מענדעלע

Noyekh's firleg vegn farkukn zikh un di shaykhes mit yankev ovinu iz zeyer interesant. Ober der hanhoge fun kikn af a tsadik ven di froy kimt aroys fun mikve hot men shoyn bamerkt vegn dem in gemore, nor ikh gedenk nisht velkher blat, un vegn velkher rebn se hot tsu ton.

Meylekh Viswanath

Regarding "farkukn zikh" (not so much the phrase as the belief) see Tractate Bava Metsia (chapter 7 - Hasokher et hapoalim) - where Rabbi Yohanan, who is decribed as being very beautiful, "would go and sit at the gates of the ritual bath. He said "When the daughters of Israel come up from their obligatory immersion, let them meet me, so that they may have many beautiful sons like me, students of the Torah like me." (Steinsaltz's translation - sorry no Yiddish gemore handy).

Daniel Soyer

dakht zikh mir az ven a kind iz nit geven gerotn in foter un iz enlekh geven tsu a fremdn flegt men ba undz in der heym zogn "zi hot zikh farkukt in ..." trakht zikh der akht yoriker elye (ani hakotn) ver volt zikh forgeshtelt vos fun kukn ken aroyskumen?

Elye Palevsky

The shames has asked a most interesting question with regard to farkukn zikh. The idea that what a pregnant woman looked at could be transmttied to her unborn child is ancient and goes back not just to the Hebrews of biblical times but can be found among all nations. It is called the doctrine of maternal impressions. There is a story that Hippocrates saved an Athenian princess from charges of adultery by claiming that her child was black, not because of the mother's infidelity, but because she had the picture of an Ethiopian in her bedchamber. Paracelsus said that "women's imagination resembles divine power; its external desires imprint themselves on the child." Pregnant women who watched executions were thought to deliver children with the marks of torture or hanging on their bodies. I could quote many other examples, but this would lead away from Mendele.

Goldie Morgentaler

Much as I appreciated Noyekh's learned allusion to Tana"kh [6,265:7], it seems to me that folk beliefs to the effect that sights seen by pregnant women have an effect on their children's future character, physiognomy etc. are fairly widespread. Where the etymology of this particular expression is concerned, however, I think that we may be dealing with a piece of phraseology whose Germanic appearance is no more than skin-deep and which turns out, as is so often the case, to be a Slavic calque. German 'vergucken sich in jemanden' means 'fall in love with', 'have a crush on', which is somewhat remote from the concept we have in mind. On the other hand Ukrainian 'zadyvytysya na kogo' [the literal equivalent] means not only to 'gape at', but also 'to take someone as an example' which is getting a lot closer.

Hugh Denman

Diana Wilner asked about Der Amerikaner magazine [6.265]. The edition was started in October 1904 and first 23 volumes (1904-1925) were published under the title "Der Amerikaner". Volumes 24-26 carried the title "Der Amerikaner un froyen magazin". The last issue (v. 26, no. 24) dated April 27, 1928. Library of Congress microfilmed the journal, films should be available through the interlibrary loan.

Iosif Vaisman

The Jewish Division of the New York Public Library has Der Amerikaner on microfilm.

Daniel Soyer

If the "Amerikaner" which Diana Wilner writes about is the same one I have come across during my research on Yiddish-American radio, it was quite an unusual paper. It seems to have been published in Brooklyn from era right before WW1 sometime into the Depression.

The weekly seemed to have gone through several name changes but in its earliest incarnation it was called _Der Amerikaner Froyen Zhurnal un Kompanyon_ and appears to have been a bizarre blend of homey Talmudic tales, the sedre of the week and hunky sports beefcake photos! The paper also featured one panel cartoons which look like they may have been lifted from English papers with the captions translated into Yiddish.

By the late 1920s they dropped the "froyen zhurnal un kompanyon" from the title (and sadly, the beefcake photos) and with it the ecumenical tone and changed the name to _Der Amerikaner Familyen Magazin un Zhurnal_ . At this point they featured more cultural items such as fiction, poetry and news of the Yiddish theater and radio. In 1929-31 they sponsored a weekly Yiddish variety show on New York stations WOV and then WEVD, featuring such artists Maurice Schwartz Molly Picon, and dramatist Louis Freiman. After WEVD was obtained by the Foward association, the "Amerikaner" program was taken off the air (with the "Forward Hour" taking its Sunday 11:00 AM slot.) I don't know when the _Amerikaner_ went under though I assume it may have not been long after the show went off the air.

If you are interested, there is a run of the _Amerikaner_ on microfilm at the Jewish Division of the 42nd Street Library in Manhattan.

Henik Sapoznik

About Diana Wilner's question re: Der Amerikaner (6,265):

This information pertains to 1907 to 1913 (at least) for sure when Sholem Aleichem sent pieces to Der Amerikaner and Morgn Zhurnal. Whether it applies to the 1920s and '30s I can't be sure. Encyclopedia Judaica may have more up to date information

Yakov Sapirshteyn (Jacob Saphirstein in Encyclopedia Judaica), orthodox and conservative, was publisher of the New York paper Der Morgn Zhurnal and its weekly family supplement, Der Amerikaner.

Incidentally, This paper should not be confused with Der Yidisher Amerikaner, published by William Randolph Hearst for a short time to support his candidacy for Governor of New York in 1906.

Louis Fridhandler