מענדעלע

For "our fathers" in Aramaic, go no further than the beginning of the seder shel pesah.Early in the text is "Ha lakhma anya d'akhlu avhatanna b'ara d'mitsrayim." I am citing from memory so I might be off a bit but there it is, I think.

Paul Ritterband

Ruth R. Wisse, Yiddish: Past, Present, Imperfect. Commentary, Nov 1997, v 104, n 5, p 32-39.

Commentary published Ruth Wisse's exercise in the fine art of building bridges, this time from the generation of her teachers to that of her students, personified respectively by Khone Shmeruk and Aaron Lansky. Such bridges, a _dor tsu dor_ continuity in Yiddish tradition is a subject that definitely deserves intent attention. It is continuity, that as Ruth Wisse pointedly notes "American Jews so badly need".

Describing the life and career of Khone Shmeruk Ruth Wisse masterly avoids panegyrical notes. The author and her subject must have been close allies on a number of ideological and linguistic issues, yet they apparently disagreed on some others: another illustration of the complexity of the Yiddish scholarly landscape. This does not prevent Ruth Wisse from using a very respectful tone. The same is true for the description of Aaron Lansky and his Book Center - not everything there pleases the writer, however her conclusions are very upbeat and optimistic.

Things change when the author attempts to define who does and who does not have the rights to identify themselves with Yiddish. Whenever the party line prevails upon common sense, it is very difficult to avoid serious internal contradictions. Hence, Ruth Wisse disassociates Yiddish from the "lost causes" of secular Yiddishkayt, arguing that "Yiddish could have come into being _only_ as the language of a religious civilization". And on the very next page we read that the Yiddish-speaking subsets of the modern Jewish religious civilization "have no interest in the secular Yiddish tradition ... or in the books generated by that tradition". Of course, the author knows, perhaps much better that many others, that regardless of its sources and origins, the Yiddish of its peak period is inseparable from the great social movements and great societal changes within and outside of the Jewish communities in Europe and America. As it happened, by the second half of the 19th century the Ashkenazic civilization and the world at large engaged in a very complex two-way relationship, that played a critical role in shaping the identities of both partners. The great Yiddish culture as we know it, the Yiddish culture that became a field of Ruth Wisse's own scholarly excellence is undoubtedly a product of this relationship.

Amid the usual author's dislike for the "nostalgists", leftists, feminists, and other illegitimate appropriators of Yiddishkayt and Yiddish culture, a careful reader might sense somewhat changed overtones of the discourse, compared to some other polemic articles. The specter of "language separatism" has faded away from the picture of Yiddish revival, and the revival itself seems to be less malignant (cf. "the imagined Yiddish revival only seems so benign because it ignores both the requirements and the consequences of linguistic separatism" - Ruth Wisse, The New Republic, May 27, 1996). One and a half years ago as a condition of Yiddish revival "sentiment would have to yield to programs of formal and serious study, and serious study of any culture usually challenges the rosy images on which much of the sentiment is based" (ibid.) The need "to harness some of the sentiment" is reiterated again, but now Ruth Wisse hesitantly admits that the path to the preservation of Yiddish legacy "may even begin with a visit to the Jewish cemetery on Okapowa [this spelling is used twice in the article, should be Okopowa --i.v.] Street in Warsaw" - the sentiment is given at least some place in the process. Hopefully, these subtle changes reflect the evolution in the writer's views rather than merely different approaches to the audiences of The New Republic and Commentary.

Ironically as it may sound, I find at least one healthy aspect in the "Whose Yiddish?" arguments. If there is a fight for a share of or an exclusive right to something, then there must be something to share. Of course, fights over dead bodies are not unheard of, but it is not the case with Yiddish, not yet for sure. In the last paragraph of her article Ruth Wisse approvingly quotes Aaron Lansky's answer to his own query, "How do we revive Jewish literature?" - "Only by reviving Jewish life." The recipe is very good, although not new: almost 90 years ago I.L.Peretz wrote in one of his program articles, "To have Jewish art, you need Jewish artists". And then he continued, "No single place, no minute in time, no class in our nation has an exclusive right to Yiddish. Every thing, everywhere belongs to it." Too bad that the latter part seems to be often forgotten.

Iosif Vaisman Chapel Hill, NC

Dr. Adamczyk-Garbowska's memory serves her well. "Der spinozist: Dertseylung" [The Spinozan: A Story] was first published in the Tsukunft, 49, No. 7 (July 1944), 419-26, and signed Yitskhok Bashevis. See my Bibliography at B366.

Singer, writing as Yitskhok Varshavski, returns to Spinoza in two essays published on consecutive Wednesdays, viz. "Di filozofye fun Borekh Spinoza" [Spinoza's Philosophy], Forverts, 26 April 1947, pp. 2, 9; and "Spinozas lere vegn mentshlekher moral" [Spinoza's Ethical Teachings], Forverts, 3 May 1947, pp. 2, 8; B677, B679, resp.

David Neal Miller The Ohio State University

Dus iz mein ershte shreibung tsu mendele, huf ich as ir vet me ale antschuldign veil ich hub tsores shreibn iddish mit englishe oysyes. efsher veis emitzer ve azoi ich can brengen iddisher oysies tsu miein computer. Es is gringer far mir to shreibn un leyenen mit iddisher oysies.

Ober ich shreib veil ich hub a iddisher poeme vus ich hab gehert mein tate declamirn af hunderte chasenes (mir hubn gehat a groise familye). Ich alein hab dus declamirt af chasenes vil ich dos gebn tsu di gantzer iddisher velt:

Lchaim un mazel tov alle, espetsial eickh libinke chosen un kaleh

Es iz biemes a fargenigen un a nachas ruach bytsuvoinen un zein da heint mit eich alemen af di fayne un groisarticke chaseneh vus undzer alemen Mr. & Mrs. Finkel un Mr. & Mrs Greenberg praven far zeire kinder

Kinder, biz heint tsu tug zeint ir geven tzvei bazundere perzonen, tzvei bazundere n'shomos, uber foon di moment vus ir hut geshtanen unter dr chupah un gezugt "hare at m'kudeshet li", zeint ir gevurn ein perzon, ein n'shomo ein guf, un veil ir zeint gevorn eins, vil ich eich glat vinshin a tzviling, dus heist, gezunt un parnosoh, glick un freidn, ir zult shtendlich zein tsuzamen un keinmul nit sheidn ir zult zeini eine fun di glicklichste pur un of a bris zult ir unz ale ladn oif iber a yur.

Jacob Weisberg

In reply to Marvin Engel's request for Isidor Lillian's lyrics to A VAYBELE A TSNIE, here they are, transliterated from the sheet music. The music, by the way, was composed by Joseph Rumshinsky:

S'iz git mit dir tsu reydn, S'iz git af dir tsu kikn, Vi ken zi mikh derfreyen? Vi ken zi mikh derkvikn? Makht zi tsu mir a khey'dl, Nemt mikh baym hartsn presn, Ikh krig an apetit azsh Ikh volt zi oyfgegesn. Vus vil a yeyder mansbil? Vus iz zayn bager? Vus iz zayn tsil in leybn? Vus zukht er, vus er vil?

A vaybele a tsnie, a kushere metsie, Git iz dem nar vus hot du gefinen A klige un a sheyne, a tsikhtige, a reyne, Ver s'farmogt es, dem hot Got in zinen, Shtil, basheyden, vi a tayvl, a neshume a getraye, Mit aza min tayer vaybl ken a man zikh zayn mekhaye. Iz vi an oytser, vi a tsiring in hoyz, Ir shmeykhl, ir mine, Iz vi zi shteyt dort ruet di shekhine bloyz A kusher vaybele!

Itsik Goldenberg

This is getting a bit out of hand, but I did point out that Max Weinreich, while citing the spurious Aramaic etymology, in fact rejected it. And although I should perhaps be flattered by Meyer's comparison of him and me, the difference is very simple: I did not publish a major (or even a minor) work of scholarship citing a non-existent form without pointing out that it was non- existent, while he did. Of course, since the problem was caught by Bob Hoberman before I had a chance to publish anything, now we will never know whether I would have checked. I wonder myself.

In any case, the situation is a bit more complex. Since I am ill, I only could check books I have at home and I actually did check in Gesenius, not to see if teh form is genuine (which I took for granted) but to see which nikud was used for the first vowel (that's because if the vowel was other than hataf-patakh, then Yiddish would not have the vowel it has and so I would have had another argument against Warshawsky's etymology!). Not finding the form there, I assumed that that was just because it was not attested in Biblical Aramaic but based on other forms I took it that the vowel was a khataf-patakh, so I left it there.

And of course the reason I had no suspicions about the validity of the form (as noted I know very little Aramaic) is precisely that I assumed that Weinreich would never have allowed such a slip. But anyway I really do not think that Weinreich needs to be defended on such points. His reputation is solid anyway, for many well-known reasons. To be sure, I do continually call for people in this field to pay more attention to Beranek, Birnbaum, Bin-Nun, Sapir, Prilutski, and other non-Weinreichs, that does not mean I do not pay attention to Weinreich. And anyway his exaggerated reputation among some Yiddishists is not his fault, so no criticism of him is implied on that score.

Aleixs Manaster Ramer

Zachary Baker describes (in Mendele 7.101) a Japanese-English phrasebook published in 1996 by Prof Kazuo Ueda mit der hilf fun Troim Katz Handler, with an accompanying cassette. The person whose voice is heard on the cassette that Zachary described as a "native speaker" is Troim Katz Handler.

Prof Ueda and Troim are starting work on a second book for another Japanese publisher, which will be part of a "Foreign Language Series", a JapaneseYiddish introduction to Yiddish. Troim says she can't give the name of the new publisher because she doesn't read Japanese.

Marjorie Schonhaut Hirshan Boynton Beach, Florida

s'iz geveyzn an alef a shtimn m'hot zikh tsi zaner bayner genimn 'men vet nemn dem alef, im vazen a khalef val er vet dokh avade nisht brimn'

s'iz geveyzn an alef a shvern er hot kaynmol gelost fin zikh hern hot men genimn dem bokher, derlangt a shtoys inem okher val ver vayst vos fin im vet vern

s'iz geveyzn an alef a shtimer geroydeft hot men im imer er hot getrakht 'ikh bin mid, ikh gay vern a yid in zay veln mir makhn a dinner'.

s'iz geveyzn an alef vos ven m'hot im gefreygt tsi redn er ken hot er ge'entfert az nayn, 'kh'bin okh toyb vi a shtayn in blind; ikh ken gornisht zen'.

s'iz geveyzn an alef a toybn m'hot gefreygt 'of vos ken er toygn?' m'hot im geshonkn fil brokhes, mit a kop inem tokhes er iz gefloygn in okhet geshtoygn.

der aleph iz olev hasholem farshvindn kimat vi a kholem m'hot nisht geshtelt kan matzayve, val er hot nisht a kayver der aleph iz olev hasholem

David Herskovic

Shalom . Who is the expert who can give me information on the source of the yiddish word : shpatsiren?? A groiser dank.

Avraham Chasid