| Not only is Yiddish alive, but there's also a Usenet mailing list.
If you're interested, send mail to
decwrl::"dave@lsuc.uucp"
A recent issue is appended. Also, Harvard Hillel offers Yiddish courses
at several levels (with native speakers). I took one last year, and it
was well taught.
Martin.
From: THUNDR::DECWRL::"dave@lsuc.uucp" "David Sherman 8-Dec-88 2300 EST"
9-DEC-1988 06:44
To: abbe@well,ari@well,arpalists+yiddish@andrew.cmu.edu,
attunix!htr@att.uucp,attunix!saal@att.uucp,
homxc!marv@att.uucp,ihlpa!humbert@att.uucp,
ihlpl!berman@att.uucp,uunet!csl.sri.com!goldberg@attcan.uucp,
chb@valideast,dave@ai.toronto.edu,feinberg@c
Subj: mail.yiddish, issue #4
Yiddish Mailing List, Issue #4 Dec 8, 1988 109 lines
==============================
Yiddish professor Rith Wisse (Jeff Zucker)
Wanted - children's stories in Yiddish (Raphael Finkel)
Yiddish class language story (Andy Tannenbaum)
Yiddish Mailing List earns a mitzvah,
and Daily Yiddish Newspapers (Daniel Radzinski)
------------------------
Digest-Message: 04/1
From: zucker@cs.buffalo.edu (Jeffery Zucker)
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 88 01:32:03 EST
Subject: Re: Ashkenazic Jewish Culture
Dave, are you familiar with the work of Ruth Wisse?
She is a professor of Yiddish at McGill (I think).
I read her articles (not usually on, or in, Yiddish) regularly
in Commentary magazine, and think very highly of her.
Jeff Zucker
------------------------
Digest-Message: 04/2
Date: Fri Nov 18 13:26:59 1988
From: Raphael Finkel <uunet!ms.uky.edu!raphael>
Subject: wanted - Yiddish children's stories
Dovid,
A sheynem dank far dem letstn numer. A bkoshe hob ikh, efshr vet kenen
helfn emitzer fun yidishn post-rshime. Penina (zol lebn) is shoyn alt
tsveythalb yor, un hot lib hern mayses. Amol hot geklekt ir dertseyln
a mayse shehoyo, dos heyst, iberkhazern di pasirungn fun dem dozikn tog.
Itst hot zi besser lib bobe mayses, befrat mit khayos-heldn. Hob ikh
oysgetrakht etlikhe proste mayses, vegn lmoshl a hungerikn hoz vos gefint
ale tog nokh mer meyrn af der trotuar, oder vegn a katz vos filt zikh elnt
vi a shteyn biz zi treft a mayzele vos is maskim zikh shpiln mit ir.
Di bkoshe is derfar az men zol mir shikn (oder vayzn vu tsu bakumen)
bobe-mayses af yidish vos ikh ken dertseyln. Dos beste volt geven in
bikherlekh mit bilder.
Tsi veln di abonirn veln ikh zol leyenen di mayses vos ikh tref af a tashme,
un shikn durkh post di vos viln? Oyb ikh ken nor gefinen mayses genug, bin
ikh bkavone azoy ton. Dos zelbike halt mit kinder-lider. Ikh hob nor eyn
plit (Mark Olf, Folkways) fun yiddishe kinder-lider. Vet men mir shikn, vel
ikh kenen legn af tashme. (Zingn ken ikh gor nishkoshe.)
Shoyn bald a plan?
Refoyl
------------------------
Digest-Message: 04/3
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 88 21:06:49 EST
From: linus!haddock!trb (Andrew Tannenbaum)
Subject: Re: Ashkenazic Jewish Culture
Funny story from today's Yiddish class:
We're doing parts of the body and our teacher explains that a Yiddish
word for small intestine (beside kishke) is mog'n. One of the students
then asks if that's like "Mogen David." Yes. David's Intestines.
They were in the shape of intersecting triangles.
[Actually, according to the dictionary, boich is belly, mog'n is
stomache and kishke is intestine, but this is the way the discussion
went in class. -Andy]
------------------------
Digest-Message: 04/4
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 88 11:09:08 est
From: linus!xait!harvard!husc8!radzinsk (Daniel Radzinski)
Subject: yiddish mailing list earns a mitzvah; daily Yiddish newspapers
My father is a native speaker of Yiddish, 78 years old, blind, and suffers from
Parkinson's disease. He came here on a visit from Israel for Thanksgiving and
has ended up hospitalized for a urine retention problem. In the hospital, I
read to him issues 2 and 3 of the Yiddish Mailing List. You cannot imagine what
joy that was for him!!! He was very interested in the actual contents of the
issues and this undoubtedly distracted him very much from his other problems.
I guess you can get an earned-assist-mitzvah for your work on compiling these
issues.
As to your long letter on Ashkenazic Jewish Culture, which appeared in the
third issue, I have a brief comment: I am not certain that "the days of daily
Yiddish papers are gone." To the best of my knowledge, "Letzte Nayes" is still
published daily in Israel (maybe there is also a daily in the USSR, I don't
know). Obviously, your claim was limited to North American publications. But, I
believe that if one REALLY wants the paper, s/he can get a daily subscription
of "Letzte Nayes" (with the obvious concomitant postal delay of a week or so +
high price). My father had one for many years when we lived in Peru. I don't
see why that cannot take place these days.
Hag Urim Sameah
Daniel Radzinski
------------------------
END OF ISSUE #4
------------------------
David Sherman, Toronto Moderator, mail.yiddish
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