Tuesday, June 13, 2006

הירשע דוד כץ

For those of you who read the Algemeiner his name and work in the renewal of Yiddish (at least among secular Jews and Gentiles) is quite familiar. I just never imagined him to look like this:



(Photo: Vilna Yiddish Institute)

Was it the Yiddish that made look like that? Is it a Russian (Rasputin) thing?

Well, at least we know this much: He's not עובר on לא תקיפו פאת ראשכם and not on ופאת זקנם לא תגלחון, which is more than some of our Yeshivishe friends can say........

All in good fun, relax.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Katz did in fact attend the Yeshiva of Flatbush and is "bahavent" in some of the "rabbonische Literatur" He is also a fine writer with a geshmak for Jewish things.
He never claimed to be a "haimishe Yid" Rather he is pert of the intellectual Bohemian crowd.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Thanks Kurenitzer

what causes intellectual "Bohemians" to look like hobos?

Anonymous said...

I think i've met him.
Is thsi the guy who does alot of work in lithuania, poland etc...

Anonymous said...

Hirshe Dovid is a heimishe Yid, he grew up in BP.

Two Hirshes should be able to get along, no ?

Anonymous said...

I see that what I wrote can be seen as being choilek on Kurenitzer, re if HDK is a 'heimishe Yid' or not, so I want to clarify. When I wrote that Hirshe Dovid is a heimishe Yid, I meant in the meaning of heimish (hay-mish) that means that he is a azay vi a Yid fun der alter heim in some ways, he speaks a geshmake Yiddish, knows Tayreh and Yiddishe zachen, etc.

I didn't mean the 'new' usage/definition of heimish (or high-mish) among some which (incorrectly) means that someone is Hungarian and/or Chassidish. If you are thinking along those lines, he is not 'heimish'. If you are thinking along the lines of the old definition of heimish, I think he can be called heimish, despite being modern in some ways.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Vaboniker

I guess I would get along with him, but what's with the hair? yuk.

Anonymous said...

Maybe he wants to imitate the style of a famous Lubavitcher called the Rogatchover gaon ? ;-)

Anonymous said...

He dosent wear a yarmulka.

He told a friend of mine this masseh.

He was walking down the street when two non bearded litvishers walked by and one said to the other in yiddish, kok of dem modine mentch, to which he replied a yarmulkeh iz midrabonon, a bord iz midoyreysah.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

TRM
!גוט געזאגט

Vabolniker

Maybe.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Yisroel

he does travel to small towns in Lithuania and Poland looking for Jews. He meets lots of elderly Jews who converted during WW2 to save themselves.

Mottel said...

I'll have to check him out myself . . .
That should add some spice to my trip here in Vilna

Dovid said...

He was walking down the street when two non bearded litvishers walked by and one said to the other in yiddish, kok of dem modine mentch, to which he replied a yarmulkeh iz midrabonon, a bord iz midoyreysah.

That's an awesome story! Ten points there!

Anonymous said...

Reb Hirshel . Re your comments. The Germans could care less if a Jew converted . They looked on Jews as an ethnic group not a religion as such. Thus Karaites claimed they were Tatars and were not touched.Meshumodim in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia etc were all exterminated. In many cases even the RC church refused to defend last minute Meshumodim from the Germanns.
The Jews , Katz mentions converted after the war in gratitude to Goyim who saved their lives.
Many married their saviors others remianed close to them.
I am not judging such people , but for years now , many could have returned to Judaism. But layder besides Katz no one is interested in them. I wonder if either of the 2 chief rabbis in Vilna have embarked on a trip to bring even 1 of these losts souls home.
Actually this is a job for an older rabbi or Baalebos who himself survived the War or knows the turf first hand. Perhaps we could get someone like Reb Besser to go their now and get the list from Katz and talk to these people.
After the War rabbis like Rabbi Oschry did just that and recued hundreds of such Jews some from chashuve rabbinic families.Its another tragic chapter of Jewish hsitory.

Anonymous said...

Why does he spell Hirsh with an 'ayin'?
Is he American?
There is a professor of Yiddish in Oxford University, with a bushy beard called 'dov' or 'ber' something,is he frum?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

SBK

it must be an "intellectual" thing that laymen like ourselves cannot begin to understand. Yet, those that know say that he's not the type, so I wonder.

Anonymous said...

Katz learned in Torah Vodas, if I'm not mistaken.

Anonymous said...

He didn't learn in Tayreh Vodaas - see Kurenitzer, comment # 1.

"kok of dem modine mentch"

I assume you mean "kook oif dem modneh mentch".

Kurenitzer - no comments on the term 'heimishe Yid' and the various meanings given to it ?

Anonymous said...

he's not frum at all.
veyb kan mekoimo.

Anonymous said...

"Actually this is a job for an older rabbi or Baalebos who himself survived the War or knows the turf first hand."

How about YOU, Kurenitzer?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Boruch

Kurenitzer is not that old! he's a baby boomer.

Anonymous said...

I know, but he "knows the turf" better than some who were born there!