Mendele Personal Notices & Announcements-- Nov. 20, 2009
To minimize wear and tear on the untershames, three requests: 1. Send time-sensitive notices well in advance. 2. Send material as plain text: no HTML, other coding, or attachments; and write MENDELE PERSONALS in the subject line. 3. Correspond directly with the person who or organization which has posted the notice, *not* with your ever-beleaguered untershames. _______________________________________________________________________ Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:29:04 -0800 From: Loren naiman <[email protected]> Subject: NEW SUBSCRIBER AND DISTANT RELATIVE OF MENDELE MOCHER SFORIM WITH QUESTIONS Gentlemen, Thank you all for keeping up the language. I have for many years been a contributor to the National Yiddish Book Center, but I had never heard of your group. I have not studied Yiddish in far too long. I studied at UCLA with Janet Hadda in 1971. By way of background, I believe I am a distant relative of Mendele Mocher Sforim. I would like to tell you how close, but I can't because all the people I would now ask are deceased. When I was young I had an ancient uncle named only "Uncle" His last name was Abramovich and I believe he was a nephew of Mendele. My Yiddish name is Mendele after the great author. Unfortunately that is all I know. I have a close group of friends all of whom know a smattering of Yiddish. We are all worried that we are the last remnants and that the language will soon perish. I receive Pakentraeger and try to muddle my way through some of the articles, but most of it is beyond my rudimentary knowledge. I have three questions? 1.Are there any good writings about Mendele's background particularly in Belarus? 2.Are you in contact with any of his descendants? 3.Can you point me to any easy, (as in very easy), entry points into the language that we can use as study guides at Shabbat dinners? We are way beyond the "Joys of Yiddish" but not to the level of Sholem Alechem. Anyway, I am glad I have connected with your group. I look forward to reading whatever you send and am gratified that someone is preserving a language that is a true art form. Loren Naiman ____________________________________________________________ Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead,direct your mail as follows: Material for Mendele Personal Notices & Announcements, i.e. announcements of events, commercial publications, etc., always in plain text (no HTML or the like) to: victor.bers at yale.edu (IMPORTANT: in the subject line write "Mendele Personal") Material for postings to Mendele Yiddish literature and language, i.e. inquiries and comments of a non-commercial or publicity nature: mendele at mailman.yale.edu IMPORTANT: Please include your full name as you would like it to appear in your posting. No posting will appear without its author's name.Submissions to regular Mendele should not include personal email addresses in the body of the message, as responses will be posted for all to read. In order to spare the shamosim time and effort, we request that contributors adhere, when applicable, as closely as possible to standard English punctuation,grammar, etc. and to the YIVO rules of transliteration into Latin letters, which are explained in summary form at http://www.yivoinstitute.org/about/index.php?tid=57&aid=275 . All other messages should be sent to the shamosim at this address: mendele at mailman.yale.edu Mendele on the web: http://mendele.commons.yale.edu/ The Mendele webpage currently gives access to issues starting with the inauguration, dated May 15, 1991 up to Vol. 16.027 (April 5, 2007).Issues starting with Vol. 18.004 (July 3, 2008) up to the most recent.can be found at http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/mendele/ We are now working to fill the hole between those two sets and add a search routine To join or leave the list: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/mendele _______________________________________________ Mendele mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/mendele
