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Telebenta

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Mervyn Lakin

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Dec 1, 1999, 3:00:00 AM12/1/99
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My wife came up with a new saying to me-"Yenta from Telebenta". I looked up
Telabenta in Shtetl Seeker and couldn't find it. Does anyone know the
derivation of this saying?

Mervyn Lakin MD
me...@home.com


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Sherry Mayrent

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Dec 2, 1999, 3:00:00 AM12/2/99
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At 05:11 PM 12/1/99 -0700, Mervyn Lakin wrote:
>My wife came up with a new saying to me-"Yenta from Telebenta". I looked up
>Telabenta in Shtetl Seeker and couldn't find it. Does anyone know the
>derivation of this saying?

Mervyn, I think that this was referring to the comic character, Yenta
Tellabenda, that appeared in a number of 78 rpm recordings by Anna Hoffman
and Jacob Jacobs in the late teens and 1920s.


Sherry Mayrent
Watertown, MA

mailto:oyf...@mediaone.net

A Gloger

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Dec 2, 1999, 3:00:00 AM12/2/99
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Mervin Lakin writes:

>My wife came up with a new saying to me-"Yenta from Telebenta". I looked up
>Telabenta in Shtetl Seeker and couldn't find it. Does anyone know the
>derivation of this saying?
>

>Mervyn Lakin MD
>me...@home.com

There is no place called Telebenta. The expression "Yenta Telebenta" refers
to Yenta--Gossippy woman. Yenta Telebenta refers to the end all and be all
Gossip--A *real* gossip. It is often used sarcastically.


Adelle Weintraub Gloger
Shaker Hts., Ohio
agl...@aol.com

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Dr. Joseph M. Schwarcz

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Dec 2, 1999, 3:00:00 AM12/2/99
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There were a series of stories in Yiddish in the Forverts about Yenta Tilabenda,
by B. Kovner. She was a stereotyped Jewish immigrant, loud, coarse, ignorant,
etc. The object of the stories was to teach new immigrants not to be like her.

Ida Selavan Schwarcz
Arad, Israel

Mervyn Lakin wrote:
> My wife came up with a new saying to me-"Yenta from Telebenta". I looked up
> Telabenta in Shtetl Seeker and couldn't find it. Does anyone know the
> derivation of this saying?

mailto:iday...@barak-online.net

SVF814

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Dec 7, 1999, 3:00:00 AM12/7/99
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My mother used to describe a nosy, gossiping woman as a yenta telabenta. My
mother came from Krivozer (Krivoye Ozero) in what is now the Ukraine, and
probably learned "yenta telabenta" from her mother.

Sheila Fuchs
SVF...@aol.com
rec.crafts.textiles.yarn

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