מענדעלע

It is with great sorrow that we mourn the untimely death of Therese Libermann Jasmin, 59, founder of the programs in Yiddish on the French Jewish radio stations.

When I started the first Jewish radio in France, "Radio J" , as an illegal broadcasting station back in June 1981 in Paris, I asked Therese to run the programs in Yiddish. After a few months, the Jewish community had four Jewish stations, including another of my creations, "Judaiques FM", and Therese followed me in that new venture. After a while, the stations were legalized and she went on broadcasting for the past seventeen years, without sponsors, without budget, driven by the urge of maintaining a Yiddish voice on the air. All the figures of the Paris Yiddish scene were part of her program.

After a long battle with leukemia, Therese died in Jerusalem on July 11, 1998, at the Hadassah Hospital. She is survived by her children Irene, David, Serge, Dan and her two grandchildren, Julia and Sarah.

Fidel Di PAZ (Michel ZLOTOWSKI)

If I may correct Mikhl Herzog and Przemek Kasprzyk: It is surely not "allmaehlich" meaning gradually but rather "gemaechlich" meaning leisurely which might have turned together with the slavic "pomalu" into the yiddish "pamelekh", but I believe it is just the german adverbial suffix "-lich". Siegmund A. Wolf maintains, the etymology is: Polish "pomalu" and the Mittelhochdeutsch (medieval high German) "mechliche" with the same meaning.

Ruben Frankenstein

On the subject of "pamelach" here is a little ditty highlighting one of life's dilemmas. ÿÿÿÿ Gay ichÿ gich zureiss ich die schich ÿÿÿÿÿ Gay ich pamelach bin ich a lemmach

What's a guy to do?

Irv Young Elkins Park, PA

Harriet Murav asked about the Yiddish translation of Gulliver's Travels [08.022]. I found references to four editions (all seem to be different translations):

Kleyne menshelekh / Varshe: Yidish, 19??. 69 p.; ill.; 15 cm.



Guliver's vunderbare rayze unter shreklikhe groyse menshen und di merkvirdige beshraybung iber zayer leben / Nyu York: Ferlag fun Meyer Hinski, 19??.

Di kleyne menshelekh / New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1905. 92 p.; 19 cm. Tr. by David Moses Hermalin

Guliver ba di Liliputn / Minsk: Melukhe farlag fun Vaysrusland, 1937. 63 p.; ill.; 25 cm. Editors: T. Gabe and Z. Zadunayskaya

Iosif Vaisman

Tayere libhober fun mame loshn .

Es iz bald a khoydesh zint ikh bin tzurikgeforn funem vikhtikn alveltlekhn yidishn kultur kongres in ashkelon un yerushalayim. a sakh tzu fardayen un arumtzutrakhtn -- un ikh hof az ikh un andere veln in gor gikhn far aykh bashraybn mer genoy vegn di fil vikhtike inyonim vos zaynen dortn bahandlt gevorn.ÿ rirndike redes vegn di role fun yidish in ufboy fun der medine, di gevaldik raykhe oytzres fun veltlekh yidishkeyt vos shteyen in gefar.

ober iberheybt, iz eyn problem zeyer vikhtik, vos ken nit vartn un kon nit vartn af rezolutzies, komitetn un azey vayter .dos iz di frage fun di tzugezogte kneset gelt afn yidish limud in di medinishe shuln.

loytn 1996 kesset gezetz iz yidish a natzionale folkshprakh vos darf gelernt vern in di medinishe shuln -- me hot sheyn tzeteylt 1.5 milyon shkolim l'teyves ladino, nor kin eyn groshn nit l'teyves yidish. un dos halt op di vikhtike arbet fun hemshekh yidish. un di yidishe velt shvaygt.

ikh ruf oys tzu di farshidene organizatzies, yekhidim, yidishe radio programen, ver un vos hot mitlen un meglekhkeytn zikh tzu nemen tzu der arbet.mir hobn azey fil organizatzies -- zey kenen arbetn tzuzamen mit di yisroyol instantzn.

l'moshl ...

es zaynen faran an erekh 50,000 mitglider fun dem natzionaler yidisher bukh tzenter.. volt nit geven k'day az di zoln tzuleygn a hant un a kol gegn aza umyoysher, un mobilizirn zeyer hashpoeh (in zeyere shtitze-kontaktn mit medinas yisroyl)??? az der kneset zol ophitn dem gezetz vi tzugezogt? un azoy andere organizatzies -- di yidishe klubn iber gantz der velt, yidishe zhurnaln, bay klezmer festivaln, u.a.v.

1500 mendelyaner konen zikh vendn durkh el-post.ale 3 oysgabes fun forvertz, zoln zikh eykh lozn visn zeyer leyener az es iz epes nit vi es darf tzu zayn.

yede grupe hot ir bazundere misye, es kumen for konfliktn, imperye kegn imperye, ober mir darfn ale tzuzamen arbetn az yidish zol hobn a kium in di yisroyl medine shuln. dos iz undzer land -- in keyn ander land kenen mir nit farlangen aza bekovedike role far yidish. un itzt iz di tzayt

dear lovers of mame loshn ...

it's almost a month since i returned from the important world yiddish culture congress in ashkelon and jerushalem. a lot to digest and think about -- and i hope that I and others will very soon write you more precisely about the important subjects that were discussed there. moving talks about the role of yiddish in the building of the country, the wonderfully rich treasures of secular yiddish now threatened.



but most of all, there is one very important problem, that cannot wait for resolutions, committees, etc. this is the question of the promised knesset money for yiddish limud in the schools of Israel.

According to the 1996 Knesset law Yiddish is a national folk language that must be taught in government schools == 1.5 million shekels have already been paid for the benefit of Ladino, not a penny for the benefit of Yiddish. and this holds back the important work of securing the future of Yiddish. and the yiddish world is silent.We have so many organizations - they can work together with the Israeli groups.

for example ..

there are approxmateley 50,000 members of the national yiddish book center... wouldn't it be appropriate that they should lend a hand and a voice against this injustice, and mobilize their influence (through their support-network in the State of Israel) so that the Knesset should obey its own law as promised? and so with other organizations -- the yiddish clubs the world over, yiddish publications, at klezmer festivals, etc.

1500 mendelyaner can speak out through e-mail, all 3 Forward editions should alert their readers that things are not what they should be.

each group has itz own mission, there are conflicts, empire against empire, but we all must work together so that Yiddish will survive in the Israeli schools. This is the Jewish land -- in no other land can we demand such honored status for Yiddish. And the time is now.

sylvia schildt baltimore, maryland

Tayere Mendele leyener,

Ikh zukh informatzie vegn Misha Gildenman, a partizaner, vos hot geshribn etlekhe bikher in di 50-ke yorn vegn zayne iberlebungen un vegn tipn fun yiddishe partizaner/in.ÿ Oyb ir veyst epes vegn im zayt azoy gut un shikt mir a briv perzenlekh:ÿ HarPaz2@aol.com.

A sheynem dank.

Dear Mendele readers,

I am looking for information about Misha Gildenman, a partisan, who wrote several book in the 50's about his experiences during the war and about different charachters/types of Jewish partisans.ÿ If you know anything about him please e-mail me personally at:ÿ HarPaz2@aol.com.

Thank you very much, Daniella HarPaz

Bernard Gershen asks about fendel. My grandmother came from Bessarabia and used fendel for frying pan. I never heard her say rondel. A pot was a top or tepel.

Alan Shuchat

Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 06:33:20 -0400 (EDT) From: Norma Brewer <Nlbrewer@btinternet.com>

Tayere Mendelyaner

In reply to Bernard Gershen, we certainly fried fish, etc., in a fendel, and eggs, including fainkuchen (omelettes) in a fendele (a kleine fendel). That is in London. My Booba came from Chernike, in Minske Gebernye. I never met a rondel.

Yours Norma Brewer

Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 16:43:09 -0400 (EDT) From: marvin engel <maengel@erols.com>



In partial reply to khaver Gershen's query, among Lodzer, (and confirmed by my dictionary) a frying pan is a "fan." "fendl" is the diminutive form.

Marvin Engel

Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 21:30:32 -0400 (EDT) From: "Milt Eisner" <eisner@erols.com>

My grandmother, who came from Romania, called a saucepan a fendl.ÿ When I was a small child I thought it was an English word.

Milt Eisner McLean VA

My father used this expression like Lash Larue used his whip. In fact, Pop used his belt better than Lash Larue used his whip. Whether it was a waiter serving him cold soup, or someone cutting me off on the highway (early Jewish road rage?), or a business deal of mine gone sour, he would invariably urge me to "gib ehm a finstern sawf." Of course I know what the phrase meant, but did it really mean that my father, the tsar's frontier soldier, would have me administer a dark end to all the offenders who offended him, or whom he saw as offending his car-driving, business-dealing and waiter-confronting son? Did he merely want me to tell them off,but good? Where did upbraiding end and violence begin? He described his youth as especially violent, fighting the champions of the goyim as champion of his shtetl, riding shotgun over the Yom Kippur outdoor feasts on the Lower East Side, acting as doorman/sergeant-atarms for the various balls sponsored by the Bund, etc. And he had the scars to prove it! Are there any other sayings of a similar stripe? I'd like to hear them. They'll surely awaken other similar memories or this feisty, fascinating father of mine.

MEL PORETZÿ

My mother used the Yiddish word shnoz for nose. With a theatrical ending and a little inventiveness, Durantee could have come up with shnozzola.

Harold Black