LL-L 'Yiddish' 2007.02.12 (05) [E/LS]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 13 February 2007 - Volume 05

=========================================================================

From: Lee Goldberg <leybl_goldberg at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L 'Yiddish' 2007.02.12 (06) [E]

On Low Saxon-Yiddish interactions, I don't have any specific knowledge that
might be helpful.  But I recall Max Weinreich mentioning in his *Geschikhte
fun der yidisher shprakh, *as part of a discussion of what he said was the
very minor influence exerted by Low German dialects on Yiddish, that the
Jewish communities in Northern Germany got established relatively late (as
you said) and probably felt that High German forms like "bukh, vaser, ofn"
were Yiddish and the Low German forms were "German"!  I do have (a copy of)
a Passover Haggadah from the region (The Copenhagen Haggadah,
Altona-Hamburg, 1739, facsimile edition published by Nahar Publishers
Ltd., Tel Aviv, 1986) which has translations of the Hebrew-Aramaic text in
both (Western) Yiddish ("nit tsu fer geshin di hend tsu veshin") and Ladino
("lavara las manos i no dira beraha")--which certainly confirms the
impression you give of a culturally diverse Jewish community.

As far as calling Yiddish spoken by Eastern European Jews or their
descendants in Antwerp or Brussels or the Netherlands "Western" Yiddish, my
feeling is that this would be an error.  My understanding of "Western
Yiddish" means dialects of Yiddish that pronounce the diphthongs of "eyn
oygnblik" ('one eyes-blink') as /aan aagnblik/.  (For comparison, in Eastern
Yiddish, that would be /eyn eygnblik/ in Lithuania-Belarus, /eyn oygnblik/
in Ukraine, /ayn oygnblik/ in Poland, and /eyn oygnblik/ in the literary
language...if Eastern European Jews said it, at all, which they don't!
"Just a minute" in Eastern Yiddish is "eyn minut(kele)".)

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Yiddish

Thanks, Lee!

Boy!  Would I love to see a copy of that Copenhagen Haggadah sometime!

Careful!  Altona became a part of Hamburg only fairly recently.  Before that
it was a separate city, albeit within walking distance from Hamburg, hence
the folk etymology LS All to nah ("all too near," which doesn't jive since
nah is German for LS neeg' or neegt 'near').

What's significant about this is that Altona was known for its relative
tolerance, much of which was due to the Portuguese Sephardic community
having been a boost for the city in earlier times.  Furthermore, at times
Altona was under (more tolerant) Danish rule, with the Danish border right
outside Hamburg.  This afforded Hamburg Jews a place of refuge whenever
there was an Anti-Semitic flair-up at home in Hamburg. (This is described by
Glikl.)

Hamburg was where "big" business could be done, what with all the ocean
trade.  While, after Reformation, the Hamburg elite, like that of Amsterdam,
was composed mostly of merchants that were less interested in religious
matters than in their commercial interests, the city was a relatively "safe"
place for Jews.  But the senate's attitude was mixed and changeable.  On the
one hand, the merchants appreciated the commercial stimulation Jews afforded
(who before the 19th century weren't allowed to own real estate and to
pursue other professions, as in most of Europe), and they remembered what a
shot in the arm the prior arrival of the Sephardi community had been (more
to Altona than to Hamburg). On the other hand, aside from then "normal"
European bigotry, there was a certain fear of business competition and
jealousy of geographical connections the Hanseatic League had not exploited,
such as tight connections with Southern Germany, Alsace and Eastern Europe.
(Most Hamburg Jews had relatives in those places.) Besides, the status of
Jews as officially temporary residents with no legal rights made it likely
that they were here today and gone tomorrow, and this was commercially
unreliable.  In other words, the lack of rights was a detriment to everyone
concerned, but removing such injustice would have demanded what amounted to
presedential citizen status, and that would have been too much too soon in
Europe between the 16th and the 19th centuries.  As a result, there would be
occasional chicanery in Hamburg, and that easily inflamed the lower-class
mob's resentment of Jews supposed wealth.  It was at such times that
Hamburg's mostly Ashkenazi community would treck across the field and hang
out in more diverse and more liberal Altona until the pogrom died down and
the commercial holes Jews had left needed to be filled again.

Furthermore, Hamburg's Ashkenazim, like Sephardim, understandably retained
and cultivated their connections with other "safe" places, such as Amsterdam
and Rotterdam, and intermarriage with people there was common (as also
described by Glikl who married one daughter to Amsterdam). Because of
relatively benevolent Danish power and influence that far south, it was a
logical step to expand the Jewish community northward, all the way to
Copenhagen and on to Norway (then under Danish rule), some also to Sweden
and on to Finland (not to then Danish-dominated Iceland which accepted Jews
as late as during World War II, and, as a supposedly "pure Germanic" nation,
did so with much resentment, Icelandic media calling Jews "vagabonds" that
must be closely watched).  Most of this migration seems to have originated
from Altona, but of course it opened a new path from Hamburg's Jews as well.

To make things even more diverse, there was considerable immigration of East
European Ashkenazim, especially during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Many of them stayed temporarily while arranging passage to the "New" World.
Some stayed, speaking Eastern Yiddish at home.  There were enough of them to
warrant the establishment of specific East European synagogues (Adas
Jeschorim).

So what you got were (mostly Portuguese) Sephardim, German Askenazim and
East European Ashkenazim. The German Ashlenazim were divided by sects:
Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed.

Much more about this can be read up on at the excellent website "A History
of Jews in Hamburg" (http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-vilhjalmur-f04.htm) by
Struan Robertson (ay, a guid Lawlands name tha!). There are links to
excellent relevant resources elsewhere (including histories of individual
synagogues in many parts), and much of it is in English!  This is one heck
of a superb site!

My mother was born and raised in Altona in a part of town with high Jewish
concentration. (Her parents had moved there from the east.)  According to
her, there was no overt Anti-Semitism in the community.  Most Jewish and
Gentile children visited the same schools and played together in the
streets. My grandmother and her sisters would give Jewish neighbor boys
presents for Bar Mitzvah, and my mother and other kids would occasionally
earn a pfennig or two running errands for Jewish neighbors on Sabbath (thus
acting as shabes goyim).  Poorer people benefited greatly by the low-cost or
free services offered by the local Jewish Hospital, and this generated much
goodwill within the community.  It was only after Kristallnacht that the
actual madness reached my mother's community, and she remembered seeing
trucks taking away neighbors at night, including her playmates and fellow
students. (I later located one of them in Israel, by sheer luck, since she
had changed her name!)

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

***

KANEELJUD

Klaus Groth (1819-1899)

                         Our temple hath not left a stone
                         And Mockery sits on Salem's throne.

                              Byron, Hebrew Melodies

Luerlüttje Kaneeljud!
Wa süht he verdweer ut!
Hangt Band ut, hangt Trand ut,
Handelt allerallerhand Grandgut.

    Isak, is dat Schipp kam?
    Is min Säwel mitkam?
    Krieg'k en Wagen, krieg'k en Popp,
    Krieg'k min Hot mit Feddern op?

    »Kinner, noch nicht!
    Tokum Johr kumt't vellicht!
    Dat Woter weer dick worn,
    Mät teebn bet de Glicksorn!«

Luerlüttje Kaneeljud!
Wa süht he fidel ut!
So afscharn, so utfrarn,
Snackt jimmer, jimmer vun de Glücksaarn.

    Abraham, wo büst du?
    Vater Abram, sühst du?
    Truerbom vun Babylon,
    Wo's de weise Salomon?

***

CINNAMON JEW

Klaus Groth (1819-1899)
http://www.lowlands-l.net/groth/
translated by R. F. Hahn, February 13, 2007

                         Our temple hath not left a stone
                         And Mockery sits on Salem's throne.

                              Byron, Hebrew Melodies

Tiny, little Cinnamon Jew!
How funny he looks! How he walks about
With those strings hanging out
And those things hanging out,
Trading luxury goods, always on the tout!

    Isaac, is my ship at the pier?
    Is my saber now finally here?
    Will I get my cart? A doll for me?
    And a hat with feathers on top for Marie?

    "No, not yet, kids. Shoo! Let go of me!
    They'll all will be here next year maybe.
    The water turned thick, the voyage a crawl.
    You must wait now, kids, till there is a windfall."

Tiny, little Cinnamon Jew!
How jolly he looks,
So destitute, so frozen and all,
All the time talking about that windfall!

    Abraham, where will I find thee?
    Father Abraham, can't you see?
    Mourning Tree of Babylon,
    Where's the wise man, Solomon?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20070213/adb7ddcf/attachment.htm>