Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 15.026
September 12, 2005
1) bikher-protim in Forverts (Zackary Sholem Berger)
2) The state of Yiddish (Lucas Bruyn)
3) Majer Bogdanski (Arieh Lebowitz)
4) Menke (Steven Lawson)
5) Yiddish micrographic portraits (Jeffrey Shandler)
6) How long does it take to be be Yiddish-literate?
7) Vilnius YIddish Institute (Olga Bliumenzon)
1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: September 6, 2005
Subject: Re: Bikher-protim in Forverts
Hugh Denman hot letstns [Mendele 15.025] bamerkt az di bikher-retsenzyes
opgedrukt in Forverts vern legamre nisht bagleyt fun ken nutslekher
informatsye farn potentsyeln koyfer/leyener.
Ikh bin maskem, un faktish hob ikh aleyn shoyn ongeshribn mer vi eyn briv
in redaktsye, betndik me zol tsushteln azoyne "luksusdike" protim vi der
prayz un vu, lemanashem, me zol koyfn di bikher.
Oyb ir (Mendelyaner) zayt maskem, zayt azoy gut un leygt dos fir der
Forverts-redaktsye. Zol men aynshteln a shtendike rubrik in Forverts: "Vu
me ken koyfn di yidish-bikher dermonte in dem numer."
Zackary Sholem Berger
2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: September 6, 2005
Subject: Re: The state of Yiddish
Most Mendelyaner agree with Noyekh Miller that the future of Yiddish
literature is bleak due to a lack of readers.
I would like to disagree. It is not so much the lack of potential readers,
but rather the lack of modern Yiddish literature.
If I want to read something modern, in a type of Yiddish that does not
require a series of dictionaries and encyclopedias I can read Internet
blogs (see: Noyekh Miller Vol. 13.017). Most Yiddish literature is either
old fashioned or of a very sad nature. Sholem Aleichem is hard to read and
so is Bashevis Singer, in Yiddish. One does not pick up a volume of memoirs
or a yizkor book for relaxation. Yiddish poetry can be excellent and of all
times, but how much poetry does the average reader consume?
I have no doubt that learning the language is not the problem. After all,
it is an easy language when compared to Hebrew, Russian or Tagalog. But to
keep learners interested in developing their basic reading skills an
attractive, modern literature is necessary. Instead of more funding for
translation projects and literary prizes for translations of existing
poetry money should be invested in stimulating the writing of contemporary
Yiddish.
Lucas Bruyn
3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: September 6, 2005
Subject: Majer Bogdanski
I've not seen any obituaries yet on the passing of Majer Bogdanski - just
heard of it from a colleague. Is it true that he has died? Have any
articles appeared in the British - or other - media yet?
My understanding is that he has [had] been a very prominent advocate in
London of Yiddish language, culture and tradition, as well as a stalwart
representative of the Jewish Labor Bund, which he had joined in Lodz,
Poland, before the Holocaust years.
Arieh Lebowitz
4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: September 8, 2005
Subject: _Menke_
I am writing to add to the comments of Frank Handler to Prof. Prager's
review of the English translation of Menke Katz's poems. I am not a
Yiddish scholar, but have been a professor of U.S. history for the past 33
years, currently at Rutgers University in New Jersey. I have purchased
the book in question and read the introduction by Dovid Katz, which I found
informative and well balanced. I have not met Dovid in person, but
recently established e-mail communication with him to discuss his father.
From 1956-1958, I attended the Workman's Circle School #10 on College
Avenue between 169th and 170th Streets in the Bronx. My grandparents,
Abraham and Sarah Parker, along with their friends, had founded Branch 133
of the Arbiter Ring, which ran the school. For two years, Chaver Katz
tried his best to illustrate the beauties of yiddish history, language, and
culture to a tiny group of six ten-to- twelve-year-olds. He managed to do
so, but through no fault of his own ultimately fought a losing battle
against the forces of assimilation and secularization that kept us from
pursuing further studies after we graduated, as he wished. But although my
Yiddish language facility remains at about the first grade level, I have
never forgotten what an inspiring and towering figure Menke was. He cared
about his heritage, he cared about his students, he demanded excellence,
and he was devoted to the State of Israel. Menke did not confine himself
exclusively to Yiddish. He gave me Bar Mitzvah lessons and worked with me
on my haftora in the Hebrew language, which he had also studied
extensively.
I knew nothing then of conflicts between Hebrew and Yiddish speakers or
what the position of Israel was on the subject, but I remember vividly
Menke's affection for the Biblical homeland. In fact, he brought in a
man--I suppose a friend--to recruit us to go to Israel and live on a
kibbutz. If anyone doubts that he was a Zionist or that anyone who writes
about internal conflicts in Israel (as does Dovid) is anti Zionist, then I
believe he is sorely mistaken. Menke was a citizen of the world--an
American, a resident of Brooklyn, a sojourner to the Lower East Side and
the Bronx, a Lithuanian, a Russian, an Israelophile. His work transcends
geographical boundaries or rigid doctrines, that is why he was such a thorn
in the side of the Communist left (linke). However, he never became an
informer or a blacklister: he differed from his comrades, but he did not
turn his back on them lightly. He finally did in the 1950s, when they
refused to acknowledge the murder of fellow Jews in the Soviet Union under
Stalin. Maybe he waited too long, he probably did for my taste, but Menke
was never a blind partisan; he was an iconoclast.
He had too much of a sense of humor (and a grim sense of reality as well)
to be doctrinaire. And besides, as Dovid has told me, Menke was a fan of
Little Richard and rock 'n' roll, which defied Communist puritanism. Menke
is a hero of mine, though I never saw, spoke, or wrote to him after the two
years I was in his class. He defies simple labels. To me he is a democrat
with a small "d." He cared about the well being of ordinary people, not as
some abstraction, but as individuals who should know their past and imagine
their futures. He was a real mentch. My grandparents probably would not
have liked Menke's politics, but they would have liked him as a man!
Steven (Shimen) Lawson
5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: September 11, 2005
Subject: Yiddish mircrographic portraits
I am looking for examples of micrographic portraits of Yiddish
writers--i.e., visual portraits that are made out of text (in this case,
stories or poems by the authors) written very small and arranged in the
shape of the author's face. I recall seeing these for Peretz and, I
think, Leyvik a while ago but can't recall where. Any leads most welcome,
Many thanks,
Jeffrey Shandler
shandler@rci.rutgers.edu
6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: September 12, 2005
Subject: How long does it take to be be Yiddish-literate?
After my last post in Mendele, my good friend, Carl Goldberg, responded by
saying that it is impractical to plan for creating the readers who will
read some of the vast number of Yiddish books which the NYBC has collected.
He qualifies as a linguist, and he maintains that it takes thousands of
hours of study to become proficient in a foreign language.
Based on some responses I have had had on this subject, some examples of
people who have mastered Yiddish in much less time have come to my
attention. Of course, this is a very subjective thing which depends to a
large extent on the motivation of the learner.
So I want to raise the question: What would be the minimum amount of study
time required for an average student to learn enough Yiddish to be able to
read Yiddish literature? I have suggested that perhaps one- two hundred
hours might be enough to get a foothold which would allow reading some
simple literature, and then, with further practice, one could proceed to
more advanced Yiddish pieces.
Morrie Feller
7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: September 12, 2005
Subject: Vilnius YIddish Institute
As coordinator of the Vilnius Summer Program in Yiddish, I am very happy to
let you all know that after missing (unfortunately) one summer, because of
financial and administrative reasons (our institute was being integrated
into the university long-term), we are now back in business in every sense
of the word! Preparations have just been finalized for the 2006 summer
program here at Vilnius University.
The program will be held from 31 July to 25 August 2006. The teachers are
Prof. Jerold Frakes (Los Angeles), Prof. Avrohom Lichtenbaum (Buenos
Aires), Prof. Yitskhok Niborski (Paris), and Prof. Anna Verschik (Tallinn).
The director is Professor Sidney Rosenfeld of Oberlin, Ohio. There will be
a rich supplementary program of lectures, walking and bus tours, seminars,
concerts and more, many led by bona fide Litvaks from the Jewish Community
of Lithuania who have lived in the region their entire lives. The Vilnius
Summer Program in a unique experience that complements rather than
duplicates its fine sister programs in the West.
This one-month summer course was founded at Oxford University in 1982, and
moved by its founding director, Prof. Dovid Katz (now an advisor to the
program) to Vilnius University in 1998.
For further details as well as the new and correct address for Vilnius
Program in Yiddish, Vilnius Yiddish Institute, Vilnius Summer Program in
Yiddish please visit
http://www.judaicvilnius.com/course.php.
Please feel free to contact me about any question you may have. It will be
my pleasure to help in any way possible.
Olga Bliumenzon
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End of Mendele Vol. 15.026
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