מענדעלע

I am a new user of Mendele and would like to introduce myself: I teach German language and literature part-time at the University of Stirling. I wrote my PhD thesis on the earlier poetry of Abraham Sutzkever, but for the last couple of years I have been working on the Yiddish poets in Berlin in the twenties, especially Abraham Nokhem Stenzel. I have published a monograph in German on his literary friendship with Else Lasker-Schueler, and am now compiling an anthology of poetry he wrote then, with the German translations by his life-long friend Elisabeth Woehler (if anyone has biographical information on this lady apart from what is available in the Stenzel archives in London and Frankfurt, I would be very grateful to hear of it!) I should also say as part of my introduction that there is a lively Yiddish group in Glasgow of which I am a member: there are readings of Yiddish literature every Sunday with about 20 or more participants, and I take a Yiddish class every fortnight - so Yiddish is alive in the west of Scotland. Anyone passing through is most welcome to visit!

I am seeking information for a friend who is doing a thesis on Holocaust literature: she has given me the titles of some plays and poems of which she hopes to find translations into English: so far I have drawn a blank, and I give the titles (mainly in English as she gave me them) hoping that someone will know if translations exist: H. Leyvik (plays): Who's who?; Di khasene in Fernwald (1938); In the days of Job (1953); Nes in geto (1944); Maharam of Rothenberg (1944) Leyvik (poems) Hitler's night moves; In Treblinka I never was; The ballad of the wilderness; With the saved remnant. Shmuel Liptsin: In spite of tears (play NY 1946) Yitskhok Katsenelsen: By the Rivers of Babylon (play, 1941)

Information also about where editions of the Yiddish originals are to be found would be welcome, but she is particularly interested in translations. Greetings to all.

Heather Valencia

My name is Anna Shternshis, and I have already sent a notice to Mendele, but still I decided to write again.

I am a graduating student of Russian State University of Humanities, now I will get MA on Russian history and archives. Also for 5 years I've studied at Project Judaica, conducted both by our University and Jewish Theological Seminary in New-York. Our programme included Yiddish and Yiddish literature, and historiaography etc.

When it just started nobody realized how interesting and serious it would be. Now it is considered to be the best programme of Jewish science in Russia. So these studies woke up my interest to Yiddish, the language which my parents spoke when they wanted to hide something from me.

Now I am currently teaching Yiddish in Moscow Jewish University and have a group of 9 students, which learn Yiddish mostly because of curiosity and also as a tool for research of history of East Europian Jews.

The subject of my MA paper is going to be a research about Yiddish songs in Soviet Union, how Jewish idea stayed in these songs whizh were supposed to be absoutely not national. Also I would like to find out the transformation of Jewish identity in such songs, how did Jews understood themselves and thought of their national future in Soviet Russia. The slavic interpolations in these song really help here.

I am a very attentive reader of Mendele, which I subscribed just recently. Internet has just started in Russia, so I hope that Yiddish network would soon have Russian audience also.

Anna Shternshis

To Louis Fridhandler:

Author: Gershon Winer Title: The religious dimension of Yiddish secularism. Source: Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought, Winter 1992 v41 n1 p80-95

Abstract: Yiddish secularism is an unusual phenomenon because it combines a worldly socio-political outlook on life with religious non-belief into what is known as 'veltlichkeit.' The movement found its expression in the 1890s as a flagrant defiance of religious practices, beliefs and institutions. It later developed into an ideology which attempted to reconcile secularism and religion through philosophical essays, educational theory and Yiddish literature. Leibush Lehrer, Solomon Simon, Abraham Golomb and I.L. Peretz are the most influential proponents of Yiddishism and the spirit of 'veltlichkeit.'

Iosif Vaisman

Ven ikh hob gefregt ale Mendelyaner vegn a referat, _Secular Dimensions of Yiddish Culture_ hob ikh gemakht a groysn toes inem titl. Ober bashaynperlekh dos makht nisht oys. Iosif Vaisman hot mayn frage farshtanen gants fayn. Ikh hob gekukt aroys az mistome an entfer vet onkumen fun eynem a gelernter Mendelyaner. Ikh hob nisht gekholemt az es vet onkumen azoy gikh. Zeyer a sheynem dank Iosif Vaisman.

When I asked all Mendelyaner about a paper, I was greatly mistaken in the title. Evidently that doesn't matter. Iosif Vaisman understood my question perfectly. I looked forward to the probable arrival of an answer from a learned Mendelyaner. I did not dream it would arrive so quickly. Many thanks to Iosif Vaisman.

Louis Fridhandler

Hershl Hartman notes the secular dictionary meanings of hasofe and wonders whether Yiddish is inherently secular in its treatment of loshn- koydesh elements.

It seems to me that there are two types of uses of loshn-koydesh. One is the use of words of LK origin that are recognized and commonly used by all speakers of Yiddish. Examples: skhoyre, khasene, mishpokhe, khaver, etc. Others may be less common but still assumed to be understood by any educated reader/speaker, such as lekholapokhes

The second, however, is the use of LK words in a specifically religious context among frum Jews who are assumed to be familiar with both religious practices and with the classical religious texts. In such discourse, one might freely cite tanakh or gemore in the original or use LK terms for religious concepts that would not be understood by many Yiddish speakers.

Hasofe may have separate meanings in these two contexts.

Arnie Kuzmack