מענדעלע

Today is Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust commemoration day. On the Internet, in lieu of lighting the candles I am posting a poem by Moyshe Teif "Af Gitke Taybeles Zavulek". I post this poem in memory of my great- grandparents and their children, and all other victims of the Holocaust.

Iosif Vaisman =============

Moyshe Teif

af gitke taybeles zavulek

af gitke taybeles zavulek tir un toyer ofn... paykl ikh in paykele un vek: hey, shteyt oyf! genug tsu shlofn! hey, khokhmaches, vertl-zoger, sforim-shlinger, tsholnt-freser -kumt, di velt vil zen ot yene, yene ale, velkhe kenen do in gesleh, fintzter-enge, vi di binen honik brengen -nit fun kviten af di vaytn, nor fun vign, vu es lign naye vitenbergs un kulbaks... shteyt shoyn oyf! genug tsu lign! kh'trog far aikh dem frilings nign... zol khotsh eyner ofshteyn, eyner! keyner entfert mir nit, keyner... der oylem shloft.

klap ikh shtarker in mayn paykl, klap ikh... ot! es tsindn zikh di flekl! neyn, dos vrenen mayne finger, s'rint dokh blot fun mayne negl... iz vos shvaygt ir, vilner kinder? hey, khokhmatches, vertl-zoger, sforim-shlinger, tsholnt-freser -kumt, di velt vil zen at yene, yene ale, velkhe shrayen: "komets-alef" nokh in ingeveyd ba muter... esn skorinkes on mutik trogn fayer in di poles -velt fun gzayle a mapole. shteyt shoyn oyf! genug tsu lign! kh'trog far aikh dem frilings nign... zol khotsh eyner ofshteyn, eyner! keyner entfert mir nit, keyner... der oylem shloft.

efnt zikh a fensterl in himl... main gelibte kukt. s'iz zi! befeyresh! a gutmorgn, tayere, gutmorgn! helf mir afvekn dem am kshei oiref...

--vemen vekstu, main getrayer, vemen? vos du vist nit, narele, du nar, az di vilner shlofn shoyn do mer nit, vilner shlofn af ponar...

1945.

Notes.

Teif, Moshe (1904-1966) - Yiddish poet, writer, and translator. Lived in Minsk and Moscow. Was imprisoned in 1937 and in 1949-1953. Served in the Red Army during the WWII. His family perished in Minsk ghetto. Books: "Lider un poemes" (Minsk, 1933), "Parizsher komune" (Minsk, 1933), "Tsuzamen: kinder-zamlung" (Minsk, 1935), "Proletarke, shvester mayne" (Minsk, 1935), "Izbrannoe" (translated in Russian, Moskva, 1958), "Rukopozhatie" (translated in Russian, Moskva, 1964), "Oysderveylts" (Moskve, 1965), "Lider, balades, poemes" (Moskve, 1985). Translated into Yiddish Schiller's "Vilhelm Tel" (Minsk, 1935), de Coster's "Til Ulenshpigel" (Moskve, 1938), and other works.

Citke Taibeles Zavulek - a residential street in the center of Vilna's Jewish Quarter.

Kulbak, Moyshe (1896-1940) - Yiddish poet and writer. Lived in Vilna, Berlin, and Minsk. Was arrested in 1937. Died in the Soviet camp.

Vitenberg (Wittenberg), Itzik - the commander of the partisan organization in Vilna getto. Killed by Gestapo in 1943.

Ponar (Russ. Ponary, Lith. Paneriaj) - a wooded area outside of Vilna, place of the extermination of the Vilna's Jews.

There is a new publication based on hitherto unknown poems/songs of Mortkhe Gebirtig found last year at YIVO and at Givat Chaviva.

Mortkhe Gebirtig. _Mayn fayfele_, ed. Nosn Gros, ill. Aleksander Bogen, Tel-Aviv: Keren Avrom-Y. Lerner un Farlag "Yisroel-bukh," 1997, 199 pp., IS 66 (100 numerirte ekzemplarn: IS 90). Can be ordered from Y.-L. Perets Biblyotek, 14 Brener St., Tel-Aviv 63826 or Yisroel-bukh, 2 Brener St. Tel-Aviv 63820.

Leonard (Yude-Leyb) Prager

A friend of mine would like to know the etymology of the word shund, and how this particular word came to be applied to trashy theatre and trashy literature.

With thanks, Goldie Morgentaler

A clear distinction should be made between the Yiddish word _ali'ye, with the stress on the second syllable, and the modern Hebrew word _aliyA_, with the stress on the last syllable.

Both words are spelled the same in Y. & H. (ayen, lamed, yud, hey), but in addition to be pronounced differently, they have distinctly different histories and meanings.

The Yiddish _ali'ye_ is strictly a reference to a religious act, when a man is honored during services in the synagogue to come up to the reading of the Law before the open Toyre scroll; the Hebrew _Ali'yA, may also be thought of as a religious act if one thinks in terms of immigrating to the Holy Land as a good and proper deed.

The Zionist movement used the term in a politico-psychological sense: An immigrant to Israel is called _olE_, one who ascends to a higher level of Jewishness; while one who emigrates from Israel, an Israeli expatriate, is called _yo'rEd_..

In Yiddish, a yOy'red means an impoverished Jew, one who lost his fortune; but in modern Hebrew, yo'rEd carries the new notion of spiritual impoverishment, one who descended to a lower level of Jewishness.

Zellig Bach Lakehurst, NJ