Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 20.005 September 12, 2010 1) ayngeshpart (Irwin Mortman) 2) ayngeshpart (Leyzer Gillig) 3) ayngeshpart (Lillian Leavitt) 4) ayngeshpart (Martin Jacobs) 5) ayngeshpart (Maurice Wolfthal) 6) The Popular Language that Few Bother to Learn (Zachary Sholem Berger) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 25, 2010 Subject: ayngeshpart In my family and many other families, "ayngeshpart" means stubborn. Irwin Mortman 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 25, 2010 Subject: ayngeshpart I knew the word "ayngeshpart" as meaning "imprisoned." In that context, at least, it is not at all a localized word. I don't think I ever heard it used as meaning "stubborn" but I can see the connection. The word I would use for "stubborn person" would be "akshn." The noun form "stubbornness" is "akshones" and the adjectival form is "akshonesdik." Leyzer Gillig 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 25, 2010 Subject: ayngeshpart In response to Nicole Taylor's inquiry about "angeshpart": yes, my family used it often talking about being stubborn or set into a particular position. Yes, standard Yiddish would use "ayngeshpart." Another word to mean the same would be "Farakshent," (accent on second syllable), with the same Central Polish and Standard Yiddish pronunciation. Lillian Leavitt 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 25, 2010 Subject: ayngeshpart Weinreich's Modern Yiddish-English Dictionary: "stubborn, obstinate, headstrong" Martin Jacobs 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: August 25, 20100 Subject: ayngeshpart In response to Nicole Taylor's query about "angeshpart," this was the word - and the pronunciation - that my parents used to mean "stubborn." I don 't know how "local" this usage was, but they were from Buczacz, then in Pol and, now in Ukraine, long ago in Galicia under the Austrians. Maurice Wolfthal 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: September 7, 2010 Subject: The Popular Language that Few Bother to Learn Will Yiddish scholarship, the eternal victim, fall prey to lackluster language learning? Twenty years ago there were four American universities with Yiddish programs: the Jewish Theological Seminary, Harvard, Columbia, and UCLA. Now there are more than a dozen. From Michigan to Maryland, from Chicago to Santa Cruz, students are learning about Yiddish literature and culture. Interest in Yiddish is growing even as its speakers (outside Charedi enclaves) continue to decline in numbers. But interest in the topic of Yiddish does not translate into a stable foundation for teaching the language, which makes some scholars nervous about the future of Yiddish scholarship. At most institutions, Yiddish is taught by part-timers, graduate students, or faculty with other commitments. Given economic constraints, and the second-class status that Yiddish enjoys, even experienced teachers can't be sure of stable employment. Miriam Isaacs, the only full-time Yiddish instructor at the University of Maryland, was recently fired. "I taught Yiddish there for 15 years," says Isaac, "and no one ever tried to find me a permanent position. I was always a visitor, from Yiddishland, from Mars, a lecturer from year to year." Hayim Lapin, director of Jewish studies at the University, says that the issue was not Yiddish per se, but the elimination of all visiting faculty as a part of budget cuts. "We were not opposed to Yiddish as a field, but in the short term other priorities came first: Israel Studies and Bible." At the University of Kansas, a Jewish studies professor has tried to offer Yiddish for three years but has gotten no takers. At Brandeis, Yiddish language and culture will soon be eliminated as a minor (as will Hebrew language), though elimination of Yiddish courses is not currently planned. At the American Jewish University (formerly the University of Judaism) Yiddish is not offered. Statistics show no mass interest in Yiddish language learning at the university level. Figures from the Modern Language Association for 2006 (the only year available) show 969 students enrolled in Yiddish courses nationally (about a tenth of those studying Hebrew, albeit somewhat greater than the 750 or so students studying, say, Armenian) This number also includes 400 students at the Rabbinical College of Monsey, where administrator Adam Berger seemed bemused when asked if Yiddish was taught there. "We learn our shiur in Yiddish. We speak Yiddish," he said. "We don't teach Yiddish." In addition, there are no formal standards or central certifying authority for Yiddish teachers. Little formal training in Yiddish language instruction has been available since 1987, when the Yiddish Teachers' Seminar (a graduate-level institution in New York) shut down. Thus consistency is lacking, as well as consensus about what kind of language should be taught: an academic literary Yiddish spoken by a few thousand today and necessary for the study of Yiddish literature; or a "Chasidic Yiddish"? (Alternatively, says author Michael Wex, "candidates wearing sandwich boards reading Lebn zol medinas yisroel should be dropped off in Williamsburg. Those who talk their way out, pass the test.") Why is Yiddish language learning not more popular or established? Perhaps, says Ruth Wisse of Harvard, it is because Jews are insufficiently engaged in their own heritage. "Were Jews to become as numerous as the Chinese and as aggressive as Islamists, Hebrew and Yiddish might become the most popular languages in higher education." Wex says learning about Yiddish is more popular than learning the language itself "for the same reason that there are more boxing fans than boxers: it's difficult, occasionally painful, gains the practitioner neither status nor respect and is not needed to live a full and satisfying life." There is understandably a note of panic among some scholars when you ask them about the future of Yiddish instruction in American universities. Justin Cammy of Smith College is among them: "We are in grave danger within the next 10-20 years of losing qualified Yiddish language teachers. [In part] it has to do with the lack of funding for serious Yiddish teacher training. It is critical that some institution, organization, or funder take this on as its central mission. Nothing would serve the field of Yiddish more and ensure its survival that the focused training of Yiddish language teachers." If Yiddish language instruction in the United States is not stable, perhaps its advocates could learn from the example of Hebrew? Certainly the number of students in Hebrew courses is on the rise. But the quality of Hebrew language instruction in universities, as well as the connection between day school Hebrew and university Hebrew, is not on the communal radar as a concern. None of the major "incubator" organizations have awarded grants to organizations concerned with language teaching or learning, whether in Yiddish or Hebrew. Donald Sylvan, the director of JESNA, the major advocacy organization for Jewish education in North America, agrees that Hebrew is important, but "segregating" Hebrew education from the rest of Jewish education might not the best way to improve language proficiency. Yiddishists might envy the position of Hebrew, but at least as far as language instruction in the United States, they are in similar straits. Perhaps this is a matter of priorities. Wex gain: "If even a fraction of the money currently used to send teenagers on free trips to Israel...were used to subsidize free Jewish education--ideally in both Hebrew and Yiddish-- perhaps we'd be able to give our youth something more substantial than a chance to get laid for nothing." If cultural literacy in Yiddish (or Hebrew, for that matter) is out of reach of all but a diminishing number of American Jews, perhaps translation is the answer? The New Yiddish Library, hosted by the Yale University Press, aimed to fill this gap, but will soon cease publishing new titles; the books, says Wisse (a member of the editorial board, along with Cammy), "have not yet made their way into the life stream of American culture." The highly regarded translators of a previous generation languish in nursing homes or have passed away. "We have to be realistic," says Cammy, almost wistfully. "In the context of contemporary world culture, Yiddish is not a significant player. ... The kind of undergraduate student who will want to learn Yiddish just to be able to read Yiddish literature in the original is quite special." It could be that in the not-so-distant future, Yiddish scholarship will be left to those autodidacts who find their own way to the language, despite the lack of communal support. Zackary Sholem Berger ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 20.005 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. 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