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I spoke today with Dr. Shalom Eilati (formerly KAPLAN), who is a child survivor from the Kovno Ghetto. Shalom wrote his memoir, Crossing the River, (Carmel and Yad Vashem, November 1999) and in May 2007, the English translation of the book was approved for publication by The Alabama University Press, slated for release in mid-2008. Shalom is hoping to find other child survivors of his own age, born Varda Epstein
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My Great Uncle, Samuel Brenner, who went by the name Shmuel, was a Talmudic scholar who was born in Kovno, Lithuania in 1882 and did not come to the USA until he was about 24 years old in 1906. When I was younger, I noticed a certain rhythm, cadence, vocal inflection in his voice. He would pronounce the word "literature" as li-tur-a-ture stretching out each syllable with an emphasis on the "ture" sound. It was very rhythmic almost sounding like poetry even though he was speaking prose. He also spoke other words and phrases with this sound I find difficult to describe. It got my attention. One day he told me with a twinkle in his eye "The rabbis' act like someone is trying to steal their business." He would often tell me this and I later learned it had to do with his identification with the Mitnagdim tradition in Lithuania. He was a strong proponent of the Mitnaged point of view and thought that the rabbis' of his era ( about the early 1950's to 1960's) spoon fed the congregation and avoided difficult issues.
My question is: Have you ever heard of this phrase "The rabbis' act like someone is trying to steal their business?" Is this an old Yiddish saying that my Uncle was speaking in English? What would it sound like in Yiddish? Is it a template for other types of Yiddish sayings that are similar with a different pronoun; for example, "the butcher is afraid that someone is trying to steal his business" etc. etc. The other part of the mystery is, many years after Shmuel died in 1966, I happened to become aware of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik's lecture, "The Lonely Man of Fatih" that was originally published in the journal "Tradition" and was eventually republished in book form. As I started reading Soloveitchik's words, I could hear Shmuel's voice in my mind. There was something about the way Soloveitchik expressed himself (conspectus of his writings by his students) and the way Shmuel expressed himself that was the same. This came as quite a shock to me and took me completely by surprise. Is my experience too subjective to be able to analyze or explain or might there be some unifying linguistic influence that can be identified? Thank You, |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following is from Vitalija Gircyte of the Kaunas Regional Archives regarding an exhibition on Kaunas Guberniya Jews ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A few people from the Kaunas Jewish Community and Kaunas Religious Jewish But the exhibition will be more interesting to Lithuanians and may serve to Vitalija |
Moshe Mones (Moshemones@gmail.com) on Monday, June 23, 2008 Message: Thank you for this great site I am trying to find out if anyone knows more about my Paternal family 'Mones'. thank you so much From Yad Vashem: |