[Mendele] Mendele Vol. 21.001

[Victor Bers]

Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
____________________________________________________

Contents of Vol. 21.001
June 16, 2011

1) leytsan (Hilde Pach)
2) leytsan (Helen Winkler)
3) leytsan (Oron Joffe)
4) leytsan (Mike Koplow)
5) shitere finger (Jane Peppler)
6) Ola Lilith, Wladyslaw Godik, Rumshinsky's "Varshe." (Jane Peppler)
7) shlepe-bobe (Perla Sneh)
8) Yiddish theatre website (Steven Lasky)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Subject: leytsan
Date: June 1

Leytsan is Hebrew for clown or entertainer. It was not a common word in 
Dutch Yiddish. Instead, the word leits or lets was used, which has the 
same meaning and also stems from Hebrew.

Hilde Pach

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: June 3
Subject:  leytsan

Regarding the question about "leytsan" (Aubrey Jacobus), the book Isaac 
Rivkind. Klezmorim Jewish Folk Musicians. A Study in Cultural History. New 
York:  Futuro Press, 1960 has a whole chapter devoted to the meaning of 
this word in relation to entertainers and musicians.  The book is written 
in Hebrew.  I have a very rough translation of the chapter that a friend 
did for me--it's a little hard to follow but if interested, please contact 
me (winklerh at hotmail.com) and I can send it to you.

Helen Winkler

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: June 1
Subject: leytsan

Aubrey Jacobus asks about the etymology of the word leytsan. This is an 
old Hebrew word. In the Midrashim it meant, according to Jastrow's 
dictionary, "irreverent talker, scoffer, jester." It is derived from the 
root lamed yud tsadi, just like "leyts."

Oron Joffe

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: June 1
Subject:  leytsan

"Leyts" (spelled just lamed-tsadek) is Hebrew for jester, clown, etc. From 
the same root: "latson" (Yiddish pronunciation would be  "lotsn") = 
frivolity. Also, in the viduy prayer (said on between Rosh Hashanah and 
Yom Kippur, on Y "K, and on other fast days) is the word "latsnu," meaning 
"we have been frivolous. " Depending on how grim you are, in this context 
it can mean either frivolous about serious things, or any frivolity at 
all.

Mike Koplow

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  June 15
Subject: shitere finger

Does it mean of the owner of  "shitere finger" that money runs through his 
fingers? Or is he a crook?

Jane Peppler

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  May 30, 2011
Subject:  Ola Lilith, Wladyslaw Godik, Rumshinsky's "Varshe."

In the course of researching cabaret music in Yiddish and Polish in Warsaw 
between the wars, I have started to focus on Willy Godick and Ola Lilith 
(sometimes Ola or Olya Lillith). (I wrote a Wikipedia article for each of 
them.) Briefly, Godick was born in Russia and began his acting career 
there, worked in Vienna, moved to Warsaw, started a revue theater called 
"Mirage, " worked at Qui Pro Quo where he met Ola Lilith singing in 
Polish, convinced her to leave with him and start Azazel, the first 
Yiddish revi-teater in Poland. She was the singer of the elusive  "Azazel 
Shimmy " which I have not been able to find (written by Moshe Broderson 
and Henech Kon).

Godik and Lilith came to America in 1931 and Lilith starred in "The Girl 
from Warsaw," her show-stopper solo was simply called "Varshe" (NOT the 
Gelbart song which has been recorded several times). In his memoirs 
Yardeini waxes most enthusiastic over her, at length.

They went back to Warsaw, fled to the Soviet Union at the start of the 
war. They toured there a bit. They must have split up at some point - he 
joined the Red Army, was wounded, and sang cabaret in Russian in Moscow 
and then after the war came back to Warsaw and sang in Polish revue 
theater until he died in 1952! Jewniverse has her dead in the holocaust, 
but her friend Yardeini sang with her on WEVD and visited her many times 
in Florida - he says she joined the American Army, met and married a 
Christian, sang on WEVD, lived the last decades of her life in Miami 
Springs FL. Died after 1979.

I'm looking for any other traces of these two. I intend to call the Dade 
County library system and see if she left any papers to anybody in 
Florida. But -Does anybody have, or know of, any recordings by Ola Lilith 
other than the two readily found on the web (An Eytsele and Omar Abajo)? 
Does anybody have any further information on either Lilith or Godik? Or 
know where any might be located?

Thanks for any pointers.

A grus from North Carolina,
Jane Peppler

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: June 10
Subject: shlepe-bobe

A sheynem dank Mekhl Zlotowskin un P. Teitelbaumen far zeyer entfer vegn 
shlepe-bobe. In shpanish the game is called "gallito ciego" ("blind little 
rooster").

A hartsikn grus,
Perla Sneh

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: June 10
Subject:  Yiddish theatre website

For those of you with an interest in Yiddish theatre, here is an update on 
my work:

1. Most of the unpublished Zalmen Zylbercweig book  "Yiddish Art Theatre 
in America" (about the first five or so years of Maurice Schwartz's 
Yiddish Art Theatre group) is now online at the virtual Museum of Family 
History, in pdf format. You can learn more about
this and find the link to this file at 
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/yata.htm .

2. Most of the unpublished seventh volume of Zylbercweig's  "Lexicon of 
the Yiddish Theatre" is soon to be online, and I will tell you all when it 
is.

3. I, and to a lesser extent a small number of volunteers, have translated 
more than five hundred of the more than 2,800 biographies from the six 
published volumes of the aforementioned  "Lexicon," but have not announced 
it yet as I am loathe to make the translations available without having it 
proofed by someone who is good at it. I may have to relent at some point 
so these interesting biographies can be easily read. I also have databased 
the transliterated names of those individuals (and organizations) 
biographied, but I will hope that someone will volunteer and step forth to 
create for me a searchable database so the material can be located online 
easily. Of course, I also wish for people who will volunteer to translate 
more of these biographies, which include not only actors, but playwrights, 
stage directors, prompters, directors, et al, and taken as a whole gives a 
good perspective on the history of Yiddish theatre.

4. I also have created a list of more than four hundred Yiddish 
productions (in New York), including dates (when available), from the end 
of the nineteenth century to the 1950s, many from performances at the 
Thalia, People's, Public, Grand, Second Avenue, Kalich, Folksbine et al 
theatres.

With each listing I have included the names of the actors who performed in 
each. So in this database I can search by the name of the actor or the 
season, for instance, and see the history of work of any actor and what 
plays were produced during what season. I welcome other play listings, 
especially those that include casts of characters, theatre names, 
performance dates, etc. I also have a list of Yiddish plays performed 
elsewhere, such as Philadelphia's Arch Theatre, Chicago's Douglas Park 
Theatre, et al, as well as a list of those who acted in these plays. I 
will include all of these with my New York listings.

5. I am working on a listing of Vilna Troupe performances, not only in 
Vilna but elsewhere in the world. I have many such listings, with casts of 
characters, dates, etc.

6. Don't forget about my Maurice Schwartz collection of listings of more 
than 100 of his Yiddish Art Theatre productions, found at
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/yat/yat-D.htm. This is the most complete 
such listing to be found anywhere. Also you can visit my entire Maurice 
Schwartz exhibition at
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/mschwartz.htm , or better yet begin at
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yat-01.htm.

7. If you have any questions about any of the above, or need a look-up, 
just drop me an e-mail with a specific request and I'll be glad to help 
you if I can.


Regards,
Steven Lasky
www.museumoffamilyhistory.com
______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 21.001

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