> _The Mendele Review_: Yiddish Literature and Language (A Companion to _MENDELE_) ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 06.001 31 January 2002 1) Is Yiddish a "Mixed" Language? (Prof. Vulf Plotkin) Prof. Vulf Plotkin has graciously provided an English-language summary of his essay "Ueber die Rolle von genetischen, arealen und ethnokulturellen Faktoren in Entstehung und Evolution des Jiddischen" appearing in _Elis_e_ [Essener Linguistische Skripte -- elektronisch] Jahrgang 1, Heft 2, 2001, Seite 55-66. This paper can be seen at http://www.elise.uni-essen.de. Email address of the journal: elise@uni-essen.de. 2) On Perets'"Reb Yoykhenen Gabe" [ed.] 3) "Reb Yoykhenen gabe" (Y.-L. Perets) [romanized by Morrie Feller] Perets' story "Reb Yoykhenen gabe" may be read in Yiddish letters at http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~mendele/onkelos/gabe.pdf. 4) Mado Le Gall's Yiddish documentary film _MOSHE ZALCMAN, UN MENTSH_ [Moyshe Zaltsman, a mentsh] [ed.] 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 31 January 2002 From: Vulf Plotkin Subject: Is Yiddish a "Mixed" Language? Is Yiddish a "Mixed" Language? by Prof. Vulf Plotkin, D.Sc. (Philology) It is common knowledge that Yiddish has been an object of disparagement since its early days, with its native speakers,alas,in the first ranks of the depreciators. For how could the lowly _mameloshn_ compete with the exalted _loshnkoydesh_, and how could the enlightened maskilim grant a status even remotely comparable to that of Hochdeutsch to what they labelled as the "jargon"? Regrettably, linguistic science has contributed to this widespread disregard. Professor Ronald Loetzsch was right to criticize mainstream Germanistic studies for ignoring Yiddish (see his _Jiddisches Woerterbuch_, Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, 1990, p. 17). True, there has lately been a welcome change for the better: Yiddish was allotted equal space in the authoritative compendium by Professor Claus-Juergen Hutterer (_Die germanischen Sprachen_, Budapest: Akademiai Kiado, 1990), two German universities (Trier and Duesseldorf) opened Yiddish departments, and Yiddish programmes are offered at several other universities. However, old habits die hard, and attempts to deny Yiddish equal place among its kindred languages continue, finding a new guise recently in the description of Yiddish as a "mixed" language (see "Was ist Jiddisch?" at the website of the Duesseldorf University ). To a layman this epithet might appear innocuous, for the Yiddish vocabulary with its three genetically distinct layers of Germanic, Semitic and Slavic words is obviously heterogeneous; but from the linguistic viewpoint "mixed" is a flawed descriptor. No language is immune to penetration of words from other languages. All languages are therefore more or less "mixed". The vocabulary of English is mainly of Romance origin, yet English is clearly a Germanic language. Vocabulary is only one of the three constituents jointly shaping the system of a language, and it is not the most important among them. Of far greater import are grammar, which provides the structural patterns for speech messages, and phonology, which gives the messages uniform sound shape. English grammar and pronunciation, unlike the vocabulary, have proved practically impregnable to specifically French grammatical constructions and sounds. Thus, heterogeneous (or, if you prefer, "mixed") vocabularies are common to many languages, but they are unable by themselves to make the entire language "mixed". The grammatical and sound systems of a language cannot be "mixed": they would be unable to function smoothly without inner structural consistency. Alien elements can be incorporated into these two systems only selectively, provided they do not conflict with the overall structure of the recipient system. Let us then look at Yiddish grammar and pronunciation from that standpoint. There could be no significant Semitic impact on these two constituents of the Yiddish language, because Hebrew was not a spoken language in Yiddish-speaking communities. Words can be borrowed from written texts (as seen, for example, in English "inkhorn" loanwords from Latin), whereas speech sounds and grammatical forms can be transferred from one language to another only by bilingual speakers. While no traces of Hebrew influence can be found in the pronunciation of Yiddish, the latter, being a spoken language, deeply affected the sound shape of Hebrew in its Ashkenazi version. The only manifestation of Hebrew influence on Yiddish grammar is the plural ending -im of borrowed masculine nouns, e. g. _beged_ / _begodim_ 'clothes'. However, an ending is not fully incorporated into the grammar of the recipient language as long as its use remains restricted to the borrowed words together with which it came. True, there are Yiddish nouns of non-Hebrew origin that take -im in the plural (e. g. _dokter_ / _doktoyrim_ 'physician/s'), but they are very few. The Semitic impact on the grammar system and the sound shape of Yiddish is negligible. Since most Yiddish speakers in Eastern Europe spoke a Slavic language (Polish, Slovak, Ukrainian, Belarussian, later Russian) in everyday life, the Slavic impact on Yiddish grammar and pronunciation was considerable. In pronunciation the most important manifestation of this is perhaps the loss of the common Germanic distinction of long vs. short vowels. The emergence of Yiddish palatalized consonants and a wider use of affricates and sibilants is sometimes also ascribed to Slavic influence, but these innovations are known to have appeared in some other Germanic languages without outside influence. The Slavic impact on the grammar of Yiddish has not affected all its parts to the same degree; it is strong in some, while absent in others. The morphology of nouns and adjectives is free from it, while in the morphology of the verb the strongest evidence of impact is the reflexive forms. Unlike German, where the reflexive nature of an action is denoted by attaching the reflexive pronoun _sich_ to the verb (e.g. sich rasieren 'to shave oneself'), but like Ukrainian, Belarussian and Russian, which use the verb suffix -s'a/-s' for this purpose, Yiddish designates a reflexive action by the verb suffix -zakh/-tsakh (e. g. _golnzach_, _er goltsakh_ 'to shave oneself, he shaves himself'). This suffix has obviously been derived from the pronoun _zikh_, but it has diverged from the latter in its grammatical nature, usage and pronunciation. While _zikh_ remains in use as a pronoun regularly linked to verbs, yet also capable of being used alone and stressed, -zakh/-tsakh is an unstressed suffix inseparable from the verb. Despite its Germanic origin it is similar in its grammatical nature to its Slavic counterpart, not to its German ancestor. It is highly indicative of the familiar disrespectful approach to Yiddish that the radical change in the grammatical nature and sound shape of the Yiddish reflexive indicator has been ignored by most of the authorities on standard Yiddish. The latter were always inclined to dismiss Yiddish deviations from German standards as inadmissible errors. But it was only natural that in the course of evolving as an independent Germanic language, Yiddish -- like any developing language -- reorganized the grammar system inherited from German. It is therefore improper to apply German standards in prescribing what is acceptable or otherwise in another language. I must apologize to the reader for bringing up a personal experience from an encounter with an adept of "fardaytsht" (germanized) Yiddish, who dumbfounded me by greeting me with "vos hert zikh?" instead of "vos hertsakh?", which is the only pronunciation I have ever heard from a native Yiddish speaker. It is worth mentioning in this connection that an analogous development of the reflexive indicator took place in the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic languages, where the old reflexive pronoun _sik_ (clearly kindred to German _sich_ and Yiddish _zikh_) has also split into two distinctly different language units: alongside the independent pronouns _sig_ or _seg_ a verb suffix has evolved from _sik_ through -sk to modern -st or -s (e.g. Icelandic _finnast_, Swedish _finnas_ 'find oneself'). Attention should be drawn to the fact that this Scandinavian development, so evidently analogous to what happened in Yiddish, was not caused by outside influence, it was an evolutionary process whose motive forces lay within the grammatical system of the language. It is therefore plausible that the change in Yiddish may not have been caused by Slavic influence, but could be the product of internal systemic evolution. To sum up, Yiddish is undoubtedly a full and equal member of the Germanic language group, which is a branch of the Indo-European language family, and there are no grounds for mitigating this definitive characterization by exaggerating the role of non-Germanic elements in its basic systemic structures. 2)------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 31 January 2002 From: Leonard Prager Subject: On Perets'"Reb Yoykhenen gabe" [ed.] On Y.-L. Perets' "Reb Yoykhenen gabe" Reading the Story in 2002 Does Perets' story "Reb Yoykhenen gabe," written almost a century ago, continue to resonate as it surely did among its first readers? Here is a fable wherein the lowest of human creatures, a beggar, questions God Almighty and appears to have the better argument. The underdog as hero, the dispossessed who learns to articulate his hurt and make claims, is one strand of the story. Another is the subtle corruption of religion by smugness: the narrow piety of the titular hero contributes to the death of a fellow human being. The character sketch of the protagonist emphasizes his self-indulgence and his manipulative relationship with his wife. But this pillar of the community is not positively evil; he is simply very limited. The social and ethical dimensions of the story are today less simple than they once were. Today the story touches a virtually insoluble problem. What society has solved the problem of the homeless? The Jewish State certainly has not. What is the distributive formula for caring for spiritual, intellectual, aesthetic needs while simultaneously satisfying basic physical ones? In reality a synagogue cannot be turned into a dormitory just as an art gallery cannot serve as a soup kitchen. For the modern reader the most profound element in Perets'story must be the absence of final judgement upon the contending figures, the self-righteous sexton and the victimized beggar. These archetypes are still with us and they are still pitted against one another. The Victim A homeless beggar freezes to death in the street. It is no accident that Berl ben Yehudis is in the street, rather than in a place of shelter. He tells us, "ikh hob gevolt geyn in bes-hamedresh arayn nekhtikn, azoy vi men iz zikh geveyntlekh noyeg bay yidn." ['I wanted to spend the night in the House of Study. as is generally the custom among Jews']. In the yeshive of Lamed Shapiro's "Gegesene teg," the students sleep on benches in the besmedresh, which was often the synagogue as well. In many Yiddish stories indigent male travelers and beggars of every stripe use the local besmedresh as their hostel. Alternatively the poor and sick lodge in the shtetl's "hegdesh," ['poorhouse']. In real life, shtetls differed greatly from one another and they are not identical in Perets' fiction either. In "Reb Yoykhenen gabe," the removal of the traditional shelter with no substitute provided is a radical break with custom. Berl is the son of "Yehudis" [Judith], who may be symbolically understood as the Jewish people conceived as mother. Perets seems here to be saying that bourgeois notions of respectability, tidiness and cleanliness have warped a timeless communal solidarity. The story's most dramatic moment comes when Berl, addressing God with the familiar singular pronoun _du_, asks: "reboyne-sheloylem, ver badarf gikher hobn dos besmedresh, du oder ikh?" [God Almighty, who needs the House of Study more, you or me?] This utterance is for many readers the story's moral center. As in much of the early Perets, the ablility of the oppressed to express their pain is liberating. This is Perets' secular hasidism: religion must serve man and not a clerocracy, mere ritual or edifaces. Judgement The story summons the ritualist and the pauper before the Sublime Court, emblematic of an ideal justice that human society cannot dispense. But we don't know what the judgement is to be. Surely eternal damnation, _genem_ does not await the sexton. Were vanity and self-serving to be proscribed in all of society's philanthropic efforts, the collections would be catastrophically diminished -- to the hurt of the needy. One might perversely argue that the sexton was protecting his congregation from diseases brought from outside and even that he was helping his fellow-Jews maintain the crucial distinction between the sacred and the profane ["koydesh vekhol"] by keeping the besmedresh a "sanctuary" as distinct from an asylum. Exclusion from the House of Study would not have been sinful had alternative arrangements been made. Drunk with pleasure at his own altruism, the sexton failed to see that good intentions may have evil results. The Smug Protagonist (C'est nous, les lecteurs?) The sexton has an "ideal death" -- no _mise-meshune_ ['mean death'] for him. He dies in his sleep after a good meal and after reassuring himself he has done everything possible to win ample points of merit in _ganeydn_ [Paradise] for himself and for his wife. Manipulative, he "volunteers" his wife's khupe-kleyd [wedding gown] to make a new cover for the Torah Scroll without first asking her for it. He is an "arranger" and he believes he can "arrange" his salvation as well -- presumably he will be made aware of his shallowness and self-centeredness at his heavenly trial. His ordering the locking of the besmedresh door to keep out the "orkheporkhe" [wandering beggars] may be a class prejuduce disguised as highmindedness. But this sexton is not a villain. Unlikeable though he is, he is no less "human" than the suffering beggar. It is not so much paupers that he despises as it is "foreign" ones. Ironically, he sins through pursuing certain mitsvos [commandments]. He has selected these mitsvos as against upholding the rooted custom of allowing "medine-geyers" [wandering beggars] to spend the night in the House of Study. Our modern readers of the tale will generally be middle class and comfortable. They will be fully in sympathy with the beggar and incensed at the sexton. But they might also pause to reflect that the opening of one's shul -- of one's heart -- without letting it be engulfed by insatiable Want is no easy matter. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 31 January 2002 From: Morrie Feller Subject: Y.-L. Perets' "Reb Yoykhenen gabe" reb yoykhenen gabe(1) (a maysele) fun y.-l. perets mid, ongehorevet fun koolisher arbet, iz reb yoykhenen gabe gekumen aheym. in der kikh iz im shoyn akegngekumen der reyekh fun esn, funem fleysh un di gekokhte epl. un er iz shnel gegangen vayter in dem tsveytn tsimer arayn, dort hot im ober dos vayb zayns, soshe, nisht frayntlekh oyfgenumen. -- batlen! -- hot zi geshrign mit gebeyzer vi der gabe hot zikh nor gevisn oyf der shvel. -- vos beyzerst dikh azoy? -- hot zi der gabe gefregt, vernd er hot zikh anidergezetst oyf a benkl opruen. -- er fregt nokh, vos ikh beyzer mikh! tomed bistu farnumen mit kool-zakhn un vestu, batlen, epes tun far dir? -- far mir? -- hot zikh der gabe gevundert -- vos hob ikh den far mir tsu tun? undzere kinder zenen shoyn, borekh-hashem, zelbstshtendike mentshn un undz aleyn, dakht zikh, felt oykh gornisht... un vos hob ikh tsu tun? -- arumkukndik zikh in shtub, git er nokh tsu: dos bet ze ikh tsugebet on mir, di keylim zenen oysgeputst on mayn hilf; di vent hob ikh afile nisht ongerirt un ikh ze dokh nisht oyf zey keyn pitsl shpinvebs. der tish iz shoyn tsugegreyt. dos tishtekh iz vays vi shney, di gopl-meser un di lefl blishtshen vi gold. ikh ze oykh a gemakhtn retekh, abisl geribenem khreyn, a fleshl bronfn... -- her shoyn oyf mit dayne greymen un gey dikh beser vashn! -- neyn, soshe, ikh vel mikh nisht frier geyn vashn, biz du vest nisht aleyn moyde zayn, az ikh bin gerekht. do in der heym hob ikh gornisht vos tsu tun, ober dort in dem bes-hamidresh hob ikh a sakh tsu tun, vayl ver vet zikh dermonen opgebn, az nisht ikh? efsher yoske kremer, vos hot nisht keyn mol keyn tsayt afile tsu esn? tsi efsher yekhiel der dorfneyer, vos geyt avek fun der heym shabes-tsu-nakhts teykhef nokh havdole un kumt aheym ersht fraytik in der shpet? tsi efsher ruvn protsentnik, vos loyft zikh on a gantsn tog tsvishn di oreme layt, tsuzamentsunemen di etlekhe zekserlekh protsent? oder efsher eyner fun di oreme balmelokhes, vos muzn nebekh shver un biter arbetn oyf parnose? -- lomikh shoyn gemakh! ikh bin shoyn nisht beyz... -- shadt nisht. ikh veys, az du(x) bist shoyn nisht beyz. ikh vil dir nokh bavayzn, az ikh tu far maynetvegn oykh. ot kuk, soshe, kuk on mayn vayse bord un peyes! meyn nisht, az ikh bin nokh a yunger mentsh. men muz zikh shoyn take ongreytn in veg arayn... -- in veg arayn? vos far a veg? --fregt soshe farvundert. zi hot zikh ober bald gekhapt, vos er meynt un hot oysgerufn mit shrek: khas-vesholem! khas-vesholem! red nisht, red nisht! al tiftakh pe lasotn! -- hob nisht keyn moyre, soshe. du bist shoyn oykh elter fun 20 yor... un vos veln mir tun, az men vet undz dort fregn, vos mir hobn azoyns getun oyf _der_ velt? vos veln mir oyf dem entfern? efsher veln mir zogn, az mir hobn do gegesn un getrunkn? un vos vet der eybershter zogn? du, lemoshl, vest dikh nokh kenen barimen, az du host eysek geven mit hakhnokhes-kale... -- zay shtil! -- bet zikh soshe. zi hot moyre, es vet ir shatn tsum skhar oyf yener velt. -- iber dem vil ikh oykh tun epes guts... -- zeyer gut, zeyer gut. tu vi du vilst. gey dikh nokh vashn... -- nokh epes -- zogt der gabe vayter -- gedenkst nokh, soshe, dos zaydene khupe-kleyd dayns mit di zilberne pasn? -- tsi ikh gedenk! -- efsher volstu es gegebn oyf a parokhes? -- zeyer gut. ikh gey shoyn... -- vart, soshe-lebn, ikh hob es shoyn aleyn genumen. es hengt shoyn oyfn ornkoydesh! -- ganev! -- shmeykhlt soshe. atsind ersht geyt zikh reb yoykhenen vashn un esn mit apetit. bentsht un geyt shlofn. ___________ reb yoykhenen gabe iz antshlofn gevorn, un zayn neshome iz gefloygn in himl arayn, un hot dort ayngeshribn inem bukh tsvishn di mitsves: ikh, yoykhenen ben-sore, hob gearbet a gantsn tog a heylike arbet, ikh hob mir in zin gehat: ikh un mayn vayb soshe zitsn in a sheyn hoyz, beshas gots hoyz, dos heylike bes-hamedresh, iz boy-felik un badarf a reparatsye. ikh hob iber dem gedungen balmelokhes, dos hoyz tsu reparirn. haynt hot men oykh gebrakht tsvey naye benk un a nayem tish. ikh hob oykh geheysn reynikn di podloge, di vent un ale kley-koydesh. ikh hob oykh anidergeshtelt a nayem laykhter farn omed bay der mizrekh-vant. oyf dem iz geven in der kase besakhakl 300 gildn, dos iberike hob ikh gemuzt derleygn fun mayn keshene -- 45 gildn mit 18 grushn. oyfn kheshbm fun mayn vayb soshe hob ikh gelozt makhn dos zaydene parokhes, khuts hakhnoses-kale, vos zi basheftikt zikh dermit. got zol es ir gedenken tsum gutn! in bes-hamedresh iz altsding geendikt gevorn gants gut. un ikh hob ongezogt dem shames, er zol, kholile vekholile, nisht mer araynlozn keynem nekhtikn in bes-hamedresh, gots hoyz zol nisht mer zayn keyn shlofshtub far 'orkheporkhe'. er zol gedenken tsu farshlisn baynakht dos bes-hamedresh..." reb yoykhenen gabes neshome hot nokh alts geshribn, iz gekumen tsu flien an andere neshome un hot ayngeshribn in ir bukh di dozike verter: "ikh, berl ben-yehudis, bin shoyn a zibetsiker. azoy lang vi ikh hob nor gehat koyekh, hob ikh gearbet oyf parnose. vi ikh bin ober alt gevorn un hob farloyrn dem koyekh, hob ikh shoyn mer nisht gekent fardinen, un hob gemuzt onheybn geyn in di hayzer. tkhiles iz mir afile nisht shlekht geven. ikh hob shtendik gehat tsu esn. di balebatim hobn mikh gut gekent un hobn mikh geshtitst. langzam bin ikh zey ober nimis gevorn, un men hot mir shoyn zeltener derlangt a shtikl broyt! mankhes mol -- a trukns, vos ikh hob es afile nisht gekent tsekayen, vayl ikh hob nisht mer keyn tseyn... ikh hob ayngezen, az ikh vel muzn in mayn shtot shtarbn far hunger, hob ikh mikh avekgelozt fun mayn shtot un bin do ahergekumen. di kelt is geven zeyer groys, un ikh hob gevolt geyn in bes-hamedresh arayn nekhtikn, azoy vi men iz zikh geveyntlekh noyeg bay yidn. der shames hot ober farshlosn di tir, un hot mikh nisht arayngelozt. der gabe hot im ongezogt, er zol nisht lozn keynem nekhtikn in bes-hamedresh, gots hoyz zol nisht vern keyn akhsanye... atsind shlof ikh oyf dem gas un di kelt prest mir aroys dem markh fun di alte fardarte beyner mayne. ikh bin hungerik un es iz mir shreklekh kalt... freg ikh dikh, reboyne-sheloylem, ver badarf gikher hobn dos bes-medresh, du oder ikh?" ___________ un es iz aroys a bas-kol fun himl: "ruft beyde tsum bezdin shel male!" un tsumorgns in der fri hot men gefunen toyt: dem gabe reb yoykhenen bay zikh in der heym oyfn bet; un an altn oreman -- gefroyrn oyf der gas nebn dem bes-medresh... Romanized by Morrie Feller ----------- Endnote 1. y.-l. perets, "yoykhenen gabe (a maysele)," _folkstimlekhe geshikhtn_, _ale verk_, band 5, zz' 310-313.  4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 31 January 2002 From: Leonard Prager Subject: Mado Le Gall's Yiddish documentary film _MOSHE ZALCMAN, UN MENTSH_ [Moyshe Zaltsman, a mentsh], The French documentary producer La Huit has produced a companion Yiddish-language version of its film story of the life and struggles of a Polish Jewish Communist in Poland, France and the Soviet Union. Moyshe Zaltsman's fifty-two minute resume in his native Polish Yiddish of his crushing disillusionment with Soviet communism, including poignant descriptions of his Gulag experiences, is deeply moving. Born in Perets' hometown, Zamosc, in 1908, Zaltsman became politically active as an adolescent and joined the ranks of the Polish Communist Party. In 1929 he was expelled from Poland and emigrated to France, where he continued his political activity among Jewish workers until the French authorities also expelled him -- he was an illegal immigrant. At the recommendation of the Party that he served well in Paris, he was encouraged to continue his career as party militant in the USSR, where he arrived in 1933. In Moscow he discovered a reality he could never have imagined in his darkest dreams. He soon became suspect in the eyes of the regime and during the wave of purges in 1937 was arrested by the NKVD, the political police. He was sentenced to serve ten years in a gulag, from which he emerged in 1947. In 1956 Zaltsman was "rehabilitated" and returned to Poland. In 1960 he settled in Paris in a Yiddish-speaking proletarian neighborhood. Paris still had three Yiddish dailies at that time and supported a vibrant Yiddish cultural life. Working by day as tailor, the trade which had saved his life in the bitter Gulag years, Zaltsman made himself into a writer by night.(*) He was passionately committed to record for his contemporaries and for posterity the true face of Stalin's Soviet Union as he had known it. His video monologue was apparently produced around 1998, when he was 90 years old yet as mentally alive as one could wish. He died in 1999. I was not impressed by the technique of the documentary, which is actually a bit crude, but I was captivated by the sheer force of the interviewee's character and personality, the authenticity of his witness. Moyshe Zaltsman's inner energy and the drive to relate his story are evident throughout the film. I felt an immediate sympathy and rapport with the speaker. The occasional voice of an invisible interrogator was to my mind superfluous though the contemporary newsreel scenes helped to recreate a sense of the period and the places alluded to. La Huit is a small production distribution company and sells the film directly, both the television and non-commercial video rights (VHS cassettes, etc). Anyone interested can contact Stacey Benoit at stacey.benoit@lahuit.fr or at distribution@lahuit.fr. You may also telephone or fax: tel 33 1 53 44 70 88 / fax 33 1 43 43 75 33. -------------------- * Moyshe Zaltsman is the author of five books in Yiddish, four of which have been translated into French and at least three into Hebrew. His Yiddish books are: _un men hot mikh rehabilitirt_ (Tel-Oviv: Yisroel-bukh, 1970); _Yoysef Epshteyn_ [Kolonel Zhil] (Pariz, 1980); _di groyse enderung in yidishn lebn in frankraykh_ [fun der zekstogiker milkhome biz 1980] (Tel-Oviv: Yisroel-bukh, 1981); _bela shapira, di populera froyn geshtalt_ (Pariz, 1983); _mentshn un gesheenishn_ (Tel-Oviv: Yisroel-bukh, 1988). He is best known in France for his _L'histoire veridique de Moshe, ouvrier Juif et communiste au temps de Staline_ (ed. Recherches, 1977) and _Sur le chemin de ma vie_ (Quimperle: La Digitale, 1992). --------------------------------------- End of _The Mendele Review_ 06.001 Leonard Prager, editor Subscribers to _Mendele_ (see below) automatically receive _The Mendele Review_. Send "to subscribe" or change-of-status messages to: listproc@lists.yale.edu a. For a temporary stop: set mendele mail postpone b. To resume delivery: set mendele mail ack c. To subscribe: sub mendele first_name last_name d. To unsubscribe kholile: unsub mendele ****Getting back issues**** _The Mendele Review_ archives can be reached at: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele/tmrarc.htm