Magnes Press - New Books 2003

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY MAGNES PRESS

 

The Six Volume Anthology of Yiddish Folksongs

 

The most remarkable phenomenon in Jewish history in the Diaspora is no doubt the emergence of a Yiddish “Commonwealth” in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries in Europe, South America, etc. At the height of its popularity Yiddish was spoken by some eleven million people. At no time in the whole of Jewish History did so many Jews speak, read and write the same language. It’s phenomenal culture and civilization, its miniature autonomous “Governments” in each Jewish  community, ruled by a unique “Constitution” named “Takanot” (regulations) amazes us today, when that culture and its carriers – six million of them – were annihilated by the Germans and their helpers.

 

The great Jewish-German poet Heinrich Heine corresponded with his mother in Yiddish – with Hebrew letters. He said that when the Jews were expelled from their land in 70 CE and finally in 136 CE by Emperor Hadrian after his legions supressed the Bar-Kochba uprising, the Jews took with them their books, their culture and traditions, which Heine named “ein portabiles Vaterland” – a portable homeland.  This definition was eventually developed into a State, or Commonwealth, with all attributes of a state, except a territory.  The common language eventually became Yiddish.

 

Suffice it to mention the “guild” of Jewish water-carriers in Minsk, Byelorussia, probably the poorest workers, who after a day of hard work, ran to their prayer house to pray and devote the rest of the Russian winter’s long evening hours, in study of sacred and secular books.  They kept a Pinkas (ledger) with the minutes of each evening, their cultural interests, their social-philanthropic activities, etc. This and other “Pinkasim” of Minsk was miraculously saved from the Holocaust and is now at the Hebrew University.

 

We cannot bring back to life the six million Jews murdered by the Germans, but we can save something of their culture, their folklore, their songs. With the encouragement of Abe Harman, Eliyahu Honig and Emma Schaver, Sinai Leichter undertook the gigantic task of collecting as many Yiddish folksongs as possible from existing books, from records, from survivors and from those in Israel, USA and South America, who escaped the Holocaust in time.  This required a lot of research, even digging up some songs from the cellars and hideouts in Poland.

 

As Mr. Alex Lauterbach, formerly of Krakow, now in California, wrote to Sinai Leichter – “your job of collecting, editing and publishing this series of books is a heroic effort and will keep your name alive for years to come.  It is evidence of a profound personal dedication to keep alive a world that is no more.  Thanks for your noble task.”  In another letter Mr. Lauterback, probably the last living person who knew Mordechai Gebirtig imtimately, wrote – thank you so much for the Mordechai Gebirtig volume that arrived yesterday. It is a masterpiece of creative effort.  Obviously it is the result of many, many years of hard work, where you had to be a music expert, a detective, a poet, a translator, a historian and only God knows what else…. Your volume will help to preserve Gebirtig’s melodies for ages to come.”
 

NOW PUBLISHED


VOLUME SIX of The Anthology of Yiddish Folksongs:

 

THE MARK WARSHAVSKY VOLUME

Edited by Sinai Leichter

 

Mark Warshavsky (1848-1907) was born in Odessa and educated in Zhitomir and Kiev. He was born into an “assimilated” family, because they spoke Russian and not Yiddish.  He finished university and received the title of “accredited Lawyer.” Only in his 20’s he discovered the beauty and cordiality of Yiddish culture and Yiddish customs. He gave up his profession as lawyer and dedicated himself totally to Yiddish life.

 

Soon he started writing folk-poetry and music and it was Sholom Aleichem who discovered his unique talent and helped him publish his work in book form (Warsaw 1901). His song “Oyfn pripetshik” rapidly became famous all over “the Pale.”

 

Warshavsky and Sholom Aleichem often travelled together and appeared in many Jewish communities at social evenings.  Warshavsky accompanied himself on the piano and his songs spread all over the Ukraine, Byelorussia, Poland and South America.

 

Songs like Akhtsik er un zibetsik zi, Der bekher, Di mezinke oysgegebn, Der alef beth, Dem milners trern and many others, soon became folk-songs to the extent that their author’s name was forgotten, as if the people themselves created them. This was the greatest compliment.

 

This volume includes 49 songs with the music by Warshavsky himself, and in those cases where the melodies were lost, the late Meir Noy composed new melodies in Warshavsky’s style.  The lyrics appear in Hebrew and Latin letters, the translation into Hebrew and English are “singable” so that Yiddish music lovers, who do not read Yiddish, may sing along in English or Hebrew.

 

The Hebrew translations were made by Chaim Leichter of Jerusalem and the English translations by Vivian London also of Jerusalem, Feigl Rosenberg of Toronto and Tel Aviv and Miriam Breitman of Vancouver.
 

Please send me _____copy / copies of  THE ANTHOLOGY OF YIDDISH FOLKSONGS

All prices are in US dollars

·                    Volume 1 ($25)

·                    Volume 2 ($25)

·                    Volume 3 ($25)

·                    Volume 4 ($25)

·                    Volume 5 The Mordechai Gebirtig Volume ($30)

·                    Volume 6 The Mark Varshavsky Volume ($25)

Postage by sea for each volume is $3; by air $15.00
 
GERMANY AND THE MIDDLE EAST
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

Edited by HAIM GOREN

The exploration of different aspects of Germany's deep-rooted, long-standing, and very complex relations and connections with the Middle East in the modern era was the theme of an international conference on "Germany and the Middle East: Past, Present, and Future", conducted in Jerusalem under the auspices of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Jerusalem office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

The papers presented dealt with a vast diversity of topics touching upon the connections between Germany and the Middle East, or various parts and countries of that region, during the last two centuries, a time-span that begins with Napoleon's invasion of the region in 1798 and ends in the present.

Thus, "Germany" includes - according to the period under discussion - Prussia, Württemberg and Bavaria, the second and third Reichs, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republik (GDR), and of course today's reunited Germany.

Naturally, the book's seventeen papers cannot present a systematic picture of the development of Germany's relations with the different countries in the Middle East; neither were they intended to provide a methodological state-of-the-art summary.

Rather, they present detailed and profound researches into various aspects, periods, and phenomena related to a certain "space" within a specific "time."

They include purely historical studies as well as interdisciplinary works which also combine the fields of geography, historical-geography, politics, geo-politics, technology, and economics.

One of the main concepts that runs throughout the volume is that knowledge of this recent past is crucial for an understanding of past and present trends in Germany's perception of the Middle East. Moreover, Germany - today undoubtedly a leading force in the European Union and a spearhead of the world economy - plays a primary role in the region.

The facts, processes, and conceptions revealed in the papers are also necessary to gain an understanding and evaluation of any future Germany involvement in the Middle East.

ISBN 965-4930159-1. 350 pp. $US 30.00.
Distributed by The Hebrew University Magnes Press, P.O. Box 39099, Jerusalem 91390, Israel.

Postage by sea for each volume is $3; by air $15.00