[Magdalen] RIP Fred Hellerman, 89.

[Jay Weigel]

I think I've related my favorite Yiddish story before, which was told to me
by a WWII veteran.  His outfit had captured a Nazi squad, including a
couple of officers, and nobody in the outfit spoke German. Finally one kid,
a private, spoke up and said he knew Yiddish and he thought he could talk
to them.  He had them lined up and obeying in no time flat. When asked, he
said that he, an Italian kid, had worked in the Fulton Fish Market in New
York City and had learned Yiddish from the Jewish vendors there. Everyone
got a huge kick out of watching him order the Nazi prisoners around in the
language of the Jews.

On Sat, Sep 3, 2016 at 12:57 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','magdalen at herberthouse.org');>> wrote:

>
>
>
> Re:  Yiddish Theater
>
> Remarkably, there seems to be theater activity in most large cities  with
> a Jewish population, despite the Holocaust.  I saw a comic play at  such
> a theater in NYC with a friend of mine who happens to have been born
> in Munich, and speaks Bavarian German.  He was able to  understand
> much of the Yiddish dialog.
>
> The same friend had done quite a bit of
> exploring in the Pennsylvania Dutch country, testing whether he had
> similar comprehension of that German dialect.  He did understand,  and
> had fun conversing with the personnel at the Dutch markets.  The
> PA Dutch, in turn, were amused that this was a person of a completely
> different culture with whom they could still communicate well in  their
> dialect.
>
>
>
> David S.
>