Page 14 - Boca ViewPointe - September '21

Page 14, Viewpointe September 2021
My Joys Of Yiddish

By William A. Gralnick I am having a ball. Every so often I find words I had Yiddish has so many funny, timeless expressions Leo
learned from listening to grandma and mom. Then there Rosten made a fortune from them. I managed an article.
If you are Jewish, were were words I didn’t know I knew, but they popped out of Oh well. But if you want to experience the fun of it, Jew
from a first or second- my memory bank and said, “Remember me?” I am learning or Gentile, pick up Rosten’s, long-time best seller, “The
generation immigrant the Hebrew alphabet and will far more easily tackle Hebrew Joys of Yiddish.” Here’s one of my favorite expressions: a
family, and lived in when Yiddish is done. This, however, is the surface of the toyten bankes (a toy-ten bahn-kiss). It comes from the days
Brooklyn like I did, Yiddish story. It goes deeper. when leeches were used for curing all manner of things and
surrounded you. Yiddish is the much-derided polyglot Every time I set up a lesson in Hebrew, I am prepared for sacks of garlic were hung around a patient’s neck to drive
language of the central and eastern European Jews that has time travel. I return to the living room or the car and spend out the virus (and anyone who happens to be in the room).
not only inveigled its way into English, maybe courtesy time with my mother and grandmother. I also repeatedly The expression, however, means basically “worthless.”
of Fiddler on the Roof and the tremendous number of see my grandma in her last years, a shadow of her former From Rosten: Mrs. Kirten, a hefty 170 lbs brings home a
popular Jewish borsht belt comedians and has become a self, asking me in Yiddish if I was learning it yet. “No, but new dress, size 12 and a miracle girdle, which she claims
very popular language selection in colleges across the land. I promised you I would, and I will.” So there I am at her will get her into the dress. Her husband comments, “It will
It was the language parents and grandparents spoke so the bedside keeping the promise. help as much as a toyten bankes.”
kids wouldn’t understand. “There lies the rub,” as Willie Some people don’t like the sound of Yiddish. Spoken Belly laughs will consume you as will the depression
S would say, but we’ll come back to that. by some, it is very guttural. I love it. There is a certain from realizing Yiddish is struggling not to let Hitler win.
Yiddish drives language purists crazy. It’s like a rhythm to it. Sometimes I think it sounds like Irish spoken Almost all of the 6 million lost in the Holocaust were
language stew. In comes some Polish, throw in a bunch of in German. The word placement and grammar can drive Yiddish speakers.
German, drop in a bit of Slavic derivation works, write it in the student batty, and it is so strange when I meet an older
Hebrew and bippity-boppity-boo what you have is Yiddish. Yiddish speaker. I immediately understand why the word Columnist and author Bill Gralnick was born and
Unfortunately for the language, the way it was used by placement in their English sentences is, uh, so unique. As raised in Brooklyn. His latest book, titled “The War of
people who were driven to be as American as can be meant my vocabulary expands, I find my and more of my “friends” the Itchy Balls and Other Tales from Brooklyn,” offers
that by the third generation, fewer and fewer could speak crawling out of spaces in my head, welcoming me back to more memories. His writings can be found at https://www.
it except for choice words and phrases–Yiddish has a lot the Jewish part of my Brigadoon. williamgralnickauthor.com/. 
of them. There are few curse words in Yiddish but a lot of
curses: a moth should fly in your mouth, lay eggs in your Serving Palm Beach and Broward County ª
stomach, and make you live a life with a belly full of them.
Or sarcasm: commenting on a none-to-interesting piece of YOUR BOCA POinte neiGHBOR AnD ReALtOR
gossip, my mother would remark, “It thrills me around, Providing you with exceptional service and possessing unrivaled expertise
around, and in the middle” (tickles my belly button is an of the Boca Raton and Delray Beach markets.
English equivalent) definitely loses a lot in translation. Celebrating 40 Years In Real Estate
Yiddish was also the language that enabled the Eastern
European Jews to talk about the anti-Semites, in and out experience does matter... Realtor since 1981.
of their churches, without being understood–and beaten or
jailed. Here’s an example. Warning. In today’s PC society, CALL FOR YOUR FRee COnSULtAtiOn
some will find it offensive. Two Jewish peasants driving Prudence J. (PJ) Carswell
their mules and pulling their supplies meet at a crossroads. Licensed Real Estate Advisor • Licensed CAM
They stop and kibbitz. One says, where do you come from? two office locations to
The other replies, “Chelm.” Really, how many gentiles do serve you in Boca Raton
you have there? He responds a few thousand. Now comes & Delray Beach
the return volley. And you, where are you from? I’m from Direct: 954-242-4260
Warsaw. Such a place. How many Gentiles do you have in PJCarswellRealtyHomeAdvisors@gmail.com
Warsaw? The peasant replies, Oh, I’d say several million.
Hoo Ha! Comes the amazed reply and then the kicker. Several
million?!? Do you really need that many…? Ba da boom.
Yiddish has burrowed into English like termites burrow
into wood. Bingeing on Netflix’s detective show Bosch, I
lost count of all the Yiddish words all the gentile characters
used. Jewish writers? But I stray. My grandma, who was
an amputee often stayed with us. She and my mom spoke a
little Yiddish together. My dad was one of those American
Jews who spoke Yiddish but did so rarely. Unbecoming.
The older grandma got, the more she spoke in Yiddish.
When Alzheimer’s hit, she was moved to a beautiful place
that dealt with dementia patients. One day when we came
to visit she whispered to us that the nurses were conspiring
against her so she was only going to speak Yiddish, of which
I understood a fair amount but spoke little. She made me
promise I would learn Yiddish.
By the time I graduated from college, I spoke French and
Spanish. I took several shots at Hebrew. The success was
minimal. “The promise” always hung heavy on my heart.
Then I discovered “Duo,” one of the very few language
learning programs that teach Yiddish.

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