Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 21.001 June 16, 2011 1) leytsan (Hilde Pach) 2) leytsan (Helen Winkler) 3) leytsan (Oron Joffe) 4) leytsan (Mike Koplow) 5) shitere finger (Jane Peppler) 6) Ola Lilith, Wladyslaw Godik, Rumshinsky's "Varshe." (Jane Peppler) 7) shlepe-bobe (Perla Sneh) 8) Yiddish theatre website (Steven Lasky) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Subject: leytsan Date: June 1 Leytsan is Hebrew for clown or entertainer. It was not a common word in Dutch Yiddish. Instead, the word leits or lets was used, which has the same meaning and also stems from Hebrew. Hilde Pach 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 3 Subject: leytsan Regarding the question about "leytsan" (Aubrey Jacobus), the book Isaac Rivkind. Klezmorim Jewish Folk Musicians. A Study in Cultural History. New York: Futuro Press, 1960 has a whole chapter devoted to the meaning of this word in relation to entertainers and musicians. The book is written in Hebrew. I have a very rough translation of the chapter that a friend did for me--it's a little hard to follow but if interested, please contact me ([email protected]) and I can send it to you. Helen Winkler 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 1 Subject: leytsan Aubrey Jacobus asks about the etymology of the word leytsan. This is an old Hebrew word. In the Midrashim it meant, according to Jastrow's dictionary, "irreverent talker, scoffer, jester." It is derived from the root lamed yud tsadi, just like "leyts." Oron Joffe 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 1 Subject: leytsan "Leyts" (spelled just lamed-tsadek) is Hebrew for jester, clown, etc. From the same root: "latson" (Yiddish pronunciation would be "lotsn") = frivolity. Also, in the viduy prayer (said on between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, on Y "K, and on other fast days) is the word "latsnu," meaning "we have been frivolous. " Depending on how grim you are, in this context it can mean either frivolous about serious things, or any frivolity at all. Mike Koplow 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 15 Subject: shitere finger Does it mean of the owner of "shitere finger" that money runs through his fingers? Or is he a crook? Jane Peppler 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: May 30, 2011 Subject: Ola Lilith, Wladyslaw Godik, Rumshinsky's "Varshe." In the course of researching cabaret music in Yiddish and Polish in Warsaw between the wars, I have started to focus on Willy Godick and Ola Lilith (sometimes Ola or Olya Lillith). (I wrote a Wikipedia article for each of them.) Briefly, Godick was born in Russia and began his acting career there, worked in Vienna, moved to Warsaw, started a revue theater called "Mirage, " worked at Qui Pro Quo where he met Ola Lilith singing in Polish, convinced her to leave with him and start Azazel, the first Yiddish revi-teater in Poland. She was the singer of the elusive "Azazel Shimmy " which I have not been able to find (written by Moshe Broderson and Henech Kon). Godik and Lilith came to America in 1931 and Lilith starred in "The Girl from Warsaw," her show-stopper solo was simply called "Varshe" (NOT the Gelbart song which has been recorded several times). In his memoirs Yardeini waxes most enthusiastic over her, at length. They went back to Warsaw, fled to the Soviet Union at the start of the war. They toured there a bit. They must have split up at some point - he joined the Red Army, was wounded, and sang cabaret in Russian in Moscow and then after the war came back to Warsaw and sang in Polish revue theater until he died in 1952! Jewniverse has her dead in the holocaust, but her friend Yardeini sang with her on WEVD and visited her many times in Florida - he says she joined the American Army, met and married a Christian, sang on WEVD, lived the last decades of her life in Miami Springs FL. Died after 1979. I'm looking for any other traces of these two. I intend to call the Dade County library system and see if she left any papers to anybody in Florida. But -Does anybody have, or know of, any recordings by Ola Lilith other than the two readily found on the web (An Eytsele and Omar Abajo)? Does anybody have any further information on either Lilith or Godik? Or know where any might be located? Thanks for any pointers. A grus from North Carolina, Jane Peppler 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 10 Subject: shlepe-bobe A sheynem dank Mekhl Zlotowskin un P. Teitelbaumen far zeyer entfer vegn shlepe-bobe. In shpanish the game is called "gallito ciego" ("blind little rooster"). A hartsikn grus, Perla Sneh 8)---------------------------------------------------- Date: June 10 Subject: Yiddish theatre website For those of you with an interest in Yiddish theatre, here is an update on my work: 1. Most of the unpublished Zalmen Zylbercweig book "Yiddish Art Theatre in America" (about the first five or so years of Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre group) is now online at the virtual Museum of Family History, in pdf format. You can learn more about this and find the link to this file at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/yata.htm . 2. Most of the unpublished seventh volume of Zylbercweig's "Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre" is soon to be online, and I will tell you all when it is. 3. I, and to a lesser extent a small number of volunteers, have translated more than five hundred of the more than 2,800 biographies from the six published volumes of the aforementioned "Lexicon," but have not announced it yet as I am loathe to make the translations available without having it proofed by someone who is good at it. I may have to relent at some point so these interesting biographies can be easily read. I also have databased the transliterated names of those individuals (and organizations) biographied, but I will hope that someone will volunteer and step forth to create for me a searchable database so the material can be located online easily. Of course, I also wish for people who will volunteer to translate more of these biographies, which include not only actors, but playwrights, stage directors, prompters, directors, et al, and taken as a whole gives a good perspective on the history of Yiddish theatre. 4. I also have created a list of more than four hundred Yiddish productions (in New York), including dates (when available), from the end of the nineteenth century to the 1950s, many from performances at the Thalia, People's, Public, Grand, Second Avenue, Kalich, Folksbine et al theatres. With each listing I have included the names of the actors who performed in each. So in this database I can search by the name of the actor or the season, for instance, and see the history of work of any actor and what plays were produced during what season. I welcome other play listings, especially those that include casts of characters, theatre names, performance dates, etc. I also have a list of Yiddish plays performed elsewhere, such as Philadelphia's Arch Theatre, Chicago's Douglas Park Theatre, et al, as well as a list of those who acted in these plays. I will include all of these with my New York listings. 5. I am working on a listing of Vilna Troupe performances, not only in Vilna but elsewhere in the world. I have many such listings, with casts of characters, dates, etc. 6. Don't forget about my Maurice Schwartz collection of listings of more than 100 of his Yiddish Art Theatre productions, found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/yat/yat-D.htm. This is the most complete such listing to be found anywhere. Also you can visit my entire Maurice Schwartz exhibition at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/mschwartz.htm , or better yet begin at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yat-01.htm. 7. If you have any questions about any of the above, or need a look-up, just drop me an e-mail with a specific request and I'll be glad to help you if I can. Regards, Steven Lasky www.museumoffamilyhistory.com ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 21.001 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, direct your mail as follows: Material for postings to Mendele Yiddish literature and language, i.e. inquiries and comments of a non-commercial or publicity nature: [email protected] 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, as responses will be posted for all to read. They must also include the author's name as you would like it to appear. 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