מענדעלע

My shul, the Dix Hills Jewish Center, would like to establish a weekly Yiddish class and is seeking an experienced teacher.

Any suggestions?

Rivke Steinig

Daniel Bugel asked about English translation of Israel Zamir's "Journey to my father". It was published recently by Arcade:

AUTHOR: Zamir, Israel, 1929TITLE: Journey to my father, Isaac Bashevis Singer / EDITION: 1st English-language ed. PLACE: New York : PUBLISHER: Arcade Pub., YEAR: 1995 PUB TYPE: Book FORMAT: x, 240 p., [8] p. of plates : ports. ; 22 cm. ISBN: 1559703091 (hc)

Iosif Vaisman

Here are some more transcription-decoding questions I have to deal with while translating this I.B.Singer biography (I mentioned it yesterday) from Hebrew, and I hope someone will be able to answer.

-The name of the former editor of the Forwerts - was his name spelled as Abe Cohen, Cahen, Cohn, etc? And maybe the first name isn't Abe at all, but something like Yves?

-Is the name of the other Jewish newspaper 'Der Jiddische Wert' or '.. ... Wort'? and if it is 'Wort', will 'Der' than become 'das' as it does in German?

-The name Faingwirtz, is it spelled like this? What I need here is the name of Singer's close aid Bessy Faingwirtz.

Thank you all,

Daniel Bugel

Ethan Minovitz (5.179) brought up the subject of bawdy Yiddish. How about some literate person providing a little lexicon of vulgar Yiddish expressions?

About thirty years ago, there was a book called _Loxfinger_ that was a spoof of James Bond novels. My father told me it was full of vulgar Yiddish words, but he didn't tell me what they were. (He was too embarrassed.) Can anyone enlighten me?

Milt Eisner

I've thanked individually those who responded privately to my inquiry about the text of "Got fun Avrom" and would now like to offer public thanks to those who responded on Mendele.

Had I but world enough and time (to say nothing of the necessary erudition), I would be tempted to embark on an analysis of the available textual variants, of which I've now seen quite a few. Perhaps someone reading this lines will take up what could be an interesting contribution to the study of religious folklore (or will suggest the topic to a graduate student).

Just impressionistically, the "official" text (as printed in the Artscroll Siddur and elsewhere) contains more words and phrases of Hebrew origin and more theological language ("...az di vokh zol undz kumen tsu emune shleyme..., tsu dveykes haboyre..., maamin tsu zayn bishloyshe osher ikorim shelkho..." ["that the coming week may arrive to bring perfect faith..., attachment to the Creator..., to have faith in Your thirteen principles..."]). The folk variants tend to use a more limited vocabulary of Hebrew origin (_mazl_, _koved_, _parnose_, _hatslokhe_ etc.). In addition to ask for these blessings, they tend to ask that, e.g., "di kranke fun dayn folk Yisroel zoln gezunt vern..., un di nakete zoln bakleydt vern..." ("the sick among your people Israel become healthy..., and the naked be clothed..."). They often mention the Prophet Elijah and express hope or confidence in the imminent coming of the Messiah, as in the lines borrowed from (shared with) the religious folk song "Shnirele-perele" (referred to by David Herskovic in his posting).

The way I've just formulated the differences raises another question related to the ongoing discussion about different understandings of _yidishkayt_. It would be interesting to know about the extent to which liturgical/biblical/talmudic semiticisms are and were part of the Yiddish vocabulary of speakers who did not have yeshiva training. The various dictionaries of semiticisms in Yiddish, naturally enough, show only what the compilers considered frequent enough in the literature. They include both everyday words and items that presumably were much less familiar.

Bob Rothstein

On March 10th of this year, my husband Yosl and I wrote in our column in the Yiddish Forward about Reb Leyvi Yitskhok Berdichever's "Got fun Avrom." Here is a part of the article.

A. Volf-Yasni writes in the Zhelechover Memorial Book that "the later rabbi, Reb Leyvi Yitskhok, came to Zhelechov in 1772 and exerted a strong influence on the spiritual education of the town. The sobriquet 'Zhelechover' was hurled at the great Rabbi Leyvi-Yitskhok as an insult. 'Yitskhok the Zhelechover' the great rabbi of Brest and opponent of Hasidism, Rabbi Avrom Katsenelnboygn called him with sarcasm during his debate with Reb Leyvi-Yitskhok, who lived in Zhelechov from 1772 to 1784. His [Rabbi Leyvi-Yitskhok's] love for simple Jews is expressed in the 'God of Abraham' which he composed and which every Jewish woman understood and recited: (Here follows Leyvi-Yitskhok's 'Got fun Avrom.') Dr. S. Horodetski who includes this 'Got fun Avrom' in his volume _Hakhasidmus vehakhasidim_ writes that Reb Leyvi-Yitskhok created this prayer while he lived in Berdichev. The Jews of Zhelechov recall, however, that this 'Got fun Avrom' was always recited by their mothers and grandmothers. One should therefore assume that Reb Leyvi-Yitskhok created the prayer while he still lived in Zhelechov, and brought it later to Berdichev and from there the 'Got fun Avrom' spread to Jewish communities in the Ukraine."

Noyakh Prilutsky defended the inclusion of the "Got fun Avrom" prayer as a folksong, even citing a few that were in verse, against the criticism of S. Ansky and others.

Chana Mlotek

In my leyenkrayz the question came up about the existence of a book or booklet which lists Hebrew terms which occur as part of Yiddish. I recall seeing such a book, or booklet, mentioned on Mendele, but I could not find it in my index of tables of contents of Mendele. I would appreciate it very much if anyone could direct me to the proper reference so that I may get the name of the author, etc.

Morrie Feller Phoenix

Mordecai Rivesman, (1868-1924), the author of "Khanike, oy, khanike", was a Russian and Yiddish writer, translator, playwright, folk poet. He was a teacher in Vilna and later in the Society for the Dissemination of Enlightenment in St. Petersburg, publishing humorous stories, fables and plays in book form and in anthologies. In the anthology _Lider-zamlbukh far der yidisher shul un familye_ edited by Z. Kiselgoff, which was published in 1911, the editor singled out Rivesman in his preface, not only as a member of the Editorial Committee, but also for translating a number of songs and for writing a few songs of his own for the publication. There "Khanike, oy, khanike", based on a Hassidic tune, was published for the first time. It was reprinted in the _Anthology of Yiddish Folksongs_, vol. 2 (1984), edited by A. Vinkovetzky, Abba Kovner and Sinai Leichter. The song was adapted in the Yiddish schools. (See _Yomtevdike teg_ and _Lomir, kinder, zingen_).

For further information see _Leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur_ , vol. 8, p. 446; also Albert Weisser, _The Modern Renaissance of Jewish Music_.

Chana Mlotek