_The Mendele Review_: Yiddish Literature and Language
              (A Companion to _MENDELE_)
______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 02.030
15 November 1998

1) Yiddish Matters: From the Editor (Leonard Prager)
2)  A Note on Soviet Yiddish (Leonard Prager)
3) di yidishe avtonome gegnt (Lucas Bruyn)
   a. Arn Vergelis, "dos land birobidzhan"
   b. fun der tsaytung _birobidzhaner shtern_
   c. "di yidishe avtonome gegnt"
   d. Itsik Fefer, "a khasene in birobidzhan"
   e. Itsik Fefer, "birobidzhaner freylekhs"

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: 15 November 1998
From: Leonard Prager <lprager@research.haifa.ac.il>
Subject: Yiddish Matters

      1. Soviet Yiddish

Abraham Brumberg's review of Robert Weinberg's book on Birobidzhan (see
_The Mendele Review_ 02.029) invites us to look closely at some of his
comments on Soviet Yiddish, a subject about which all too many of us
know little.  With the Cold War behind us we can review vexed questions
dispassionately.  In a short "Note on Soviet Yiddish" I ask "What
happened to the Yiddish language during the long period of Soviet
Communism?"  In the late 1920s Nokhem Shtif, a leading Soviet Yiddish
linguist, lead a campaign to dehebraicize Yiddish.  In a famous 1931 _Di
tsukunft_ essay, Max Weinreich showed how poor Yiddish would have been
without Hebrew [see the last _TMR_ for an abstract of this essay].
Weinreich's essay will be given in the near future in the _TMR_,
together with other materials that will help us understand the tense and
tangled history of Yiddish in the Soviet Union.

Readers may be reminded that our fellow Mendelist Craig Abernethy's
website "derekh erets un dermonumg" is dedicated to Soviet Yiddish
writing.  See http://angelfire.com/ma/khaver.

       2. Birobidzhan

Lucas Bruyn had the bright idea of presenting TMR readers with a picture
of Birobidzhan and its Yiddish culture as it officially wished to be
seen.  The selections are all taken from Sh.  Sandler, _yidish lernbukh
far oyslernen zikh yidish zelbshtendik_, moskve:  "ruski yazik", 1989.
In 1989 the old Soviet Union was still more or less intact and the
official policy was to allow a minimal amount of controlled Yiddish
publications, largely aimed at foreign consumption.  Though Stalin had
been long dead, the language still bears the damage marks of his era.

With regard to Sandler's textbook as a whole, Lucas Bruyn (private
communication) writes:  "Sandler managed to give his students more than
just Soviet propaganda.  For instance, there is quite a lot of
Sholem-Aleykhem in it, as well as a choice of poetry.  Besides, it is a
good primer.  Old-fashioned grammar-translation method (target group:
speakers of Russian), but solid.  Well proportioned _limudim_ giving
lots of grammar, interesting vocabulary, a wordlist, a verblist.  It
compares very favorably, for instance, with Sheva Zucker's textbook."

The lineation and numeration in the selections below are provided in the
original for pedagogic purposes and are retained here with additional
line spaces as well.  # marks the start of a new paragraph.

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  15 November 1998
From: Leoanrd Prager (lprager@research.haifa.ac.il)
Subject: A Note on Soviet Yiddish

Abraham Brumberg, in his review of Robert Weinberg'a _Stalin's Forgotten
Zion -- Birobidzhan and the making of a Soviet Jewish homeland_:  An
illustrated history, 1928-1996 (Berkeley:  University of California
Press, l998) [in _The Mendele Review_ 02.029] spoke of "the steady
decline of Yiddish all over the Soviet Union" and observed that
"essentially...  Yiddish became little more than the instrument for
composing flatulent hosannas to Lenin and Stalin and hymns to socialist
tractors tilling socialist soil."  Thus Brumberg summarizes -- with
considerable justification to my mind -- two kinds of decline, the first
in the number of Yiddish-speakers and the range of Yiddish-language use,
and the second in the expressiveness of the language itself (certainly
in its public registers), i.e. external and internal deterioration.

The fate of Yiddish letters was the fate of all the arts in all the
languages of the Soviet Union under the aegis of socialist realism.  The
retreat of Yiddish before a dominant national vernacular was essentially
no different in the Soviet Union than in Poland, North America, France,
Argentina and other lands.  Brumberg's generalization touching the
changes within Yiddish itself is valid to a degree.  Despite the
official repression and the noxious initiatives of the Yevsetktsye,
Soviet Yiddish culture has to its credit real achievements.  In the
field of literature one thinks of figures such as Der Nister, Dovid
Hofshteyn, Dovid Bergelson and others.  As repression increased many
writers wrote for the drawer, many wrote in a manner that disguised
their true intent, many wrote for translation only -- in short Yiddish
writers struggled to keep alive the Yiddish muse and their best work
that has reached us reveals a resourceful and flexible Yiddish.  But a
sodden, cliche-ridden Yiddish was created in the Soviet Union and we
need not deny this.

Brumberg connects the Soviet orthographic reform with the denuding of
Jewish culture, but this is a complex matter.  It is true that the
reform was effected in the context of deliberate impoverishment of
Judaic tradition, but it itself was rationally defensible and actually
preserved the traditional pronunciation of Hebrew-Aramaic origin words
by spelling them phonetically.  Preservation of the traditional Hebrew
spellings marks a victory of eye-culture over ear-culture; the vital
link to Hebrew and Aramaic is visually maintained, but in actuality the
Ashkenazic Hebrew -- i.e. authentic Yiddish -- pronunciations are often
mangled by those who only know Israel pronunciations or know no Hebrew
at all.  The Soviet spelling code preserves aural tradition.

On the subject of Soviet Yiddish as a whole, Lucas Bruyn is prepared to
question our generally critical attitude.  He writes (personal
communciation):  "Even if Soviet Yiddish is a poor language, to some
extent it is a living, naturally developing language, incorporating
modern words.  Besides introducing modern (Soviet) terminology it also
preserves Yiddish words and expressions that were lost in other parts of
the Yiddish-speaking world.  _Kolvirtniks_ driving their Socialist
tractors brings to mind the Stalinist policies that brought misery to
the Jews; but those same _kolvirtniks_ are also closer to the Israeli
kibbutzniks than are, say, the pseudo-shtetl characters wailing at the
Wall in Jerusalem."

The following selections are not distinguished.  The prose is wooden and
the verse, minimally competent, seems little more than orchestrated
glee.  Vergelis grew up in Birobidzhan and, conceivably, may have felt
strongly the grandeur of its rivers and woods.  Yet for this reader as
for many others in the West, the "voice" of this longtime editor of the
closely censored _Sovetish heymland_ (subservient to Soviet official
directives -- i.e. to propaganda) always sounds somewhat disingenuous.
Reading Fefer is an especially challenging exercise.  A first-rate poet,
he recognized -- with what alacrity one hesitates to judge -- what one
was required to do to survive and wrote embarrassingly sycophantic odes
to Stalin.  Perhaps we need to read Soviet Yiddish literature the way
I.A.  Richards many years ago suggested students learn to read poems --
without names of authors.  Soviet Yiddish literature demands sharpened
reading skills because the writer often is whispering to us between the
lines.

3)---------------------------------
Date:  1 December 1998
From:  Lucas Bruyn <troia@wxs.nl>
Subject:  di yidishe avtonome gegnt


Arn Vergelis [1918-    ]

                dos land birobidzhan [p. 221]

1.  ir hot nokh nit gezen dem bire-taykh?
2.  in sheynkayt iz er mitn dnyeper glaykh,
3.  un flisn flist er funem dnyeper shneler.
4.  makht zikh amol an afdernakht a heler,
5.  iz veyst ir, vi di bire zet dan oys?
6.  ay, ay iz zi groys!
7.  ay, ay iz zi breyt!
8.  zi yogt azoy fartrakhterheyt,
9.  un ale beymer kukn fun ir nase,
10. aleyn der himl tukt zikh in ir vaser.

      11.  ir hot nokh nit gezen dem kleyn khingan?
      12.  af zayne sopkes voynt der ber un der fazan
      13.  un bloy iz er, vi himl nokh a regn...

14. ir hot nokh nit gezen dem tayge-vald?
15. gedikht iz er! a boym a shverer falt,
16. un vilde hirshn yogn tsu a kval.

      17.  ir hot nokh nit gezen birobidzhan
      18.  mit bire un khingan,
      19.  mit tayge, velkhe iz nokh vild atsinder?
      20.  ay, iz dort hoykh der himl!
      21.  un veyst ir, vifl raykhkayt hot der kant?
      22.  nit mestn mit der hant, nit tseyln af di finger,
      23.  nit alts arayntsushteln in ot der lid --
      24.  azoy iz raykh dos land birobidzhan!
                            ****

        fun der tsaytung "birobidzhaner shtern" [pp. 119-121]

1) #di tsaytung "birobidzhaner shtern" iz der organ funem gegentlekhn
komitet fun der komunistisher partey fun sovetnfarband un funem
gegentlekhn rat fun folks-deputatn fun der yidisher avtonomer gegnt.

2) #der "birobidzhanisher shtern" dershaynt fun noyaber 1930 un dem
akhtsntn avgust 1985 iz dershinen der tsentoyznster numer fun der
tsaytung.

3) dem "birobidzhaner shtern" leyent men nit nor in der gegnt, nor oykh
in a sakh shtet fun ukraine, rusland, vaysrusland, moldavye un andere
sovetishe republikn un oykh in oysland.

4) di tsaytung brengt fil materyaln vegn dem politishn, gezelshaftlekhn,
virtshaftlekhn un kultureln lebn in land un in oysland.

5) yedn zuntik git di tsaytung a spetsyele zayt, gevidmet literatur un
kunst.

6) ot zaynen eynike oystsugn un fragmentn fun di tsaytungs-materyaln.

7) #tsum ershtn yortog fun der nayer sovetisher konstitutsye hot men in
dem gegnt-tsenter birobidzhan ufgeshtelt a denkmol v. i. leninen.

8) der denkmol shteyt af dem nayem sovetn-plats.

9) #der khabarovsker bikher-farlag hot aroysgelozt dem bukh "di
gliklekhe erd fun valdheym".

10) der valdheymer kolvirt "ilitshs gebotn" hot zikh oysgetseykhnt in
der antviklung fun der landvirtshaft.

11) di valdheymer kolvirtnikes hobn ufgeboyt filshtokike voynhayzer,
virtshaftlekhe gebayen, a kulturhoyz, shuln un magazinen.

12) far di derfolgn in der antviklung fun der landvirtshaft hot di
sovetn-regirung baloynt dem kolektiv "ilitshs gebotn" mitn orden fun
royter arbets-fon.

13) #fil yorn hot ongefirt mitn kolvirt vladimir izraylevitsh feler -- a
mentsh fun an interesantn goyrl.

14) er hot ongehoybn zayn arbets-tetikayt als traktorist.

15) ven di fashistn zaynen ongefaln afn sovetenfarband, iz er frayvilik
avek afn front.

16) aheym hot er zikh umgekert als fuler kavaler funem rom-orden.

17) di valdheymer hobn im oysgeveylt als forzitser funem kolvirt, un
er hot lange yorn genit ongefirt mit der virtshaft.

18) me hot im tsugeeygnt dem titl "held fun sotsyalistisher mi,"
oysgeveylt als deputat funem oyber-sovet fun fssr, als mitglid fun der
tsentraler revidir-komisye fun kpsf, als mitglid funem khabarovsker
kantishn un funem gegntlekhn komitet fun kpsf.

19) #inen gegntlekhn kultur-palats hot men ufgefirt a lebenslustike
muzikale fantazye "di birobidzhaner palitre".

20) der avtor hot tsunoyfgeshtelt di program loyt di motivn fun der
muzik tsu farsheydene folkstents.

21) oysgefirt hot di kompozitsye der fidler-ansambl bam birobidzhaner
folks-teater -- laureat funem alfarbandishn festival fun kinstlerisher
zelbstetikayt.

22) der birobidzhaner fidler-ansambl, vos trogt dem titl
"folks-kolektiv," ekzistirt shoyn hekher 20 yor.

23) letstns hot er tsugegreyt a yubiley-kontsert fun geklibene
muzikverk, velkhe er hot oysgefilt di letste yorn.

24) #der yidisher muzikaler kamer-teater ba der birobidzhaner
filharmonye hot fayerlekh opgemerkt zayn fuftsikstn uftrit mit zayn
ershtn spektakl "a shvarts tsayml far a vays ferdl."

25) #der moskver muzikaler kamer-teater hot ufgefirt di opere "mazltov!"
loyt sholem-aleykhems pyeske mit dem zelbn nomen.

26) der kompozitor hot vunderbar pinktlekh oysgedrikt in zayn muzik dem
eygntimlekhn far sholem-aleykhemen eydeln humor, a bahoykhtn mit laykhtn
troyer.

27) di muzik iz ongeshribn mit a klorer haynttsaytiker shprakh,
glaykhtsaytik noent tsu di natsyonale intonatsyes.

****

              di yidishe avtonome gegnt [pp. 217-219]

1) #in tsarishn rusland zaynen di yidn geven eyne fun di same rekhtloze
nationalitetn.

2) zey hobn nit gehat keyn rekht voynen in di groyse shtet, tsu arbetn
in der industrye, tsu farnemen zikh mit landvirtshaft.

3) far zeyere kinder iz geven bagrenetst der tsutrit in gimnazyes un
hoykhshuln.

4) #loyt der initsyativ fun vladimir ilitsh leninen hobn di bolshevikes
nokh in 1914 arayngetrogn in der iv-ter melukhe-dume fun rusland a
gezets-proyekt vegn natsyonaler glaykbarekhtikung.

5) #inem dritn punkt fun dem dozikn dokument iz gezogt gevorn:

6) "es vern opgeshaft ale un alerley gezetsn... velkhe bagrenetsn di
yidn in velkher-nit-iz sfere funem gezelshaftlekhn un melukhishn lebn."

7) #reydndik vegn dem dozikn gezets-proyekt, hot vladimir ilitsh lenin
batont,

8) az di yidn-frage kon geleyzt vern bloyz tsuzamen mit di ikerdike
sotsyale un demokratishe fragn,

9) velkhe shteyen af der tog-ordenung in rusland.

10) batonendik di neytikayt fun fuler eynhayt tsvishn dem yidishn un
nit-yidishn proletariat, hot vladimir ilitsh lenin ongevizn,

11 ) az dos iz bazunders neytik oykh farn derfolgraykhn kampf kegn
antisemitizm.

12) #di groyse sotsyalistishe oktyaber-revolutsye hot tserisn di keytn
fun sotsyaln un natsyonaln yokh.

13) di "deklaratsye fun di rekht fun di felker fun rusland,"

14) untergeshribn funem grinder fun der komunistisher partey un fun der
ratn-melukhe, fun v.i. leninin dem 16-tn noyaber 1917,

15) hot geleygt a festn fundament far der frayer antviklung fun ale
natsyes un felkershaftn in undzer land.

16) di yidn, vi di andere felker fun der sovetisher melukhe, hobn tsum
ershtn mol bakumen dos rekht af natsyonaler zelbstbashtimung.

17) #dem 7-tn may 1934 iz loytn bashlus funem hekhstn makht-organ --
funem alfarbandishn tsentraln oysfir-komitet -- geshafn gevorn di
yidishe avtonome gegnt.

18) #di gegnt gefint zikh afn vaytn mizrekh, arumgeringlt mit di berg
funem kleynem khingan, lengoys dem amur, tsvishn zayne baytaykhn bire
un bidzhan.

19) di gegnt farnemt a shetekh fun iber finf un draysik toyznt
kvadrat-kilometer un iz greser vi di teritorye fun azelkhe eyropeishe
lender vi holand un belgye tsuzamen genumen.

20) mit der hilf fun di briderlekhe felker fun ale farbandishe republikn
iz birobidzhan gevorn a gegnt fun groyser industrye, mekhanizirter
landvirtshaft un hoykher kultur.

21) in der gegnt zaynen geshafn ale badingungen far der antviklung
fun der kultur un kunst.

22) in der gegnt zaynen tetik a profesyoneler yidisher kamer-teater, a
filharmonye, a yidisher un a rusisher folks-teater, di yidishe
shou-grupe "freylekhs."

23) a breyte antviklung hot bakumen in di arbeter-kolektivn un in di
kolvirtn di kinstlerishe zelbstetikayt.

24) in birobidzhan geyen aroys tsvey gegntlekhe tsaytungen:
"birobidzhaner shtern" af yidish un "birobidzhanskaya zvezda" af rusish.

25) af yidish un af rusish kumen for yedn tog di translirungen funem
gegntlekhn radio- un televizye-komitet.

26) di birobidzhaner literatn gibn aroys zeyere verk af yidish un af
rusish in farsheydene farlagn un drukn zikh in di zhurnaln "sovetish
heymland," "dalni vostok," in der gegntlekher un kantisher prese.

27) in der gegntlekher bibliotek af sholem-aleykhems nomen iz faran a
groyser fond fun der yidisher literatur.

28) a glaykhe tsvishn glaykhe, hot di gegnt geteylt mitn gantsn land say
freydn fun fridlekher mi, say leydn fun der milkhome-tsayt.

29) far gevagtkayt un heroizm in di yorn fun der groyser foterlendisher
milkhome zaynen hekher zibn toyznt aynvoyner fun der gegnt baloynt
gevorn mit ordens un medaln fun fssr.

30) fertsn fun zey iz tsugeeygnt gevorn der titl "held funem
sovetnfarband."

31. der arbeter funem zavod "dalselmash" Yoysef bumagin hot
ibergekhazert dem heldntat fun aleksander matrosov.

32. nokhn toyt iz im tsugeeygnt gevorn der titl -- "held funem
sovetenfarband" un zayn nomen trogt an arbeter-yishev inem gegntlekhn
tsenter.

33. di bafelkerung fun der gegnt halt in eyn vaksn un itst (1984)
batreft zi ba di 200 toyznt mentshn.

34. in an eynhaytlekher briderlekher mishpokhe lebn un miyen zikh in
guter frayntshaft yidn un rusn, ukrainer un vaysrusn, moldavaner un
forshteyer fun andere natsyes un natsyonalitetn funem sovetnfarband.

35. far di groyse derfolgn in der landvirtshaftlekher un kultureler
boyung iz di yidishe avtonome gegnt baert gevorn mit der hekhster
baloynung funem haymland -- mitn lenin-orden (1967), mitn orden fun
felker-frayntshaft (1964), un di shtot birobidzhan -- mitn orden fun
ern-tseykhn (1984).

36) di gedankn un gefiln fun di sovetishe yidn zaynen oysgedrikt inem
ofenem briv fun di arbeter, kolvirtnikes un forshteyer fun der
inteligents fun der yidisher avtonomer gegnt (vos iz farefntlekht gevorn
in der tsaytung "sovetskaya rosiya" dem 26-tn fevral 1970):

37) "der sovetnfarband iz dos land, vu mir zaynen geboyrn un vu mir
khoven undzere kinder. dos iz undzer ekhte, emese un eyntsike heym un
keyn andere darfn mir mit."
                                ****

Itsik Fefer [Itzik Feffer] (1900-1952)

            a khasene in birobidzhan [pp. 168-169]

1.  ay-ay, iz dos a khasene a freylekhe geven,
2.  di velt hot aza khasene nokh keynmol nit gezen.
3.  iz tut a shpil, klezmoremlekh, der bas un der bayan,
4.  zol tantsn di geretenish in gants birobidzhan.
5.  der korn zol a heyb ton zikh hekher funem barg,
6.  der vayntroyb zol zikh ongisn, der vayn zol vern shtark...
7.  iz dremlt nit, klezmoremlekh, zol shpiln der bayan*,
8.  dos paykl zol a paykl ton af gants birobidzhan!
9.  gedenken zol di khasene di klezmer un di por,
10. un yeder mekhuteneste biz hundert tsvantsik yor!
11. un ven di khosn-kale veln vern alt un groy,
12. zol zogn undzer zeydenyu der bobenyu azoy:
13. "nu, nu iz dos a khasene a freylekhe geven,
14. di velt hot aza khasene nokh keynmol nit gezen!"

*A bayan is a particular Russian type of accordion different from the
common Western types.  Some writers derive the name from that of a
legendary ancient Russian bard (sometimes called Boyan).  The Akhmanova
Russian-English dictionary gives both 'accordion' and '(ancient Slav)
bard' as the meanings.  The modern instrument is played in all kinds of
ensembles in Russia, where it was developed from a simpler folkloric
instrument in 1929 by Sterligov.  A photo of a bayan is given in C.
Gazaryan's _V Mire Muzikalinikh Instrumentov_ (Moscow, 1985), p. 38.  [I
thank Viktor Khristosov for this information.] In Yiddish the word is a
Russicism.  In the 1984 Shapiro, Spivak, Shulman Russian-Yiddish
dictionary it is not defined but simply transcribed; I have not found it
in any other Yiddish dictionary.  In this poem, which was doubtless set
to music, a bayan provides the melody and the bass and drum the rhythm.
In the poem that follows the ensemble includes fiddles, flutes and
bass.[L.P.]

                            ****
Itsik Fefer [Itzik Feffer] (1900-1952)

              birobidzhaner freylekhs [pp. 169-170]

1.  shpilt a freylekhs! shpilt a freylekhs!
2.  in dem rod arayn geshvind,
3.  ale poles un fatsheyles
4.  vi di zeglen afn vint!
5.  fidlen, fleytn, kontrabasn,
6.  zoln tantsn ale gasn,
7.  zoln dunern trumeytn,
8.  un di grinsn af di beytn
9.  zoln zaftik zayn un gut!
10. fidlen, fleytn nit gerut!
11. vi geshmake hoykhe zangen
12. zoln royshn di gezangen!
13. shpilt a freylekhs!
14. meydlekh! yungen!
15. s'iz a lebn do farflantst.
16. oyb gezungen, iz gezungen
17. oyb getantst, zol zayn getantst!

--------------------------------------------
End of _The Mendele Review_ 02.030

Leonard Prager, editor  <lprager@research.haifa.ac.il>

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