מענדעלע

montik dem 8tn april, 17:00, inem zal fun tsafta 2, vet forkumen di premierekontsert fun rut levin mitn titl: "dos libe lidele". der program iz oyf ivrit, un nemt arayn yidishe lider (un oykh oyf andere shprakhn), un farnemt zikh mit a blik oyf ir muzikalisher lebnsveg. "tsafta-2", rehov ibn-gvirol (rog shaul hamelekh), tel-aviv. arayngang fray.

leybl botvinik netanya

Viazoy darf men aroysredn dem nomen funem tsveytn os inem yidishn alef-beys/[beyz]? In _College Yiddish_ (4th ed., 1965) git U. Vaynraykh _beyz_; azoy oykh Sheva Tsuker in _Yiddish: An introduction..._ (1994). Ober der nomen iz dokh oysgeleygt beys-yud-sof, un in Vaynraykhs verterbukh (1968) shteyt take _beys_. (Un in shtub vu der rebe lernt kleyne kinderlekh iz dokh heys, nit heyz.)

So why is the final sound sometimes voiced, flying in the face of the spelling? Does it have to do with the fact that the next letter in the alphabet, _giml_, begins with voiced /g/ and not /k/, making "_alef-beyz-giml..._" easier to say than "_alef-beys-giml..._" when reciting the alphabet? In any case, Weinreich's disagreement in 1968 with himself in 1965 is curious.

Shleyme Axelrod Buffalo, New York

A few years ago, a little booklet written by Nicholas De Lange, translator of Amos Oz, crossed my desk. It was about the problems of translation from Hebrew into English, and I remember it as being fairly shrewd and sensible. But I've misplaced it, and no library that I've checked seems to have a record of it. Does anyone recall seeing it and remember who published it? Could it have been the Jean and Samuel Frankel Centerfor Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan or the Judaic Studies Program at the University of Cincinnati?

Also, does anyone know if Mendele's "Fishke the Lame" has ever been translated into English before now? I've been reading an advance publication copy of "Fishke," which Schocken is publishing as the fourth volume of its "Library of Yiddish Classics" series, edited by Ruth Wisse, and am having some difficulty with the translation. It would be helpful if I had another translation alongside it for comparison. But again, no library, including the Library of Congress, seems to be aware of a previous translation of "Fishke."

And finally, is anyone aware of any published, in English, observations on S.Y. Abramovitsch's (Mendele's) literary Yiddish? It is treated as an archaic and mannered Yiddish that deserves translation into an archaic and mannered English, and reading it sounds to me like "Huck Finn" in Tuneyadevke. If I had some references to Mendele's Yiddish, and how it sounded to his readers alongside of, say, Peretz's and Sholom Aleichem's, I might be able to get a handle on this.

Thanks in advance,

Mark Shechner

In der reshime No. 5.285 , vert dermont vegn a Yiddish- Hebreisher Software far MacIntosh(Morrie Feller).

Dos regt mir on zikh tsu fregn oib emitzer ken mir onvaizn vegn a gutn yidishn word procesor, ober far Windows.

Zayendik in N.York farayorn, hot men mir ongevizn vegn software far MS Dos ober nisht kayn oysgeprufte sistemen.

Azoy vi ikh trakht tsu zayn in N. York fun 13tsetn. bizn 20stn. april-(ikh bin fun Montevideo-Uruguay), volt far mir geven interesant zikh tsu dervisn vegn naye software oyf Yiddish, vos men zol kenen dort aynkoyfn. A sheynem dank.

Dovid Tsukerman

From The Ukrainian Arts Monitor v.3, #2, March 12, 1996, by Anthony Potoczniak

**Premiere in Yiddish**

Lviv. The premiere dramatization of Sholom Aleichem's work "Zacharovanyj kravets" [The Enchanted Tailor] will take place in the First Ukrainian Youth Theater (Hnatiuk, 11) on March 17th at 4 p.m. The author and producer of this production is Moysei Batsian, director of the Jewish dramatic theater studio "Maska". The play will be performed in Yiddish with simultaneous translation in Russian.

Lviv has one of the oldest Jewish theater traditions in Europe. In addition to the theater "Maska", there were at least three major Jewish musical and dramatic theater companies functioning in Lviv until the Second World War. The theater company "Maska" was disbanded in 1949 and re-established in 1988.

Contact: Moysei Batsian, Telephone: +38 (0322) 743-090, Ivan Franko Street 44-3, Ukraine.

Iosif Vaisman