מענדעלע

Patlazhones may very well be of Turkic (not Turkish) origin, but they came evidently through/from Moldavian/Rumanian. Analogous to their usage in the Moldavian language, at least in Bessarabian Yiddish are tomatoes called royte patlazhones (Moldavian: patlazhele), and eggplants- bluve patlazhones (Moldavian: patlazhele vin'yete). Slavic languages may have also played into it (Russian for eggplants:ÿ baklazhany or siniye-literally di bluve).There seems to have been a Turkish influence on the Jewish culinary habits in Bessarabia in general - the dishes are pretty spicy compared to other regions (pastrome and prismak - eggplant salad a-la babaganushi with garlick - are exemplary in that regard), and baklava (or bakleva) is considered Jewish par excellence in those mekoymes.

As to p'tscha - the Russian-Yiddish dictionary (Der Risish-Yidisher verterbikh, inter der redaktsiye fyn M.Shapiro, E.Spivak yn M.Shulman, Moskve, farlag "Russky yazyk",1984 ) provides 3 Yiddish words for the Russian kholodets, namely: dril=92yes, pecha (2nd syllable stressed), and kholodets proper. It translates another Russian (and Ukrainian) word for the makhl studen=92 as pecha, dril, gliver. And still another Russian word - zalivnoye as fleysh/fish yn dril=92yes/gliver. One can find the following entries in the "Der Oytser Fun Der Yidisher Shprakh" fun Nokhem Stuchkoff: pecha, peche, petsa, fus, fis; fargliverte/geshtelte fis; krayzlfus, grayshlfus, fusnoge, fusnohe, drilye, drelye, galyer(te), ishkes, kholodets, shtuding, zhele, gegliverts, gegliverekhts, kvashene.

My relatives (Bessarabia) call it kholodets; my wife's (Kiev) - kholodnoye; and they seem to be unaware of other terms. Either way, it used to be quite a festive delicacy back in the USSR (so much time and labor would the process consume). And it turned ordinary here, in the US, for can be bought (freshly made) in any Russian supermarket. It could be prepared with the fis fyn kolerley beymes (Ukrainians use di khozershe fislekh, nit far keynem gedakht) or fislekh, pypiklekh yn fligelekh fyn a un, - doesn't matter. The cooking principle does.

P.S.: U-va! I'm beginning to salivate, following the gastronomic theme in a very Pavlovian way. M'volt dovke gedarft yfesn a telerl kholodets! ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Ayer Shaya Mitelman.ÿÿÿ

The expression listed by Lyber Katz (4.146, 4) as Item 7, "er (ikh) zol azoy visn fun tzores" was interpreted by him as "he should only know of such troubles."ÿ I recall a different interpretation.

My memory offers something else.ÿ First of all, the expression was always "ikh (never er) zol azoy visn fun tsores."ÿ In response to a puzzling question to which we have no answer, we may say in English "I haven't the foggiest idea." In Yiddish I might say "ikh zol azoy visn fun tsores."ÿ My interpretation of the Yiddish is "I know nothing about that, and that's how much I wish I knew about troubles and pain."

Louis Fridhandler

Sidney Weinstein hot mikh gebetn ikh zol aykh ibergebn zayn kashe vegn dem inyen:

"The term is "tahl-A'-pah in Blit." My interpretation as a child was that the woman who used it was accusing another woman of having delivered a deformed child because it had been conceived during the menstrual period [blit?].ÿ In my youthful wisdom, I have speculated that "Tal-A'-pah" therefore, might have meant "sexual intercourse," because the horrified verbal reaction after it was pronounced, was intense.ÿ In addition to the hateful, superstitious interpretation, the reaction was intense, possibly because I assumed the term itself to have been a vulgar usage.ÿ However, I must remind you that I was very young, I had never heard either the term or the concept used before [or even since], and the woman was a very angry, superstitious and ignorant woman.

A dank - itzik gottesman

The "Yisker Bukh far Bobruisk [Belarus] un Umgegnt" contains an excerpt from "Shturmdike Yorn" by Ahron Gorelik, published in New York in 1946. The excerpt is titled, "Dos Shtetl Stareh Dorogi" (which was in Bobruisk District).

Gorelik is one of my family names, but I can't determine whether Ahron was a relative of mine since so many unrelated families adopted this name in the lower Berezina valley (Paritsh, Zhedrin) of the 18th century.ÿ I have been told that "Gorelik" means "burned-out," or "one whose house has been burned down" [perhaps in a pogrom?].

1. Does anyone posess a copy of "Shturmdike Yorn" or know of it?ÿ In what language was it written?

2. Is the author well-known in the Yiddish world, and if so could you send some information/evaluation about him?

3. Are there any on-line card catalogs for Yiddish libraries, such as YIVO or Yiddish Book Center?

A Sheynem Dank,

Don Mopsick

Lea Singer asked about Mark Twain's books in Yiddish [07.147]. Some of them are listed below:

Yunge gazlonim / Varsha: B. Shimin, 1910 (Tr. by Dan Kaplanowicz) also

Tom Soyer / Kiyev: Melukha-farlag far di natsionale minderhayten, 1935

Di toge bikhlekh fun Adam un Have / Varsha: Progres, 1913

Heklberi Fin un zayne avantyures: un alts vos mit im hot pasirt / Kiyev: Kooperativer farlag kultur lige, 1929 (Tr. by Itzik Kipnis)

Der prints un der betler, a mayse far yungvarg fun yedn elter / Vilne: B. A. Kletskin, 1923 (Tr. by Zalman Wendroff) Other translations/editions: Varsha: Kapita, 1929; Moskve: Emes, 1938.

Dos royte kaylkhele / Nyu York: Idishe shul, 1939

Iosif Vaisman

Rick (Henekh) Gildemeister alludes to the non-Eastern Yiddish form shalet or sholet. This is a not entirely clear matter, because there are few pan-Yiddish words beginning with tsh-, so we cannot be sure whether it is correct to say that Proto-Yiddish had a form more or less reconstructible as *tsha:lnt, and that initial tsh- changed to sh- in non-Eastern Yiddish dialects.ÿ The absence of an -n- is also by no means clear, and the only thing we really CAN be pretty confident of is the vowel, Proto-Yiddish *a: (in Weinreich's system *a3).ÿ So there are some open questions here, much as I myself am not entirely happy with the standard etymology as taught by Weinreich, and regard that as still somewhat open to question at the level of detail (though there is NO serious possibility that it comes from *chaud lent).

By the way, I keep saying non-Eastern Yd because according to my research (although I do not know how widely this is accepted), the so-called 'Western Yiddish' is not a valid grouping of Yd dialects, so that the only logically proper to refer to all the dialects other than EY is by saying 'non-Eastern'.

A M Ramer

This week's Northern California Jewish Chronilce (2/13/98) makes reference to what was suggested to be the first-ever National Cholent Competition (held in Jerusalem).ÿ The opening sentence of the article states:

"It's called cholent in Eastern Europe, schena in Morocco, thit in Iraq, hetteh in Kurdistan and hmin in Yemen."

The first prize winner of the vent was Esther Israel of Kfar Sava.ÿ She made something called a "Tripolitanian spinach cholent" which in the future will be served at the Dan Hotel.ÿ Her version included chicken, beef, semolina dumplings, stuffed vegetables and spinach, flavored with garlic, onion, and a medley of herbs, including parsley and cilantro.ÿ She said that she did not include kishke or stuffed grape leaves because of a lack of time.

Mrs. Israel said that she entered the contest because her "children don't appreciate it."

Spinach cholent -- GEVALT!!

Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California

Concerning the expression Upgetan af Terkish which is the usage I remember, perhaps the English "dirty trick"ÿ is as good a rendition as any.ÿ As to the origin I can only suggest the possibility that it reflects the low esteem accorded the Turks back then. Another expression reflecting such sentiments might be -- zoll zein fun a Terk abee tzu refueh, which we now always use to account for recovery from unknown or improbable causes. ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ Irv Young Isles of Capri, FL

The guesswork expressed in Mendele in regard to the origin(s) of the Yiddish word "tsholent" is generally not very solid.ÿ To cite Salicia Landman is to invite disaster, since her books are inaccurate and dishonest.ÿ In her book on the Yiddish language (ABENTEUER EINER SPRACHE), she doesn't even get the Yiddish alphabet right, and she supplies Israeli pronunciation for a number of Hebrew-Aramaic derivates that have been used in Yiddish for centuries.ÿ Her book on the Jewish joke i(DER JUEDISCHE WITZ) is completely plagiarized from Nathan Ausubel's American collection of Jewish humor--even if you don't know the source of her lowway robbery, it's obvious that her book is translated from English because of the countless anglicisms such as "Bizykel" (bicycle) instead of the normal German word "Fahrrad"--etc.ÿ Now I'm not saying that she's as stupid as Leo Rosten--I'd say she's stupider, because he at least had the sense not to be such a blatant plagiarist.

Paul Glasser quotes Max Weinreich and feels that the "case" is "closed". Hardly.ÿ One example of a different theory about the etymology of "tsholent" is offered by the highly imaginative and free-wheeling Paul Wexler (THE ASHKENAZIC JEWS), who (somewhat ungrammatically) rejects Weinreich's suggestion altogether: "The fact that 'tsholent' is now almost exclusively restricted to Eastern Europe makes a French origin especially unattractive" (p. 126).ÿ Without reaching a definitive conclusion (a sensible modesty), Wexler points to Rhaeto-Romance and a number of Italian dialects--and perhaps "the presence of Romanism in a stretch of non-Jewish Romance and Slavic languages" in the Balkans.

Case unclosed!

In regard to "yarmulke" you might also check Wexler, who, despite lots of oversights and blunders, has one overwhelming advantage:ÿ he points out multiple possibilities for the origins of countless Yiddish words and Ashekenazic practices--thereby upsetting the rigid scholarly and popular applecarts (an apple a day keeps the doctor of linguistics away).

To place blind credence in Weinreich (whose HISTORY I've compared to the Taj Mahal) is as precarious as believing even one word written by Landman. Weinreich was certainly a dazzling and precise scholar, but I assume he was open to all possibilities and revisions and never considered any scholarly case closed.

Joachim Neugroschel