[Mendele] Mendele Vol. 21.010

Victor Bers victor.bers at yale.edu
Thu Feb 2 09:56:46 EST 2012


Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
____________________________________________________

Contents of Vol. 21.010
January 24, 2012

1) yorch (Aubrey Jacobus)
2) puch (Libby Cone)
3) translation help needed for Holocaust poem (Elie Train)
4) Liser sider (H Jacobson)
5) suggestions for Martin Jacobs/Liser sider (Yankl Levitow)
6) lise (Eliezer Greisdorf)
7) patsher (Jacob Goldberg)
8) patsher (Mordkhe Weisselberg)
9) patsher (Itsik Goldenberg)
10 kirzhner (Stephen Jones)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date:   January 18
Subject: yorch

I am 85 and never heard Yiddish since I left home but recently I keep 
remembering odd words, e.g, Yorch [Moderator's note: most likely, "yoykh" 
is meant.]  - which was the liquor that accompanied fish dishes. Or 
parents used the expression "Amulike tsayt" for long ago, often used 
ironically and all the words for cooking utensils and a favorite 
"mitndrin." My son in law 60 with Yiddish speaking parents knows none of 
these words and can't find Yorch in a large Yiddish - English dictionary. 
My father had a host of colloquial expressions which must be particular to 
his shtetl or even family. Is my experience typical?

Aubrey Jacobus

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 12
Subject: puch

I have a Jewish food question for you.

My husband is of Polish descent on his father's side. When visiting his 
late father's brother and his wife in the Polish neighborhood of 
Philadelphia, we had the occasion to eat vast quantities of chruscicki, 
that deep-fried pastry dredged with powdered sugar.
Although I am hopeless with languages and cannot remember peoples' names 
to save my life, I have a great food memory. I started remembering my 
aunt's grandmother, whom everyone called "the Bobbeh." This goes back 
about fifty years. She always had wax paper sandwich bags filled with a 
similar pastry that she gave to everybody. We are all Litvaks, not 
Poylishe. I finally called my aunt last night (she's in her eighties) and 
asked her, "Was your grandmother alive when I was a little girl?" She said 
that indeed she was. "Didn't she used to make this fried pastry and give 
it out in those wax paper sandwich bags?" "Oh, you mean puch!"  Have you 
ever heard of puch? [Moderator's note: most likely, the term meant here is 
"pukh," i.e. down, fluff]

Libby Cone

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 15
Subject: translation help needed for Holocaust poem

I need some help in translating a poem about the holocaust by 
Fefekuchen-Zilbert, which appeared in Onheyb in 1994:

Der toyt hot zayn vinkl dortn
tsu vemen kumen hob ikh shoyn nit.

>From what I can make out, Death has his claim staked out there (in the 
destroyed shtetl, of which the author writes), but I'm not sure of the 
final line. Is it "to whom I have lost the ability to come" - meaning, I 
can't go back to the shtetl where I was born; I can't (yet) meet Death?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Elie Train

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  January 1
Subject: Liser sider

Derekh ha-Hayyim is a highly regarded prayer book with halakhic and 
liturgical instruction by "Rav Yaakov of Lissa."

H Jacobson

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  January 5
Subject: suggestions for Martin Jacobs/Liser sider

Tayere Mendelyaner,

Ot zaynen a por forshlogn far Martin Jacobsn.

Some suggestions for Martin Jacobs:

patsher - fr. patshn, someone who slaps or hits?

potsher - priest (Harkavy)

poshtsher - postman (Harkavy)

yezlakh - fr. yoyz (weakling, fool), as in Niborski?

meytshes - related to Russian "metsh," sword?

ribtses - fr. Russian "rubtetz" (scar, also tripe)?


Rebbe Yakov Lorberboym fun Lissa (dos heyst, Leszno, Poyln -- 1760-1832) 
iz geveyn Rosh Yeshiva in Lissa un a barimter talmid-khokhem in zayn 
tsayt.  Ikh hob nit gehert fun keyn sidur vos er hot redaktirt, ober er 
hot aroysgegebn a hagode mit zayne oystaytshn un oykh etlekhe verk fun 
halokhe.  Efsher hot men in Byelarus derfar bazundersh opgeshatzt sforim 
fun Lezhno.

Rabbi Jacob Lorberbaum of Leszno (Yid., Lissa), Poland (1760-1832) was a 
Rosh Yeshiva and leading scholar of his time - I'm not aware of a sidur of 
his, but he did publish a commentary on the Hagada and other, mainly 
Halakhic works, so perhaps seforim from Lissa were highly valued.

Ayer,
Yankel Levitow

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 1
Subject: lise

It does not seem relevant but in Weinreich you will find "Lise" to mean 
bald.  It comes from the Polish "lysy," which has the same meaning.

Eliezer Greisdorf

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  January 2
Subject: patsh

My mother used patsh for spank.  Khayim der patsher would mean Teacher
Khayim the spanker.

Jacob Goldberg

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 21
Subject:  patsher

I believe the word patsher (pay-alef-tet-shin-resh) refers to the helper 
in heder that would punish the children that did not pay attention, etc. 
Normally it would be the teacher (melamed) or the Rabbi in very small 
communities, but in others, they had someone in charge of punishment. "Az 
es helft nit keyn patsh, muz men nemen di baytsh" (when the slap (patsh) 
does not help, the whip has to be used."

Mordkhe Weisselberg

9)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 1
Subject: patsher

Re: Martin Jacobs' query about "patsher," it would seem to derive from the 
verb "patshn" = to slap, smack. The rebe's assistant, the belfer, would 
discipline the unruly students. Since this including smacking them or 
worse, in those days when corporal punishment was the rule, the belfer was 
probably called the "patsher" in many places. My own rebe had no belfer, 
and did his own patshing.

Itsik Goldenberg

10)----------------------------------------------------
Subject: kirzhner
Date: January 2

>From JewishGen.org database for occupation names in the Pinsk ghetto:

"Krschner / Krschnerin / Krschn	Furrier"

Hope this helps

Stephen Jones
_______________________

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