Yiddish New York
Jan. 20th, 2022 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreI am way behind. So what else is new?
Let’s start the catch-up with Yiddish New York, which occupied pretty much all of the last week of December. Things started on Saturday night of December 25th with a concert and, while I thought I’d scribbled some notes about it, I must have scribbled them either on paper that has teleported to another dimension and/or in invisible ink. The only specific thing I remember is that somebody was playing the cymbalon (a sort of dulcimer-like instrument), which led me to google that and discover that they may not be too expensive, but, no, I will NOT buy one. Anyway, klezmer music is enjoyable, but I didn’t have anything particular to say about that event.
Sunday:
Sunday started with a lecture on Humor in Yiddish Proverbs. Bob Rothstein was knowledgeable, but not really a good speaker, as he spoke in what I refer to as “uh-um-ese,” which is grating to listen to. Still, I was amused by many of the proverbs he discussed, so it was entertaining. Some of the best ones included:
I should also note that there are a lot of proverbs that equate cantors with fools, which I found surprising since my grandfather was a cantor and no fool. Well, except when it came to women, but that’s another story.
After that I went to hear Itzik Gotterman interview Lilli Rosen on the subject of Off the Derech which is a term used to refer to formerly Orthodox Jews. (And, most specifically, former Hasidim, though I think it can also apply to non-Chasidic haredim.) Rosen, who is transgender, left at puberty, but went back and joined Chabad, married, and left again in their 30’s. At 28, they had gone to law school, which was acceptable within the community. Discussions about religion with colleagues at their law firm were what led to leaving for good and getting involved in Yiddish theatre. Now they mostly consult for television programs. It was an interesting talk, though not really relatable for me.
The Sunday lunchtime concert was by Gica Loaning and Michael Alpert and featured a mixture of Yiddish and Scottish music.
After that I went to a program about Yiddish singing, called Chestnuts and Childhood, which mostly had to do with singing familiar songs. The person leading it had somebody who didn’t know each song learn it. Since they were doing familiar songs (starting with Oyfn Pripetchik), I don’t know how much value this had for me, and I skipped the later sessions in this series.
I’ve already written about the movies I watched as part of the film festival aspect of the conference, so I won’t repeat that.
Monday:
I started Monday with the first half of a talk on Ashkenazi Family Names. Binyamin Schaechter lectured almost entirely in Yiddish, but I was pretty much able to follow his talk, which centered on categories of names. The Monday lecture talked about Matronymic names (e.g. Rifkind, which is derived from the name Rivka), Patronymic names (e.g. Abramowitz from Abraham), Descriptive names (e.g. Kurtz meaning short, or, to bring my genealogy into it Schwartzbard meaning “black beard”), and Occupational names / metonyms (including Nadel, which means needle, for a tailor.) My one complaint is that he showed slides with some names on them and then talked about a lot more names in each category that weren’t on the slide.
The lunchtime concert was by Bob Cohen and Jake Shulmen-Ment, who performed music (primarily instrumental) collected in Romania.
The next talk I listened to was Wexology by Michael Wex, who is well-known as the author of Born to Kvetch. His talk was very entertaining, but a bit rambling. Some of the things he talked about were:
Tuesday:
The first program I went to on Tuesday was Memories of the Yiddish Kitchen. The preponderance of recipes discussed were for sweets, e.g. mandelbrot, rugelach, and hamentaschen (including a note that the yeast pastry version declined in popularity after the introduction of baking powder in the 20th century, even though the yeast kind are infinitely better). Other dishes talked about were chopped liver, gefilte fish, borscht, pierogi, and stuffed cabbage. I was particularly interested in the discussion of “farmer’s chop suey,” a dish I haven’t had in years, which consists of various chopped vegetable (cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, scallions) mixed with sour cream.
That was followed by the second half of Ashkenazi Family Names. The categories that got added in this half were Names referring to lineage (e.g. Cohen, Levi), Acronyms and Abbreviations (e.g. Katz = kohen tzaddik, meaning righteous priest), Geographic names / Toponyms (e.g. Wiener from Vienna, Berlinsky from Berlin, but not Moskowitz, which refers to the name Mosko, a form of Moshe, not to Moscow), House signs (famously Rothschild = red shield), and Fanciful / Ornamental / Wealthy names (e.g. Diamant = diamond or Golden, as well as prefixes like Hoff and suffixes like berg or feld).
The lunchtime concert was Susi Evans and Silvia Csaranko from Hanover, Germany performing pieces from the Klezmer Archive of tunes from Ukraine.
Next was the second part of Wexology. This time, Michael Wex, talked a lot about which Yiddish words might be offensive and which are especially polite.
Wednesday:
The first presentation I went to on Wednesday was The Richtige Mikado: Poconos to MGM which had to do with a version of the Gilbert and Sullivan musical developed at Camp Tamiment in the Poconos in 1938. There was a later Hollywood version written in 1942 and both scripts are available. Camp Tamiment was a resort for adults, drawing a lot of singles, especially NYU and City College students. Apparently Jerry Bock (of Broadway Bock and Harnick fame) called it “the Club Med of Bushkill Falls.") Anyway, this was not a full production of The Mikado, but was a set of skits and was not related to the 1950’s Yiddish Mikado, which was recorded. Some of the people involved were Max Liebman (who later did a lot of television revues, including Your Show of Shows), Sylvia Fine, and Danny Kaye. Anyway, this was my favorite presentation of the whole conference, largely because it included a read-through of the script(s) by Eve Sicular and Allen Lewis Rickman. . For example, the song “Titwillow” became “tit gornit,” which means “doing nothing.” In the Tamiment version, it referred to politics (e.g. Neville Chamberlain), while the Hollywood version used it to make fun of Samuel Goldwyn.
After that, I went to a presentation on Yiddish Folklore: Questions and Inspirations. This included a short story (and associated play) by the speaker, Rokhl Kafrissen, which had to do with a woman who did a silent Shabbos in memory of her late husband. There were also discussions of traditions about demons and about Nittel Nacht (Hasidic customs associated with Christmas eve, including refraining from Torah study and, instead, playing cards.) But the main thing that I got out of that session was the formation of a mailing list to talk about Yiddish folklore.
The lunchtime concert was by Susan Watts and Rob Curto and consisted of compositions from a collection called Soul Songs, which is intended to inspire women to perform klezmer music. After that, I went to a talkback about on one of the movies I’d watched.
Thursday:
I started Thursday with a talk by Miriam Isaacs on Chronicle of the Yiddish Stage: Zalman Zylbercweig’s Leksicon which was a 7 volume project that included biographies, photographs, and Yizkor books (i.e. memorial books). One thing I hadn’t known is that there had been unions in the Yiddish theatre in New York - and had been actor’s unions in Poland, too. The chronicles were like a Who’s Who and people paid to be included.
The final presentation I went to was on How to Suppress Yiddish Women’s Writing by Faith Nomi Jones. This was based on Joanna Russ’s How to Suppress Women’s Writing, with additions to refer to specific issues for Yiddish writers. For example, women who worked for Yiddish newspapers were relegated to answering reader’s letters or writing for the women’s pages, but not allowed to do real journalism. Women were also not allowed to go unescorted to various cafes were writers mingled. Interestingly, it was more common in Yiddish literature for men to use female pseudonyms than vice versa. This was an excellent talk and I particularly appreciated the inclusion of suggestions on how to fight back, e.g. by challenging instructors to include Yiddish literature by women and to point out assumptions when they occur.
Summary:
I didn’t make it to any of the evening programs, largely because I was mentally satiated by about 5 in the afternoon. But, overall, I thought this was worth my time and I felt that I learned a fair amount. I need to think about how much time I should spend studying Yiddish. And maybe I should look into buying a cymbelon.
Let’s start the catch-up with Yiddish New York, which occupied pretty much all of the last week of December. Things started on Saturday night of December 25th with a concert and, while I thought I’d scribbled some notes about it, I must have scribbled them either on paper that has teleported to another dimension and/or in invisible ink. The only specific thing I remember is that somebody was playing the cymbalon (a sort of dulcimer-like instrument), which led me to google that and discover that they may not be too expensive, but, no, I will NOT buy one. Anyway, klezmer music is enjoyable, but I didn’t have anything particular to say about that event.
Sunday:
Sunday started with a lecture on Humor in Yiddish Proverbs. Bob Rothstein was knowledgeable, but not really a good speaker, as he spoke in what I refer to as “uh-um-ese,” which is grating to listen to. Still, I was amused by many of the proverbs he discussed, so it was entertaining. Some of the best ones included:
- He has as much sense as there are mezuzahs in a church.
- G-d, give me help, but, if not, I have a sister in America.
- They are in love - he with himself, she with herself.
- The only tailor who doesn’t steal material is the mohel.
I should also note that there are a lot of proverbs that equate cantors with fools, which I found surprising since my grandfather was a cantor and no fool. Well, except when it came to women, but that’s another story.
After that I went to hear Itzik Gotterman interview Lilli Rosen on the subject of Off the Derech which is a term used to refer to formerly Orthodox Jews. (And, most specifically, former Hasidim, though I think it can also apply to non-Chasidic haredim.) Rosen, who is transgender, left at puberty, but went back and joined Chabad, married, and left again in their 30’s. At 28, they had gone to law school, which was acceptable within the community. Discussions about religion with colleagues at their law firm were what led to leaving for good and getting involved in Yiddish theatre. Now they mostly consult for television programs. It was an interesting talk, though not really relatable for me.
The Sunday lunchtime concert was by Gica Loaning and Michael Alpert and featured a mixture of Yiddish and Scottish music.
After that I went to a program about Yiddish singing, called Chestnuts and Childhood, which mostly had to do with singing familiar songs. The person leading it had somebody who didn’t know each song learn it. Since they were doing familiar songs (starting with Oyfn Pripetchik), I don’t know how much value this had for me, and I skipped the later sessions in this series.
I’ve already written about the movies I watched as part of the film festival aspect of the conference, so I won’t repeat that.
Monday:
I started Monday with the first half of a talk on Ashkenazi Family Names. Binyamin Schaechter lectured almost entirely in Yiddish, but I was pretty much able to follow his talk, which centered on categories of names. The Monday lecture talked about Matronymic names (e.g. Rifkind, which is derived from the name Rivka), Patronymic names (e.g. Abramowitz from Abraham), Descriptive names (e.g. Kurtz meaning short, or, to bring my genealogy into it Schwartzbard meaning “black beard”), and Occupational names / metonyms (including Nadel, which means needle, for a tailor.) My one complaint is that he showed slides with some names on them and then talked about a lot more names in each category that weren’t on the slide.
The lunchtime concert was by Bob Cohen and Jake Shulmen-Ment, who performed music (primarily instrumental) collected in Romania.
The next talk I listened to was Wexology by Michael Wex, who is well-known as the author of Born to Kvetch. His talk was very entertaining, but a bit rambling. Some of the things he talked about were:
- Hebrew could sometimes be used in a pejorative way. For example, actors in Yiddish are actioren but if you want to imply that they are bad actors you could use the Hebrew plural and call them actiorim.
- He talked at length about the expression hock mir night kein chainik which literally means “don’t bang on my teapot,” but is used to tell somebody not to talk nonsense. He pointed out that the lid of a teakettle makes more noise the less water is in it, which is a really good explanation.
- He had a long semi-rant on the subject of the phrase lign in drerd und baken beygel which literally means “lying in the ground and baking bagels” and is something you might say as a curse. You can also use it as a way to say things aren’t going so well for you. Not only is it hot as hell, but everybody else around you is dead so there’s nobody to sell them to. He equated this to a Yiddish version of the myth of Sisyphus.
- He suggested “heartburn rampant on a bed of cholent” as the Israeli flag. (Cholent is a stew of beans and meat that is traditionally eaten on Shabbat, when you’re not allowed to cook. It’s mostly cooked beforehand and kept warm on a stove or in an oven - or, nowadays, in a crockpot.)
- There are some Yiddish terms that come from Biblical references. For example, “kiss me where the Jews rested” refers to setting up camp at Takhat (pronounced “b’tuchus” in Ashkenazi Hebrew) so the phrase means “kiss my ass.” Also, “asher yutzer” is Hebrew for toilet paper, from the blessing people say after using the toilet.
Tuesday:
The first program I went to on Tuesday was Memories of the Yiddish Kitchen. The preponderance of recipes discussed were for sweets, e.g. mandelbrot, rugelach, and hamentaschen (including a note that the yeast pastry version declined in popularity after the introduction of baking powder in the 20th century, even though the yeast kind are infinitely better). Other dishes talked about were chopped liver, gefilte fish, borscht, pierogi, and stuffed cabbage. I was particularly interested in the discussion of “farmer’s chop suey,” a dish I haven’t had in years, which consists of various chopped vegetable (cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, scallions) mixed with sour cream.
That was followed by the second half of Ashkenazi Family Names. The categories that got added in this half were Names referring to lineage (e.g. Cohen, Levi), Acronyms and Abbreviations (e.g. Katz = kohen tzaddik, meaning righteous priest), Geographic names / Toponyms (e.g. Wiener from Vienna, Berlinsky from Berlin, but not Moskowitz, which refers to the name Mosko, a form of Moshe, not to Moscow), House signs (famously Rothschild = red shield), and Fanciful / Ornamental / Wealthy names (e.g. Diamant = diamond or Golden, as well as prefixes like Hoff and suffixes like berg or feld).
The lunchtime concert was Susi Evans and Silvia Csaranko from Hanover, Germany performing pieces from the Klezmer Archive of tunes from Ukraine.
Next was the second part of Wexology. This time, Michael Wex, talked a lot about which Yiddish words might be offensive and which are especially polite.
- The etymology of certain words used to refer to non-Jews can be offensive. For example, sheigetz” (a derisive term for a non-Jewish man) comes from the Hebrew word “shkotz,” meaning “reptile.” (“Shiksa” has the same root, but is also used in other languages, notably Polish, to refer to a slut.)
- He also talked about how to refer to people respectfully, mostly by using the third person. So instead of asking, say, “can you tell me X,” you can say, “Can the Jew tell me …”
- Some euphemisms have become more objectionable than they were intended to weaken. “Achar” means “a person I prefer not to mention,” so “dover achar” should mean that you prefer not to talk about that. Instead it is used to refer to things like sodomy.
- ”Chad gadya,” which is the song that ends the Passover seder is slang for both “rear end” (from that usage), but also for jail because the Polish slang for jail is “chauza,” which literally means goat.
Wednesday:
The first presentation I went to on Wednesday was The Richtige Mikado: Poconos to MGM which had to do with a version of the Gilbert and Sullivan musical developed at Camp Tamiment in the Poconos in 1938. There was a later Hollywood version written in 1942 and both scripts are available. Camp Tamiment was a resort for adults, drawing a lot of singles, especially NYU and City College students. Apparently Jerry Bock (of Broadway Bock and Harnick fame) called it “the Club Med of Bushkill Falls.") Anyway, this was not a full production of The Mikado, but was a set of skits and was not related to the 1950’s Yiddish Mikado, which was recorded. Some of the people involved were Max Liebman (who later did a lot of television revues, including Your Show of Shows), Sylvia Fine, and Danny Kaye. Anyway, this was my favorite presentation of the whole conference, largely because it included a read-through of the script(s) by Eve Sicular and Allen Lewis Rickman. . For example, the song “Titwillow” became “tit gornit,” which means “doing nothing.” In the Tamiment version, it referred to politics (e.g. Neville Chamberlain), while the Hollywood version used it to make fun of Samuel Goldwyn.
After that, I went to a presentation on Yiddish Folklore: Questions and Inspirations. This included a short story (and associated play) by the speaker, Rokhl Kafrissen, which had to do with a woman who did a silent Shabbos in memory of her late husband. There were also discussions of traditions about demons and about Nittel Nacht (Hasidic customs associated with Christmas eve, including refraining from Torah study and, instead, playing cards.) But the main thing that I got out of that session was the formation of a mailing list to talk about Yiddish folklore.
The lunchtime concert was by Susan Watts and Rob Curto and consisted of compositions from a collection called Soul Songs, which is intended to inspire women to perform klezmer music. After that, I went to a talkback about on one of the movies I’d watched.
Thursday:
I started Thursday with a talk by Miriam Isaacs on Chronicle of the Yiddish Stage: Zalman Zylbercweig’s Leksicon which was a 7 volume project that included biographies, photographs, and Yizkor books (i.e. memorial books). One thing I hadn’t known is that there had been unions in the Yiddish theatre in New York - and had been actor’s unions in Poland, too. The chronicles were like a Who’s Who and people paid to be included.
The final presentation I went to was on How to Suppress Yiddish Women’s Writing by Faith Nomi Jones. This was based on Joanna Russ’s How to Suppress Women’s Writing, with additions to refer to specific issues for Yiddish writers. For example, women who worked for Yiddish newspapers were relegated to answering reader’s letters or writing for the women’s pages, but not allowed to do real journalism. Women were also not allowed to go unescorted to various cafes were writers mingled. Interestingly, it was more common in Yiddish literature for men to use female pseudonyms than vice versa. This was an excellent talk and I particularly appreciated the inclusion of suggestions on how to fight back, e.g. by challenging instructors to include Yiddish literature by women and to point out assumptions when they occur.
Summary:
I didn’t make it to any of the evening programs, largely because I was mentally satiated by about 5 in the afternoon. But, overall, I thought this was worth my time and I felt that I learned a fair amount. I need to think about how much time I should spend studying Yiddish. And maybe I should look into buying a cymbelon.
