Re: Yiddish on List

[Solidarity Foundation <svzandt...>]

While the tone of the responses has been light, it also seems to have been
generally negative to the request.  Let me put the request another way--for
those of us who will not learn Yiddish, but are otherwise interested in
Jewish music and even Klezmer.

If you can't find the extra minute to translate (or your ideology forbids
such a thing), just be aware that there are quite a few of us whom you are
excluding from the meaning you are trying to convey.  You may not like that
state of affairs, and, like our sisters and brothers for over a hundred
years, you may wish it were otherwise (the state of knowledge of Yiddish),
but that is the way it is.  If you want to exclude me (and others like me,
of course), the use of untranslated Yiddish on this list is a fine way to
do it.

Mike Leavitt <mrl (at) alum(dot)mit(dot)edu>
Reston, VA
________________

May I just make a few observations?

first of all, to my recollection, very, very little Yiddish has ever been
used on this list --
second of all, the beauty of the medium is that, if there is ANYTHING
anyone doesn't understand, they need merely ask for an explanation, and
there is little doubt that they will receive one. did I say one? Probably
five...
khas v'shulem [G-d forbid] somebody should use a little Yiddish on this
list. I mean, it's only the Jewish Music List. I think there are even a
few songs with lyrics in Yiddish. Even klezmer tunes with titles in
Yiddish. Terms for genres, dances, musical effects in Yiddish. 
Well, oky. Maybe I'm not being fair. The argument is over UNTRANSLATED
Yiddish. Well, I'm sure everybody knows that normally, the point of
throwing in a little expression here, a proverb here, or a term of one
kind or another, in another language, is precisely because it adds a
certain flavor to the discourse. In normal flow of language, one simply
doesn't translate these tyhings, and I think it's generaly felt that it
adds more for those who do understand than it takes away from those who
don't.
HOWEVER, I think what I'm picking up from this discussion is that people
do want to learn a little Yiddish. 
I have had people occasionally write to me, off list, to ask the meaning
of a Yiddish word or expression. I am more than happy to oblige. So if
anyone is puzzled by anything, please contact me either on or off list,
okay. ? And I'm sure the same goes for anyone else who might occasionally
use a little Yiddish. There is absolutely no desire to exclude anyone.
For my part, I have not and I don't intend to use a lot of Yiddish, but
on the other hand I don't want to have to be overly self-conscious in my
way of expressing myself on this list. Plus, due to some interface
problem on the computer I'm using now, the backspace doesn't work, which
means that I absolutely can't edit on line. So it's LIVE... FROM 
NEW YORK,,.
Itzik-Leyb