מענדעלע

A short note in 10.043 about new Yiddish journal generated significant interest: I received more than 20 requests on how to subscribe, more than 150 mendelyaner looked up the page with the contents of the first issue (http://www.ibiblio.org/yiddish/Toplpunkt)

About the subscription: Toplpunkt extends a special offer to Mendele subscribers, 26 US dollars for 5 issues (all four 2001 issues, plus one 2000 issue). Checks should be made to the "Instants far yidishe kultur" and mailed to Toplpunkt, Brener 14, Tel Aviv 63826, Israel. This subscription price is the same for Europe and Americas, but I don't know if they accept currencies, other than USD. Single copies are available for $10, regular annual subscription price in Israel is NIS120.

Iosif Vaisman

Di Medem-bibliotek in Pariz hot ibergedrukt dos frantseyzish-yidish-verterbukh fun Shmuel Kerner un Berl Vaysbrot (528 zaytn).

Me ken es bashteln oyfn vayterdikn adres un batsoln mit a kredit-kartl : medem@yiddishweb.com

Aldos beste

The Medem Library in Paris has reprinted the French-Yiddish dictionary of Samuel Kerner and Bernard Vaisbrot (528 pages).

The book can be ordered at the following e-mail adress (and paid with a credit card) : medem@yiddishweb.com

Thank you Gilles Rozier

The Dora Teitelbaum Institute in collaboration with the Florida International University is offering for the first time ever a distance learning course for Yiddish. The course began on Jan.8, and at present has 43 students registered, over half of whom are taking it on-line. The other 19 students are taking it on campus. For further information about registering for the course, contact Liz Weintraub at Liz@yiddishculture.org.

This is a very important breakthrough in the ability to get Yiddish language education to the many students who do not live near a school which offers Yiddish courses.

Morrie Feller Phoenix

I turn to all the resource people we have on our Mendele list for help. I need dates and numbers (the new math accepts and recognizes approximations or educated guesses) for a lecture on the blossoming health and recovery of Yiddish today. An answer or an educated guess to any question, or part of one also will be appreciated.

Nokh a bisl, nokh a bisl makht a fule shisl.

1. When was the YIVO standardized transliteration/romanization system created and how was it publicized?

2. How many Yiddish speakers do we claim in the United States? in the world?

3. How many colleges are teaching Yiddish? have a Yiddish chair?

4. How many Yiddish periodicals exist world-wide? Name the ones you know (to compile a list [i.e. Grine Medine (Holland); Tam Tam (France) Oyfn Shvel(U.S.A)).

5. How many organizations working for Yiddish expansion (i.e. Arbeter Ring) exist?

6. How many Yiddish Theatres exist? Where?

7. What music (beyond klezmer) is being created?

A sheynem dank, Mirl Schonhaut Hirshan

Reposted from H-Judaic

From: Dara Horn Schulman <horn@fas.harvard.edu> Subject: Yiddish and Hebrew lit. AJS panel

I would like to propose a panel for next year's AJS conference (December 16-18, 2001 in Washington, DC) on the topic of authors who wrote in both Hebrew and Yiddish, focusing on a comparison of their Hebrew and Yiddish literary works. Many authors of the 19th and early 20th centuries wrote in both languages, and while some (like Abramovitsh) are well-known for their work in both languages, most are better-known for one or the other, and I think it would be interesting to examine changes in their work from one language to the next. (I have examined this issue with some of Agnon's Yiddish work.)

This topic was raised at the (sparsely attended) Yiddish section meeting at the last AJS conference and met with no objections. Proposals are not due until March 19th, but I would like to find out if others have researched this topic and would be willing to present on it, or to otherwise help in organizing such a panel. Please contact me off-list at horn@fas.harvard.edu.

Dara Horn Schulman Harvard University

Arieh Lebowitz

Tayere khaveyrim,

Bashevis dermont etlekhe mol di detektiv-bikher vegn Max Shpitskop vos er hot geleyent vi a tsenerling (teenager). Ikh meyn az er hot zey geleynt in tsaytung ober ken zayn az zey zaynen oykh aroys in bukhforem. Tsi ken emetser mir dertseyln vu ikh ken gefinen Max Shpitskopn? In velkher tsaytung hot men gedrukt di bikher? In velkhe yorn? Ver iz der mekhaber? Iz dos an iberzetsung fun Daytsh? Zaynen do andere Yidishe detektiv-mayses far yunge-layt in dem elter? Alts vos ir kent mir zogn vet zayn ongeleygt. Al dos guts, Ayer Sheva Tsuker

I.B. Singer mentions in his memoirs that as a teenager he used to read detective stories of Max Shpitskop in the Yiddish press. Does anyone know in which newspaper these were published, and when? Were they also published in book form? Who is the author? Were these stories originally written in Yiddish or are theyn translated from German (or some other language)? Are you familiar with any other Yiddish detective stories for children/teenagers? Any information will be appreciate. Yours,

Sheva Zucker

If you were in NYC, I'd suggest you visit the YIVO library. Perhaps the UC library on the West coast, can be of some help. If not, there are Mendele subscribers in the LA and SF areas whose private libraries may contain materials that would help:

1. Something on the Vilna publisher (and family Rom). 2. Max Weinreich's _Di shvarste pintelekh_, published by YIVO in Vilna, 1939, pp. 196ff., under the heading _men heybt on drukn yidish_. 3. I don't have the precise sources at hand, but I seem to recall that the late Chone Shmeruk (Jerusalem), and Chava Turnianski of Jerusalem have both published on the subject.

Mikhl Herzog

zukht oys in a laytisher biblyotek Herman Franks bukh vegn der historye fun yidisher drukeray (drukvezn).

Ayer Mordkhe Schaechter

[Moderator's note: the book is Herman Frank, Idishe tipografye un bukh-oysarbetung kunst. Nyu York : Aroysgegebn fun der Idisher shriftzetser yunyon num. 83, 1938. 171 p. =i.v.]

David Shneer asked about references on history of Yiddish publishing in Eastern Europe [10.044]. For several years I have been collecting data on number of Yiddish books that were ever published (surprisingly there are very few works on the topic in the literature, especially concerning the second half of the last century. I was not able to find answer to a seemingly simple question: how many books in Yiddish were published? Estimates range from 30,000 to 50,000). Since it is unlikely that my study will be finished before I'll retire from my day job (which according to the US Social Security Administration will not happen until 2029), I decided to post some raw data. Mendelyaner with allergy to numbers need not read further. Others will find in these simple tables a fairly precise snapshot of Yiddish cultural history. All the peaks and valleys in the number of published books reflect well known historical events. Often very sad ones.

Ironically, the best statistics on Yiddish publishing comes from the Soviet Union. With centralized planned economy and pervasive control over every single printed word, all the books were accounted for. Altogether, more than 30 million copies of 7,348 titles in Yiddish were printed in the USSR in 1917-1991 (these are only books, i.e. according to the classification used for the most of the period "non-serial publications with more than 45 pages". For example, monthly literary supplements to "Sovetish Heymland" that were published in 1970ies and 80ies, and would have been considered books by most bibliographers, are not counted here).

The first column is the number of books in Yiddish (including translations from other languages), second column - total print run, third - number of books in other languages, translated from Yiddish, fourth - total print run of translations. All data for the books published within the then current borders of the USSR (1922 USSR borders for the years 1917-1921).

1917 150 1918 237 1919 274 1920 106 1921 85 1922 68 1923 40 1924 76 1925 168 1926 164 1927 217 1928 238 1929 319 1930 531 1931 496 1932 668 1933 391 1934 348 1935 437 1936 431 1937 356 1938 348 1939 339 1940 359 1941 50* 1942 5* 1943 30* 1944 15* 1945 15*

19461956 130** 1,100,000 78**

1957 0 1958 0 34 1959 2 60,000 28 1960 3 38,000 25 1961 2 1962 0 1963 0 1964 1 1965 5* 1966 2* 1967 4* 1968 4* 1969 8* 1970 5* 1971 7 18,000 1972 3 9,000 1973 5* 1974 5 7,000 1975 7 11,000 1976 7 10,000 1977 6 11,000 1978 8 17,200 1979 9 20,000 1980 20 91,000 13 2,626,000 1981 8 12,000 14 2,369,000 1982 6 10,500 13 2,203,000 1983 8 13,000 18 2,343,000 1984 7 11,000 13 1,012,000 1985 8 7,500 12 2,432,000 1986 4 4,000 17 777,000 1987 5 4,000 14 627,000 1988 5 4,500 12 4,426,000 1989 11 115,000 17 1,262,000 1990 13 176,000 15 894,000 1991 5 125,000 10 455,000 1992 1 1,400 6 260,000 End of story... I am not aware of any Yiddish books published in Russia after 1992 (several books published by the Moscow Jewish University and few other publishers contain some transliterated Yiddish). Several books in Yiddish were also published after 1992 in other post-Soviet states: Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania.

*) conservative estimate

**) almost all of these books were published in 1946-1949, very few in 1950-1956. L.Hirszowicz lists 112 titles in 1947, and 117 in 1948, those probably include non-book materials.

The total number of Yiddish titles for 75 years (7,349) does not seem large if compared with the number of Yiddish and Hebrew titles combined published in Russia in eight years before the World War I (6,300). On the other hand, the latter number included production from Poland and Lithuania, and Hebrew books were totally banned for the most part of Soviet history. Some other parts of the Soviet record in promoting Yiddish culture are more impressive, for example the number and popularity of translations from Yiddish into other languages. For the years 1918-1949, the champions were: Sholem Aleikhem in number of editions (486, 5.3 mln copies, 15 languages) and Leyb Kvitko in number of copies (149 editions, 8.9 mln copies, 34 languages).

The circulation of Sovetish Heymland during its existence (1961-1991) was a monotonously decreasing function:

1961 25,000 1966 16,000 1971 10,000 1977 9,000 1978 7,000 1985 5,000

For the comparison, several numbers from seven important centers of Yiddish publishing in Eastern Europe for 1901-1940. While the tables above are fairly reliable, the following numbers are rough conservative estimates, and might be far off in some cases. But again, they give an idea about dynamics of the process.

Varsha Vilna Kiev Minsk Kharkov Berlin Lemberg 1901-1910 600 300 30 10 50 1911-1920 700 400 60 10 50 20 1921-1930 1500 1000 300 150 150 300 20 1931-1940 800 600 400 300 300 20 10

Of these seven cities, only Warsaw had regular Yiddish publishing after the hurbn. In the years 1945-1961, 265 Yiddish books (total run 1.3 mln) were printed in Poland.

The latest Yiddish book that came from Eastern Europe is quite symbolic:

Imre Madach, Di tragedye funem mentshn. Balassagyarmat : Madach Irodalmi Tarsasag, 2000. ISBN 9638599111 (fun ungerish ibergezetst Yosef Holder, 1893-1944).

It is a Yiddish translation of one of the masterpieces of classical Hungarian literature, "The Tragedy of Man" ("Az ember tragediaja"), written in 1861. The poetic drama in 15 acts follows the main characters' (Adam and Eve) destiny from creation through the known history into a communist future, and ultimately to the extinction of human race. However, the protagonists are redeemed in their struggle with the forces of darkness, by the fact that they did all they could to achieve a different outcome...

Iosif Vaisman