microfiche includes: "Ha-Berit haHadasha" {sic}, Frankfurt a. O., 1700, Cowley, p. 121. Ref: EJ 12:1059. Leonard (Yude-Leyb) Leonard.Prager@Haifauvm ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.194 Mendele has 2 rules: 1. Provide a Subject: line. 2. Sign your article. Send submissions/responses to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu Other business: nmiller@starbase.trincoll.edu Anonymous ftp archives available on: ftp.mendele.trincoll.edu in the directory pub/mendele/files