מענדעלע

Despite the growing in certain academic circles notion of imminent (and timely) death of Yiddish, according to the reliable sources in Southern Connecticut Yiddish was very much alive there in late May during the Mame-Loshn'96 festival. The same sources inform that the festival was a great success with over 300 participants and 4 days of classes, conversations, music, dances, movies...

Shtetl has sent special correspondents to this event and now proudly presents Unofficial Mame-Loshn'96 Homepage (http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/ML96). For those who attended Mame-Loshn it will serve as a nostalgic reminder about a great weekend. Those who missed it this time, would probably understand that they have made a mistake. Both Mendele and Mendele subscribers were well represented at Mame-Loshn. Mendele was a topic of several workshops, Mendele subscribers were just hanging around in large numbers. Some of them are already featured in the Mame-Loshn homepage, others will be added later.

Iosif Vaisman

Anti-Yiddish feelings and actions are alive and well in the State of Israel, and the Chairman of the Sokhnut, Mr. Avraham Burg is the leading culprit. On Friday morning, June 21, 1996, Mr. Burg was interviewed on the Hebrew radio station Reshet-Alef of Kol-Israel about the activities of the Jewish Agency (the "Sokhnut") in its world-wide efforts at bringing Hebrew and Jewish culture to Jewish communities throughout the world. When he was asked about the Yiddish language and culture he expressed very negative and destructive attitudes.

Mr. Burg said, for example, that he is against the new legislation setting up a body under the Ministry of Education to monitor, and support Yiddish in Israel. In fact, when the legislation creating the "Authority for the Yiddish Language" (and also one for the Ladino language) was voted on in the Israeli Knesset, the only reason it was not passed unanimously, was that one sole voter voted against it: Mr. Avraham Burg. He said in the radio interview, that he is against the legislation, and against such "useless" things.

When he was asked about the importance of Yiddish for the Jews of the former Soviet Union, he distorted historical facts, stating that Yiddish was never central to Jewish life or important to the Jews there.

If Mr. Burg was not a Jew (Heaven help us for Jews like him), the AntiDefamation League would surely latch on to him. But because he is a Jew, no major Jewish organization has yet protested his anti-Yiddish, anti-Jewish policies.

In April 1996 all the Editors of the Yiddish Press in Israel published an unprecedented joint statement accusing the Jewish Agency of descriminating against the Yiddish language in Israel and around the world. In the May issue of the monthly "Yisroyl-Shtime" a protest letter by a Yiddish teacher in the Ukraine was published, accusing Mr. Burg and the Jewish Agency of descriminating against Yiddish in Israel and in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Mr. Burg has applied a new-old policy for the Israeli Shlikhim to oppose all Yiddish activity, and cutting off any support of the new Jewish schools which are teaching Yiddish (as well as Hebrew). The same letter was reprinted in the NY Forverts on the 7th of June.

Mr Burg's anti-Yiddish policy is in direct contrast to the previous chairman, Mr. Yekhiel Leket who sent out a circular to the Jewish Agency Shlikhim to support and encourage Yiddish as an important part of Jewish education.

Some other anti-Yiddish moves directly attributed to Mr. Burg include: 1. the closing of the Journal "Folk un Zion" the Yiddish voice of the World Zionist Organization; 2. the cutting off of the modest $10,000 budget of the World Council for Yiddish and Jewish Culture; 3. Moves of harassement in forcing the World Council for Yiddish to vacate their small office in the Tel-Aviv Jewish Agency building.

A quarter page paid advertisement in the Jerusalem Post of Monday the 24th of June calls on Mr. Charles Goodman, the chairman of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency to take action against all anti-Yiddish policies of Mr. Burg.

All lovers of Yiddish. All haters of Anti-semitism and descrimination should voice their protest by writing to: The Jewish Agency, Office of the Chairman, 47 King George st. POB 92, Jerusalem; or by FAX to: 972-2-252-352; or by Email to: jazoburg@netvision.net.il

Leybl Botwinik Netanya

In today's NY Times (6/26, West Coast Edition), p. A6, reference is made to the closing of what is said to be the world's last daily Yiddish newspaper at the end of this month. The paper was a victim of rising costs.

The paper, "Unzer Wort," had already dwindled down to just three or four issues a week in recent years. It was staffed by half a dozen fulltime personnel, mostly in their late 70s. The column goes on to speak of how immigrants from Eastern Europe came to France during the WW2 era. Some subscriptions were recently taken out by readers from Eastern European countries where small Jewish communities survived the Communist era.

In the 1950s, whern there were 3 Yiddish dailies in Paris, sales were several times higher. Unzer Wort was favorable editorially to Israel's Labor Party.

Reference is made to other Yiddish newspapers incluidng periodicals in South America.

Dan Leeson Los Altos, California

Dan Leeson's sad post about the death of _Undzer Wort_ is somewhat offset by news on the same day and from the same city about the birth of the first Yiddish electronic periodical (the shames is too old and stuffy to write "e-zine"). _Tam-tam_ is a bi-monthly, a beautifullyproduced collection of articles, poetry, crosswrods, etc. and entirely in Yiddish. The editor is modest to the point of anonymity but the sponsoring group goes by the acronym "gefil" (gezelshaft farn idish-limed) You will need a web browser as well as a reader (which you can download once you've visited the website). The address is:

http://www.col.fr/tamtam/

You will probably also need a more powerful or anyway better system than the shames runs and maybe more patience in the face of crashes, error messages and blank screens than he possesses.

Five issues have already appeared of which three are available. The latest featuring a Franco-Yiddish perspective on mad cow disease. Promising. And it's so lovely to look at Yiddish onscreen. There may be some value to the web after all. Not much, but some.

Noyekh Miller