five year old.  The communication was more in the line of:  “gay vashen dineh punim” - (go wash your face) or “du bist shmutzik” (you are dirty) or “cum arein, zits bime tish un es” (come in and sit at the table and eat) and often “shah shtil un zugt gurnisht” (be still and don’t say anything) as the adults listened to the all important 8 o’clock news concerning the war in Europe over the radio - in Yiddish. 

There were regular programs on the radio in Yiddish, the news, as well as my favorite: “Sheindelah the Chuzzentah” - a woman with a beautiful voice singing Yiddish songs.  On Wednesday evening the local movie theater in Philadelphia had Yiddish movies and we often went.

Rather than attending a Hebrew school at the local synagogue, I was sent to an Arbiter Ring Folkshule - I’m not sure why.  Our lessons were conducted in Yiddish - including reading the Torah.  On my bookshelf still sits my Unhaber Bukh (Beginner Book) with Yiddish using Hebrew characters.  On the flyleaf is my name in Hebrew script characters written by my beloved teacher (Holocaust survivor-resistance fighter) Dr. William Glicksman (may his name be a blessing) as he wrote it the day I walked into the school when I was seven years old.  The book is now old and fragile - as am I - but the two of us are still together.

Not long ago I opened the book along with a recently purchased Yiddish/English dictionary and began with the very first page:  “Dos is Saraleh - Dos is Bereleh” (This is Sarah, this is Berel).  The Hebrew characters are very large, but fairly quickly get much smaller as the sentences get more complex in succeeding pages.  There are no English translations at all, so my only recourse is the dictionary when memory fails.

What is so amazing is how seldom my memory fails - like it’s all inside just waiting for me to dig it out.  Very often I come across a word I haven’t heard in 58 years and yet the meaning pops into my head though if someone were to ask me for it, I couldn’t have come up with it.  For instance when I came across the word “zeyger” I knew immediately it meant “clock” - but had anyone asked me how to say “clock” in Yiddish, I couldn’t have answered.  This leads me to believe that perhaps I heard Yiddish more than I spoke it.  I might very well have answered my grandmother in English when she spoke to me in Yiddish - but I can’t be sure.

Another surprising thing is that I automatically use the grammar correctly (for the most part) so I say “Ich hab dich/du lieb” (I have you love) rather than “Ich lieb dich/du” - (I love you) which is the English grammatical equivalent.  Also of interest is that occasionally I find I have retained a word slightly incorrectly - as a young child would.  I remember “mysa” (story) as “mynsa.”  As a child I had incorrectly put an “n” in the word.

A further road bump is that apparently my family spoke Yiddish with a slightly different accent.  We said “fis” (foot) rather than “fus.”  Someone has told me this is a Galician accent. I don’t know about that but I do know my mother’s family was from Kiev.  Since they were extremely wealthy landowners they must have lived there quite some time - settled rather than itinerant.

Yiddish gave birth to well respected theater, literature, journalism, and music. Lest anyone think it has died a lonely death - one has only to Google the words “Yiddish” and “resurgent” to learn otherwise. The language has a marvelous facility to express all the nuances of the human condition and of the humans commenting on that condition.  Much of it is hard to translate because the nuance is missing from the translation.  The dictionary says “schlep” means “drag. “ However, in Yiddish “schlep” doesn’t quite translate as “drag” because it also includes the “attitude” that goes along with having to schlep something.  You carry the baby, but you “schlep” the diapers - though you don’t actually drag the diapers - but you carry them with “attitude.” Therefore they are “schlepped.”

Yiddish proverbs are wonderful; funny, ironic, overdone, understated, the maledictions are marvelously innovative and some have a pulled punch, and some come straight out - an unadorned evaluation of one human being’s opinion of another.

The ubiquitous curse of “Go to hell” in any other language is straight and to the point.  But in Yiddish “Gay in drerd” (go into the earth) the punch can be pulled thusly:  “Gay gezunt in drerd” - (go in good health into the earth).  Doesn’t pay to fling around an un-nuanced curse - never can tell Who may be listening.

*Some examples:

Lighting a fire under someone:  “Shlof gikher, me darf der kishn” = (sleep faster, we need the pillow).

The realist:  “Fun zogn vern, vert men nit trogn” - (from talk alone you don’t get pregnant).

The concerned economist:  “Me zol zikh kenen oyskoyfn fun toyt, voltn di oreme kayt gehat parnose” - (If the rich could hire others to die for them, the poor could make a living).

From the innovative category:  “Zolst farlrn ale tseyner akhuts enem, un der zol dir vey ton” - (You should lose all your teeth except one, and that one should ache.)

A confirmed pragmatist:  “Ikh vil nit visn fun keyn khokmes” - (I don’t want to hear any words of wisdom.)

The astute observer:  “Az an oreman est a hun, is oder er iz krank, oder di hun iz krank” - (When a poor man eats a chicken, either he is sick or the chicken is sick).

Ancient wisdom:  “A tsadik vos veyst az er iz a tsadik iz keyn tsadik nit” - (A saintly man who knows he is a saintly man is not a saintly man).

The moralist:  “Takhrikhim makht men on keshenes” - (Burial shrouds are made without pockets).

A resigned attitude:  “Ven der nar volt nit geven mayn, volt ikh oykh gelakht” - (If the fool didn’t belong to me, I’d be laughing too.)

Political reminder:  “Ven ale mentshn zoln tsien oyf eyn zayt, volt zikh di velt ibergeskert” - (If everyone pulled in one direction, the world would keel over).

And finally:  “Eyn Got un azoy fil soynim” - (Only one G-D and so many enemies).

(There are pages and pages more of these - but my WORD spellchecker is going crazy.)

An amazing number of words have entered the English language from Yiddish, probably helped along by the many great Jewish comedians through the years. Consider the following:

boychik; bagel; bubkes; blintz; gelt; chutzpah; glitch; goy; kibbitz; kibbutz; klutz; kosher; kvell; kvetch; lox; mazel; maven; mensch; meshuga; meshugas; meshugana; minyon; nebbish; nosh; noodge; nu; nudnick; oy; oy vey;  plotz; putz; schlep; schlemazel; schlemiel; schlock; schlong; schlub;  schmaltz; schmatte; schmeer; schmo; schmooze; schmuck; schmooz; schnorer;  schpiel; schnoz; schtetl; schtick; schvartz; tchotchke; spiel; tref; tzimmes; tuchus; tush; tzuras; yenta;  zaftig

Twenty-five of the above words are accepted by WORD spell-check.

If you are wondering about the difference between a schlemiel and a schlemazel - I read somewhere that a schlemiel spills his soup on a schlemazel. That should help.

When I hear Yiddish - somehow - the sound of it means “home” and “family.”  I immediately visualize a warm dining room in a tiny house in an old neighborhood in Philadelphia.  The food had been purchased in shops where both the shopkeepers and the customers conversed in Yiddish. The table is covered with a snowy white cloth, chairs await the family, the teapot is steaming, something smells wonderful from the oven, and the Sabbath candles are at the head of the table and my grandmother will light them as soon as my grandfather returns from the synagogue around the corner. 

There’s warmth, chatter, laughter, and the voices of people of whom I am the last survivor.  But they live in my head.  And they speak to me in Yiddish.

*Source:  “The Yiddish Dictionary Sourcebook” by Herman Galvin and Stan Tamarkin, Ktav Publishing, Inc., 1986

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Jewish Sports

Horseracing debuts as Hall of Champions' featured sport

By Joe Naiman

SAN DIEGO—Thoroughbred racehorse trainer Peter Miller was one of the panelists at a San Diego Hall of Champions luncheon October 15.

The Sports at Lunch that day is believed to be the first-ever
Hall of Champions luncheon with horse racing.  The other
Sports at Lunch speakers were horse owners Martin and
Pam Wygod, syndicated handicapper Jon Lindo,
Del Mar Thoroughbred Club announcer Trevor Denman, and
Del Mar Thoroughbred Club general manager Joe Harper.

"Horse racing needs venues like this.  We need our space and our place, and we appreciate it very much," Miller said.

Miller won a total of 11 races during the Del Mar ThoroughbredClub meet, including the Del Mar Debutante with Set Play.  "Peter had an outstanding meet at Del Mar this year," Denman said.

The Sports at Lunch included footage of the Del Mar Debutante race won by Set Play.  The Del Mar Debutante provided Miller with his first Grade I stakes win.  "That was just a tremendous day for us," Miller said.  "That was a thrill."

Miller noted that jockey Brice Blanc, who rode Set Play in the
Del Mar Debutante, came to the San Luis Rey Downs Thoroughbred Training Center (where Miller trains) for a six-furlong workout which took Set Play 1:12 3/5 to complete.  "We were both ecstatic," Miller said.  "If everything goes well the next week we'll head to New Jersey Saturday."

Set Play is expected to compete in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile
Fillies race October 27.  This year's Breeders' Cup races will be
held October 26-27 at Monmouth Park in New Jersey.

The 40-year-old Miller has been training at San Luis Rey Downs for approximately 15 years.  Miller grew up in Beverly Hills and graduated from Beverly Hills High School.  While many of his classmates went to school for white-collar professions, Miller chose to follow his dream of becoming a horse trainer and started grooming horses for legendary trainer Charlie Whittingham.

"After 25 years I'm an overnight success," Miller said.

At one time Miller primarily prepared horses for racing rather
than trained them for specific races.  "In the last couple of
years I've started to race a lot more horses," he said.

Set Play is owned by Gerson Racing and Charleville Stables, and members of the Gerson family were present at the Sports at Lunch. "Owners have given me the opportunity to train some nice horses,and so far so good," Miller said.

The 2007 Del Mar Thoroughbred Meet was the first with the
Polytrack synthetic surface.  "I love the Polytrack, but I had a
great meet," Miller said.

"All kidding aside, I thought the track was very safe and very
fair," Miller said.  "I actually had more problems with horses
running on the turf than on the Polytrack."

Miller was asked about the pros and cons of training at San Luis Rey Downs, which has retained its dirt workout track while the three major tracks in Southern California have switched to synthetic surface.  "We're very fortunate to have one of the very few safe dirt surfaces left," Miller said.  "Fortunately for us we've been, knock on wood, very lucky to not injure very many horses at San Luis Rey."

Miller noted that the advantages of San Luis Rey Downs include preparing horses for dirt races outside of the Southern
California circuit.  "I'm hoping maybe I have a little advantage
in the Juvenile Fillies," Miller said of the upcoming Breeders'
Cup race.  "I know my filly does like the dirt."

The transition from dirt to Polytrack didn't affect Miller at
Del Mar.  "As for the cons I don't have any," he said of training at San Luis Rey Downs.

(San Luis Rey Downs trainers Paula Capestro, Greg James, and Laura Wohlers combined for an additional five wins at Del Mar, including the Rancho Bernardo Handicap stakes win by Capestro-trained River's Prayer.)

"It was a lot of fun, and honored to be a part of it," Miller
said of speaking at the Sports at Lunch event.

"That was a good session today," said Hall of Champions founder Bob Breitbard.  "It's not often you get people like that in there."

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g.

Cynthia Citron's         L.A. Beat

Divorce, Jewish playwright style

SANTA MONICA—Some people, when going through the trauma of divorce, attempt to relieve their disquietude by writing poetry.  Bad poetry, usually.  But then, if they’re gifted like Claire Bloom and Philip Roth, they might write competing bitchy books (Leaving A Doll’s House and I Married A Communist, respectively).  Or, like Arthur Miller, an incomprehensible play (After the Fall).  (Is it just coincidence that all these angst-ridden works were written by Jews?)

Playwright, filmmaker, and actor Henry Jaglom (also, coincidentally, a Jew), however, has done them all one better.  Or two better, to be precise.  He has made both a successful film, and now a brilliant play, about his painful 1984 divorce from actress Patrice Townsend.  What’s more, he has successfully switched voices: his 1985 film, Always---but not forever, in which he played the lead, told the story from the anguished, forsaken husband’s point of view; the current play of the same name chronicles the emotional meltdown of the abandoned wife.

Always---but not forever is currently having its world premiere at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica.  It stars the riveting Tanna Frederick, Jaglom’s current leading lady (she stars in his film Hollywood Dreams and the upcoming Irene in Time).  As the play opens, Frederick, as Dinah, the abandoned wife, has invited her soon-to-be-ex-husband, Jack (a wonderfully sympathetic and handsome David O’Donnell) to their home after a nine-month separation.  She is hoping to win him back and prepares an elaborate dinner for him—something she never did when they were together.

After dinner Jack suffers an attack of what looks like ptomaine poisoning, and she inveigles him to stay overnight, which he does, much against his will.

The next morning their home is invaded by their best friends, Eddie and Lucy (a discontented new father, played by Bryan Callen, and his chilly uptight wife, played by Kelly DeSarla), down from Santa Barbara to celebrate Dinah’s birthday.  They are soon joined by Jack’s sister Peggy (a bubble-headed Samantha Sloyan) and her bizarre beatnik boyfriend Maxwell (a skuzzy, guitar-playing Brent David Fraser).

Amid the drinking, the reminiscences, and the warm camaraderie of this impromptu birthday celebration, Dinah and Jack attempt to reappraise their relationship.  Although he admits he still loves her, Jack is engulfed in the “Is this all there is?” syndrome that often accompanies the approach of middle age and an industrial-strength writer’s block.  There is something missing, he insists, even though he can’t articulate what it is.  He just wanted it all to be “perfect”, and it isn’t.  “Life is not a ‘50s movie,” he tells Dinah reproachfully.

Meanwhile, Lucy, oblivious to her own husband’s alienation, (he has been marooned in the house for more than two years, since their son was born, and keeps howling his comic mantra, “Let’s go OUT!!!”) cautions Dinah that “men never know what they want, and when they get it they want something else!”

Dinah, wavering between hysteria and cajolery, finally manages to seduce Jack when he discovers her pouring Swiss Miss chocolate powder into her bath.  The chocolate, she explains, releases a chemical that makes her feel loved, but she has to absorb it through her skin because eating it will make her fat.

There is much laughter in this semi-tragedy, and much intelligent talk.  There is also much fine acting from the entire ensemble.  (Director Gary Imhoff, it appears, was clever enough to stay out of their way most of the time; his directorial hand was adroit in moving them through their ups and downs.

The production is enhanced, as well, by the hippie Maxwell’s guitar playing and singing between scenes.  Brent David Fraser composed his own bluesy songs, something he has done since he was a young street musician in Seattle.

The set design, an all-black creation by Chris Stone, is effective, if a bit austere.  The walls, the furniture, the kitchen and dining area, the upstage bedroom, all black, are brightened only by brief touches of coral-pink (the bedspread, the chair cushions, the bottoms of the pots hanging on the kitchen wall.  And Edward Cha’s lighting design could use some tweaking.  Uncertainty and missed cues were noticeable on opening night, but most likely will be worked out as the run continues.

As an evening of theater, Always---but not forever is a five-handkerchief winner.  Painful, close-to-the-bone, and filled with disquieting truisms, it is also a comic, panoramic view of the joys and vicissitudes of love.

Always---but not forever will continue at the Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main Street, Santa Monica, weekends through December 9th.  Call (310) 392-7327 for reservations.

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