Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 20.009 November 16, 2010 1) Yiddish in the University (Gerry Kane) 2) Government support for Yiddish in the University (Cyril D. Robinson) 3) Immured recluses? (Lena Watson) 4) akshn meshumed (Al Grand) 5) akshn meshumed (Jack Berger) 6) iberzetsn Shire Gorshmans "Di bobe malke" (Cedric Ginsburg) 7) kushers (Martin Jacobs) 8) Orthography in Bergelson's "Arum vokzal" (Mirjam Gutschow) 9) "befoyr" in I.B. Singer's "Yoshe Kalb" (Noyekh Miller) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Subject: Yiddish in the University Date: October 22, 2010 Yidish shteyt vayter in gefar! The comments by Seth Wolits and Barry Trachtenberg on the state of Yiddish programs in American Universities and by extension in Canadian Universities is heart-breaking. But who is to blame? The profs of the various programs for not raising their voices more loudly in the Jewish community about the need for Yiddish as part of any Jewish Studies program attached to a local university or the Jewish communities itself for being culturally ignorant and thus only supporting the religious stream or Hebrew stream without understanding how Yiddish has influenced the Literature and Culture of America or Canada. Seth makes the point that Germany, Poland and France understand that Yiddish language and literature were an important part of the modern growth of their national cultures and so have to include Yiddish studies in their curricula. North American Jewish Communities don't and in my experience North American Yiddish scholars don't push the need for inclusion at either the University level or community level. Today's North American Jews will not be friends of Yiddish and will not be until those who need their funds to keep teaching can put enough pressure on those Jews who give millions to Universities to vote dollars in the direction of Yiddish as part of Jewish studies in every university that has such an academic animal. Universities understand dollars. Si'z a skandal. Ober men hert nisht keyn geshrey fun undzere akademiker! Gerry Kane 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: October 22, 2010 Subject: Government support for Yiddish in the University Dear Mendele: Thank you for your useful description of support of Yiddish education in Europe. It should be pointed out, however, that in France and generally throughout Europe, it is not only Yiddish that is supported but the state supports all kinds of services either unknown or contentious in the US: health care, care of the elderly, child care, day care, and, generally, cradle to grave services. Even the extreme right approves of these policies. Education at all levels is either free or low cost. Cyril D. Robinson 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: October 22, 2010 Subject: Immured recluses? In J. Bashevis-Singer's Magician of Lublin, the main character, Yasha, as an act of repentance let a tiny house be built around him with nothing but a tiny window, where he lived as a recluse, studying the Torah day and night. This act set the town agog. The Rabbi said this wasn't "yidish." And then: "True, it had happened in Lithuania that a "poyresh" (recluse) had himself immured, but the Polish righteous didn't think much of it." I personally have never come across any such instance or reference to one. Can anyone pour some light on this practice? How common was it, if at all? Many thanks, Lena Watson 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: October 22, 2010 Subject: akshn meshumed If I may add a personal recollection regarding the "akshn - meshumed" issue raised by Mike Hirsch and responded to by Leybl Goldberg: I distinctly recall that as I grew up in the 1930's and 40's in a Yiddish speaking family with parents both of whom came from a Russian shtetl called Zhitkovitch (near Minsk), I would often hear my mother say "an akshn iz erger vi a meshumed" whenever I or anyone else would become especially obstinate. Al Grand 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: October 22, 2010 Subject: akshn meshumed Re: Leybl Silberstein's posting about "akshn meshumed""A pig-headed apostate." Nothing "so-and-so" about a "meshumed." Jack Berger 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 12, 2010 Subject: iberzetsn Shire Gorshmans "Di bobe malke" In di letste teg bin ikh farnumen mit iberzetsen a mayse fun Shire Gorshman. Di mayse heyst "di bobe malke," geshribn in 1948. Es zaynen faran etlekhe verter vos ikh gefin nit in keyn verterbukh - ikh banuts zikh mit [uriel] vaynraykh, harkavi un dos naye yidish frantseyzish verterbukh tsuzamen mit a frantseyzish-english frantseyzish verterbukh. 1. Efsher ken eyner fun di mendelyaner mir helfen mit der badaytung fun di verter vos ikh hob nit gefunen: RAMOYNKES - zumer flegt dos erdene dekhl bavaksen vern mit mente, ramoynkes LIYOK - flegt zi mitn egberl makhn lekhlekh, tsubinden a laymenem liyok - es zol tripn KAHANETS - nit oysleshndik di kahanets FIRHOYZ, FIRHAYZL - dos alte porfolk hot zi gelozt ba zikh in firhayzl lebn khazer MEDNITSE, ANTONOVKES, PLOSTN - [di gendz] arayngeleygt in an oysgeshayerter mednitse, arumgeleygt antonovkes un plostn, arayngeshtelt in oyvn SAMOHON - zi hot im oysgelernt, vi azoy tsu makhn fun samohon a geshmake mashke MOLODYETS - ay babke bist a molodyets STAROSTE - di bobe malke hot shoyn gevust, az Vlades iz staroste in dorf BOBE, BABKE, BABESHI - ikh farshtey di verter: bobe = grandmother/midwife; babke = diminutive of bobe, OR old lady?; babeshi = ? 2. Shire Gorshman hot gelebt in amolike ratn farband, un iz oyle geven keyn yisroel in di 90er yorn. Ikh vil bakumen derloybenish fun ire yorshim aroystsugebn an iberzetsung fun der mayse. Efsher veyst emetser: mit vemen ken ikh handln benegye dem inyen? A sheynem dank, Cedric (Yankev) Ginsberg 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: October 31, 2010 Subject: kushers This word occurs in the title of a chapter of the Tarnogrod memorial book: "Di "kushers" in Kneshpol" (Kushers is in quotes in the original). The text makes no mention of kissing. It is about a family named Lumerman who live in a village (dorf) called Kneshpol, on the river (taykh) Tanew, between Tarnogrod and Bilgorey, in Poland. The text itself says that the principal occupation of the people of Kneshpol was binding wood into bundles (which they then sent down the Tanew river to their destination), and that people who do this are called "kushers." Can anyone now tell me the origin of this word, apparently used only in this one town in Poland, near Tarnogrod? Martin Jacobs 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: October 25, 2010 Subject: Orthography in Bergelson's "Arum vokzal" Noyekh Miller is looking for two early editions of Bergelson's "Arum vokzal" to compare language and spelling of the two. He wonders about the Germanized spelling and the Segol under some Ayins. He also wonders why these do not appear in other editions. I do not know the two editions but from his description and the questions he raises I would suggest as an answer: Changed spelling conventions. For some time it was highly fashionable to spell Yiddish texts similar to German, with some ie's (also ih for German ie) and an h after some ts. Later, the fashion changed and nearly all texts reprinted nowadays are being "corrected" to our conventions nowadays without mentioning this, so that we are puzzled when we see a text in its originalspelling. Don't get me wrong: I do think it is indeed interesting researching the shift, the when and where, but if Noyekh Miller is just bewildered, I would like to say that there is nothing extraordinary happening here. Examples for texts can be found in abundance, e.g. in electronic form on archive.org, one I had to think of spontaneously is the Yiddish introduction to Abelson's Yiddish-English encyclopedic dictionary from 1915. Kletskin 3rd edition is this: http://www.archive.org/details/nybc202344 Kletskin 1929 is this: http://www.archive.org/details/nybc206370 Wostok 1922 is this: http://www.archive.org/details/nybc201194 and there are more editions of this work in the archive, next to the Soviet publications and the Polish and Argentine postwar publications Compare the one by Progres, Warsaw, 1909: http://ia331418.us.archive.org/2/items/nybc206296/nybc206296.pdf The last one has the sought for Segol under Ayins as well. Compare it to other books bound into the same volume, e.g. Sholem Asch's "In a shlekhter tsayt" (about p. 100), same publishing house, 1903 which does not show the Segol. Mirjam Gutschow 9)---------------------------------------------------- Date: November 9, 2010 Subject: "befoyr" in I.B. Singer's "Yoshe Kalb" On page 318 of Yoshe Kalb we find in the announcement of a beyz-din of 70 rabonim to investigate the charge that Rebe Meylekh's son-in-law Nokhem is, loy aleynu, a bigamist the following words: "mir zenin (sic) nit maskim mit di reyd befoyr (sic) di zakh iz klor gevorin (sic) durkh a din toyre". Singer wanted perhaps to place a sort of mekhitse between his own modern secular Yiddish and that of the provincial rabbis who in practice wrote little or no Yiddish; maybe as well it was a gentle poke at their unsure orthography. Well and good. But what is this word "befoyr"? It is not to be found. Clearly the right word is "eyder", and the great Maurice Samuel who translated the book writes "before". Is this an error? Since the novel was published in 1932, some years before Singer came to America, "befoyr" is not very likely a gelumpert transcription of "before." geshribene fasolyes Is it alt-yidish? And if not, what happened? Noyekh Miller ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 20.009 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. 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