_The Mendele Review_: Yiddish Literature and Language (A Companion to _MENDELE_) ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 01.011 4 July 1997 1) Yiddish Matters: From the Editor (Leonard Prager) 2) "Tsi darf men lernen yidish?" (Nokhem Shtif) 3) _Yivo-bleter_ (n.s.) III English abstracts (Dovid Eliyohu Fishman) 4) On the Standard Yiddish Orthography (SYO) (Seth Wolitz) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Friday, 4 July 1997 From: lprager@research.haifa.ac.il Subject: YIDDISH MATTERS: FROM THE EDITOR --Cooperative relationship with _Yivo-bleter_ (n.s.) The central organ of Yiddish research in Yiddish, the renewed _Yivo-bleter_, has entered into a cooperative relationship with _The Mendele Review_ and in future issues -- guided by reader requests -- we will translate or summarize selected articles. In the present issue of _The Mendele Review_ we are happy to reproduce the English abstracts of _Yivo-bleter_ (new series), Vol. III. This volume is the first to be edited jointly by Dovid Eliyohu Fishman and Avrom Novershtern; vols. I and II appeared in 1991 and 1994 respectively and were edited by Dovid Eliyohu Fishman. The main theme of the third volume is "Khurbn lite" (which we translate as 'The Shoa in Lithuania' while remembering that Yiddish _Lite_ is not precisely present-day Lithuania). The issue is especially rich in materials relating to the late Max Weinreich, one of the great figures of Yivo both in Vilna and in New York. Copies may be ordered for $18 (eighteen dollars) from the Workmen's Circle Book Center, 45 East 33rd Street, New York, NY 10019. __ About Nokhem Shtif and his _Yidn un yidish_ _Yidn un yidish_ attempts in its 118 pages to explain in the simplest language what such abstruse terms as "Yiddishism" and "Hebraism" mean. (The first edition carried the title _Yidish und yidn oder ver zaynen "yidishistn" un vos viln zey? poshete verter far yedn yidn_). The author demonstrates his skill in making complex and theoretical matters clear and concrete. He uses folk sayings, folk songs, proverbial expressions -- the entire idiom of everyday speech -- to register his arguments. We give here the "Introduction" and the section "Do Jews Have to Study Yiddish?" The latter reminds us that four generations ago the charge that Yiddish was not a language, that it possessed no grammar was common among large sectors of supposedly educated Jews. Such absurdities are still heard -- but rarely from _educated_ persons. In 1919 when the book was written, the Yiddishist movement had gathered considerable momentum since the 1908 conference in Tshernovits and Shtif writes with confidence. He instructs his readers in some of the basic principals of linguistics -- a language is neither less nor more of a language by virtue of its having a written grammar. In 1919 there were many millions of Yiddish-speakers but no contemporary book-length grammar; today we have a number of fine grammars (though Yiddish has not yet been fully described), but sadly lack millions of speakers. Starting out as a Zionist, Shtif later became an influential socialist-territorialist and ended his days in academic (and politically vulnerable) work in the Soviet Union, where he never found his place. Of the four main founders of the Yivo in Vilna in 1925 (Zalmen Reyzn, Nokhem Shtif, Eliyohu Tsherikover and Max Weinreich), Nokhem Shtif (1879-1933) is the acknowledged initiator. The author of _Yidishe stilistik_ ('Yiddish Stylistics') and the editor of the Kiev linguistic journal _Di yidishe shprakh_ (from 1926-1930) and its successor _Afn shprakhfront_ (from 1931-1933), he wrote widely (sometimes under the name Bal-Dimyen) and was a prolific translator as well. His essays are scattered in many publications and form a body of some of the most interesting (and in the case of many of the Soviet-period essays, controversial) philological and linguistic work in Yiddish. Above all he was an accomplished Yiddish stylist. --Standard Yiddish Orthography The above selections by Nokhem Shtif were regularized to conform to the Standard Yiddish Orthography, the spelling standard followed today by the leading Yiddish journals. There seems little point to write "yoren hoben yiden geret" (as Shtif does) simply because this was the practice before spelling reform arose and before we learned to write "yorn hobn yidn geredt." Max Weinreich once summed up the main reasons for a standardized spelling: comprehension, orderliness and _shprakhikayt_ ('being as "regular" as any other accepted language'). Time may have dulled some of these reasons but there remain esthetic, pedagogical and practical ones. Moreover, it seems idle to refight yesterday's orthographic wars when so many more important issues claim the attention of all those interested in Yiddish language and literature. But scholars like Seth Wolitz deserve a fair hearing for their doubts about the spelling issue. He is certainly right that for certain purposes one wants an old-spelling text and not a regularized one. For such special purposes, agreed, the text must be let alone. 2)-------------------------------------------------- Date: Friday 4 July 1997 From: Leah Krikun (leyim@netvision.net.il) Subject: Nokhem Shtif, "Hakdome" and "Tsi darf men lernen yidish?" from his _Yidn un yidish_ 2nd ed. (Warsaw 1920). Hakdome ('Introduction') Hunderter yorn hobn yidn geret yidish, gefreyt zikh un gedayget oyf yidish, gehandelt un gevandlt, a velt oysgeven oyf zeyer shprakh -- oyf yidish. Mames hobn mit "Unter Soreles vigele" kinder farvigt, oyf yidish hot men gelernt in khadorim, in yeshives, in kloyzn un bote-medroshim, toyre un sforim fartaytsht, oyf yidish hobn rabonim un geonim toyre un muser gezogt far dem oylem, oyf yidish zenen geven geshribn muser-sforim, a gants helft fun dem yidishn folk, undzere mames, hobn dem yidishn khumesh, dem _Tsenerene_ geleynt, oyf yidish hobn zey afile zeyere hartsike tfiles, tkhines, gezogt. A kitser oyf yidish hobn yidn a velt oysgefirt, un keynem iz nisht ayngefaln optsufregn, tsi iz rekht azoy, tsi iz take yidish undzer sprakh un tsi darfn mir efsher gor hobn an ander shprakh? Avade yidish! Vos den? Avade kon men a velt oysfirn nor oyf der shprakh, vos yidn hobn zi fun dor-doyres in moyl, un vos ale yidn farshteyen. Iz den shayekh tsu fregen, lemoshl, tsi iz rekht, vos a mentsh geyt oyf zayne fis, tut mit zayne hent, kukt mit zayne oygn ukhdoyme? Avade azoy, dos iz dokh der derekh hateve! Hobn yidn take nisht gefregt keyn vilde kashes un getun zikh zeyers, un take oyf zeyer shprakh, oyf yidish. Vorum yidish hot gegebn a velt tsu zen. Tsi hobn yidn, lemoshl, gevust fun a velt tsu zogn, eyder s'zenen oyfgekumen yidishe tsaytungen? Ersht, az m'hot ongehoybn drukn tsaytungen un bikhlekh vegn der hayntiker velt oyf yidish, hot a yid gekont visn, vos es tut zikh in politik, in miskher, tsvishn yidn, in lender un tsvishn felker, bikhlal vos tut zikh oyf der gorer velt. Yidn hobn zikh gekont dervisn vos di tsayt fodert fun undz, vi halt es mit yidn, mit zeyere parnoses un mit zeyere gaystik lebn. Vos darfn yidn farlangn, vos tut men az m'zol yidn nit baavlen, az zey zoln oysbesern zeyer matsev ukhdoyme. Haklal, durkh yidish iz a yid geven farknupt un farbundn mit yidn un mit a velt, azoy vi yeder ander ume durkh ir shprakh, un hot gekont zukhn mitlen, vi avoy nisht tsu blaybn hintershtelik fun a velt. Azoy hot zikh gefirt undzer yidish veltl keminhogo, yidn hobn gehaltn, az azoy darf zayn. Vi farvundert darf es itst zayn a yid fun a gants yor, ven mit a mol hert er di letste yorn vegn "yidishistn" un "hebreistn," vegn a "kamf" vos kumt for tsvishn tsvey makhnes in der shul un in talmetoyre, in di bildungs-khevres un kehiles! Vos zol er zikh klern, ven "hebreistn" nemen mit a mol im aynredn, az "Yidish" iz nisht keyn shprakh, nor a shande, a "zhargon," vos m'darf fun im, vos gikher, poter vern? Vos zol er zikh trakhtn, ven er hert vi "hebreistn" zenen maresh-oylemes, az "yidishistn" viln oysmekn undzer gantsn "over" mit der toyre, mit der gantser guter yidishkayt, firn shir nisht tsu shmad? Un zey, di "hebreistn," veln shoyn rateven dos folk Yisroel, ale yidishe kinder veln mit a mol onheybn redn hebreish, vi a vaser, un zey, di "hebreistn," veln undz araynzetsn a naye, koshere hebreistishe neshome! Darf men oyfklern di zakh, az yeder yid zol farshteyn, vos iz dos azoyns "yidishistn," vos men makht zey itst far oykhrey-Yisroel, fun vanen nemen zey zikh, vos viln zey? Un vayter, vos iz dos azoyns "hebreistn," vos far an avles shteln zey oys di "yidishistn" un vos viln zey oysfirn? Zol di zakh arop fun di hoykhe himlen fun partey-khkire oyf dem maymed fun poshetn farshtand, zol yeder visn, fun vos do ret zikh. Vos tsu ton, vet er shoyn aleyn farshteyn. (Nokhem Shtif, "Hakdome" to _Yidn un yidish_, 2nd ed. [Warsaw, 1920], pp. 5-7.) ***** "Tsi Darf Men Lernen Yidish?" (pp. 60-66) by Nokhem Shtif Shteln mir zikh aza frage: m'darf ibergebn ale limudim oyf yidish, der gantser shul-shteyger, lerer mit kinder, kinder tsvishn zikh, darf zayn oyf yidish. Nu, un vos iz mit yidish -- mit der shprakh gufe? Tsi darf men yidish als shprakh far-zikh lernen in der shul? Der seykhl-hayosher zogt deroyf: Avade yo! Vi den andersh? Vil men nutsn di shprakh in azoy fil faln, vil men, az zi zol undz azoy fil dinen in undzer bildung un in lebn, muz men take di shprakh gufe ernst lernen -- mit kinder in di shuln, mit eltere oyf ovnt-kursn ukhdoyme. Kon den a bal-melokhe rekht kenen zayn melokhe un rekht ton a shtikl arbet, az er ken nisht zayn getsayg, az er ken nisht, oder halt nisht reyn, nisht ongesharft zayn hubl, zayn hak, zayn shlayfmeser? Un yidish iz dokh a getsayg, a gaystik getsayg, vos durkh dem kumen mir a velt tsu zen. Kon men den kukn oyf der velt durkh farshtoybte, farshmutsikte fentster? Azoy zogt der seykhl-hayosher. Ober hebreistn zenen dokh nisht mekhuyev tsu geyn mit'n glaykhn veg, leykent men, vi der shteyger iz: yidish? Gor! Ver ken nisht yidish? A yidene in mark kon dokh dos oykh, -- vos iz do faran vos tsu lernen? Un ven hot men es bay yidn gelernt yidish? Iz takhles leygt-zikh dos epes oyfn seykhl: take beemes, ver ken nisht keyn yidish? Der gantser koyekh fun yidish shtekt dokh, eygentlekh, in dem, vos m'ken es. Darf men, heyst es bavayzn, az yidish darf men yo lernen. Nor frier a por verter vegn der shayle fun de hebreisten: ven hot men es bay yidn gelernt yidish? Deroyf kon men entfern: nu, un ven hot men es bay yidn gelernt hebreyish? Yidn hobn bikhlal in khadorim, in yeshives keyn shprakhn nisht gelernt, yidn hobn gelernt khumesh, gemore, veyniker shoyn neviim uksuvim, nor nisht keyn hebreish als a shprakh far-zikh. Dikduk mit melitse, mit metodes, dos hot men nisht gelernt. Yidn hobn fun shprakhn bikhlal keyn vezn nisht gemakht, vorum toyre iz geven vikhtiker un hekher iber alts, memeyle hot men zikh nisht opgegebn spetsiel mit yidish. Fundestvegn darf men zogn, az epes hot men yo gelernt. M'hot, lemoshl, in di khadorim oft gelernt kinder shraybn yidish, m'flegt gebn an afir (a shure-griz) nokhshraybn, s'flegn arayngeyn aheym shraybers, vos flegn lernen yidish, derhoypt meydlekh heyst es, az lernen yidish, leyenen un shraybn, iz afile altmodishe yidn nisht gor fremd, darhoypt, in balebatishn grad. Itst vegn der tayne: ver ken nisht keyn yidish, un vos iz do faran tsu lernen? Oyb m'zol geyn mit di drokhim iz dokh a kashe, tsu vos lernen rusn in zeyere shuln rusish, polyakn lernen -- poylish un dem glaykhn? Vos far a rus ken dos keyn rusish nisht; vos far a polyak ken keyn poylish nisht? Fundestvegn lernen zey yo zeyer shprakh. Iz den a velt meshuge? Nor a velt is take nisht meshuge, un an eygene shprakh darf men take fort lernen, khotsh m'ken zi. Vorum kenen tsu kenen iz nisht glaykh! Shprakh tsu shprakh iz nisht glaykh. S'iz faran a shprakh fun a poshetn, nisht gelerntn mentshn, un a shprakh fun a gebildetn man; s'iz faran a markshprakh un s'iz faran bikhershprakh. M'zogt bay undz oyf eynem, vos ret sheyn: "Perl shitn zikh im fun moyl." Heyst es, az in folk farshteyt men, vos heyst kenen shprakh, un az nisht ale kenen. Un viln mir, az a mentsh zol beemes kenen zayn shprakh, darf men zi mit im lernen, er zol visn ir tifkayt un ir sheynkayt, ir koyekh un breytkayt. A hubl bay a genitn bal-melokhe in der hant, vos ken rekht di melokhe un zayn shtikl getsayg, iz nisht dos zelbe, vos a hubl bay a lernyingl, oder gor an umgenitn mentshn in der hant. Az mir leyenen a bukh fun a yidishn shrayber, fun a Mendele Moykher-Sforim, oder a Sholem-Aleykhem, vos yeder yid kon im, filn mir epes a modne zakh: dakht zikh undzer shprakh, ot dos, vos mir redn tomid, un dokh epes an ander shprakh. Yener iz a shrayber, a talant, a gots gob, veyst er dem sod fun der shprakh, un mir geveynlekhe mentshn darfn zikh lernen dos, vos im kumt fun talant. Vorum beemes haltn mir shtendik in eyn lernen di shprakh, mir bamerken es afile nisht. Eltere lernen kinder, vayzn zey, az aza vort past nisht tsu zogn, in aza gezelshaft darf men azoy redn. Eltere lernen zikh oykh eyns fun dem andern. Zey khapn a vort, an oysdruk, a vertl, m'nasht fun a bukh, -- farvos zol a shprakh zayn erger far a shukh? Un ven hayntike tsaytn farshteyt shoyn yeder, az m'darf geyn a gantsn shukh, un a reynem shukh, farvos zoln mir umgeyn mit an umreyn moyl un shlekht redn, beys m'kon derlangen sheyn redn, sheyn shraybn? Un vi zol men dos oysfirn, ven m'lernt zikh nisht un m'zogt, as m'ken shoyn? Un vider nokh a zakh: der seykhl, der farshtand, hot oysgeshlayft un shlayft vayter di shprakh; vos der mentsh iz kliger, gebildeter, alts raykher un shener iz zayn shprakh, un dos eygene farkert: di shprakh shlayft undzer seykhl, undzer gefil, durkh der shprakh kumen mir tsu banemen a velt mit ir groyskayt un sheynkayt. A kind, az s'dergeyt a nay vort take in zayn gut-bakanter shprakh, a naye vendung, dergeyt es nisht stam a vort, nor a nayem gedank, epes a faynem kneytsh: Es derzet epes a nayem far-zikh, un s'kumt im epes tsu oyf lebn-lang. M'darf lernen di literatur fun a shprakh; dos, vos m'hot geshribn un gedrukt bikher oyf a shprakh. Un oyf yidish iz dokh oykh epes geshribn-gevorn, nisht tsu farzindikn. Kumt men lesof aroys mit dem emesn meyn: Ale sphrakhn -- yo, darf men take lernen, dort iz do vos tsu lernen, ober yidish iz nishto vos! Di alte tayne, vos mir hobn shoyn frier zi gehert: Yidish iz keyn shprakh nisht, s'iz _a zhargon_ a _fardorbn daytsh_, a simen, -- yidish hot keyn gramatik (dikduk) nisht, vegn dem, tsi iz yidish _a zhargon_, a _fardorbn daytsh_, hobn mir shoyn frier gehert un s'loynt nisht ibertsukhazern. Di tayne iz a bilbl oder ameratses. Dos eygene oykh di tayne, az di yidishe shprakh hot keyn gramatik nisht. Reyshis, zenen shoyn avek di tsaytn, ven in a shprakh, derhoypt nokh in a muter shprakh, hot men gezen dem iker-lemud di gramatik. Haynt is dos bikhlal di letste dayge, ver shmuest nokh in a folksshul, vos m'lernt dort alts praktish, un teoryes geyen bikhlal nisht on. Sheynis, iz di gantse mayse, az yidish hot keyn gramatik nisht, a vilde narishkayt. Dos iz dos eygene, vi m'zol zogn, az a yid hot keyn harts nisht, keyn markh nisht, keyn khut-hashedre nisht, vayl s'iz nisht faran keyn anatomye oyf yidish. Keyn bukh vegn anatomye, keyn bukh vegn dem, vi iz geboyt dem mentshns guf, iz nisht faran oyf yidish, ober a yid hot ale eyvrim glaykh mit andere. Vorum nisht dem mentshns kerper shtelt zikh tsunoyf loyt der anatomye, nor farkert di geshribene anatomie iz a bild, a fotografye fun dem mentshns kerper. Anatomye tut nisht oyf keyn shum nayes, zi kukt zikh tsu tsum mentshns guf un bashraybt getray, vos dort tut zikh, vos dort iz beemes faran. Di geshribene anatomye bayt zikh; vos mer di visnshaft kukt zikh tsu un shtudirt flaysik dem guf, zet zi alts mer, alts beser. Der guf, ober, blaybt der zelbiker ale tsaytn. Dos eygene oykh a shprakh un gramatik. Nisht di shprakh lernt zikh bay der gramatik, nor farkert, di gramatik lernt zikh bay der shprakh. Di gramatik bashraybt nor dos, vos zi zet tsu bay der shprakh, nisht mer, punkt azoy vi de anatomye bashraybt dem mentshns guf. A geshribene gramatik, a bukh vegn gramatik, meg nisht zayn, un dokh hot yede shprakh ir gramatik. Azoy vi s'meg nisht zayn keyn bukh vegn anatomye, un derfun vet nisht tsukumen un nisht gemindert vern keyn eyver in a mentshns guf, un azoy vi yede shprakh, di daytshishe, di rusishe un andere zenen geven shprakhn afile damols, ven keyn geshribene gramatik iz nokh nisht geven, dos eygene oykh mit yidish. Yidish kon zayn a shprakh un meg nisht hobn keyn geshribene gramatik, vayl s'hot zikh nokh nisht gefunen der baln, vos zol di shprakh shtudiren un onshraybn di klolim, vos shtekn in der shprakh. Tsi zoln mir zogn, az in der tsayt fun di neviim, ven keyn geshribener dikduk iz nokh nisht geven, hot hebreish keyn gramatik nisht gehat? Tsi derfar, vos s'iz keyn geshribene gramatik nishto, redn oder shraybn yidn an ander shprakh? Ale redn un shraybn glaykh, vorum andersh kon nisht zayn, vorum: dos iz shoyn di teve fun a shprakh. Azoy vi, yeder lebedik bashefenish, vos hot zikh ire feste simonim un klolim. Vos zhe kon es beemes bataytn, ven m'zogt, az yidish hot keyn gramatik nisht? Dos kon hobn nor eyn taytsh: yidish farmogt nokh nisht keyn bikhl, vos oyf dem zol shteyn ongeshribn: _Yidishe gramatik_. Azoy meynen take beemes a sakh yidn, iz dos, ober, oykh a grintlekher toes: yidish hot shoyn maymorim un bikhlekh vegn yidisher gramatik ariber dray hundert yor. Mentshn fun visnshaft, derhoypt, daytshishe gelernte, shtudirn di gantse tsayt di yidishe shprakh un hobn geshribn yidishe gramatik. Gor di letste tsayt zenen geshribn gevorn bikhlekh oyf yidish: _Yidishe gramatik_. Heyst es, yidish iz shoyn kosher lekol hadeyes! Di yidishe shprakh iz geveynlekh fun dem nisht beser, nisht erger gevorn, ober di letste tayne kegn yidish is shoyn oykh opgefaln. Azoy volt es badarft zayn, ven m'zol es beemes meynen ernst mit gramatik. Dos umglik, ober, iz, az m'hot epes faynt, zukht men zikh. Vi zingt zikh in a yidish lidl fun der umgliklekher shnur, vos di shviger zukht oyf ir shtendik khesroynes: Gey ikh pamelekh, Zogt zi: ikh krikh; Gey ikh gikh, Zogt zi: ikh rays di shikh. Ober, lomir arop fun de hoykhe himlen oyf unzer zindiker erd: oyslernen a folksmentsh, er zol konen leyenen a bikhl un onshraybn a brivl oyf yidish, darf men? Heyst es, az m'muz lernen yidish in der shul. Di hebreisten, oder zey leykenen es gor, m'kumt op mit a pizmen, vos iz do faran tsu kenen? Oder m'vil es opkumen beshie-pie: Kh'veys, lernt men dort a sho, oder a por sho in vokh _zhargon_ mit meydlekh. Un tsvishn yo un neyn dershtikt men eyne fun di vikhtikste zakhn far dem folksmentsh, vos on dem kon er zikh nisht bageyn. (Nokhem Shtif, "Tsi Darf Men Lernen Yidish?," _Yidn un yidish_, 2nd ed. [Warsaw, 1920], pp. 60-66) ***** [Romanization by Leah Krikun] 3)-------------------------------------------------- Date: Friday 4 July 1997 From: dafishman@jtsa.edu Subject: _Yivo_bleter_ (n.s.) III: English abstracts Abstracts of _Yivo-bleter_ (n.s.) III (1997) _Khurbn Lite_ The Shoa in Lithuania _Yivo-bleter_ (Naye serye) _Yivo-Bleter_ (New Series) Band III Volume 3 Redaktirt fun Edited by Dovid Eliyohu Fishman David E. Fishman un Avrom Novershtern and Abraham Novershtern Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut Yiddish Scientific Institute -- Yivo. YIVO Nyu-york, 1997 New York, 1997 THE FATE OF YIVO AT A HISTORICAL TURNING POINT (1939-1941) by Israel Lempert New archival sources shed light on the administration and activity of YIVO under Soviet rule. In late 1940, YIVO was incorporated into the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, as the Third Museum and Library of the Institute for Lithuanian Studies. The complex relations between YIVO's Soviet-appointed Curator, Moyshe Lerer, and the President of the Academy of Sciences, V. Kreve-Mickevicius, are examined. DIARY OF THE VILNA GHETTO (FRAGMENT) by Zelig Kalmanovitch Prepared for publication by Shalom Luria Yiddish translation by Avrom Novershtern Kalmanovitch was one of the directors of pre-War YIVO, and a leading intellectual figure in the Vilna Ghetto. This recently discovered fragment of his diary covers the period between May 16 and July 19, 1942, and supplements the previously published portion (available in English in YIVO Annual, volume 8). The new segment chronicles events in the ghetto and Kalmanovitch's forced labor for the Germans as a researcher, translator, and sorter of Judaica books. The entries are interspersed with reflections on God and Jewish historical destiny. AT THIS MOMENT: DR. TZEMACH FELDSHTEIN'S EDITORIALS IN THE VILNA GHETTO (1942-1943) Prepared for publication by David G. Roskies An annotated publication of all extant editorials in _Geto-yedies_ ('Ghetto News'), the officially sanctioned, typewritten weekly in the Vilna Ghetto. In his introduction, David G. Roskies considers the newspaper's editor, Tzemach Feldshtein, and his views on the problems facing the ghetto. Feldshtein was more than a mouthpiece for the policies of Jacob Gens, the German-appointed head of the ghetto; he gave voice to the communal values of mutual responsibility, perseverance, and self-sufficiency, which were held by Lithuanian and Vilna Jewry. HISTORY OF THE KOVNA GHETTO POLICE (SELECTIONS) Preface by Esther Mayerovich-Shvartz Prepared for publication by Dov Levin In August 1941, the Jewish Council of the Kovna ghetto established the ghetto police force to maintain order and enforce the regulations regarding mandatory labor. In 1943, the staff of the ghetto police composed an in-house history of its operations from its establishment until December 1942. The history includes detailed statistics on police personnel, arrests and crime in the ghetto, a digest of police operating procedures, and an account of a public swearing-in ceremony in November 1942, at which each officer vowed "to devote all my energy and experience to the welfare of the Jewish community in the ghetto." OBSERVATIONS ON WEINREICH'S ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF JEWISH STUDIES by David E. Fishman Max Weinreich, the only scholar with formal academic training among the founders of YIVO, was committed to the integration of Yiddish studies, and of Jewish studies at large, with the methods of the modern social sciences. At the same time, he struggled to strike a balance between his elitist academic orientation, and his desire that YIVO be embedded in Jewish communal and cultural life in Poland. MAX WEINREICH - IN SEARCH OF A LIVING PAST by David G. Roskies Weinreich's studies on Old Yiddish literature, published in the 1920's, cultivated awareness of a centuries-old secular Yiddish literary tradition, and had a profound impact on the writing of Itzik Manger, Isaac Bashevis, and Abraham Sutzkever. However, in his post-War magnum opus, _History of the Yiddish Language_, Weinreich retreated from his previous dichotomies between secularity and religion, Yiddish and Hebrew, and forged an integral view of Ashkenazic Jewish culture. MAX WEINREICH: STRUCTURAL LINGUIST AND HISTORIAN OF YIDDISH by Edward Stankiewicz One of Weinreich's prime achievements was the combination of diverse methods and disciplines in the study of language (sociology, Jewish history, historical and structural linguistics). Weinreich's main findings regarding the contribution and role of each of the four components of the Yiddish language (Hebrew-Aramaic, Romance, Germanic and Slavic) are reviewed and evaluated. REMEMBERING DR. MAX WEINREICH by Dina Abramowicz, Abraham Brumberg, Eleanor Gordon-Mlotek, Gabriel Weinreich, Beatrice Silverman-Weinreich, and Joshua A.Fishman Memoirs by Weinreich's students, family members, and YIVO staff provide a multi-faceted portrait of his life and work in Vilna and New York. Several of the essays focus on Weinreich at home and in informal settings, and on the impact of the Holocaust on his personality. YIDDISH FROM A LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE by Max Weinrich The text of an unpublished chapter of Weinreich's _History of the Yiddish Language_, written in 1954. Weinreich later decided to integrate certain portions of this manuscript into various chapters of his _History_. SUPPLEMENT TO MAX WEINREICH'S BIBLIOGRAPHY by Eleanor Gordon-Mlotek and Shmuel Goldenberg A listing of over 600 articles which Weinreich contributed to the Yiddish press, and other items not included in the 1963 bibliography of his works. Of these, the majority are articles published in the _Jewish Daily Forward_ between 1919 and 1959 under various pseudonyms. THE RETURNED PORTION OF THE VILNA YIVO'S ARCHIVE by Marek Web and Eleanor Gordon-Mlotek A survey of the contents of the 63 cartons of YIVO archival materials which were received from Lithuania in February 1995 and January 1996, in accordance with an agreement with the Lithuanian Central State Archives. The bulk of the materials belong to the collections of the YIVO administration, Vilna 'kehile' (Jewish community board), Yiddish Actors' Union, E.R. Kaminski Theatre Museum, Yiddish literature and language, and YIVO's Ethnographic Commission. 4)------------------------------------------------- Date: Friday, 4 July 1997 From: slwolitz@mail.utexas.edu Subject: Standard Yiddish Orthography (SYO) Standard Yiddish Orthography (SYO) I believe that the modern orthography does provide a standardization, but I have found in doing scholarly work in Yiddish that by using the original text with all its orthographical variants, I encounter regionalisms better, the sense of the era and the freedom at play of an emerging literature and language not yet codified and finding its way. The codified orthography came too late! -- only after the war, although Poland provided a standard more or less accepted in the thirties. But even there it was a compromised solution given that the Orthodox agreed to participate so long as the Hebrew-derived word was untouched from its base in Hebrew or Aramaic. The _Musterwerk_ series in Argentina conforms to the new orthography and while it makes reading easier, it also has lost the variants of tone and region of the original published text. I am quite aware that the printer had a hand in how the _oysleyg_ appeared but that too is important. Yiddish belongs to history today and enforcing a standard constructed after the terrible events of its history to make believe that it is still a triumphant living tongue expresses of course determination and nobility but also a refusal to deal with the realities of its fading existence. All editions of Yiddish today are really scholarly editions, for the readers today are students who pour over the text with love and intelligence seeking meaning of a world that was. Standardization is merely an attempt to legitimize the language as a language and eschew the fear that haunted it that it was only a dialect. Ancient Greek in its various practitioners from Homer, Sappho to Aeschylus and later used different _oysleyg_ and even different words and no one attempts really to standardize their Greek. Bashevis uses different articles in many cases from the so-called standard "correct" gendered nouns. And Sholem Aleykhem used so many Ukrainianisms which a Perets must have thought barbarous. But those variants of words as _oysleyg_ has given the linguistic culture of Yiddish its added authenticity. It was a young literature in its writing and it dies a slain young hero. Standardization is an effort to conform to an ideal the language never really achieved in its living glory. The recent spate over the versions of Joyce's _Ulysses_ should be the parallel to our problem. The first version for all its flaws as even Joyce admitted in typos etc. contains the edition which the master saw. Had he corrected the edition, then it would be standardized. But he didn't! And the latter versions are scholarly hunches. Let us not tamper with the Yiddish _oysleg_ today. Let those who still write in Yiddish today use the standard _oysleg_ if they so desire as the expression of their age, but let us not force Mendele or Der Nister to conform to our vision of the true _oysleg_. Anyone who wishes may well see that a Bergelson edition in Soviet _oysleyg_, Berlin _oysleyg_ and Vilna _oysleyg_ each has a different _tam_! Which one is the true one? I would look first at the manuscript. If that does not exist, then I believe the first edition provides the safest course or the one that the author had the most direct hand in editing. Such should be the realities of standardization for our unique culture and language facts. Seth Wolitz ------------------------------------- End of _The Mendele Review_ vol. 01.011 Leonard Prager, editor Please direct all correspondence to: lprager@research.haifa.ac.il