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Mendele Vol. 9, No. 70

Mar 10, 2000

1) Pinie Plotkin (Iosif Vaisman)

2) tsvey lider (Pinie Plotkin)

3) New Yiddish course (E. Frank)

4) planned book of Yiddish Tales (Michael Katz)

5) Unzer shrrift (Ida Selavan Schwarcz)

6) Introduction (Martin Green)

7) Tamiment Library Pathfinders (Jane Rothstein)

8) Zhivitse boym (Carl Goldberg)

9) zhivitse u.a.v. (itzik shteyn)

1) Pinie Plotkin

Pinie Plotkin, a Yiddish poet from Bobruisk - Liubonichi - Minsk - Santa Monica celebrates today his 85th birthday.

Pinie (Pinkhas Abramovich) Plotkin was born on March 10, 1915 in Bobruisk and grew up in the nearby shtetl Liubonichi. In 1939 he graduated from the Minsk Pedagogical Institute with a degree in literature and linguistics. A decorated Red Army veteran, Plotkin fought in World War II for four years.

Plotkin's first poem was published in 1934 in the newspaper Der yunger arbeter (Minsk). In the following 66 years, his works appeared in Shtern, Oktiaber, Sovetish heymland, Birobidzhaner shtern, Folksshtime, Dos yidishe vort, Di tsukunft, Di yidishe kultur, Undzer tsayt, Di yidishe gas, Yerushalaimer almanakh, Di pen, Forverts, and other periodicals.

In 1992, Plotkin emigrated to the US and now lives in Southern California. Yiddish Culture Club in West Hollywood recently published two collections of his poetry:

Pinie Plotkin, Mit An Ofn Harts (Samuel Batt, Ed.), [Los Angeles:] Yiddish Culture Club in West Hollywood, 1997. 146 p., 21 cm.

Pinie Plotkin, Vegn Der Tsayt Un Vegn Zikh (Samuel Batt, Ed.), [Los Angeles:] Yiddish Culture Club in West Hollywood, 1999. 131 p., 20 cm.

The books ($10 each) can be ordered from the author (Pinkhas Plotkin, 1112 7th Street, Apt 815, Santa Monica, CA 90403-5210).

Several poems from both books are published in Shtetl (http://metalab.unc.edu/yiddish/Book/Plotkin).

Mendele congratulates Pinie Plotkin and wishes him all the best for at least next 35 years.

Iosif Vaisman


2) tsvey lider

der oysgetseykhnter frimorgn

di zun, vos vet zikh ersht bavayzn, dem bodn triknt... a vayser nepl, vi a layvnt, hot zikh tseviklt. er zetst zikh op af grozn faykhte un vert farshvundn-dos hot di zun, punkt vi a laykhter, zikh ongetsundn.

fun ir zikh tsien bunte pasn in yedn shfeltl. a grinink bletl af mayn aksl gefint an ertl. af im nit vinik vayse reyfn bamerkn kon men. kh'hob ongezamlt toy a hoyfn un vash dos ponim.

mit freyd kh'tsi oys di hent di reyne, di kalte finger-do, af dem zelbn ort, mayn zeyde dem toy flegt trinken.

derfar mir vilt zikh ofn zogn atsind, nit vartn: der oysgetseykhnter frimorgn iz mir tsum hartsn.



nostalgie nokhn shtetl

...un biz ikh vel lebn, dermonen un opgebn koved dem shtetl ikh vel, vu es hobn gelebt mayne oves, ikh kum tsu zey gern tsu geyn, viazoy -- kh'veyt aleyn nit.

farvaksn di stezhke, vos hot biz aher undz fareynikt. - farvos azoy benkstu, poet? shtil ba mir vestu fregn. - farvos nit farlozn du kenst di fun lang shoyn farshvundene bregn?

ikh fil dayne hent af mayn hartsn, dayn blik af mayn ponim. tsi konstu mir gebn an eytse? vos entfern kon ikh?



transliterated by Ester-Basya Vaisman


3) New Yiddish course

McGill University, Jewish Studies Department, is offering an instensive advanced course in Yiddish language and literature, May 1-31 2000. For information please call (514) 398-6546.

E. Frank


4) planned book of Yiddish Tales

I am a children's books publisher in Canada and the UK. You can see our Web site at: http://www.tradewindbooks.com. We are planning a series of folk tales rooted in various cultures. I would like to include a book of Yiddish Tales for Eastern Europe. If anyone is interested in submitting a manuscript or discussing it with me, please visit our Web site or email me at tradewindbooks@yahoo.com.

Michael Katz


5) Unzer shrrift

David Shneer of Berkeley asked about Unzer shrift. It is listed in my section of "The Immigrant Labor Press in North Americz, 1840s-1970s: An annotated Bibliography: Volume 2: Migrants from Eastern and Southeastern Europe," edited by Dirk Hoerder (NY: Greenwood Press, 1987), page 651. According to my notation there, copies may be found at Hebrew Union College Library and at YIVO.

Sincerely,

Ida Selavan Schwarcz Arad, Israel


6) Introduction

Greetings to Mendele

I am Martin Green, a 44-year-old engineer from Winnipeg Canada. I recently found Mendele on the internet, and am very happy to be a member. I was like most of my generation, one of those who heard Yiddish in the home only as a "secret language" to be used when one didn't want the children to understand. I had enough Hebrew education so that I can read the Passover Haggadah, and in college I took two years of German...partly because I thought it would give me some access to Yiddish. In di letzte yor, ikh hob gefunnen, tzu mayne groys ibberashung, az ikh kenn leyenen a yiddisheh bukh. Ober ikh hob moyreh tzu shrayben a briev oyf yiddish, vorum ikh banutz azoyfiel nisht-yiddish daitshmerish-dikke verter.

Dos ershte bukh vus ikh hob geleyent is "Onkel Mozes", fun Sholom Asch. Nokhdem hob ikh geleyent dos lebens-geshikhte fun Kalman Marmar, vus iz geveyn a shtudent in Bern in der tzayt fun di ershte Tzionistishe Kongress. Di letzte bukh vus ikh hob geleyent, iz geveyn a zeyr interresante autobiographi fun an ehe-mollike Winnipeg yid, Falk Zolf. Zayn bukh, "Oyf Fremder Erd", bashraybt zayn leybn in Rusland un Poylen fun zayn kinder yohren (geboyren gevor'n arum 1900) biz zayn arayn-kummen in Kanada in 1926.

I wonder if anyone else has read this book? I would be interested to share impressions...I think it is a remarkably good book!

By the way, I am presently getting Mendele correspondence in the form of digests. Is it not available to me as direct email? It seems very awkward to try and carry on a discussion with one-week delays in between the appearance of each message. Other mailing lists that I participate in give their members "instant gratification", which I find preferable.

Regards,

Martin Green


7) Tamiment Library Pathfinders

Two new pathfinders to the collections of the Tamiment Library at New York University, both by NYU history graduate students, are now available on the Tamiment webpage. These are:

"Guide to Yiddish=ADSpeaking Labor and Radical Movements"

http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/yiddish/Index/index.html

by Jane Rothstein (includes, with his kind permission, a link to Iosif Vaisman's Virtual Shtetl website)

and

"Sources in U.S. Women's Labor History"

http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/women/cover.html

by Kathleen Barry.

These join Tamiment Librarian Andrew Lee's older guide, "References Sources in U.S. Labor Studies"

http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/resources

Eventually these will include selected illustrations (cover art, pamphlets, buttons and pins, posters, photographs) but at present these are text only. Please feel free to use them and let us if you find them useful.

Jane Rothstein, New York


8) Zhivitse boym

Chaver Chaver asks about the word zhivitse boym. This comes from "zhivitsa", the Russian word for soft tree resin, or pine sap, pine resin, which indeed has a wonderful aroma. Zhivitse-boym would be the pine tree.

Carl Goldberg


9) farshidens

hagam ikh bin nit kayn teoretiker in musik, gedenk ikh in bukovina flegen kumen purim tzu der side basunder klezmurim, un bazunder tzigayner ober oykh ineinem kapelies fun klezmurim mit tzigayners, velkhe flegn oysshpilen yidishe, moldavishe vi oykh rumenishe lider un melodies. es kon zayn az azoy arum hobn zikh ibergeflokhten yidishe un mizrakh-eyropeishe musik. dos eygene is geshen in kreytshmes vi der yid hot sikh tzugehert tzu di lider fun di poyerim.

in 09.067 fregt sikh nokh fraynt iael khaver oyf'n taytsh fun "zhivitse-boym". oyf russish meynt zhivitza smole, tar. un der "zhivitse-boym shmekt".harkavi taytsht oykh azoy, zayt 223.

mikhl herzog vil vissen vos meynt un fun vanen es nemt zikh"khoyzek". khoyzek meynt upshpetn fun eynem(r), oyslakhen. kumt fun hebrew khazok=shtark zayn(bay zikh, kon men yenem oyslakhn). harkavi taytsht oykh azoy, zayt 225

Zayt ale gezund un makht nit fun a tzveytn khoyzek,

itzik shteyn