Reviews (27)

a must read
I must say, we had a real laugh over this hilarious book. Davilman and Weiner have a wry wit, and it was not wasted on our household. We are still laughing about this book, and its funny sequel Yiddish with George and Laura.

Yiddish With Dick and Jane
This book was an absolute joy to read.Seeing the Yiddish words in print & used in the proper context brought back warm childhood memories of my grandparents.How cleverly it was done as I'm sure everyone remembers Dick & Jane and who would have ever thought to put a Yiddish twist on one of the oldest primary readers known to mankind?

Brilliant, painfully witty
Funny, great review of the Yiddish the new generations are forgetting, using classic Dick and Jane format (only those who heard Yiddish growing up may remember) to a modern day biting reality story ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American Satire And Humor    2. Form - Parodies    3. General    4. Humor    5. Readers (Primary)    6. Reading materials    7. Yiddish    8. Yiddish Language    9. Humor / Parodies    10. Language self-study & phrasebooks    11. USA   

Reviews (31)

Laughs, gasps, aha's and oy veys
Born to Kvetch is, at one time, informative, enlightening, synical, humorous, and irreligious.I learned so much about the Yiddish language, Jewish mores and their beginnings, Jewish and Yiddish history and interpersonal relations.At times I was in tears of laughter or a tear of sadness; amazed or embarrassed and often shocked by Michael Wex's irreverence.
Humorous and well researched
Michael Wex has written a book that is both scholarly and hilarious!He has succeeded in describing the complex origins of the Yiddish language with the humor of a stand-up comedian.This book is not for those unfamiliar with Jewish-Yiddish culture.The humor will be lost for you.However, for those who grew up in such an environment, you will find yourself laughing outloud.Some of his descriptions regarding the development of Yiddish are a bit confusing, but for the most part, this book is an enjoyable read and an accurate portrayal of Yiddish culture.

I plotzed from laughing so hard
Filled with insight, wisdom & humor.A great companion book to "The Joys of Yiddish" ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. Foreign Language Study    3. History    4. History: World    5. Jewish - General    6. Jews    7. Language    8. Social aspects    9. Yiddish    10. Yiddish Language    11. Yiddish wit and humor   

Reviews (6)

sheer enjoyment
the phonetic spellings help enormously, and i found myself sounding out familiar phrases from my childhood.a treasure of ethnic communication to be protected and savored

Sorry, but I didn't like it at all!
Sorry, but I didn't like it at all!

Learning Yiddish - You Need This Book!
As one learns a langauge, knowing what "not to say" can be as important as knowing what you can say. In addition to the "colourful" Yiddish it will show you, this book includes many perfectly acceptable words and phrases for many occasions or places in the life of a Jew. It includes a brief synopsis of Yiddish grammar as its final chapter. Its author's transliteration scheme is a bit unusual, but given this book's strengths, that's a minor flaw. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. General    3. Humor    4. Idioms    5. Slang    6. Spoken Yiddish    7. Terms and phrases    8. Yiddish    9. Yiddish language    10. American English    11. Dialectology    12. English    13. Humor / Topic / Adult    14. Humour   

Reviews (16)

An Inspiring and Moving Tale of a Man's Desire to save Yiddish Literature
Wow, this book was terrific! Aaron Lansky was taking a Yiddish class where he had to go into the lower East side of Manhattan to obtain assigned Yiddish books that were no longer in print. One day while in class, he decided to devote his life to saving as many Yiddish books as he could.
Saving Yiddish Books
Aaron Lansky has devoted his adult life to rescuing, collecting, cataloging, and re-distributing hundreds of thousand of books written in Yiddish.They rescued the books from abandoned libraries, dumpsters, and taken publishers' complete collection when the publisher closed their business doors. They also accepted the private libraries of elderly people who wanted the story of each book preserved as well as serving Lansky and his cadre of volunteers kugel.
Lots about Lansky; little about literature

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Subjects:  1. Antiques & Collectibles    2. Antiques/Collectibles    3. Biography And Autobiography    4. Books    5. Books & Reading    6. History - General History    7. Jewish - General    8. Jewish Sociology    9. Yiddish    10. History / Jewish   

Subjects:  1. Blessing and cursing    2. General    3. Humor    4. Invective    5. Judaism - General    6. Religion - Judaism    7. Satire And Humor    8. Terms and phrases    9. Yiddish Language    10. Humour    11. Religion: general    12. Yiddish   

Reviews (4)

How to Talk Jewish
Not as good as I had hoped.He explains a lot of Yiddish phrases that are not commonly used.The commonly used expressions were not defined as well as I could have defined them myself.

Can we talk????
Quintessential Jackie! Hilarious!A must-have in a Jewish humor library.May I also recommend a nifty, gezunta book I received as a gift and fell in love with?"A Little joy, A Little Oy" -- if Jackie's a main course Joy, Oy is one amazingantipasto. OY A KLUG!
Only a meshuggener would not find this book entertaining and informative. Then again, probably only meshuggeners would want to READ shtick like this. Too bad Jackie didn't record this for the blind and the goyim; LISTENING to his spiel would just make this so much more of a mecheieha. If only that gantseh macher Webster had had Jackie as his editor -- oy! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries    2. General    3. Humor    4. Jewish wit and humor    5. Pronunciation    6. Terms and phrases    7. Yiddish    8. Yiddish language    9. Biography: film, television & music    10. Humor / General    11. Performing Arts   

Reviews (4)

Revisionism has ruined this book.
First of all you may make the mistake I made and think that just because Leo Rosten's name is emblazoned in huge letters on the cover that this book was authored by him. He is deceased. In his absence the book has been completely gutted, the innuendo removed, the vulgarity lightened. The idea in the beginning was subversive. Bring to light the Yiddish language that had been excluded for so long from the European tradition, and let the gritty coloring of yiddish words speak for themselves. Instead of busying himself witha contrived story of yiddish culture, the first Joys of Yiddish really was just words. And the words were so good that they literally spoke for themselves. Just saying them and mulling them over was enough to expose the truth of where they came from, as well the lies of those who sought to repress them. This new book, The New Joys of Yiddish has swung completely the opposite direction. Now the book is filled with a contrived culture bound representation of Yiddish where Yiddish is all things Jewish. The author's daughters along with their hired script-nurse have recast the book in terms of modern Jewish identity politics, with Yiddish playing a lead role. If you are interested in such things, if for example you need to know that cockamammy is not Yiddish but sounds like a colorful Jewish expression, read on. I for one was saddened by their wholesale destruction of a great book that was keeping the candle burning for one of history's most subversive languages.

Fiddleresque
Found this is a New Bedford goodwill store for 10 cents.It has a lot of interesting info in it, but drenched in Fiddleresque sentimentality about Jewish expressiveness.One interesting theme is his ongoing campaign to claim disputed slangwords for Yiddish as opposed to German, Gaelic etc:fin, shamus. America ganef! It's even better.
"America ganef!" my Grandma would exclaim upon encountering a pleasant surprise. (See JOY page 115.) That's my reaction seeing this old friend renewed, broader, more current and more liberal in its Jewish scope, and more lively and attractive because of the illustrations and layout. Yet it is still the warm, friendly, funny book I remember from nearly 30 years ago.Read more

Subjects:  1. English language    2. Etymology    3. Foreign words and phrases    4. Humor    5. Influence on English    6. Jewish wit and humor    7. Judaism - General    8. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    9. Religion    10. Yiddish    11. Yiddish language    12. Religion / Judaism / General   

Reviews (8)

See Michael Chabon
There's a great review of this book at Michael Chabon's website.You can get to it by googling for "Yiddish phrasebook".

Fun!
There aren't many places left in the world where Yiddish is the primary language; exactly why there would be a travel-phrase book like this one is a little bit perplexing to me.Of course, it was published decades ago, and apparently hasn't been reprinted since, so used copies are the way to acquire this little gem.It is organised in the typical fashion on any travel phrase book - basic expressions; greetings and general social conversation; travel expressions concerning hotels, boats, airlines, etc.; useful words about the house; sports, school, professions; and, of course, caf� and restaurant information.There are also sections for numbers, dates, seasons, and the like.
Hebrew alphabet
Most Yiddish books only use transliteration.This is difficult because everyone has a different way of doing that.I think it is always better to learn the alphabet.Unfortunately I do not live in the right part of the world to use most of the phrases in this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Conversation and phrase books    2. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    3. Jewish - General    4. Language    5. Yiddish    6. Yiddish language    7. History / Jewish    8. Language self-study & phrasebooks   

Features

• Audiobook
• Unabridged

Reviews (3)

My Turn to Kvetch
Publisher's Weekly has it right.I found the author's voice annoying almost to the point to not being able to listen. But I stuck with it because the book is full of valuable information. And then just when I thought I couldn't stand it any more, he came up with a zinger that I found hilarious. So, my advice is if you can ignore or get used to the whiney voice, try to listen for the content and humor.

Publisher's Weekly was right - Great Book, Horrible Audio
This may be a brilliant and insightful book, but as an audio CD it is impossible to listen to.I wish I had paid attention to the PW review, because it is all too apt. ("The Canadian author's bizarre, somewhat hypnotic reading style--with its randomly elongated vowels--is a cross between Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man character and a classic Yiddish whine.")Imagine what it would sound like if English were chanted like a Hebrew prayer by a computer generated voice .I still plan to read this highly praised book, but for me the audio version has been a complete disaster.I have given up on it.

9 1/2 HOURS OF PURE DELIGHT!!
These CDs provided me with 9 1/2 hours of pure yiddish delight. The author/speaker is very easy to listen to. I was learning so much about yiddish and Judaism in these hours that I couldn't stop listening! Mr. Wex is easy to understand and listen to, even over a few hours period.He covers so many topics and explains things so well.He talks about every aspect of Judaism and answered endless questions that I had, that were never answered before.Some things that were covered I was surprised to hear.I always thought these were local things, or things only my family and friends talked about.Surprise-They were international. I will listen to this over and over, and encourage my family to do the same.I give this my highest recommendation.A BEST BUY !! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Applied Linguistics    2. Audio - Language    3. Language    4. Language Arts & Disciplines    5. Linguistics    6. Unabridged Audio - Misc.Nonfiction    7. Yiddish    8. Yiddish Language    9. Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics    10. Language learning: audio-visual & multimedia   

Subjects:  1. English language    2. Foreign words and phrases    3. Glossaries, vocabularies, etc    4. Jewish wit and humor    5. Language    6. Unassigned Title    7. Yiddish    8. Yiddish language   

Reviews (9)

Review of a dictonary
It is tough to review a dictonary.This has all the words I need, presented in a clear and well layed out format.

wrong book
I can't read this book. It has hebrew characters or something. I was hoping to be able to look up a yiddish word (like 'sheyn') in normal characters, and find the english translation. I can not do that in this book. I hope to find an other one. I have send this one back.

The best English-Yiddish dictionary
This dictionary is probably the best Yiddish dictionary so far. It is very useful for all English speakers, not only the natives - for two obvious reasons. One is the English language as a contemporary lingua franca. Another is that many languages don't have their Yiddish dictionary equivalents (e.g. my first language - Polish).
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Subjects:  1. Dictionaries    2. English    3. English language    4. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    5. Yiddish    6. Yiddish language    7. Bilingual dictionaries    8. Reference / Dictionaries   

Editorial Review

Whether you're getting back to your roots or getting ready for your first seder, it couldn't hurt to get a little help with your Yiddish, and the formidable Rabbi Benjamin Blech is here to lend a hand with the self-deprecatingly named Read more

Reviews (11)

Fun, OK, but...
OK, a little smaltzy, but a mildly fun trip into the beginnings of the Yiddish culture/language adventure. However, had I known that it was all transliteration (and not particularly well done), I wouldn't have bought it. Really, Hebrew letters and a few creative Yiddish fixes for vowel sounds and the right to left business is not that big a deal. You can do it in two weeks starting from scratch, or less. The experience of several generations of American Jews dragged to the Bimah seems to have poisoned everyone's minds about the aleph bet difficulties - small and easily surmounted. Remember, many in the first generations were literate in Yiddish and Hebrew, not to mention Polish or Russian, and learned English on top of that! Also lots of typos both in the text and the transliterations; fortunately I bought a used copy and an editorial fanatic had been through it with a sharp pencil and equally sharp comments. Sheva Zucker's Yiddish - A Textbook for Beginners, Vol. 1 or Zuckerman and Herbst's Learning Yiddish in Easy Stages are better, if you really want to learn.

Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish
I found this book informative and humorous, but I do wish it had covered grammar a little more in depth. All in all, though, it's worth having...ROBERT WLADYKA

Yiddish Review
I am Currently enjoying this book very much. I am learning a lot ... Read more

Subjects:  1. English    2. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    3. Foreign Language Study    4. General    5. Language    6. Self-instruction    7. Terms and phrases    8. Textbooks for foreign speakers    9. Yiddish    10. Yiddish language    11. Foreign Language Study / Miscellaneous    12. Language self-study & phrasebooks   

Reviews (4)

do NOT buy....poorly thought out
THE CD SUCKS:
Not for the beginner
This CD is not for anyone who hasn't had previous experience with Czech.I find Czech rather challenging to pronounce, which is why I ordered a CD, but this one is not at all helpful.It gives very few basic words then takes off into long phrases that are impossible to repeat in the time given. Nothing is repeated.The speaker speaks quickly, which might be natural, but does nothing to help the student pick out individual words. Since I opened it I can't return it, but I'd like to.So, buyer of CDs beware.Once they're opened, you're stuck with them.

The book alone won't help you much --
Swedish is fairly hard to pronounce, so I suggest getting a language instruction pack that includes a CD or cassette so you can hear the phrases as you read them.That said, you probably won't need to learn more than thank you, excuse me, hello, good-bye, and other pleasantries (although do learn them; they go a long way).Most Swedes learn English and speak it very well (save perhaps older folks who didn't go very far in school), and signs in tourist spots are often in both Swedish and English. This Berlitz travel pack is adequate for learning basic expressions and my Swedish friend gave the CD a thumbs up as far as pronunciation is concerned. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Audio - Language    2. Foreign Language Study    3. General    4. Language    5. Yiddish    6. Language self-study & phrasebooks    7. Turkish   

Reviews (9)

A pleasant mishmash
Aside from the Yiddish - English dictionary the book has many features explaining various aspects of Yiddish culture. It provides real insight into the cultural world and life of Yiddish speakers. An excellent browsing book.

GETin on the business language
Today the business world has inherited the language of Yiddish. This is because most small businessmen used to be Jewish or worked with Jewish people. In today's world the businesman might be hispanic or black, but everyone still throws in Yiddish words. Meshuggenary
It is always a pleasure to get a little extra.It's even better to get a lot extra!When I read Meshuggenry, not only did it explain many Yiddish expressions that are as American as bagels, I also got a seasoning of the life and spirit that fermented in the world of Yiddish.Take Klezmer music.In a few pages you get a history of its origins and its continual and present reincarnations.Take Yiddish Food and Cooking.A little history, a nosh of Yiddish food terms and some mouth-watering recipes.There are chapters on Yiddish humor and theater, but it's the insight to the Yiddish language and soul that makes this very readable concise book very special.That's the little extra!Meshuggenary is not only enjoyable to read, you are let into Yiddish insights that are still evolving.After wandering for many years from Brooklyn, to New Jersey, to California, it was good to read about my roots.Get off your tokhes and order a copy of Meshuggenary. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Language Study    2. General    3. Jewish - General    4. Jews    5. Judaism - General    6. Language    7. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    8. Languages    9. United States    10. Yiddish    11. Yiddish Language    12. Yiddish literature    13. Classical languages    14. Language & Linguistics    15. Religion / Judaism / General   

Reviews (4)

excellent if biased
The book is perhaps the best available introduction to the fascinating story of the Yiddish Language. Although scientifically rigorous, it is directed to the general public, interpretative rather than simply factual, and presents many highly subjective views of the author (which only makes it more interesting). Language politics (Hebrew/Yiddish dichotomy) within the modern secular Jewish world are frankly discussed. One obvious problem with the book is the hypertrophied "litvak patriotism" of the author. This results in skewed choices of literary figures individually presented (almost without exception from the Northern Yiddish dialectal area), with flagrant disregard to details when it concerns other Yiddish dialects and areas. Northern Yiddish toponimics is meticulously presented up to the tiniest of the shtetls, whereas Kishinev (Chisinau) is repeatedly spelled "kishenev" and the birthplace of Sholem-Aleichem is not spelled out at all (compare to any litvak author in the book). Equally biased is his dealing with the contemporary secular Yiddish writers of the younger generation and with the Soviet Yiddish literature (which produced many of the former). Having said all this, no better review of all things Yiddish seems to exist.

A readable account
This book is highly readable and the scholarship is excellent; it also examines that great question of Yiddish scholarship, asked since the end of the Second World War: Is Yiddish dead? The author's answer is yes and no.Secular Yiddish literature seems to be breathing its last (somewhat elongated) breath, while Yiddish remains alive among the ultra-orthodox and haredim, but with several qualifications.What is the Yiddish among the haredim like?What are its qualities and what is its future? Questions like this are explored with a marvellous insight: is the Yiddish used in contemporary religious communities at all co-equal to the great age of Yiddish as a secular vernacular?The book also explores characters in Yiddish literature and culture that are little examined, even by scholars in the field, suggesting that there is much vital work to be done in this area.Perhaps most interesting of all is the author's dogged determination to show the "triliteratity" of Askenazi European Jewish culture.All the great Yiddishists were also excellent Hebraists and could read Aramaic.The three languages of European Jewry were constantly informing each other: the scholarly division that most academics pursue in this area, the author contends, does little to illustrate the complex interactions of European Jewry's three languages.

A great book
As the generation of Jews who were born in Europe fades away, we, the next generation, will need help to know about our history.This book will be one of those books, along with Vital's history, that will inspire us to think about how tocontinue Yiddish culture in North America. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Etymology    2. History    3. Jewish - General    4. Language    5. Language Arts & Disciplines    6. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    7. Yiddish    8. Yiddish Language    9. Language & Linguistics   

Subjects:  1. Language self-study & phrasebooks    2. Software - Language - CDROM / Universal    3. Yiddish   

Reviews (2)

Fred Kogos does Yiddish justice.
The setup of the book makes it easy to use. The words and phrases are accurate; my native Yiddish speaking mother liked it. We were able to start talking and having fun right away. I was raised around Yiddish, but ithadn't occurred to my parents to teach it to their children. Love thisbook.

A work unfinished
This book appears to be a first draft. No pronuciation help. Does not show how use the words. It would be worth buying if the author finishes it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries    2. English    3. English language    4. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    5. Idioms    6. Language    7. Slang    8. Yiddish    9. Yiddish language    10. Bilingual dictionaries    11. Foreign Language Study / Yiddish   

Subjects:  1. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    2. General    3. Jews    4. Judaism - General    5. Language and culture    6. Languages    7. Linguistics    8. Religion    9. Social aspects    10. Yiddish    11. Yiddish language    12. Jewish studies    13. Language & Linguistics    14. Religion / General   

Reviews (2)

Zeier giit far inyunim fin der alter Yiidishkajt
[I have in front of me my copy from the 1988 photostat produced by YIVO and Schocken in 1928. The books appear to be the same.]
A must for reading and translating Yiddish.
If you are a student of Yiddish and need another dictionary besides Weinreich for reading and translation work, this is the dictionary to buy. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Dictionaries    2. Dictionaries - General    3. English    4. Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books    5. Hebrew    6. Polyglot Dictionaries    7. Reference    8. Yiddish language    9. Language & Linguistics    10. Language teaching & learning material & coursework    11. Reference / Dictionaries    12. Yiddish   

Reviews (5)

A great book
This is a wonderful book that gives a wide berth to both Yiddish civilization and Jewish history from the Roman period to the present.The author begins with a commentary on the loss of tradition among Yiddish speaking English Jews and the fake heritage of many of ape Yiddish by enjoying its music as an instant pass to heritage without 'ties' to religious observance.Then the book begins a whirlwind tour of Jewish history and the movements and diversity of the Jewish people in the Roman empire and Spain.It trie to understand which Jews lived in Eastern Europe before the Yiddish penetration that followed the German colonization of Eastern Europe between the 13th and 16th centuries. With wonderful detail we are given glimpses into Jewish life down through the ages.Religious innovation and the great Rabbis of the period are described as well as the pogroms and the diversity of Jewish life.
An appreciative reader
The author captures the broad sweep of history while at the same time personalizing it with vignettes of various areas, families, individuals, and even buildings. He gives the reader a taste of many different kinds of people, famous and ordinary. And he tells this story with compassion and even humor.I've lost count of how many friends and relatives I have recommended this book to. I hope they all read it.

Good intentions do not a good book make
This book was sent to me as a gift by a good friend, so I should be reluctant to criticise. Nevertheless, I regret to say that this is, at best, a flawed piece. It is also dangerously alluring, if judged by favourable reviews on the site. True, the cover is nice, maps are useful, the author has an obviously engaging personality and interesting personal trajectory. He seeks to evoke colour and texture of medieval ghettos and XVIIth century shtletls. He travelled a great deal to the Yiddishland and read many books (about which later).So what's the problem? It starts with the book's subtitle" The rise and fall of a Forgotten Nation." The notion of rise and fall is at least debatable, but "forgotten"? By whom, certainly not by either Israel or the diaspora? And, from my personal experience, there is a strong and growing interest in Jewish heritage in the core Yiddishland countries, particularly Poland and Czech Republic (On the Resurrection of European Jewry see "A Chosen Few" by Mark Kurlansky). In the US, Yiddish culture has had a lasting and wide ranging influence not only on the movies and pop music but on the literature (do the names of Bellow, Roth and Malamud ring a bell?) and theatre. In addition to Isaack Bashewis Singer, who only wrote in Yiddish, Nobel prizes were awarded to Elie Wesel and Imre Kertesz. It is true that fewer and fewer people speak Yiddish but the interest in broader Jewish culture and tradition remains strong.
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Subjects:  1. Ashkenazim    2. Civilization    3. Europe, Central    4. Europe, Eastern    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History Of Jews    8. History: World    9. Jewish - General    10. Jews    11. Yiddish Language    12. History / Jewish