Walt Whitman in Yiddish

Acknowledges that although Jews most frequently appear in Whitman\u27s writing as merely biblical, mythical, symbolic or at least idealized figures, Jews themselves have responded to Whitman quite vigorously in their poetry; discusses and examines the scores of Yiddish poets who have been inspired by Whitman, including Joseph Bovshover, Morris Rosenfeld, A. Eysen, Uri-Tsvi Grinberg, B. Alkvit-Blum, and others

Yiddish manuscripts in the British Library

FEW Yiddish manuscripts predating the age of printing have survived the storms of Jewish and general history. The oldest extant dated Yiddish document is a rhymed inscription of a dozen words in the Worms Mahzor ('festival liturgy') of 1272, now in the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem. By far the most important Yiddish manuscript is the dated 1382 Cambridge Codex from the famous Cairo Genizah in Fostat, Egypt. The Cambridge Codex has been the centre of a heated linguistic debate, Yiddishists maintaining that the language is Old Yiddish and many Germanists claiming it is High German in Hebrew letters. The historiography of this more than merely terminological question is itself a gripping chapter of cultural history, and one linguist has mounted what at present seems to be an unassailable defence of the Yiddishist position. This question of language is fundamental to bibliographical as well as linguistic investigation, and librarians have often been puzzled as to how to classify Yiddish materials. Today, librarians no longer describe Yiddish books as 'Judaeo-German', as was common practice in the British Museum Library and elsewhere until about fifty years ago. Yiddish, quite rightly, is classified linguistically among the Germanic languages; but owing to the script in which Yiddish has almost always been written - the Hebrew alphabet - Yiddish books and manuscripts are often found in Hebrew or Oriental collections

High Incidence of Symptomatic Hyperammonemia in Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Receiving Pegylated Asparaginase

Asparaginase is a mainstay of treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Pegylation of asparaginase extends its biological half-life and has been introduced in the newest treatment protocols aiming to further increase treatment success. Hyperammonemia is a recognized side effect of asparaginase treatment, but little is known about its incidence and clinical relevance. Alerted by a patient with severe hyperammonemia after introduction of the new acute lymphoblastic leukemia protocol, we analyzed blood samples and clinical data of eight consecutive patients receiving pegylated asparaginase (PEG-asparaginase) during their treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. All patients showed hyperammonemia (>50 μmol/L) and seven patients (88 %) showed ammonia concentrations > 100 μmol/L. Maximum ammonia concentrations ranged from 89 to 400 μmol/L. Symptoms varied from mild anorexia and nausea to headache, vomiting, dizziness, and lethargy and led to early interruption of PEG-asparaginase in three patients. No evidence of urea cycle malfunction was found, so overproduction of ammonia through hydrolysis of plasma asparagine and glutamine seems to be the main cause. Interestingly, ammonia concentrations correlated with triglyceride values (r = 0.68, p < 0.0001), suggesting increased overall toxicity. The prolonged half-life of PEG-asparaginase may be responsible for the high incidence of hyperammonemia and warrants future studies to define optimal dosing schedules based on ammonia concentrations and individual asparagine and asparaginase measurements