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Dear Friend of Yiddish,
Spring is in the air here at Yiddishkayt. Just this morning, your author was awakened by birds shmuesn outside his window... Why do they get to have all the fun? We're joining in and you can now follow Yiddishkayt on Twitter where we hope to keep you abreast of goings-on in our organization and the global Yiddish world. In the next Yidbits, we will cover other informative and fun Yiddish resources online.
Yiddishkayt is presenting some exciting events this month. On March 14th, we are partnering with the California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language (CIYCL) and the LA Yiddish Culture Club for Tants! A Yiddish Dance Party for All with world-renowned dance master Michael Alpert and featuring live Klezmer music. Also, we're very excited to be partnering with the Skirball Cultural Center to present the second and last concert in the Klezmer Across Borders series. This series explores the transformation of traditional klezmer as musicians around the world continue to fuse, improvise, and innovate. Join us at the Skirball on March 25 for Klezmer en Buenos Aires: Lerner Moguilevsky Dúo (from Argentina). More info is below.
Our Kehile (Community) Calendar brings you the best events around Los Angeles. On March 14, prior to Tants!, Michael Alpert will be offering an illustrated talk on S. Ansky, writer of The Dybbuk, presented by CIYCL and the LA Yiddish Culture Club. At the end of the month, Deb Filler, "New Zealand's funniest Jewish export," will perform in Culver City on 3/27. Members of our Folks-Grupe cultural fellowship gave Deb great reviews.
In last month's Yidbits, we said goodbye to Cory Fischer, our multi-talented Programming/Communications Director. This month we have a welcome letter from Wesley Pinkham, a recent UCLA grad who has been deeply involved in the LA cultural scene, most recently at The Music Center/Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County. He couldn't be more excited to join Yiddishkayt and to deepen his involvement with the Yiddish community!
This month, get your fill of shmalts as the Vortsman jumps out of the frying pan and into the fire as he examines the problems of literal translations, especially when they lack a knowledge of Yiddish cuisine.
mit vareme grusn, with warm greetings,
The Yiddishkayt Staff
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3/25 - KLEZMER ACROSS BORDERS
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Yiddishkayt is thrilled to join the Skirball Cultural Center in presenting Klezmer Across Borders.
The late-twentieth-century klezmer revival in the United States is well known to many. Few are aware that the renaissance has had major proponents elsewhere in North and South America. On February 4th, Beyond the Pale's wide-ranging musicality left the audience clamoring for an encore. Next up is a chance to see the Los Angeles premiere of Klezmer en Buenos Aires on March 25th.
"Surrender yourself to their ecstatic joy...Moguilevsky and Lerner are your hosts, satisfaction guaranteed." --Contumancia Magazine
About Lerner Moguilevsky Dúo: World-class Argentinean duo César Lerner and Marcelo Moguilevsky, also
known as Klezmer en Buenos Aires, bring the merriment and pathos of
Eastern Europe's spirited music to the Skirball. Their exciting and innovative take on klezmer blends traditional melodies with Argentinean
folk, jazz, tango, and contemporary sounds. Be mesmerized by the
orchestral effect of their stunning virtuosity on flutes, bagpipe,
duduk (Armenian reed instrument), clarinets, soprano saxophone,
harmonica, accordion, piano, and percussion.
For directions, parking, and to plan your visit, click here for the Skirball Cultural Center website. (Note: to purchase tickets at the membership rate, you must use the specified promo codes below.)
Klezmer en Buenos Aires: Lerner Moguilevsky Dúo
Thursday, March 25, at 8:00 p.m. $30 General; $25 Skirball and Yiddishkayt* Members; $20 Full-Time Students Advance tickets: Available on site at the Skirball, online at www.skirball.org, or by phone at (877) SCC-4TIX or (877) 722-4849. *Yiddishkayt Members, to redeem your discount, indicate promo code 99635 at time of purchase. Limit two discounted tickets per concert. Discount may not be applied retroactively to previously purchased tickets. |
TANTS! A YIDDISH DANCE PARTY FOR ALL!
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Connect to a Rich Eastern European Heritage
New York-based dance master Michael Alpert brings together some of Los Angeles' finest Klezmer musicians for a party of Old World dancing. "I take you by the hand but you dance to your own rhythm," says Michael, "The dances are not complicated but you learn how to spice things up - so let's have fun - lomir tantsn!"
Sunday, March 14, 2010, from 4:00 - 6:00 PM
8339 West 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA
$15 General; $10 Full-Time Students - CASH ONLY
For more information and to RSVP: 310-745-1190
Old Country Refreshments will be served
Neighborhood parking or valet available ($3.50)
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KEHILE (COMMUNITY) CALENDAR
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Yiddishkayt is pleased to share announcements of upcoming events related to Yiddish. If you are interested in learning more about any event, please contact the organization listed. If you have an event to share, email us the info.
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3/14/10 S. Ansky: Firebrand, Mystic, Keeper of the Flame (and Author of "The Dybbuk")
Prior to Tants!, hear an illustrated talk by special guest Michael Alpert. He is an ethnomusicologist and world-renowned performer and teacher. Sunday, March 14 at 2:00pm $8 General; $5 Members; $3 Full-Time Students 8339 West 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA ( map)
More info or to RSVP: 310-745-1190 or e-mail miriam@yiddishinstitute.org Presented by the California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language and the LA Yiddish Culture Club.
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New Zealand's funniest Jewish export has been described as a warm, gifted, and consummate performer and a complete chameleon. Deb's comedic genius should leave no fan of Tracy Ullman or Lily Tomlin disappointed!
Saturday, March 27 at 7:30pm $20 ($15 groups of 8 or more) w/ RSVP by March 20 $25 at the door Temple Akiba 5249 South Sepulveda Blvd, Culver City, CA ( map) RSVP/Info: Jeannine Frank at (310) 476-6735 or Jeannine@FrankEntertainment.com |
Greetings from Behind the Yiddishkayt Desk
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 As you read last month, a new voice was slated to join Yiddishkayt by the time the next Yidbits came out. That would be me, Wesley Pinkham (pictured at left). That picture was taken last year when I was studying abroad in Jerusalem. I remember how strange, how quaint, it was to walk through the streets of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jews) neighborhoods and to hear kids calling out in Yiddish, to see signs plastered about in Yiddish. I love Yiddish culture, I've always had a soft spot for it... However, the Yiddish I encountered in Jerusalem lacked vibrancy and dynamism; Yiddishkayt does not put our ancestral language behind glass in a museum. It places it in classrooms, on stage and back into the hearts, minds and tongues of our people. I am so excited to join Yiddishkayt and to continue our tradition of connecting with deep roots. With deep roots, Yiddish flourishes and grows in new directions. Just today, the British newspaper The Guardian wrote of the Yiddish revival: "as Jewish populations become more diverse and Jewish identity less
connected to religion and more to ethnicity, Jews are increasingly
looking for alternative ways to be Jewish." Alternative Jewish identity is a topic I care deeply about, and Yiddish culture was, for a thousand years, the common thread which tied so many of us together. I am enthused to bring Yiddish to a new kind of population, and to answer a call I hear too often: "Where are our young people?"
As a recent graduate of UCLA's department of World Arts & Cultures, my focus on our culture was ignited while studying abroad for 5 months at Hebrew University of Jerusalem where I took classes on Hasidism, the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish art. I grew up in Orange County, interned at the Skirball Cultural Center in 2007 as well as Grand Performances in Downtown LA in 2009. I come to Yiddishkayt directly from the Music Center where I worked with auxiliary fundraising organizations The Blue Ribbon and Fraternity of Friends.
I am incredibly excited to join the Yiddishkayt team and to become the new voice for Yidbits. My interests are wide-ranging and open-minded and I have great enthusiasm to continue the great work Cory Fischer began in this position. I look forward to meeting many of you at events, meetings and our booth at the LA Times Festival of Books on April 25th & 26th!
Warmest Regards,
Wesley Pinkham
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VORTSMAN - OUT OF THE FRYING PAN
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 The 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
Dealing With "Schmaltz" - (Or, properly, shmalts)
No doubt about it: dictionaries are indispensible for anyone dealing with Yiddish - student or fan. Of course, using a Yiddish dictionary requires an ability to read di kleyne oysyelekh - the little (Hebrew) letters. Still, even the
very best dictionaries can lead the unwary astray.
Case in point: while checking the published translation of a yizker bukh - Holocaust memorial book - done by well-meaning volunteers, The Vortsman found this howler:
"The residents of (shtetl name) were well-known in the surrounding area for frying goose fat..."
The amateur translator may well have been familiar with the usual meaning of the Yiddish verb, preglen - to fry - but frying goose fat makes no sense. (Or, in the Yiddish phrase: s'leygt zikh nit afn seykhl - it doesn't recline on [conform to] logic.) One frys in goose fat.
As that hapless translator may have done, The Vortsman checked his (generally) reliable sources: Uriel Weinreich's Modern English-Yiddish, Yiddish-English Dictionary (1968), Alexander Harkavy's Yiddish-English-Hebrew Dictionary (1928) - both are still in print - and Harkavy's Yiddish-English Dictionary (1898) - especially useful for now-archaic words.
All three agree that preglen means "to fry, frying." No other meanings are given.
But logic will not be denied. That's why knowledge of Yiddish cultural practices, as reflected in Yiddish literature, is essential for anyone translating the language, especially something so important, historically and spiritually, as a yizker bukh.
One renders poultry fat to convert it into shmalts, the essential ingredient - or medium - of Yiddish (East European) cuisine. The rendering process is called, in Yiddish, preglen or shmeltsn - melting, from which we get the word shmalts. It's the shmalts that's used subsequently for frying. Similarly, U.S.
Southerners render hog fat to obtain their preferred frying grease...lard. The solid by-products of both processes are delicacies known, in the Yiddish case, as grivn or gribenes; Southerners prize their cracklings.
Just why "schmaltz" came to mean "maudlin sentimentality" is unclear. But The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language adds this comment: "[Yiddish shmalts...]".
Score one for The Vortsman (and the YIVO Standard)!
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3780 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1000 | Los Angeles, CA | 90010
Telephone: 213.389.8880 | Fax: 213.365.0702 | info@yiddishkayt.org
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