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Schmuck (pejorative) Schmuck, or shmuck, is a pejorative term meaning one who is stupid or foolish, or an obnoxious, contemptible or detestable person. The word came into the English language from Yiddish (Yiddish: שמאָק, shmok ), where it has similar pejorative meanings, but where its literal meaning is a vulgar term for a penis. [ 1]
Yiddish ( ייִדיש, יידיש or אידיש, yidish or idish, pronounced [ˈ (j)ɪdɪʃ], lit. 'Jewish'; ייִדיש-טײַטש, historically also Yidish-Taytsh, lit. 'Judeo-German') [ 10] is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originates from the 9th century [ 11]: 2 Central Europe, providing ...
Historian, Researcher, Author, and Translator. Ruth Wisse ( / waɪs /; Yiddish: רות װײַס; née Roskies; born May 13, 1936) is a Canadian academic and is the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University emerita. She is a scholar of Yiddish literature and of Jewish history and ...
Yiddish was a language of newspapers, magazines, book publishing, theater, radio, film, the post office, official correspondence, election materials, and even a Central Jewish Court. Yiddish writers like Sholem Aleichem and Mendele Mocher Seforim were celebrated in the 1920s as Soviet Jewish heroes. Minsk had a public, state-supported Yiddish ...
Yiddish has been spoken by more Jews in history than any other language, [198] but it is far less used today following the Holocaust and the adoption of Modern Hebrew by the Zionist movement and the State of Israel. In some places, the mother language of the Jewish community differs from that of the general population or the dominant group.
Schlemiel. Schlemiel ( Yiddish: שלומיאל; sometimes spelled shlemiel or shlumiel) is a Yiddish term meaning "inept/incompetent person" or "fool". [ 1] It is a common archetype in Jewish humor, and so-called " schlemiel jokes" depict the schlemiel falling into unfortunate situations. [ 2]
Members of Yiddishist movement, 1908. Yiddishism ( Yiddish: ײִדישיזם) is a cultural and linguistic movement which began among Jews in Eastern Europe during the latter part of the 19th century. [1] Some of the leading founders of this movement were Mendele Moykher-Sforim (1836–1917), [2] I. L. Peretz (1852–1915), and Sholem Aleichem ...
Jewish culture. Yiddish literature encompasses all those belles-lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus for centuries in Eastern Europe, is evident in its literature.