Friday, June 30, 2017

TRENTON OLD and NEW





TRENTON
OLD and NEW
by
Harry J. Podmore
Revised and Edited by

Mary J. Messler




www.trentonhistory.org/Old&New.html


Fascinating Read. Published in 1964.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Yiddish - Five Words

  klutz
    Or better yet, klots. Literally means “a block of wood,” so it’s often used for a dense, clumsy or awkward person. See schlemiel.

     kosher
Something that’s acceptable to Orthodox Jews, especially food. Other Jews may also “eat kosher” on some level but are not required to. Food that Orthodox Jews don’t eat – pork, shellfish, etc. – is called traif. An observant Jew might add, “Both pork and shellfish are doubtlessly very tasty. I simply am restricted from eating it.” In English, when you hear something that seems suspicious or shady, you might say, “That doesn’t sound kosher.”

    kvetsh
In popular English, kvetch means “complain, whine or fret,” but in Yiddish, kvetsh literally means “to press or squeeze,” like a wrong-sized shoe. Reminds you of certain chronic complainers, doesn’t it? 


     maven
Pronounced meyven. An expert, often used sarcastically.

    Mazel Tov
Or mazltof. Literally “good luck,” (well, literally, “good constellation”) but it’s a congratulation for what just happened, not a hopeful wish for what might happen in the future. When someone gets married or has a child or graduates from college, this is what you say to them. It can also be used sarcastically to mean “it’s about time,” as in “It’s about time you finished school and stopped sponging off your parents.”

Saturday, June 24, 2017

The Mail Bag from last month - May 2017




Hello Art, I want to Thank you for the article on my grandfather's store, Hoenig and Swern, that was very nice and I truly appreciate it......I would like to go to the Trentonia Room in the Trenton library sometime in the near future to go over material you can use for your website and/or lectures......I am available most days anytime in the afternoon......take care, Arthur.


ARTHUR HOENIG



Kenneth Deitz
 has left a new comment on your post "Ten Yiddish Expressions You Should Know": 

One more S word - "Superlative!!!" 



Posted by Kenneth Deitz to 
Trenton Jewish Historical Society at May 22, 2017 at 8:54 AM

From: Debbie Hylton
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2017 8:11 AM
To: Gregory Hatala <GHATALA@STARLEDGER.COM>
Subject: Benjamin Kaufman

Dear Mr. Hatala,

Thank you for the wonderful vintage photos of the Medal of Honor recipients.

Here's another New Jersey Medal of Honor recipient and from WW1. My great uncle Benjamin Kaufman. I hope you will be able to add his photo with some information for this coming Memorial Day. His story is also amazing.


Sincerely, 

Debbie Hylton 


Stephen Cohen 
May 22 (1 day ago)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/images/cleardot.gif
Correction to your 10 Yiddish expressions:

Shalom is Hebrew, not Yiddish. No one ever says "Shalom" in Yiddish. Rather, you greet someone with "Sholem-aleykhem" (among other expressions), and the answer is "aleykhem-sholem". The accent is on the first syllable: SHAW-lem (or if you're Galitzyaner or Romanian, "SHU-lem"), with a secondary accent on "ah-LEY-khem" (or "ah-LY-khem" if you're Romanian).

Also, I am curious why you spelled "spiel" like German, if it's really Yiddish you're highlighting. Shouldn't you go with YIVO transcription, "shpil"? Or are you talking about Yinglish, which isn't Yiddish?

-Steve
Stephen

Thanks for the correct comment. Although I used a cited website, I great my yinn with "Vats macht a yid?"

art


ARTHUR LAVINE • 1922-2016t

THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE I WEDNESDAY • JULY 13, 2016


 ARTHUR LAVINE • 1922-2016


RENOWNED PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURED HUMANITY









BY MARCIA MANNA


Whether it's the tense emotion in the faces of voters packed into Times Square, the resignation in the eyes of an impoverished
African American mother or the artistic murals decorating San Diego's Chicano Park, Arthur Lavine's photographs speak to individual truths and to collective humanity.


Two of his images are part of the Museum of Photographic Arts permanent collection in Balboa Park, ("Election Night, Times Square, New York City, November 1952" and "Rockefeller Center at Christmas, New York City, Winter, 1950") and show-cased through Oct. 2 in the exhibit "Defying Darkness: Photography at Night."
  
"He was not only a great photographer, he was a kind person with a generous spirit," said MOPA executive di-rector Deborah Klochko. "It was bittersweet that my last interaction with him was at our opening for 'Defying Darkness.' He felt passionately about his work, and his images are timeless. That's a wonderful gift."
  
Mr. Lavine's work also is included in the permanent collections of The International Center of Photography in New York City, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

His most well-known photograph, “Working Hands, Bath, Maine, 1947," was included in the 1955 exhibit "The Family of Man" at New York's Museum of Modern Art.


Curated by renowned photographer Edward Steichen, the exhibit focused on the common themes that connect people and cultures around the world. It then toured internationally for eight years and the published catalog, which is still in print, sold millions of copies.

 Mr. Lavine moved to San Diego with his wife, Rhoda, in 1992.

"I was very familiar with "The Family of Man" exhibition," said Arthur Oil-man, MOPA's founding director and currently a San Diego State University art professor and board chairman for the Foundation for  MOPA.

In the 1990s, when Oilman was MOPA's director, Mr. Lavine paid him a visit.

"He was a gentle, sweet guy with an ingratiating sensibility, and ultimately, I wanted some works for the collection," Oilman recalled. "I put him in group shows, and in 2007, he had a solo exhibition titled, 'Arthur Lavine: Peripatetic

Pleasures & Meditations.' If you look at his pictures, there is a great positivity about humanity. He's looking for moments that were indicative of the way the human species should conduct itself."

Arthur Eli Lavine was born Dec. 20, 1922, in Trenton, N.J., the son of Barney and Helen Lavine. A younger sister, Audrey, an artist, died in 1982.

 Mr. Lavine studied drama at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, hoping to become a cinematographer.

But World War II interrupted his education, and Mr. Lavine was drafted into the Army. He served as a non-combat photographer and eventually became the supervisor of the Army Signal Corps photo laboratory in New Caledonia.

After the war, Mr. Lavine moved to New York. During the 1950s, the city was a hub for creative photo-journalism, and as a free-lancer, Mr. Lavine was in demand. He became a member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers (now Media Photographers), serving in some official capacities, and studied with camera greats Alexey Brodovitch and Lisette Model.

30 magazines including Glamour, Fortune, Look, Collier's, Newsweek, Modern Photography and The New York Times Magazine.

Western Electric, the manufacturing arm of the Bell Telephone system, hired Mr. Lavine in 1956 to photograph people and products across the country.

The experience allowed him to capture America's vast diversity.

Mr. Lavine then managed the photography department at Chase Manhattan Bank, where he worked for more than two decades, providing images for a wide range of publications and events before retiring.

"He was incredibly enthusiastic, and I think that was useful in the sense that he wasn't intimidating to the people he photographed,"

Oilman added. "You could not help but like him and he was more interested in what you had to say rather than what he had to say. He worked in the tradition of  the street photographer, one who walked the streets looking for resonance."

Survivors include his wife of 54 years, Rhoda, sons Marc Lavine of Sunnyvale, Bruce Lavine of Tiburon, and three grandchildren.

Mr. Lavine was buried July 3 in Trenton, N.J. A celebration of life is planned at
10:30 a.m. July 24 at Ner Tamid Synagogue in Poway.




























































































































Yiddish 5 Words

schlock
Cheap, shoddy, or inferior, as in, “I don’t know why I bought this schlocky souvenir.”

shlimazel
Someone with constant bad luck. When the shlemiel spills his soup, he probably spills it on the shlimazel. Fans of the TV sitcom “Laverne and Shirley” remember these two words from the Yiddish-American hopscotch chant that opened each show.

shmendrik
A jerk, a stupid person, popularized in The Last Unicorn and Welcome Back Kotter.

shmaltzy
Excessively sentimental, gushing, flattering, over-the-top, corny. This word describes some of Hollywood’s most famous films. From shmaltz, which means chicken fat or grease.

shmooze
Chat, make small talk, converse about nothing in particular. But at Hollywood parties, guests often schmooze with people they want to impress.


schmuck
Often used as an insulting word for a self-made fool, but you shouldn’t use it in polite company at all, since it refers to male anatomy.

Yiddish - Five Words, Part 3

oy vey
Exclamation of dismay, grief, or exasperation. The phrase “oy vey iz mir” means “Oh, woe is me.” “Oy gevalt!” is like oy vey, but expresses fear, shock or amazement. When you realize you’re about to be hit by a car, this expression would be appropriate.

plotz
Or plats. Literally, to explode, as in aggravation. “Well, don’t plotz!” is similar to “Don’t have a stroke!” or “Don’t have a cow!” Also used in expressions such as, “Oy, am I tired; I just ran the four-minute mile. I could just plotz.” That is, collapse.

shalom
It means “deep peace,” and isn’t that a more meaningful greeting than “Hi, how are ya?”

shlep
To drag, traditionally something you don’t really need; to carry unwillingly. When people “shlep around,” they are dragging themselves, perhaps slouchingly. On vacation, when I’m the one who ends up carrying the heavy suitcase I begged my wife to leave at home, I shlep it.

shlemiel
A clumsy, inept person, similar to a klutz (also a Yiddish word). The kind of person who always spills his soup.