Tag: Yiddish
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Sholem Aleichem’s yortzayt
We’re reaching the yortzayt of Sholem Aleichem (May 13, 1916); and I thought I’d show how translation became a sort of legacy in my family. Below is a letter my grandfather received and passed down. I have the original. Geneve, (Suisse) Rue Dancet, 1 1 July, 1907 Dear Friend Cassel, If the mountain doesn’t come…
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The Joy(?) of Yiddish
Yiddish humor, it’s often said, is about laughing to keep the darkness away. I’m sure I’m not the first to make this connection, which is funny (in the classic Yiddish manner) but requires explanation. (How can a joke be funny if you have to explain it? I don’t know; ask a comedian.) First, you need…
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B. Cassel
My grandfather, Boruch Chaim Cassel, was born in Keidan, then part of the Russian empire, in 1877, and arrived in New York in 1904. He had served as a clerk in the Russian army and worked as a bookkeeper in Riga, but his first business enterprise in the U.S. was a candy store. The photos…
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Vilna, Vilna
Before leaving Vilnius, some random thoughts and images. We were invited the other day to the final match of a basketball tournament featuring the Maccabi Tel Aviv junior team and a local sports academy. It was a spirited contest, with some surprising 3-point shooting by both teams, but Maccabi ran away with it in the final…
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*היימ–ארבעט
איך האָב ניט ליב זיך צו באַרימען מיט מיין יחוס, אָבער איך וואָלט פאָרט געוואָלט דערמאָנען, אַ דער זיידע מיינער איז געווען אַ שטיקל פאָלקלאָריסט. ניט קיין פּראָפעסיאָנעלער און דאָך אַ גאַנץ פעאיקער. סוף 19טן יאָרהונדערט, ווען די פּעטערבורגער פאָרשער – גינזבורג און מאַרעק – האָבן פאַרבעטן די פאָרשטייער פון דער אינטעלעגענץ זאָלן זיך פאַרבינדן מיטן פאָלק…
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Musical interlude
This isn’t all that weird. Really, it isn’t. Yes, they’re very Nordic, and the Yiddish is accented a bit oddly. I know. And yes, it did feel a bit like (I imagine) a member of the Lakota nation must have felt watching Disney Indians or Iron-Eyes Cody on TV way back when. But hey, Jewish music…
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Language mavens
Like the ad said, you don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s Yiddish. This was taken at our last weekly Shabbes “tish” – Yiddish for table, a sort-of traditional Friday night gathering in which we light candles, say kiddush and hamotzi, then eat & drink whatever anyone’s brought: Herring, cheese, salad, wine, vodka and…
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Fania
Fania Brantsovsky’s title at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute is librarian, but it probably should be legend, or living memory. She was raised in Vilna, went into the ghetto with her family in 1941, escaped in 1943 and fought with the Jewish partisans until 1945. After the war she worked as a statistician. The other day…
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Eating Yiddish
Speaking of eating, classes began yesterday at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute’s summer program, my reason for coming here. Inexplicably, I am in the advanced class, which means that after two days my head is about to explode. The teachers are scholarly, erudite and eloquent. Following along is like holding on to a roller coaster with…
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