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Join the Celebration - December 2008

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12/18 Russian-Jewish Wedding Music
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The Vortsman
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Dear Friend of Yiddishkayt,

In just nine days, Michael Alpert, Isaac Sadigursky and David Kasap will take the stage in Fiesta Hall and lead us on a journey through the many faces of Russian-Jewish Wedding Music, Еврейской свадебной музыки

Join in the celebration.  Thursday, December 18th, at 7:00 pm in Plummer Park, West Hollywood.  Don't miss this FREE concert.  RSVP info below.

If you listened to KPFK this morning you were treated to some sounds and discussion of our upcoming concert on Global Village with Betto Arcos.  Click here to check out the podcast (scroll to about a third of the way through).

There are plenty of other Yiddish-related events coming up this month.  TONIGHT: Josh Kun and Leonard Nimoy play Name That Tune in Santa Monica.  On the morning of Sunday, December 14, catch author Michael Wex at Temple Sinai and that afternoon, catch a concert with cantor Hershl Fox at the L.A. Yiddish Culture Club.  On Tuesday, December 16, enjoy a free outdoor concert by the Ellis Island Klezmer Band in a holiday celebration of LA's many cultures.  And later in the month, catch Michael Tilson Thomas conduct his original work based on music of the Yiddish Theater, The Thomashefskys at the Disney Hall.  More info below.

The Vortsman helps you prepare for Khanike (that's the correct Yiddish transliteration) with alternative translations of holiday songs.  Did you know that the infamous dreydl song and Khanike, O, Khanike were both originally written in Yiddish?

And if you missed it last month, read the story of the mural left behind at the old VCJCC building, and its impending destruction.  If you already wrote and made calls on behalf the mural, a hartsikn dank, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

See you in nine days!

mit vareme vuntshn,

The Yiddishkayt Staff
12/18 RUSSIAN-JEWISH WEDDING MUSIC

12/18 Russian Jewish Wedding Music Yiddishkayt cordially invites you to
a celebration of

RUSSIAN-JEWISH WEDDING MUSIC
Еврейской свадебной музыки

Thursday, December 18, 2008
7:00 pm

Free Admission
RSVP to reserve a seat (see below)

Fiesta Hall, Plummer Park



---> Talk of the town: check out KPFK promoting the concert on Global Village with Betto Arcos (scroll to a third of the way through the podcast).

Join in the celebration.  Yiddishkayt invites you to a concert exploring the many faces of Russian-Jewish wedding music.  The unique trio of musicians shares an incredible, encyclopedic fluency in Jewish, Moldavian, Roumanian and Russian music, a rare and special talent.

Local treasures Isaac Sadigursky (Clarinet) and David Kasap (Accordion) have been playing music together for 50 years, meeting in their youth as Conservatory roommates.  Isaac and David are both natives of what is now Moldova, located between Ukraine and Roumania.  They are joined by world-renowned klezmer revivalist and music scholar, Michael Alpert (Creative Direction, Violin & Voice) of Brave Old World.  Fluent in Yiddish, Russian, Polish, Spanish, German, Serbo-Croatian and conversant in a dozen more languages, Michael has drawn from his deep family heritage and extensive travels to become a pioneering figure in the current renaissance of East European Jewish klezmer music for over 25 years.

FREE ADMISSION, general seating

RSVP to reserve a seat by emailing us your name and number of people in your party (up to 4).
(You do not need to RSVP to attend the concert.)

Fiesta Hall, Plummer Park (map)
7377 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA
(parking lot entrance off Santa Monica Blvd)

West Hollywood LogoProduced by Yiddishkayt.  Generously supported by the City of West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission.
UPCOMING EVENTS
TONIGHT: 12/9 Name that Tune with Josh Kun & Leonard Nimoy

TONIGHT: Tuesday, December 9
7:30 pm
Free admission; Seating is limited
RSVP Required: email or call Rachel Monas, (310) 586-6488 x 119
at the Santa Monica Museum of Art
2525 Michigan Avenue, 90404 (map)
 
And You Shall Know Us By The Trail Of Our VinylEnjoy a special night of lost music, excavated memory, and forgotten Jewish LPs as Josh Kun talks with the illustrious Leonard Nimoy. Followed by a book signing of Josh Kun and Roger Bennett's And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Past as Told by the Records We Have Loved and Lost. More info here.  Check out the blog.


12/14 Sinai Temple & the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies present Author Michael Wex

Just Say NuSunday, December 14
9:30 - 11:30 am
Tickets, $25
at Sinai Temple
10400 Wilshire Blvd. 90024 (map)

 
Author Michael Wex reads from his latest book, Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion, When English Just Won't Do.  More information.


12/14 Yiddish Culture Club presents a Concert with Hershl Fox

Sunday, December 14
2:00 pm
Members $8, Guests $10
at the Los Angeles Yiddish Culture Club
8339 West Third Street, 90048 (map)
 
Enjoy a concert with the well-known and beloved cantor, Hershl Fox, an exceptional interpreter of Yiddish songs and word.

Refreshments after the program.


12/16 Grand Performancespresents A Holiday Celebration of LA's Cultures with the Ellis Island Klezmer Band

Tuesday, December 16
12:00 pm
Free
at Grand Performances at California Plaza
300-350 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles (map)
 
This exciting program features holiday music and song celebrated in Nordic, Latino, Armenian, Jewish, Korean and Gypsy cultures - representing the 25 days; December 12 to January 6, in which these cultures' holiday celebrations take place - all interpreted by the Ellis Island Klezmer Band, with the coordination of Barry Fisher.  Including an extraordinary interpretation of a classic Yiddish brotherhood tune sung in Korean.  More info.


12/18-12/20 LA Phil presents Michael Tilson Thomas: The Thomashefskys

Thursday, December 18, at 8:00 pm
Friday, December 19, at 11:00 am
Saturday, December 20, at 8:00 pm
Tickets from $42 to $147
at the Walt Disney Concert Hall
111 South Grand Avenue, 90012 (map)

Michael Tilson Thomas
MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS, the grandson of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, is Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

In The Thomashefskys, you will hear the music of shows that played the theater houses of the Lower East Side in New York and other American cities to which the Thomashefsky troupe traveled in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To say these are rescued lost treasures is not an exaggeration. Michael Tilson Thomas has brought this music back to life, according to his memory of how his grandmother Bessie Thomashefsky, uncle Harry Thomashefsky, and father Ted Thomas performed the numbers in the living room of his North Hollywood family home in the 1950s.  More info + tickets.
VORTSMAN: A YIDDISH KHANIKE

vortsmanThe vortsman, meaning "man of his word," brings you the story of a different Yiddish word or phrase each month.

Written by Hershl Hartman, Long-time Yiddishkayt Board Member (and Education Director at the Sholem Community)


In the coming weeks you may find yourself singing or listening to (or trying desperately not to listen to) some of your favorite khanike songs: the dreydl song and Khanike, o, khanike.  What you may not have known, however, is that both of these songs were originally written in Yiddish.  And while you may cherish the familiar English lyrics, they are not always an appropriate (or sensical) translation of the original.

If not abundantly clear by now, if there's one thing that catches the ire of the Vortsman, it's a shoddy translation (or two). So let's set the record straight.  This khanike, consider topping an evening of latkes with these alternative lyrics...

The Dreydl Song

Yiddish

ikh bin a kleyner dreydl

gemakht bin ikh fun blay
to kumt-zhe ale shpiln
in dreydl, eyns, tsvey, dray

Popular Translation

I have a little dreydl,
I made it out of clay
And when it's dry and ready,
Then dreydl I shall play

Some day, someone must explain to me how a dreydl ("dreidel") "made out of clay" could last more than one spin. The original Yiddish lyrics have the dreydl made, properly, of lead. The anonymous uninspired translator could find no better rhyme than "clay -- play." An exact rendering of the original would sound like this:

I have a little dreydl,
t'was made of lead for me.
So let's all play together
with dreydl, one, two, three!

Khanike o khanike

While not as popular as the dreydl song, another mangled translation is khanike, o khanike, with its hora-dancing and party-having:

Yiddish

khanike, o khanike, a yontif a sheyner,

a lustiker, a freylekher, nito nokh azeyner.
ale nakht in dreydl shpeeln meer,
zudik heyse latkes esn meer. (var.: est on a sheer)

Chorus:
geshvinder, tsint kinder, di khanike lilkhtelekh on:
lomeer ale zingen un lomeer ale shpringen
(var: zogt 'kol ha'nisim,' loybt got far di nisim)  
un lomeer ale tantsn in kon.
(var: un kumt gikher tantsn in kon.)

Popular Translation

Khanike, o Khanike, come light the menora
Let's have a party, we'll all dance the hora
Gather round the table, we'll give you a treat
Dreydls to play with and latkes to eat

And while we are playing
The candles are burning low
One for each night, they shed a sweet light
To remind us of days long ago

A translation of the first verse and chorus done in the late 1940s (by a certain teenager who grew up to be a Vortsman) was sung then by the fabled Jewish Young Folksingers under famed conductor Bob Decormier. That translation also took more than a few liberties with the original Yiddish, but was -- in the opinion of the singers, at least -- much truer to the spirit of the holiday. It went like this:

Khanike, o khanike, eight days of gladness.
The spirit of the Maccabees drives off ev 'ry sadness.
Ev'ry night the dreydl spins on the floor;
We eat the steaming latkes -- let's fry up some more!

Chorus:
Come light up the candles, the golden menora will glow!
And let us sing of freedom and let us sing of sholem:
The brotherhood of peoples will grow!
(var. for 2008: The unity of humankind will grow!)


In the interest of full disclosure, it should be mentioned that the Vortsman is the author of "The Hanuka Festival: A Guide For the Rest of Us," and "The Hidden History of Hanuka for Kids (And Grownups)," both available here.

dreydl song: Text: Ben Aaron; Music: Mikhl Gelbart
Khanike, o khanike: Text: M. Rivesman

_ _ _ _ _

Have a question for the vortsman? Send him an email and ask the meaning of a favorite, or confusing, word or phrase.
JOIN THE FIGHT TO SAVE HISTORIC MURAL

Artist John Weber created the mural in 1992

Historic mural left behind at the old Valley Cities JCC is slated for destruction -- by sandblasting -- by the new owners.  Join the fight to help save the mural.

Abolish SlaveryIf you missed this story in our last newsletter, visit our website to learn more about the impending destruction of this valuable mural.  Email Councilmember Jack Weiss (link is below) right now, then click here to read the background story, along with links to press about the mural's predicament.

--> Email Councilmember Jack Weiss or make phone calls (visit our website for more info)

Photos by Aaron Paley
Yiddishkayt Los Angeles

www.yiddishkaytla.org