So tomorrow Secrets of the City is sponsoring a talk with author Neal Karlen and comedian (and German scholar) Ari Hoptman on the subject of Yiddish, about which Karlen has written a book. This has got me thinking about Yiddish in Minnesota, so I decided to do a little digging. There isn’t a lot, but what’s out there is interesting. Garrison Keillor once joked about a Yiddish-Minnesotan dictionary. KFAI, unsuprisingly, can be counted on to occasionally play Yiddish music. According to this book, there was a brief, but failed, attempt at publishing a Yiddish weekly in 1921. Local girls made good The Andrew Sisters had some luck with Yiddish novelty numbers, and also helped create Yiddish swing. The locally originated show Gershwin the Klezmer investigated Geirge Gershwin’s roots in Yiddish music. And, of course, St. Louis Park’s own Coen Brothers will be filming The Yiddish Policeman’s Union as their next movie.
Yiddish Minnesota
Jan 12 2009 — 3:59pm
11 Reader Comments
4:27 pm
So if I’m understanding this correctly, this means if I can stumble and/or fake my way through German, I could do the same for Yiddish. Not the written part, just spoken.
4:35 pm
For the most part, yes. I speak a little Yiddish, and once helped a German woman in New Orleans communicate her problem to the police (her purse had been stolen). Yiddish is based on Middle High German, albeit with a lot of Hebrew loan words and its own syntax.)
5:46 pm
I can speak Yiddish. I can understand some German. What’s interesting is that Yiddish literature arose, flourished, and developed at high speed, then crashed. It would have anyway, I think, despite the war, because of urbanization. But of course there was an abrupt end. I had a teacher years ago who taught Yiddish literature in Yiddish–but I didn’t fully appreciate what he was doing until I was an adult. His name was Yaacov Zipper and a translated book of his stories, into English, is titled “The Far Side of the River.” It’s beautiful.
6:36 pm
Ari Hoptman came to my class to speak a million years ago. He is very funny and not bad to look at…
1:18 pm
If you can understand Yiddish, the 3 Stooges become funnier.
Even to women.
1:26 pm
I think I’m going to go ahead and hit that Yiddish thing tonight. Anyone else up for a drink?
1:29 pm
I think I’m going to go ahead and hit that Yiddish thing tonight
That’s what she said Max. about you. ha!
1:48 pm
What time are you planning to stop by there, max?
1:50 pm
5:30pm or thereabouts.
3:50 pm
Max-
say hi to Neal Karlen for me, would you? Wish I could be there.
3:56 pm
Will do!