Although schmuck is considered an obscene term in Yiddish, it has become a common American idiom for “jerk” or “idiot”. It can be taken as offensive, however, by some Jews, particularly those with strong Yiddish roots.

yutz in American English a person variously regarded as ineffectual, foolish, disagreeable, contemptible, etc. Word origin.

The phrase “oy vey iz mir” means “Oh, woe is me.” “Oy gevalt!” is like oy vey, but expresses fear, shock or amazement.

Oh Yeah

English has been particularly receptive to earthy terms from Yiddish, including this week’s featured word schmutz (pronounced SHMUTS, with a u as in put), also spelled shmutz. It means “dirt,” “filth,” “grime,” or “rubbish.”

In German, Mensch (a capitalized noun) means generic man, human being. Furthermore, in English, one never hears a woman referred to as mensch, while in German a woman can be called mensch, as in ein Heber Mensch, meaning “a dear person.” So somewhere on its way from German to (modern-day?)

Meshuga, also Meshugge, Meshugah, Meshuggah /məˈʃʊɡə/: Crazy (משגע‎, meshuge, from Hebrew: משוגע‎, m’shuga’; OED, MW). Also used as the nouns meshuggener and meshuggeneh for a crazy man and woman, respectively.

Pempik ‒ something small, unimportant and possibly cute. Yiddish uses this word for brat. One gets a feeling the Yiddish word almost speaks what it means – one could almost gather it from the way it sounds. Etymology: the word goes back to Polish pępek – ‘belly button’.

In American English, via Yiddish, schmaltz (adj. schmaltzy) also has an informal meaning of ‘excessively sentimental or florid music or art’ or ‘maudlin sentimentality’, similar to one of the uses of the words corn or corny.

a person of integrity and honor

Languages. Hebrew, German, Yiddish. Religion. Judaism. A Yekke (also Jecke) is a Jew of German-speaking origin.

punim: the face (Yiddish פּנים ponem, from Hebrew פָּנִים panim)

(2019) 689. Name meaning. ‘Mercy’ Ruhama (Hebrew: רֻחָמָה‎, “Mercy”) is a kibbutz in the Negev desert in southern Israel.

The primary language of Ashkenazic Jews, Yiddish is currently spoken mostly in Israel, Russia, the United States, and several European countries. There are over 150,000 speakers of Yiddish in the United States and Canada. Yiddish is more than 1,000 years old (Rourke, 2000), and it started primarily as an oral language.

While some women chose merely to cover their hair with a cloth or sheitel, or wig, the most zealous shave their heads beneath to ensure that their hair is never seen by others. “There is a certain energy to the hair, and after you get married it can hurt you instead of benefiting you,” said Ms. Hazan, now 49.

‘ Here are the facts: some Hasidic women shave their heads, while others do not. For those women who shave their heads, they are being extra-observant of the strict modesty rules. They are making it to be impossible that their hair can ever be seen, because they don’t have any.

The Talmud states that the Biblical prohibition applies only to meat and milk of domesticated kosher mammals; that is, cattle, goats, and sheep. Classical Jewish authorities argue that foods lose parve status if treated in such a way that they absorb the taste of milk or meat during cooking, soaking, or salting.