מענדעלע

In Philip Goodman's _The Hanukkah Anthology_ (JPS) -- a book filled with tantalizing references to all kinds of interesting stuff -- we find on page 286:

The eighth and last day of Hanukkah is called Zot Hanukkah (This is the Dedication)... In some communities the eighth day was dedicated to Judith; the women would read in Old Yiddish the story of the heroine in _Zos Hanukkah Bikhel_ by Elhanan ben Issachar (Frankfurt on the Main, 1712).

Does anyone know: is this Zos-Khanuke-Bikhl extant? Where is it? Does anyone on the list have access to it (e.g. in a university library)? Any chance of posting its contents relevant to Judith on this list?

I'm also extremely interested in any information from memories or folkloric research on the story of Judith as it relates to Khanuke (n.b. the apocryphal Book of Judith must have gone through considerable folklore processing in Jewish communities. According to Mishnah Berurah on the laws of Khanuke, Judith [referred to in the Shulkhan Orukh there] was "the daughter of Yokhanan the High Priest", making her Judah Maccabee's aunt) or on women's Khanuke customs (see Goodman's _Anthology_ for various tantalizing references, mostly in regard to Sephardi communities).

A freylekhn yontev

Yankev Lewis

As far as I remember the song:

Oy, shiker iz a goy Shiker iz er trinken miz er val er iz a goy.

Oy, nikhter iz a yid, Nikhter iz er, Davenen miz er, val er iz a yid.

(Forgive my non-YIVO transliteration).

A freylekhn khanike!

Hardy Mayer Irvine, CA

May I take issue with some recent comments.

Beni Warshawski writes: "The Hebrew-Aramaic words are the core words in Yiddish because they articulate Jewish religious concerns which are not expressed using words from the dominant environment. ......"

Mikhl Herzog: "Hebrew-Aramaic words like _got_, _bentshn_, _leyenen_, _praven_, _treybern_, right?"

I take Reb Mikhl's point, but

1) until recently, leynen had no religious meaning. I still equate leynen with reading, fullstop (period). If someone asks me "Will you leyn this week" (I am a bal-koyre) my immediate reaction is what book or newspaper am I being asked about. The religious context carries the phrase "leynen di toyre"

2) pravn defeats me completely. Yes, one talks about pravn a tish, pravn shaleshides but I don't see praven as having any religious content. what about praven malkhes?

perets mett

I saw a Yiddish play when I was a boy (in the 1940s) in which a character with an obvious alcolhol problem would prefcae each swig from the bottle with the verse:

Iz gegangen Tsu Ferlangen A bisl mashke fin di flashke

The play may have been "di mensh fun morgen"

Martin Davis

In regard to L. Fridlander's question about "bayoer": all he need do is check Weinreich's dictionary: "bayoen" = "confirm," etc. The root is presumably "yo" = "yes". The German cognate--and I presume source--is the verb "bejahen" (same meaning), though German lacks "Bejaher," so that "bayoer" appears to be a purely Yiddish invention meaning sort of "optimist"--someone who has a positive attitude towards life. But given the inventiveness of German and the productiveness of its "er" suffix, "Bejaher" sounds perfectly acceptable.

(A dictionary a day keeps speechlessness away)

Joachim Neugroschel

Louis Fridhandler asks about the word ba-yo'er and speculates that it may have been invented. This is unlikely, since my German dictionary has bejahen, with the same meaning.

B'sholem, Arnie Kuzmack

In response to David Goldberg's comments about Dobrushin, I would like to stress that my earlier comments were by no means intended to be hagiographical. I wrote that Dobrushin was one of the most prolific Soviet Yiddish writers, but I should add that he was by no means one of the best. Dobrushin's critical work consistently followed the party line with very little of his own innovations. His originality of thought pales in comparison to some of the more astute Soviet Yiddish literary critics of the era (I am thinking in particular of Moshe Litvakov and Osip Liubomirskii).

Dobrushin's work as a dramatist was equally mediocre. His plays were pale copies of typical socialist realist works dealing with socialist construction. The Trial Is On tells of Niome Burman, a young Jewish man from a traditional Jewish background who joins the Red Army and helps form a workers artel of Jewish and non-Jewish workers to build socialism. He befriends a non-Jewish woman, Anastasia, whom he marries despite his parents' ardent objections. The ease with which Niome renounces his parents and their heritage and the ease with which he assimilates into the gentile world were entirely unrealistic. Dobrushin's other major play, The Specialist, was equally bland. It told of a bourgeois specialist who feels that his work is not being appreciated. Frustrated, he joins a group of counter-revolutionaries who try to sabotage the construction of socialism in the Soviet Union.

Dobrushin's adaptations of the plays of Sholem Aleichem and Goldfadn also merit little attention. His primary goal was to make the plays adhere better to the dictates of socialist realism. For instance, in his adaptation of Tevye the Dairyman, Tevye does not come to accept the decisions of his daughters out of love and respect for their judgement, as in Sholem Aleichem's version, but rather because he is convinced of the merits of communism by Perchik (Godl's revolutionary husband) who acts as a mentor for Tevye. Dobrushin essentially turned the play into the story of how one simple and naive old man gradually becomes socially conscious and a supporter of the revolutionary movement.

I would like to point out, however, that Dobrushin was not representative of Soviet Yiddish literature and drama as a whole. The plays of Peretz Markish, David Bergelson, Shmuel Halkin (including his adaptations of Goldfadn's Shulamis and Bar Kokhba), Moshe Kulbak, and others, were remarkably rich and full of Jewish motifs. They managed to cater to contemporary Soviet demands without sacrificing their Jewishness or quality. Jewish culture remained alive and well in the Soviet Union until after World War II. Dobrushin was just not one of the best examples of it.

Jeffrey Veidlinger

Next week will mark the tenth yortsayt of Rose Auslander (1901, Czernowitz 1988, Dusseldorf), one of the most powerful voices in the German poetry of this century. Being like most Czernowitz Jews of her time multilingual, Rose Auslander knew and loved Yiddish. She translated into German and English fables and poems of her good friends Eliezer Shteynbarg and Itsik Manger. Her original Yiddish poetry is known much less. I was able to locate only a single poem quoted by Joseph Kruse in "Von Franzos zu Canetti: judische Autoren aus Osterreich" (Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1996). The poem written in 1947 in New York and addressed to the friends in Bucarest. It is probably one of the very first lyrical reflections of the lowering iron curtain. The poem also shows that even freedom and relative material well-being do not replace severed ties with the friends and familiar intellectual atmosphere.

Tsu di khaveyrim in der vayt

"Oyf a shteyn, oyf a shteyn" zits ikh troirik un aleyn. Di khaveyrim zenen vayt un es yugt an flit di tsayt.

"S'tantst a reytach mit a khreyn" zing ikh shtil tsu mir aleyn. Kimt a brivl fun der vayt, lakh ikh un ikh veyn far frayd.

"Ikh bin oykhet dort geveyn" in di yurn gut un sheyn. Efsher kimt meshiakh's tsayt un er brengt aykh fun der vayt.

Zingt dos lidl, s'iz nit shver: "Ikh hob oykh gelost a trer". Nit zikh sheymen zolt ir, neyn: Treyrn hobn oikh a kheyn.

"Lomir ale tantsen geyn", ir tsuzamen, ikh aleyn. Unzer lidl hert nit oyf, brengt in benkshaft unz tsunoyf.

Five stanzas of the poem are threaded on what seems to be the lines from a Yiddish song:

Oyf a shteyn, oyf a shteyn S'tantst a reytach mit a khreyn Ikh bin oykhet dort geveyn Ikh hob oykh gelost a trer Lomir alle tantsen geyn

Does somebody know this song? Any other Yiddish poems by Rose Auslander?

Brief biobibliography.

Major works: Gesammelte Werke in 8 Banden / Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 1984-1991

Yiddish translations: Shotns in shpigl: lider / Tel-Aviv: Leyvik-farlag, 1981

English translations: Selected poems / London: London Magazine Editions, 1977 An ark of stars / Millwood: Haybarn Press, 1988 Mother tongue / Todmorden: Arc, 1995

Biography: Rose Auslander: Materialien zu Leben und Werk / Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1991 Ich fliege auf der Luftschaukel Europa-Amerika-Europa: Rose Auslander in Czernowitz und New York / Uxheim: Rose-Auslander-Dokumentationszentrum, 1994 Cilly Helfrich. Es ist ein Aschensommer in der Welt / Weinheim : Quadriga, 1995

Iosif Vaisman Chapel Hill