מענדעלע

nokh a tikn-toes: s'iz do a vort _der bi'mkem_ vos dos iz taytsh 'der substitut'; in lomdishn banuts zet men/hert men di prepozitsye _bimko'ym_ vos dos iz taytsh 'anshtot'. "bemokem", vi se shraybt fraynd Neugroschel [6.125] mitn taytsh 'anshtot', eksistirt nit.

dovid braun Cambridge, MA

As for an appropriate translation for the world wide web, (WWW), perhaps, something could be done with the word for web, as in spider web. I remember that my mother and aunt both used a word for cobweb, or spider web, but I don't know if it is Yiddish, Romanian, German (Austrian), or some slang from one of these. Anyway, the word is, "povitinya". Has anyone else heard of this?

Bernard Gershen

Louis Fridhandler [6.126,3] noted that according to Dos Sholem-Aleykhem Bukh Sholem Aleichem's letters to family members were written in Russian. In all three editions of Sholem Aleichem's Collected Works in Russian (Moscow, 1959- 1961, 1971-1974, and 1988-1990) letters to family members are translated from Yiddish. It is unlikely that the editors of the Russian editions did not have access to the original letters and used the reverse translations instead. They communicated with I.D.Berkovich (his letter to the publisher of Jan 22, 1967 is quoted in the book) and they used materials from Beit Sholem Aleichem in Tel Aviv and from YIVO (Avrom Lis of Beit Sholem Aleichem and Bel Kaufman are acknowledged for the help with the archive materials). Also letters are sorted into sections according to the language of the original. Yet another mistery?

Only small fraction of Sholem Aleichem's letters were ever published. 166 letters were published in Der Tog (New York, 1925) and 253 in Dos Sholem-Aleykhem Bukh (New York, 1926 and 1958). About 100 letters were published in Tsaitshrift (v.1, Minsk, 1926), Visnshaftlikhe Yorbikher (v.1, Moscow, 1929), Shtern (No.3-4, Minsk, 1939), and in the book "Sholem-Aleykhem: zamlung fun kritishe artiklen un materyaln" (Kiev, Melukhe-farlag, 1940, 297 pp.). 210 letters were compiled in a book in Yiddish by I.Mitelman and Kh.Nadel (Moscow, 1941). 227 letters were published in the Collected Works in Russian (v.6, Moscow, 1990).

Iosif Vaisman

Nor di vokh hob ikh sof-kol-sof abonirt mendele un ikh frey zikh az ikh vel kenen bay ale mendelyaner fregn mayne shprakh kashes. Di ershte kashe iz...oy kh'ob fargesn s'iz chaneke nisht peysakh.

Kh'ob oyfgeefnt Kadya Molodovsky's bikhl "In Land Fun Mayn Gebeyn" un s'iz mir gevorn finster in di oyg, vayl kh'ob bald nisht farshtanen dem titl fun der ershte poeme: "Mayn Artsibiografya." Vos iz an artsibiografya? Is dos di zelbe vi an oytobiografya? Mistome nisht. To vos meynt edm prefiks "artsi"? Un vos meynt artsibiografya?

Kh'veys dokh az in a titl, spetsyel a titl fun a poeme, ken lign dem shlisl fun der gantser lid, hob ikh farmakht dos bikhl un ikh vart m'zol mir helfn. Kh'ob poshet nisht gevolt klopn kop in vant.

Khane-Faygl Turtletaub

Following in reb zelig Bach's footsteps [6.125] of finding a reymez in an e-mail address I think it is difficult to beat Sylvia Schildt's.

After reading her lovely bakhaynte lines what better address could she have had than creativ(a)[e]@charm. Could I say more?

David Herskovic

iker shokhakhti. efsher ken eymitser trefn a gimatrie in man elektronishen khodove?

Dr. Michael Steinlauf, Senior Research Fellow at YIVO, will give a talk in Yiddish at The Workmen's Circle in Brookline, 1762 Beacon Street, on Monday, December 16, 7.30 pm: His title is "Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust". The talk will be preceded by an English summary.

Admission is free and all are welcome.

The next Yiddish talk in this series: Tuesday, March 18, 7.30 pm. Dovid Braun of Harvard University, title to be announced.

Shimen Kass