מענדעלע

I'm editing a book called Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century to be published in May by Fitzroy Dearborn . At the last moment, I've been let

down, and have a fine writer in search of a contributor.

Could you perhaps find someone who could write a 1000 word essay on Zalman Shneyer (Shneour). The essay should focus on his work, you can quote from it, and make comments, but the essay should not be biographical because it will be preceded in the book by a brief bio, list of reading and suggestions for further reading (prepared by me). Payment is a token I know (copy of the book selling at #65 or #35) but I would be very grateful to you. The only problem is time...The essay would be due as soon as you could do it...in a week or so maximum...as we go to press in May.

Please let me know if you can help, Best wishes,

Sorrel Kerbel

Dear fellow Mendelyaners,

We are happy to report to you that a small portion of interviews from the Yiddish Atlas collections (=Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic

Jewry, housed at the Rare Book Collections of The Columbia University Libraries, New York City) is available now for study over the Internet. The materials are the core piece of a self teaching Yiddish course geared to speakers of German. The course is the result of a research project, co-funded by the European Union, and was initiated and carried out by the Duesseldorf-based Association for the Promotion of Yiddish Language and Culture (=Foerderverein fuer Jiddische Sprache und Kultur e.V.). The course is equipped with a discussion board. Please feel free to enter any questions and comments about the materials, the course in general, individual sections, methods etc. Please don't feel impeded by German, you may of course write in Yiddish, English, or any other language you feel most comfortable in.

The Yiddish course is accessible via: www.jiddischkurs.org <http://www.jiddischkurs.org>.

Robert Neumann Ulrike Kiefer

Duesseldorf, Germany

In response to Ingedore Ruedlin's query [10.046] about Yiddish literature based on experiences in Berlin, Moyshe Kulbak published some important work when he lived there in the early 1920s. Later, in Minsk in the 1930s, he wrote a long poem, "Disner tshayld harold," explicitly about those years.

Michael Steinlauf

Ingedore Ruedlin asked about Berlin's reflections in Yiddish literature [10.046]. Some of the references (surely there are more) are listed below:

Moyshe Kulbak, Disner Tshayld Harold. Minsk : Melukhe-farlag fun Vaysrusland, 1933.

Mikhael Vaykhert, Zikhroynes. Tel-Aviv : Farlag Menorah, 1960. (Volume 1 - Galitsye, Vin, Berlin, 1890-1918).

Yehezkel Kornhendler, Fun der un yener velt. Pariz : Korenhendler, 1974.

(Includes: An iberlebenish in Berlin).

Mendel Man, Di milhomeh-trilogye. Pariz : Noiman-fand far yidishe literatur, 1964. (Part 3. Dos faln fun Berlin).

Eliyahu Palushak, Berlin-Moskve-Yerusholaim: tsaytfragn fun undzer velt.

London : E. Palushak, 1956.

David Aynhorn, Fun Berlin biz San-Frantsisko. Varshe : Farlag Kultur-Lige, 1930.

Alexander Granach, Ot geyt a mentsh. Nyu York : Ikuf, 1948. (transl from German).

Maks Erik (Ed.), Di komedyes fun der Berliner ufklerung. Kiyev ; Kharkov : Melukhe-farlag, 1933. (content: Itsik Aykh, Reb Henekh; Arn Hale Volfson, Laykhtzin un tsvies;

Arn Hale Volfson, Laykhtzin un feremelay. Translated into modern Yiddish

by Dovid Hofshteyn)

Klaus Neukrantz, Barikadn in Veding: a roman fun eyner a gas in di Berliner May teg 1929. Moskve : Emes, 1929. (transl from German by S. Koshevnik)

Klaus Neukrantz, Barikadn in Veding: a roman fun eyner a gas in di Berliner May teg 1929. Minsk : Melukhe-farlag fun Vaysrusland, Natssekter : 1933 (transl from German by S. Koshevnik, adopted for children by Iosif Rabin

and M. Shats).

Iosif Vaisman Arlington, VA

It is with great pleasure that I inform you that the Jewish Program on CFMb in Montreal, which will this coming December complete 39 years of continuous programming in Yiddish, Hebrew and English, will again, after

experiencing a short period of technical difficulties, be heard on the internet,at www.cfmb.ca every Sunday from 12 noon to 2 PM.

Regards, Nachum Wilchesky.

Some Yiddish words do not come from Hebrew, German or Slavic languages. Few examples (that I can think of) are: "a bisl", "a sach", "chvalie", "parnose" (I guess), "opru" ...(although "opru" could be from Czech word "opira").

Does anybody know how these words originated? Where they are coming from?

Gennady Levitsky

Happy Passover everybody.

I have a question about the speech sound which in English is written either "tsk tsk" or "tut tut" (phoneticians call it a "dental click"). In English and other European languages, it is used to express various negative feelings of impatience, disapproval, disgust, prohibition, and so forth. However, I have heard that in Yiddish it has an opposite positive meaning. Is this true? If so, how would you use it?

Also, somebody mentioned to me a "famous anecdote of the man who is a 'tsitser' by profession. Whenever the Rabbi does a miracle in public he will stand by and do the 'tsk-tsk'..." Can anybody corroborate this story, and perhaps provide references?

Thanks,

David Gil Leipzig, Germany

PS For the linguists: I am doing a cross-linguistic survey of click sounds and their usages. So far, the only instances of "tsk tsk" with positive affective meaning that I've come across have been from southeast Asia and Melanesia -- which is why I found this reference to Yiddish so intriguing.

Ezra Mendelsohn asked for a source for the text of the Saul Bellow/Isaac

Rosenfeld Yiddish version of Eliot's Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. It appears in a paper by Ruth R. Wisse entitled "Language as Fate: Reflections on Jewish Literature in America", a paper published in the 1996 Studies in Contemporary Jewry (Vol. 12), pages 129-147, Oxford University Press. The volume is subtitled Literary Strategies: Jewish Texts and Contexts. As this volume is not easily accessible, and because I thought other Mendelyaners might be interested in it, here it is:

Der shir hashirim fun Mendl Pumshtok

Nu-zhe, kum-zhe, ikh un du, Ven der ovnt shteyt uf kegn dem himl Vi a leymener goylm af Tisha b'Av

Lomir geyn zikh Durkh geselakh vos dreyen zikh Vi di bord fun dem rov

Oy, Bashe, freg nisht keyn kashe, A dayge dir

Oyf der vant fun dem koshern restorant Hengt a shmutsiker betgevant Un vantsn tantsn karahod

In tsimer vu di vayber zenen Ret men fun Marx un Lenin

Ike ver alt...ikh ver alt... Es vert mir in pupik kalt

Zol ikh oykemen di hor, meg ikh oyfesn a floym?

Ikh vel tskatsheven di hoyzn un shpatsirn bay dem yam,

Ikh vel hern di yam-moydn zingen khad gadyo

Ikh vel zey entfern borukh-habo.

Ruth Wisse (b'sheim omro) says that she got these lines from Lucy Dawidowicz, who got them from Chaim Raphael, who got them from Daniel Bell. Alas, I could not find the original in any of Saul Bellow's papers on deposit at the University of Chicago library. Bellow assisted Isaac Rosenfeld in its composition, and I could not find the original in any of Rosenfeld's books. Thus this is, as Ruth Wisse says, an oral tradition that she finally recorded on paper.

Al Madansky

Der fun aramish vaksndiker bar- hot in yidish fun akhtsetn-tsvontsikstn yorhundert (un friyer) khuts bar-/bal-mitsve oykh di vayterdike derivatn: bar-uryen, bar-das, bar-mutslekh, bar-mazl, bar-mayle, bar-nash, bar-samkhe, bar-avle, bar-onsh(i)n, bar-plugte, bar-kayome, bar-seykhl un nokh. Di

merste, khotsh nisht ile, zenen elementn funem lomdishn un/oder ksidishn

yidish. Vayt farshpreyt oykh mekhuts der lomdisher un ksidisher velt zenen, farshteyt zikh: bar-mitsve un bar-mazl.

Hots mir un zayts mir, ayer

Motkhe Shekhter