_The Mendele Review_: Yiddish Literature and Language (A Companion to _MENDELE_) ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 02.001 16 January 1998 1) Yiddish Matters: From the Editor (Leonard Prager) 2) A review of Tsvi Kanar's "Opgegebn broyt" (Lucas Bruyn) 3) "dos yor 1942 hot zikh keile ongehoybn geveyntlekh..." [from _Ikh un Lemekh_, 1994, pp. 18-26] (Tsvi Kanar) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 16 January 1998 From: Leonard Prager Subject: Yiddish Matters 1. In this issue It was Lucas Bruyn, one of Tsvi Kanar's most attentive readers, who brought his work to my attention. In this issue of _The Mendele Review_, he discusses the titular long short-story of Kanar's second volume, _Opgegebn broyt_. A selection from Tsvi Kanar's _Ikh un Lemekh_ (pp. 18-26) is also given in this issue. It is a direct continuation of the book's first episode (pp. 9-17), which appeared in _TMR_ vol. 01.028. In the footnotes to that episode I failed to identify the place which Kanar calls "Plashuav," which Hugh Denman in a private communication pinpoints as follows: "Plashuav is undoubtedly the notorious Plaszow Lager reigned over by the unspeakable Amon Goeth and made famous inter alia by _Schindler's List_ and by Roman Frister's best-seller, _Die Muetze_. The camp was in the suburb of the same name in the SE outskirts of Cracow. Plaszow is spelled with an l with stroke through it and an acute accent on the o." 2. In future issues "Opgegebn broyt" will be given in six successive issues of _TMR_ during January and February of this year. Re _TMR_'s romanization: we continue our experiment with Refoyl Finkl's Yiddish Typewriter, whose rules modify somewhat the standard Yivo system. Readers' responses are welcome. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 16 January 1998 From: Lucas Bruyn Subject: Is There Beauty in Shoa Writing?: A review of Tsvi Kanar's "Opgegebn broyt" Lucas Bruyn Is There Beauty in Shoa Writing? Tsvi Kanar. _Opgegebn broyt_, ['Bread for Bread'] [short stories]. Tel-Aviv: Y.-L. Perets, 1996, 155 pp. Illustrations by Yosl Bergner. The author of _Opgegebn broyt_is a professional mime who studied under the French pantomimist Marcel Marceau and who only started writing short stories in Yiddish late in life. He made his debut as a writer in 1983 and has published in several Yiddish magazines since. His first book of short stories, _Ikh un Lemekh_, ['Me and Lemech'] appeared in 1994. The volume's titular story, "Bread for Bread" is more than a short story and not only because of its length. The writer vividly describes a major episode in his struggle to survive during World War Two, including flashbacks to his early childhood years. The story, framed within a chance meeting with a figure from his past, is autobiography, history, novella, and ode. The narrative starts 20 years after the war, when the author, after returning from a successful tour as a mime through Eastern Germany, recognizes the waiter of a West Berlin cafe as the man who liberated him. This chance meeting sets off a train of reminiscences about the liberation and the period before it. The author's story is framed by that of the waiter, told to him while they are walking the streets of Berlin after the waiter has finished work. At the moment of recognition the author has a flashback of their first meeting when he, at the end of the death-march from the concentration camp, on the 8th of May 1945, fell into the hands of a Red Army soldier who forced him to participate in atrocities towards German civilians in an effort to teach him how to take revenge. During their encounter, the waiter -- the former Red Army soldier and the author's liberator -- explains his background, tells about his life before they first met, and tells how the particular night recalled so vividly by the author formed a turning point in his own life. This framing story offers insights into the complexities of a war veteran who changed allegiance several times; it also serves as a backdrop to the author's own story. The contrast between post-war West Berlin at a fashionable cafe and the wartime memories of the author would have been too stark. By contrasting them with the waiter's story, a balance is reached which makes them almost bearable for the reader. The author's own story (which we have to imagine is the story that goes through the main character's mind while waiting for the waiter to finish his shift) is successful, despite the complex ruse -- the intrinsic incompatibility between momentary flashes of memory and well-composed literary reminiscence. The writer tells us about a death-march of the inmates of a concentration camp, an event leading to the final destruction of most of the few who had miraculously survived until then. This leads him to anecdotes predating the departure from the camp, to pre-war childhood memories, his life as Yankele, a very young boy in a Polish shtetl. In these memories we meet the later mime, a talented mimic-impersonator entertaining both passers-by in the market place and his grandmother. Something wholesome is thus added to the terrors described. We see the author not only as the boy Yankele, severely wounded in body and soul by his war experiences, not only as the survivor, but as the reincarnation of himself into the successful silent performing actor and into the writer, teller of stories, into the scrupulous writer of history, Tsvi Kanar. The biographical data given on the backs of Kanar's books inform us that after the war he went to Israel as an "illegal" settler, became a kibbutznik, served in the army and navy, attended art school and completed his studies in Europe. At present he lives in Tel-Aviv. Tsvi Kanar writes in the language of his childhood, Yiddish, interspersed with Polish. He is one of the few living, modern Yiddish writers. The Yiddish language is often proclaimed to be dead as a literary language or predicted to be so soon. If we regard Kanar as a latter-day writer of an almost extinct language, we have to view him as a last exponent of a great literature and judge him against his famous predecessors. One classic Yiddish writer that comes to mind is Sholem-Aleykhem, and a comparison between his _Motl peysi dem khazns_ and "Opgegebn broyt" is less far fetched than it might first appear. Tsvi Kanar's "Yankele" and Sholem-Aleykhem's "Motl" are both from traditional Eastern-European Jewish families; both tell stories about their world in a detached way, as observers rather than participants. They are both children living in a world of grownups and they make the best of it, "Motl" despite the death of his father and extreme poverty and "Yankele" despite concentration camps and the death-march. It would be going too far to depict "Opgegebn broyt" as the third book of the two-part _Motl peysi_ novel [e.g. _Motl peysi inem khurbm_ 'Motl Peysi during the Shoa'], but there certainly is continuity in the style of writing and the way of presenting the story. Motl tells us about his life, shifting from one story to the other, seemingly oblivious of the reader, following his own line of thought and association. He is not an autobiographic figure, but obviously so much loved by his creator that an identification between him and Sholem-Aleykhem is inevitable. "Yankele" has the same style of narration and is slightly less removed from Tsvi Kanar than "Motl" from Sholem-Aleykhem. Both authors are professional storytellers of the traditional kind that know how to captivate their audience, not in the first place by content, but by their skill. Both authors speak to us in simple, straightforward language, with an artless and natural beauty. Masters of the Yiddish language, they can afford to introduce colloquialisms and foreign words into their prose. Having compared one of the greatest and one of the latest Yiddish writers, it is only fair to note that Kanar's Yiddish may have suffered from the isolation of Yiddish as a spoken language since the war. Kanar's choice of words may be less rich than that of his predecessors, we might miss some of the amazing improbabilities of Yiddish syntax encountered in "classic" literature, but his language is nevertheless readable, natural and modern. Talking about "modern Yiddish" another writer comes to mind, the late Isaac Bashevis Singer and by association, his work _Der knekht_ with its main character Yakov. Although this work was written after the war, both in its style, which is highly romantic and in its language which is extremely literary, it reflects a lost era. When one compares the original Yiddish version with the authorized English translation the differences are striking. Many details were ignored in order to present the work to a modern audience. Cumbersome sentence constructions have been simplified, religious references have been dropped, descriptive details have been omitted. Many of the changes in the translation were required because _The Slave_ is an historic novel located in a time and region not familiar to the general reader. However, the difference in use of language between Singer and Kanar is fundamental. Kanar writes modern Yiddish, "prost un poshet" Yiddish that can be translated into other languages without any difficulty, because Kanar is a modern man who wants to be heard, who has a story to tell to us and future readers. Kanar can relate horrendous, atrocious stories in such a way that they somehow acquire a poetic, musical quality. The presence of this quality does not diminish the seriousness of the content. This gift somehow reflects the mime player who impersonates the perpetrator of a crime or acts out the dying of a butterfly apparently only to make his public smile. It would be wrong to suggest that Kanar in his stories about the Shoa brings out an aspect of beauty dormant in the subject itself. His art is that he is able to bring across his stories in such an aesthetically satisfying way that we are deeply struck by the beauty of his performance. This enables us to face the horrors described without turning our heads away in disgust and shame. His stories should be read, in the first place, for their historic content. They especially deserve to be read because they are written well. 3------------------------------------------------------- Date: 16 January 1998 From: Leak Krikun Subject: "dos your 1942 hot zikh keile ongehoybn geveyntlekh..." [from _Ikh un Lemekh_ (1994), pp. 18-26] by Tsvi Kanar Tsvi kanar dos yor 1942 hot zikh keile ongehoybn geveyntlekh far di yidn in slome, in farglaykh tsu di letste teg fun dem altn yor. volt zikh itst mitamol bavizn a fremder, tsi gor a malekh fun himl un a kuk aropgegebn fun oybn, volt er gemeynt az dos shtetl slome vos ligt ayngetulyet untern tifn shney, vos bloyz der shpits fun kloyster shtaygt aroys, gehert biklal nisht tsu keyn virklekhkayt, nor tsu epes a maysele far kinder. volt er aropgenidert a bisl nideriker volt er gekont zen nisht vayt funem kloyster tsvey kaylekhdike kupoln vos shtartsn aroys fun an altn firkantikn binyen, vi a zeykher fun an alt ekzotish land. baym arayngang oyf der tir funem binyen volt er gekont leynen, in oysgekritste, halb-oysgemekte goldene oysyes, dem ershtn gebot fun di tsen: "a~n~o~y~k~h~i..." un akegn iber dem gebot "loy sirtsekh." volt er zikh gut tsugekukt, volt er gezen az di tir funem binyen iz farshlosn oyf zibn shleser un az shoyn fun lang nutst men shoyn nisht dos dozike heylik hoyz. volt er a kuk geton, oyf der tsveyter zayt shtot, volt er gezen vi kinder glit|shn zikh oyf dem farfroyrenem taykh, un shlitlen zikh oyf dem barg vos grenetst zikh mit di hayzer fun shtot. er volt befeyresh gekont zen vi teyl kinder tsien nisht aroys zeyere shlitlekh biz tsum shpits barg vi di andere kinder tuen, kedey fun dort zikh tsurik aroptsushlitlen, nor blaybn mitamol shteyn in mitn barg, vi zey voltn moyre gehat zikh tsu dernentern biz tsum shpits, un shlitlen zikh arop funem halbn barg. fun onhoyb volt er nisht farshtanen vos s'kumt do for. ober ven er volt abisl mer oyfgemakht di oygn volt er gezen az in mitn barg shteyt a slup mit an oyfshrift: "akhtung! es iz shtreng farbotn far yidn tsu farlozn dem shetekh fun shtot! far farlozn di shtot kumt toyt|shtrof!" er, der fremder, tsi der malekh, volt oykh gekont zen, az di yidn in shtot bavegn zikh bloyz oyf itlekhe gasn arum dem mark. az keyn berd mit peyes trogn zey nisht, vi amol, un oykh nisht keyn lange kapotes mit yidishe kaylekhdike hitelekh, un az oyf di orems trogn zey vayse bender mit bloye mogn-doveds. er volt nokh a sakh zakhn gekont zen un zikh ibertsaygn, az dos shtetl slome iz biklal nisht keyn maysele far kinder, vi s'hot zikh im oysgedakht fun der hoykh. un -- s'volt far im beser geven er zol zikh vos shneler optrogn, ahin fun vanen er iz gekumen. volt zikh itst, in mitn khoydesh yanuar, der krig farendikt, volt men haynt tsu tog gezogt as ot di milkhome iz geven a zeyer shreklekhe milkhome. tates, mames, bobes un zeydes voltn gehaltn in eyn dertseyln mayses far zeyere kinder un kindskinder, vos di shtot slome hot mitgemakht. eyniklekh voltn tsu fusns fun zeyere bobes zikh tsugehert mit ofene mayler, biz shpet in di nekht arayn, vegn di maysem-neroem, vi azoy ment|shn zenen farvandlt gevorn in khayes un gefresn eyner dem andern. derbay volt men dray mol oysgeshpign un tsugegebn: "nisht haynt gedakht". beshum oyfn volt men nisht moykhl geven dem mayrevdikn groysn shokhn-land, tsu vos far a nisyoynesn er hot undz tsugebrakht. di makhloykesn in shtot voltn efsher ongegangen bizn hayntikn tog, ver s'iz yo tsi nisht gerekht geven. tsi hot men yo tsi nisht gedarft mitarbetn mitn retseyekh. ken zayn az teyl ment|shn volt men arayngeleygt in kheyrem, zey oysgeshlosn fun klal yisroel. un efsher volt men gor zey ale moykhl geven? vayl oykh zey, di bashuldikte, voltn gehat zeyere taynes, un bashuldikt gor di azoy-gerufene sheyne yidn, vos beshas tsore hobn zey fun zikh aropgevorfn yeder min akhrayes farn kohol un geshtanen in a zayt, shtot tsu hobn mut tsu shteyn oyg oyf oyg mitn soyne. men volt haynt zikher gefayert, yeder yor, tsvishn khanike un purim, a nayem nes-yontef mit zogn halel, vos men iz poter gevorn fun a nayem homen. gedankt dem hashem yisborekh vos hot vider bavizn nisht tsu farlozn zayn folk yisroel. alts volt geshtimt vi es vert gebrengt in di heylike sforim. es hot zikh ober gor andersh opgeshpilt.... der khoydesh yanuar iz nokh kemat nisht gehat farbay, vi mit amol hot zikh tseshpreyt a klang in shtot az in kurtsn vet men durkhfirn an "aktsye". keyner hot nisht gevust vos dos iz azoyns "an aktsye", un keyner hot nisht gevust fun vanet der klang shtamt. geven azelkhe vos hobn gezogt az di gantse ideye iz nisht mer vi stam a hamtsoe fun gelbordn far a nayer parnose. vos mer teg es zenen farbay, alts mer hot men geredt vegn an aktsye, biz keyner hot mer nisht getsveyflt az an aktsye vet forkumen. nor vos dos iz, hot keyner nisht gevust, nisht gekont zikh forshteln. hobn zikh yidn gebrokhn di kep un an umheymlekher shoyder hot arumgekhapt fun groys biz kleyn. teyl hobn gezogt az an aktsye meynt -- a min pogrom rakhmone-litslan. di es-es faln on oyf a shtetl un brengen um vemen zey trefn, genoy vi in di tsaytn fun khmelnitski. andere vider hobn getaynet az se vet forkumen an "oyszidlung," fun a teyl, tsi fun ale yidn. vu ahin hot keyner nisht gevust. tsvishn purim un peysekh hobn zikh naye klangen farshpreyt. ver s'hot zey farshpreyt hot vider keyner nisht gevust. dos mol hot men di klangen nisht tsepoykt oyfn koyl, nor shtil zikh geshushket oyfn oyer, vi a groysn sod, kedey khas-vesholem, nisht ontsumakhn keyn behole. men hot zikh gesoydet az pren vos in ergets vayt, vayt, oyf yener zayt bug, in ukraine, oyf di naye farnumene gebitn, kumen for meshunedike groyl-maysem kegn yidn. me zogt, un derbay hot men dray mol oysgeshpign, az men koylet dort oys gantse kehiles. alts iz ober geven azoy nisht klor, vi a sakh zakhn zenen demolt nisht geven klor. bloyz gelbord, der moser, hot geredt klore diburim: "yidn, s'toyg in dr'erd!" -- flegt er zogn, der iker beys er iz geven begilufin. un begilufin iz er tomed geven. der rov fun shtot, reb yudl, flegt zikh gut tsuhern tsu zayne reyd. un nokh yedn aza zog, vos der moser hot aroysgelozt fun zayn moyl hot der rov oysgerufn a tones b|tsiber. "tonesem veln helfn vi a toytn bankes!" hot der moser gelakht, got hot oysgedreyt dem dashek un makht zikh keleyode...." un vos vet yo helfn, panye gelbord?" hot der rov fun groys pakhed mit a mol opgegebn koved dem nayem meylekh, titulirndik im pan. -- "gornisht rebe vet helfn! alts iz farloyrn!!" der rov iz geven der eyntsiker yid in shtot far vemen der moser hot nokh gehat a shtikl derekh-erets. dos letste yor hot er dem altn rov mit der rebetsn oysgehaltn mit parnose. er hot oykh bashitst dem rov fun di dayt|shn far trogn a bord mit peyes, mamesh biz tsu der letster minut, vayl trogn a bord mit peyes iz geven shtreng farbotn. di yidn in slome hobn in onhoyb nisht gegloybt, oder nisht gevolt gloybn, in di ale oysterlishe klangen. ober bislekhvayz, ven es zenen ongekumen mer bagleybte ideyes, vi lemoshl az men hot aroysgeshikt a transport mit ment|shn funem krokever geto in an umbakanter rikhtung arayn, hobn zikh di slomer yidn ongekhapt in alts vos men kon zikh onkhapn, abi zikh tsu rateven.... gelbord hot itst gefunen a naye parnose. er iz gekumen tsu di farmeglekhe yidn, nisht bloyz fun slome, nor oykh fun de arumike shtetlekh in meylekh-elyens giter, un zey forgeshlogn, far gut gelt, farshteyt zikh, zey, oder zeyere zin, zoln vern politsyantn, oder mitglider inem yudnrat un azoy arum zikh rateven mit zeyere mishpokhes fun vern avekgeshikt. er hot zey farzikhert, az dem yudnrat vet men nisht rirn. tsveytns, gelbord hot nisht gedarft tsu zey kumen, zey zenen tsu im aleyn gekumen, zikh gebetn, un im gefaln tsu di fis vi far a kenig, er zol zey rateven. tsu Avrem byelitskin, vu er hot im shoyn eyn mol kloymersht opgeratevet, is gelbord aleyn gekumen mit dem forshlag, az zayne tsvey zin, Lemekh mit berlen, zoln vern politsyantn, un azoy arum oprateven zayn mishpokhe. der shtoltser avrem byalitski, der gvir fun slome, hot faynt gehat dem moser sines-moves bizn tsentn dor arayn. in normale tsaytn volt zikh aza grobyan vi gelbord nisht dervagt afile aribertsutretn di shvel fun zayn hoyz. haynt ober iz er der kenig fun di yidn, mishteyns gezogt. hot zikh avrem byalitski getrakht un derbay aropgelozt di oygn, kedey nisht ontsukukn dem mosers treyfene ponem. "vos kvenklt ir zikh azoy, reb Avrem|t|she?" -- hot im der moser gefregt mit a beyzik gelekhterl, "vos? kh'farlang efsher tsu fil gelt? me veyst! ale veysn az ir halt bagrobn gantse oytsres, nisht bloyz in dr'erd, nor oykh bay di pritsem un bay di poyerem in di derfer. gloybt mir, reb Avrem|t|she, az se vet aykh fun dem ales gornisht blaybn! zey veln aykh gornisht tsurikgebn di goyem, afile nisht nokh der milkhome. un s'iz nokh a groyse frage tsi mir yidn veln biklal derlebn biz nokh der milkhome? dervayl darf men rateven vos me kon rateven!" hot der moser geredt mayse kohol-farzorger. "oyb azoy, panye gelbord", hot im avrem byalitski beeyn breyre opgegebn koved rufndik im "panye," anshtot moshke khazir dvoshes, vi m'hot im amol gerufn oyf zayn mames nomen, vayl er iz nokh vi a pitsele kind gevorn a yosem, "oyb azoy, oyb ir meynt b|emes, az mir yidn veln khas-vesholem nisht iberlebn di milkhome, to tsu vos toygn di ale gesheftn? tsi vos zent ir grade tsu mir gekumen? mit vos bin ikh den beser fun di andere yidn?" "reb Avrem|t|shele, kh'ze az ir vitslt zikh vi in di alte gute tsaytn ven ir zent nokh geven in di federn. feters un mumes -- ha....nishto mer "t|shyot|shyu-vuit|sho!" -- (gemeynt di mishpokhes byelitskis, di koyfmans, di zaydmans, vos hobn zikh keseyder tsvishn zikh mishadekh geven un geshafn a min sheyvet, vos iz geven dos oybershte fun shteysl in shtot) "es zenen farbay di gute tsaytn fun amol, fun sheyne yidn, mit fete hindelekh un yaykhelekh oyf shabes.... haynt es ikh hindelekh mit yaykhelekh yedn tog! ir hert reb Avrem|t|shele?! yedn tog!!! un mayn mame shtarbt mer nisht fun hunger.... di klore diburim funem moser hobn vi a hamer a zets gegebn ibern kop fun dem shtoltsn gvir fun slome. dos ponem zayns hot zikh tseflamt vi a fayer, un kalte tropns shveys hobn aroysgeshpritst oyf zayn tsehitstn shtern. er hot gevolt epes zogn, ober s'iz gornisht aroysgekumen. khuts a yenkenish. vi kegn zayn viln hobn zikh zayne oygn ongetrofn mit di shpitsike oygn funem moser fun velkhe a nekome-gelekhterl hot aroysgeblitst fun zayne shvartsaplen, un vi di sharf fun a khalef zikh ayngeshnitn in byalitskis harts. alts hot zikh in im gevorfn fun pakhed, fun a modnem pakhed, vos afile fun di dayt|shn hot er dos nisht gekont. -- 55,000 zlotes?! -- hot der moser gefodert, "un ayere tsvey zin veln vern politsyantn!" Lemekh un berl hobn ober gehat andere plener. di tsvey brider hobn zikh shoyn fun a lengerer tsayt arumgetrogn mit a kholem zikh aribertsukhapn oyf yener zayt vaysl, vu men dertseylt, az in di tife velder grasirn partizaner. dervayl hobn zey keyn breyre nisht gehat un gehorkht dem foter tsu vern politsyantn, khotsh Avrem byalitski hot itst aleyn gekont zayn der rosh klal-tuer inem yudnrat, oyb er volt vayter farblibn oyf zayn ern-postn vi der prezes fun der yidisher kehile. nokh soyf khoydesh september '39 ven di dayt|shn hobn farnumen di shtot, hobn zey bafoyln oyftsushteln a yudnrat. eygntlekh hobn di dayt|shn gevolt az di zelbe ment|shn fun der yidisher kehile zoln vayter farblaybn oyf zeyere postns. ober azoy vi kemat ale onfirers fun der kehile hobn mer nisht gevolt hobn dem koved, tsulib farshtendlekhe sibes, hobn zikh oyf zeyere pletser aroyfgezetst ment|shn vos afile in di viste khaloymes zeyere, volt zey nisht ayngefaln tsu kholemen vegn farnemen azelkhe pozitsyes bay kohol. di dayt|shn vider iz nisht gegangen in lebn velkhe yidn es zitsn in yudnrat. bafeln hobn ale gemuzt oysfiln. itst hobn zey gekinigt beyad-khazoke, tif gezunken un gekinigt, un zikh nokh ayngeredt az zey dinen zeyere brider, az ven nisht zey volt nokh geven erger. Avrem byelitski hot mit a shver harts maskem geven az zayne tsvey zin zoln vern politsyantn, un azoy arum efsher oprateven dos vos lozt zikh oprateven. fun der tsveyter zayt hot er zikh gefilt a getsvungener durkh dem moser. er iz gantse nekht nisht geshlofn. dos gevisn zayns hot im gepaynikt, gefresn, un nisht bloyz dos gevisn, nor oykh di moyre far got. er hot gevust az er zinkt, az er iz gefaln, nisht veyniker vi di andere ment|shn funem yudnrat, un efsher nokh tifer....er hot gepruvt zikh aynredn az er tut dos tsulib zayn vayb un kinder. ober di ment|shn fun yudnrat tuen dokh genoy dos zelbe, oykh zey hobn vayber mit kinder. ober di makhshove az er kon efsher rateven zayn mishpokhe, iz geven shtarker fun alts. zint Lemekh mit berlen trogn kaylekhdike politsey-hitlekh mit a geln shtern fun fornt, dakht zikh im az di ment|shn maydn im oys. afile teyl goyishe shkheynem, hot er bamerkt, dreyen letstns fun im avek dem kop. zayne tsvey brider, di shvesters un shvogers kumen letstns zeltn in zayn hoyz arayn. di kinder zeyere bavayzn zikh biklal nisht. der foter zayner, reb Efroyim, dermont afile nisht mit a vort, az zayne eyniklekh zenen gevorn politsyantn. emes, er hot di tsvey zin ongezogt vi azoy zikh oyftsufirn, un yedn tog fregt er zey oys vi azoy der tog iz farbay. tsi hobn zey, khas-vesholem, keynem nisht baavelt, tsi, kholile, keynem nisht baleydikt. ober gey zay a politsyant unter di dayt|shn un keynem nisht baavlen.... di dayt|shn, onhoybndik funem general-governater in kroke biz tsu dem klentstn baamtn in slome, hobn "gefirt tish," yeder eyner far zikh. yeder eyner hot aroysgegebn gzeyres un bafeln vos yidn megn yo ton un nisht ton. s'hot oysgezen vi zey voltn tsvishn zikh konkurirt ver s'vet aroysgebn shtrengere bafeln. unter yedn bafel iz geven tsugetshepet, in groyse oysyes, az far nisht oysfiln dem bafel kumt toytshtrof. di bafeln flegt men aroyshengen oyf der moyer funem yudnrat. yidn flegn leynen, krekhtsn un kritsn mit di tseyn. nisht eyn mol ven s'hot zikh di dayt|shn oysgedakht az men filt nisht oys di bafeln pinktlekh, vi es darf tsu zayn, hobn zey arangepralt inem yudnrat un gepatsht dem forzitser, oder geshmisn mit zeyere kantshikes iber di kep fun di dortike politsyantn. eyn mol hobn zey dershosn a baamtn funem yudnrat vayl er hot gevagt tsu entfern a vort, vos s'iz zey nisht gefeln gevorn. s'hot oysgezen vi der yundrat iz letstns gor gevorn dos greste kapore-hindl. un khotsh keyn groyse libe hot keyner nisht aroysgevizn tsu zey, hot men dokh farshtanen az s'iz okh un vey az men nemt zikh shoyn oykh tsum yudnrat. biz itst hot men zikh ayngeredt, az der rov zhandarmen in shtot zenen untergekoyfte parshoynen durkh gelbordn un dem yudnrat. zey hobn zikh gedreyt oyf di gasn in zeyere oysgeputste gemzove shtivl, un ale hobn gevust fun vemen dos kumt. di goldene zeygerlekh oyf zeyere hent zenen oykh geven yidishe, nisht davke tsugeroybte bay yidn, ele, farkert, m'hot zey frayvilik geshonken vi matones, kedey zey zoln nisht tsu fil vildeven. oykh di mundirn, zeyere, di hemder, afile di untervesh, zenen geven fun yidish hob-un-guts. inem yudnrat zenen gezesn tog un nakht shnayders, shusters un neyterins un gehaltn in eyn makhn shtivl, uniformen un kleyder far di dayt|shn un zeyere vayber, oder kokhankes. a sakh fun zey flegn afile aheymshikn peklekh mit malbushem keyn dayt|shland far zeyere vayber un kinder. romanizirt fun leye krikun ______________________________________________________ end of _The Mendele Review_ 02.001 Leonard Prager, editor send articles to: lprager@research.haifa.ac.il the editor of _TMR_ can also be reached via _Mendele_'s homepage: http://www2.trincoll.edu/~mendele 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 and http://sunsite.unc.edu/yiddish/tmr (under construction)