Yiddishe Techie
Yiddish is an old language. Some say it is a dying - if not already dead - language. No room for technology and Yiddish? Not so fast...
Flo shared this story with me. Recently, she was in the Jewish Museum in New York for the opening of the Art Spiegelman exhibit when she overheard a group of "older" people asking "What is the Yiddish word for cake?" Given the place and the participants in the discussion, it was a strange question. One would have expected at least one of the people to know the Yiddish word. Flo knew it, although she didn't volunteer -- not wanting to disclose her eavesdropping, wanting to hear how the discussion would play itself out, and wanting to be sure that her recollection was not some word peculiar to her upbringing.
As I said, it seemed strange that no-one of that group would know the word. Yiddish is an out-dated and dying language, but it would not have been unreasonable to expect one of such a group to know the word. One offered the word "Babka" and was immediately corrected with the admonition that Babka was a type of cake but certainly not the Yiddish word for cake.
Meanwhile, Flo listened and was ready to relieve the tension by offering the answer. But first, she had to be sure. So she took out her iPhone and went to the translator app and confirmed that the Yiddish word for cake is "Kuchen".
A "dying" language revitalized by technology.
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My husband and I recently discussed Yiddish in front of my kids who had no concept as to what it was. That was so strange to me as my parents spoke it often. Although it was mostly spoken when my parents didn't want us to know what they were discussing. I wonder how many other parents of our generation used it as such and, whether, that significantly contributed to its "death." While I can understand a lot of key phrases (and I knew what the word for cake was as that word was used often by my parents :) ) I cannot speak Yiddish.
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Although I can very barely read Yiddish or Hebrew, I understand a fair amount and use it to schmooze with some of my Hasidishe clients. I also "break the ice" when speaking to witnesses by phone in my investigations. My Italian-French-Dutch- Irish American son-in-law has a larger Yiddish vocabulary than almost all of his 30 something Jewish friends.
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Sorry to disappoint though as to the imminent demise of the Yiddish language- in some circles Yiddish is alive and well - my teenage son is fluent and my girls all speak some, and in my son's Yeshiva, Yiddish is the universal language as some of the European and South American boys do not speak English and most of the boys are not conversationally fluent in Hebrew
As to the word for cake, please ask Flo in what context if at all she heard the word "Lekach" some people use it as a generic for cake and some people say that it is specific to Honey Cake -
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I live near a very Religious community on the south shore and occasionally I have the pleasure of hearing the language spoken in a store. That is all I get these days unfortunately.
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Back in my misbegotten 20s I was dating a woman from Upstate New York, who had studied German in high school, and when she went to Columbia undergrad, she heard what she thought was a German dialect, which turned out to be Yiddish. So she decided to take lessons, and still speaks and understands it very well. She's on her third Jewish husband (she's a descendant of the Dutch and English settlers) is very blonde and blue-eyed, and she says that the funniest thing in the whole world is going to the Yiddish theater! The plots are all the same: Someone's son/daughter is marrying a gentile or one of the boarders (she had to explain to me about boarders!) is secretly rich. She says she comes out of every performance in pain from howling with laughter.
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On a positive note, the Peretz Community Jewish School in Central NJ teaches an adult Yiddish class - and of course my dad was one of the instructors for a long time! :)
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Long live Yiddish!...apparently not a dead language at all!
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As the signals are given someone from Notre dame yells out "SI GUNISH HELFEN"
A guy goes to a Kosher restaurant and a Chinese waiter comes over and takes his order in Yiddish. The guy is so impressed he goes to the owner to compliment him. The owner says don't say anything, he thinks he's learning English
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Great story und nem a bissel Kuchen fer Meir
Danke
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