Politics of Yiddish

Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
 ______________________________________________________
 Contents of Vol. 09.045
 December 5, 1999
 
 1) Brumberg on Yiddish in Israel (Mechl Asheri)
 2) What is worth reading by a haredi writer? (Moyshe Horwitz)
 3) Taynes (Abraham Brumberg)
 4) Zelda - Query about a name (Mikhl Herzog)
 5) Vurkers (Jon Levitow)
 6) Mishpokhe (Shaya Mitelman)
 7) "pisem veramses" (Olek Mincer)
 8) Di Goldene Pave (Sheva Tsuker)
 9) Tabachnik (Sheva Tsuker)
 
 1)----------------------------------------------------
 Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 23:42:40 -0500 (EST)
 From: donnom <donnom@netvision.net.il>
 Subject: Brumberg on Yiddish in Israel
I have read both Abraham Brumberg's review of The Politics of Yiddish and
Miriam Isaacs' response to the way she was misquoted in it. With regard to
his pronouncements on Yiddish and the khareidim, every objection on the
grounds of fact that I had thought of making was (not surprisingly)
anticipated by Ellen Prince. There is, however, another aspect of what Mr.
Brumberg would have us believe that was not touched on by anyone. 
Mr. Brumberg's tells us that, "Courses in Yiddish and Yiddish literature are
taught in universities and even high schools, including, mirabile dictum
(sic), in Israel". Why the astonishment? You can hear children playing in
Israeli streets speaking Yiddish to each other from Ashdod to Tsfat any day
you want and adults speaking Yiddish on buses in secular Tel Aviv. Further,
Mr. Brumberg states as fact that (in Israel) "many ultra-orthodox Jews
conversing in Yiddish on the street will suddenly switch to Hebrew if a
secular-looking Jew should approach them". I would like to know when and how
often Mr. Brumberg has seen that happen, because I have lived in Israel 22
years and have never even heard of it, much less observed it. Perhaps I may
be pardoned a personal anecdote to illustrate how unlikely it is. 
I cannot imagine a more quintessentially Israeli milieu than Israel Military
Industries, from which I retired as (export) advertising manager some years
ago. On one occasion my department was instructed by management to put out
tenders for all the services we bought outside and presumably to accept the
lowest bids or justify our rejecting them and in fact we did wish to reject
most of them. On the indicated day, my co-worker, Avi and I sat down to
present our budget and recommendations to the Finance Committee. I gave a
brief introduction in my halting Hebrew and ended by saying, "Since I speak
Hebrew only with great difficulty, I'll turn the rest of this presentation
over to Avi" . One of the members of the Finance Committee looked up and
said, "Redt Yidish!". Every one of the committee members spoke Yiddish, and
obviously had no objection at all to hearing me speak it; quite the
contrary, they wanted me to. Incidentally, I must have been convincing,
because they approved our budget to the last detail. 
Please forgive my exasperation, but for whatever my opinion is worth,
stories about the persecution of Yiddish speakers where I live are a subtle
form of Israel-bashing which I see no reason to sit still for when I know
they are not true. 
Mechl Asheri
 2)----------------------------------------------------
 Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 23:30:55 -0500 (EST)
 From: Martin Horwitz <MHorwitz@compuserve.com>
 Subject: What is worth reading by a haredi writer?
Khaveyrim,fraynt,un Mendelyaner:
Es iz tstayt tsu onheybn leyenen,ober vos ken men leynen tsu ontapn di
kvalitet fun hareishe shraybers? Es iz klor az me darf oyfhern tsu nutsn dem
stereotip as "far zey iz alerley literatur un poezie bloys treyf",aber vos
zenen di bikher oder dertseylungen vos me darf leynen tsu makhn undzer
diskusye a bisl mer interesant? Oyb emetser vet shikn kopies fun a zelkher
mustern, ikh bin greyt tsu shikn zey tsu alemen vos viln oikhet leynen un
nisht bloyz anonsirn a positsie. Moyshe Horwitz
Comrades,friends,and Mendelyaner:
It is time to stop scoring easy points against those who too easily
stereotype haredi Yiddish writers as scorning all literature as treyf. What
are the novels,stories,poems; the writers,poets,and essayists writing in
haredi papers and journals who are worth reading in order to get at least a
feel for the quality of their creation. If anyone wishes to send me single
xeroxes of such examples,I would be happy to distribute them to any and all
who are interested. 
Martin Horwitz
 3)----------------------------------------------------
 Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 12:37:22 -0500 (EST)
 From: abraham brumberg <ABrumberg@compuserve.com>
 Subject: Taynes
nokh a mol to my critics
I am delighted my modest writings have given rise to such tempestuous
polemics, but I wish my critics were a bit more careful with the facts. 
Miriam Isaac
I never suggested , as Miriam would have it, that haredi Yiddish is "weak or
diluted." My main point, and it is one to which I stick, is that the
haredis firmly reject the legacy of Yiddish secular culture. Which in fact
is confirmed by R' Heschel. I am delighted Miriam shared with a group the
joys of a Yiddish story in Der Yid. If she ever comes , in her reading,
upon a story that can be legitimately compared with the lityerary
achievements of Peretz, Sholem Aleichem, Lamed Shapiro, or Isaac Bashevis
Singfer (shall I add "imakh shmoy"?), I hope she will share this will all of
us. 
Ellen F. Prince.
Thank you for enligfhtening me about the history of Yiddish. However, it
wasn't the "super -orthodox" who kept it alive so long--the term is of
relatively recent origin-- but all Jews in first Western, and then
increasingly in Eastern Europe. Most Yiddish scholars (and that embraces
primarily secular but also some "mainline" religious linguists and
historians) would not think of rejecting the religious background and
context of Yiddish, while I am afraid the haredim (see letter byh Mr. 
Heschel) do. Secular courses in Yiddish literature include the Bovo Bukh of
the l6th century and other works predating by centuries the development of
Yiddish secular literature., while the haredim scoff at the Peretzes et al. 
Of course, Yiddish as a language will survive as long as it is spoken and
transmitted from generaiton in a "Yiddish speech community." If I may quote
myself (a nasty but occasionally helpful habit), this is what I wrote in my
reply to Mr. Heschel: 
"I think yours is indeed a very real culture, but quite divorced, as you
yourself illustrate, from the traditions of secular cuilture which had the
advantage of keepingf the secular Jews close to kol yisroel and to the
outside world at one and the same time. Indeed, it is likely that you will
continue to develop, while secular culture, despite all the courses,
conferencxes, festivals, and klezmer concerts, will decline. This is not a
prospect that makes me very happy." 
Allan Nadler
I don't know this chap Blumberg whom Mr. Nadler is so exercised about, but
if he is suggesting that, like Blumberg, I am "deliberately, ideologically
blind to anything positive that might emerge from the Orthodox world," he
is barking up the wrong tree. The book he mentions is interesting , but
its obscure provenance makes me wonder whether it is typical. Anyway, I
shall welcome more evidence. And so, I am sure, will Blumberg
Shaya Mitelman. 
The fact that the Jewish parents, for a variety of reasons, evinced
increasing indifference (if not hostility) to Yiddish schools--after at
first welcoming them-- happens to be true, even though the Soviet
authorities used it to justify their decision.. Of course, the authorities
did not merntion to what extent they themselves were responsible for the
decline of interest, nor what were the main reasons that propelled them to
close the schools (among other Yiddish institutions-- by the late thirties
and certainly late forties there was such a thing as Stalinist antisemitism,
Mr. Mitelman). But facts are facts, as Vladimir Ilyich once observed in one
of my favorite obiter dicta. 
If Mr. Mitelman doesn't think that Jewish schools in the Soviet Union "were
gradually denuded of Jewish content," then I am afraid he doesn't know much,
and ought to do a little homework. I suggest he take a look at Zvi
Gitelman's Jewish Nationality and Soviet Politics, shpigl oyf a shteyn ,
edited by Hrushevsky et al, Harry Lipset's Jewish Schools in the Soviet
Union, l9l7-l941, Elias Schulman's Jewish Education in the Soviet Union
l9l8-l948, and Salo Baron's The Russian Jews under the Tsars and Soviets. 
First it was no to Zionism, then to Hebrew (a rather important element of
Jerwish culture...), then to anything smacking of a romantic attitude
towarfds the shtetl, then Western influences, nationalism, social democratic
poison--you name it. (Since Serge mentions Kerler, he might take a l ook at
the latter's piece about Dovid Hofshteyn, in the book edited by his son, my
review of which was carried by Mendele. I have other fish to fry, so I
won't spend too much on this unhappy subject, except perhaps to quote an
item from Baron's book, as reprinted by Gitelman, p. 339, concerning Yiddish
literature classes in the Yiddish schools: 
"Even in the selection of Yiddish literary creations, communist rather than
Jewish criteria were employed. If among the greatr literary figures Sholem
Aleichem and Mendele were paid particular attention, this preference was in
part owing to their satirical description of the ghetto community which
could be used as a foil for contrast with the achievements of Soviet
society.." And then, on the sam,e page, from a l932 article by khaver Y. 
Dardak, a Jewish agitpropchik: "The very concept of 'Jewish history' is
excluded from the school. Any general course in the history of the class
struggle may [!] include elements describing the struggle of Jewish artisans
against their employers." 
Un ruf mikh knaknisl!
Abraham Brumberg
 4)----------------------------------------------------
 Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 16:02:13 -0500 (EST)
 From: "Mikhl Herzog" <mherzog@bestweb.net>
 Subject: Zelda - Query about a name 
Can anyone venture an etymology for the Yiddish/English name "Zelda"?
Mikhl Herzog
 5)----------------------------------------------------
 Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 21:08:18 -0500 (EST)
 From: JLevitow@aol.com
 Subject: Vurkers
Dear Mendelyaners,
Greetings. I've decided to depart from the Mendele "minhag" (custom) and
place the Yiddish version of my comments after the English version. I do
this because I agree with those who have argued that we should use Yiddish
as much as possible in contributions to Mendele. However, unfortunately,
although I can read Yiddish, I have zero confidence in my ability to compose
a correct Yiddish sentence. So, this way I can make sure I get my thoughts
across before losing everyone. I suppose I could have left the Yiddish out,
but I thought I'd make an effort. "Derbaremt zikh" (Have compassion!)! 
First, I would like to thank Yakov Dovid Shulman for the moving eulogy for
his father. In particular, he mentioned that his family in Poland before
WWII were Vurker Hasidim. My great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather
were also Vurker Hasidim -- in the shtetl of Ostrolenka, Poland, near
Warsaw, before WWI. This is the first time I've encountered someone with a
Vurker background, and I wanted to ask whether "Khaver" Shulman or other
Mendelyaners know of people, organizations, or historians who might be
sources of information about this particular Hasidic "dynasty" (which lasted
for only two generations that I know of). I recently had the chance to read
some of the Varka Yizkor Book and some Hasidic stories about the two Vurker
rebbeim in the Hebrew book, "Sipurey Hasidim," by Martin Buber, but I would
be interested in learning more. 
I would also like to ask: when transcribing Yiddish into Roman letters
according to the YIVO system, does one use "ay" for the long "i" sound
(double "yud" with a "patakh") and "ey" for long "a" (double "yud" on its
own), or vice-versa? I think I may be confused -- but I have to say that if
I have it right, the system seems to run counter to English orthography,
doesn't it ("tray" vs. "eye," for example)? 
Thirdly, what kind of business was called, "kolonial," in pre-war Poland? 
This word appears in the Ostrolenka Vizkor Book, and I can't figure it out
from the context. 
Finally, does anyone know if there is a list somewhere -- maybe on the
internet -- of Yiddish periodicals around the world? I'm looking in
particular for "Dos Yiddishe Vort" from Warsaw and "Tsukunft" from New York. 
Thanks to all for any and all assistance. My apologies in advance for the
Yiddish that follows. Although I know that Menedele is not a Yiddish class,
I would welcome any corrections. 
Yiddishe Ibersetzung:
Tayere Mendelyaner,
Ershtns, vil Ikh danken Yakov Dovid Shulman far zaynem rirndikn hesped vegn
zaynem tatn. Bifrat, hot er dermontn az zayne mishpokhe-layt in Poyln far
di tzveyte velt-milkhoma zeynen geveyn Vurker Hasidim. Meine elter-zeyde un
elter-elter-zeyde zeynen oykh geveyn Vurker Hasidim -- in shtetl Ostrolenka,
Poyln, noente tsu Varshe, far der ershte velt-milkhoma. Biz itst hob Ikh
zikh keynmol nit angeshtoysen oyf a mentsh mit Vurker yikhis, un azoy vil
Ikh fregn, tsi veyst Khaver Shulman (oder andere Mendelyaner) kvaln fun
informatsie vegn ot der amoliker, kurtz-yoriker, Hasidisher "dinastie" --
oder mentshn, oder organizatsies, oder historishe arbetn? Kh'ob anumeltn
gehot di gelegnhayt tsu leyenen etlekhe kapitlen in dem Varka Yizkor Bukh
(aynem fun zey durkh dem bekantn Yiddishn shrayber, I. I. Tronk) un etlekhe
Vurker Hasidishe mayses (in dem Hebraishe bukh, "Sipurey Hasidim," durkh
Martin Buber), nor vil Ikh sikh lernen mer vegn zey alle. 
Dertsu, vil Ikh fregn, ven m'transkribirt Yiddish oyf Romanishe oysyos loyt
der Yivo sistem, nitst men "ay" far dopl-yud-patakh un "ey" far dopl-yud
poshet oder farkert? Oyb Ikh farshtey zi rikhtik, iz di sistem nit leheypukh
tsu Englisher ortografia, lemoshel, "tray" un "eye?" 
Dritns, vos far a min gesheft iz geveyn "kolonial" in far-milkhoma Poyln? 
Ot dos vort bavayzt sikh in dem Ostrolenka Yizkor Bukh, un Ikh ken nit es
oysrekhnen fun dem kontekst. 
Lesof, tsi iz faran, efshar oyf der internetz, a reshima mit adresn fun
Yiddishe tsaytshriftn iber der velt, lemoshel "Dos Yiddishe Vort" fun Varshe
oder "Tsukunft" fun New York? 
A hartsikn dank far ale vos zeynen oysgeshtanen mein Yiddish. Ikh veys az
"Mendele" iz nit keyn Yiddish-klass, ober oysbeserungen zeynen angeleygte. 
A grus far alle, 
Jon Levitow
 6)----------------------------------------------------
 Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 23:54:08 -0500 (EST)
 From: Serge Mitelman <simitelman@pol.net>
 Subject: Mishpokhe
Adding to Octavian Mocanu's note on Rumanian usage of "mishpukha" (09.041),
in Russian, too, "mishpukha" means gang, band. 
Shaya Mitelman
 7)----------------------------------------------------
 Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 13:17:49 EST
 From: laura.olek@flashnet.it
 Subject: "pisem veramses"
Dear Friends! 
I need an urgent help from the Mendele readers! I am writing an article on
I.B. Singer's Mayse Tishevitz, which I have to deliver in the next days, and
I need to know the exact and detailed meaning of "pisem veramses" and the
details about the publication of the Mayse in Yiddish (year, publishing
house, pages and so on)
A dank!
Olek Mincer
Roma, Italia 
 8)----------------------------------------------------
 Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 00:10:43 -0500 (EST)
 From: SCZUCKER@aol.com
 Subject: Di Goldene Pave
Tayere khaveyrim Mendelyaner,
Ikh volt gevolt visn mer vegn der Goldener Pave. Vos simbolizirt zi in der
Yidisher literatur? Benkshaft, shaferishkayt, ufbli, tsi gor epes
andersh?... Tsi kent ir firleygn artilken, oder af Yidish oder af English
vos bahandlen di teme. A sheynem dank. Ayer Sheva Tsuker
Can anybody tell me anything about the Golden Peacock. What exactly, does it
symbolize in Yiddish lIterature? Can you suggest any articles, in Yiddish or
English, I could read to learn more. 
Thanks. 
Sheva Zucker
 9)----------------------------------------------------
 Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 00:10:43 -0500 (EST)
 From: SCZUCKER@aol.com
 Subject: Tabachnik
Tsi veyst emetser vi azoy ikh volt zikh gekent farbindn mit di
bney-mishpokhe fun dem Yidishn literatur kritiker Avrom-Ber Tabachnik vos
hot tsuzamengeshtelt "Di Shtim fun yidishn poet." A sheynem dank.
I'm looking for members of the family of the Yiddish critic Avrom-Ber 
Tabachnik. Anybody have any clues? 
Thanks, 
Sheva Zucker
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