5 comments about Yiddish for Dogs: Chutzpah, Feh!, Kibbitz, and More: Every Word Your Canine Needs to Know.

1. This is a short-ish book which consists of some well-known and some less known Yiddish words illustrated by pictures of various dogs. Some of the pictures are rather appropriate for the words but others are just cute pictures. This isn't a book to read as a serious Yiddish primer but is amusing and serves to remind non-Yiddish speakers of how many of our words are actually from that language (for example, I had no idea that "mishmash" is Yiddish).
   
   This probably works best as a gift book or a coffee table book.
   
   Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book, www.curledup.com. © Helen Hancox 2007



2. great pictures and text. it contained all the yiddish top words and expressions with comical explanations....however if you know them already one read is probably all you need



3. Mmm, yes, a language fit for a dog. How charming! Goebbels would have liked it; or did he write it?
   
   P.S. I'd give it 0 stars, but that wasn't an option.



4. I grew up in a New York Eastern European Jewish household where Yiddish was spoken interchangeably with English. We never ate chicken gizzards, and I would pale at the thought of eating stomach, but I loved the "pupick".
   
   When something was bad a simple "Oy!" would do, but if you heard "Oy vay is mir" you knew things were really bad. Instead of glowing with joy we would "kvell". And people were never crazy, just "mishugeneh".
   
   So much Yiddish has entered into typical American English vocabulary that it makes sense that our dogs, even strays from a "goy" background, would still understand the words.
   
   I mean, what dog likes to "shlep" her owners around? And who wants only kibble when there is a "mishmash" of food in the trash? Why be on a diet when we can "fress"? And how can a dog not start barking or "plotzing" when lots of people come over the house?
   
   This is a short picture book written from the viewpoint of dogs. So we have fat fireplug of a dog saying : "What can I say about FRESSING? Obviously my favorite activity. And believe me, I'll eat anything that you put in front of me." And we have a "shlemeil" cigarette smoking dachshund sitting in front of a "no smoking" sign.
   
   If you are Jewish, a dog lover, or both you should buy this book. Short, hysterically funny, and the pictures are just too cute! Keep it out for company, show your friends, look at it when you're in a bad mood, and don't forget to keep speaking Yiddish to your dogs lest they lose the tradition!



5. Being the YENTA that I apparently am, I must spread the word about this MISHUGGEH of a MATZIAH to the whole MISHPOCHA out there! What a METZIAH! Be a MENSCH and buy one, yourself. Not to make a big MEGILLAH, but any MAVEN would KVELL over such a gift. Only a GONIFF wouldn't buy it! Don't get all FATACTST about it, this is no DRECK. No one would have the CHUTZPAH to give this a bad review. It costs BUBKES, and everyone on your gift list from ALTER KOCKER to BOYHICK will declare it a YONTIFF when they receive it!
   
   Even if your dog is a VILDA CHAYA or a VONTZ, there will be no UNGABLOOZEN when they get this prized TCHOTCHKE. Only a SCHNORRER would read it at the library! Buy it now from Amazon.com and you'll never Be a SCHMANDRICK again. Stop SHLUFFIN and get it now. No more SCHLEPPING, because this is no SHLOCK!
   
   To not buy it is a SHANDEH!

5 comments about Modern English-Yiddish / Yiddish-English Dictionary.

1. 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.



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



3. Uriel Weinreich's Modern English-Yiddish Dictionary is a unique and superb resource. Highly recommended.



4. For anyone who has decided to go back to their roots and learn the language of their grandparents, this book is a must!



5. This book is just what I was looking for. It is not an easy tome to deal with...and that will be helpful in my endeavour to learn Yiddish. Taking the easy way is often the worst way in learning. This book smacks of quality and is obviously a labour of love.
   
   I hope to do it justice.

5 comments about Yiddish with George and Laura.

1. this book was written very well. it was just as if george and laura were realy dick and jane. the parts with the yiddish was very appropriate. i loved it.



2. Jewish Democrats will love this book. I've been giving copies of Yiddish with Dick and Jane as Bar and Bat Mitzvah presents for years to great acclaim and this one is that much funnier.



3. Yiddish With Dick and Jane had me laughing out loud all throughout, but this one just didn't do it for me. Somehow it was funny when they threw Yiddish into the Dick and Jane world, but I don't think it worked as well when they tried for a sequel in the political world. I mean there are many other reviewers who got some laughs out of it, which is great, but I thought this one was kind of awkward and grasping. Yiddish and the Bushes didn't really gel this time, in my view. The glossary uses all the terms in silly attempts at political jokes. At the end there is a somewhat lengthy explanation of why the book is supposed to be funny. I wanted this book to be good and to live up to Y w/D & J, but I was disappointed. I gave it a couple points because it had a few terms I didn't already know, but some of the phrases were long and looked particularly strange when put into the mouths of the Bushes.



4. We read this book aloud to each other, pausing at every Yiddish word to read the extremely funny glossary definition. We actually howled out loud with laughter....and then immediately ordered copies for family and friends. Truly delightful!



5. This mean-spirited piece of garbage says more about the writers than it's subject, the Bush family. A nasty case of projection it looks to me. Shame on them and shame on the noodnicks that wasted their money on this low crap.

5 comments about Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books.

1. This book is the last present I bought my grandfather before he died. I walked into a small bookstore and the owner recommended it to me (you simply cannot get this kind of service from the major book chains). I must have read half the book in a day, before I sent it to him, and got to finish it only after he passed away.
   
   I'm glad I bought this book, he loved it and so did I.
   
   The book tells the story of a graduate student trying to rescue Yiddish books from elimination, and all the characters he meets along the way. The book is easy to read, funny, inspiring, well writing and a page turner. A story of how one man's passion triumph over the odds.



2. This desire to hang on to history and heritage is noble and necessary. Bravo to the author and his colleagues. There are things that can be expressed in Yiddish, that when translated, need twice as many English words to convey their meaning. Unfortunately, this book is incorrectly marketed as an adventure---we expect to encounter Indiana Jones! With so much built up anticipation, the reader is left with a "hmmm" instead of a "WOW!" at the end.



3. 
   The best book I have read in a while. A must read. Dont waist time reading this review, just get it and read it. Enjoy. I did!



4. Aaron Lansky tells us about a lot more than just his efforts (and those of his many, many supporters) to rescue Yiddish books. He interweaves his stories with a history of Yiddish language, culture, and literature. Although these brief history lessons are not nearly as entertaining as his anecdotes of traveling around the globe (although mostly to New York) to collect the books, put together they make for an engaging, even enlightening read.



5. Yiddish is (in some ways) more than a language; it is a history--a civilization. (Not for nothing does the very word Yiddish mean Jewish). And it is a civilization everyone tried to destroy. The Nazis destroyed it; the Jews desperately trying to assimilate into Western countries destroyed it; Zionists who wanted to do away with shtetl culture destroyed it; Hasidim who felt that the mame loshn with its worldly literature takes time away from the Torah destroyed it until, by the time Lansky a graduate student who (oy vei!) decided to study Yiddish, he and his classmates had no books from which to study. The People of the Book had no books.
   
   And so Lansky and his classmates started looking for Yiddish books. It began as a selfish exercise--they were taking a class and they needed books and can starving students afford antiques sold at auction? But, as they heard the stories of the elderly people giving them their books and their histories, it became much more than that. It became an effort to save a civilization. To ensure that Jews today can explain to themselves and others who and what we are.
   
   Which is how the National Yiddish Book Center was born.
   
   And through stories filled with yiddishkeit (and of course books) Lansky introduces readers to that Jewish (Yiddish) civilization. A world we heard about -all of us, Jews and non-Jews alike--but a world we have thought we could never visit again. But maybe, just maybe we can. And maybe Lansky's Outwitting History is the first step on that journey into our history.
   
   I highly recommend this book.

5 comments about The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated.

1. 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 with a 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.



2. There's no need to repeat the deservedly fine comments already posted about Rosten's book. I simply wish to recommend buying any edition PRIOR to this 2001 revision by Lawrence Bush. While Bush does preserve Rosten's witty text intact, he spoils things by adding agenda-driven footnotes throughout. Bush castigates Rosten for making Reform jokes (please! I was raised Reform, and I found them funny) and ruins the humourous "shadchan" (matchmaker) entry by going on at length about Jewish domestic abuse (a problem to be sure, but no more so than in any other ethnicity). Lighten up, Bush! Finally, he inserts commercials for Reconstructionism and Jewish Renewal, which are valid expressions of Judaism but are post-1950s American in origin and NOT a part of the old Yiddish culture Rosten celebrates. Stick with Rosten's original text if you can find it.



3. I hoped there'd me more actual language and less American-isms. But I get it now that I've read it - and the introductions. It was not intended as such. But I didn't really know that before I bought it. It's a classic, and I still really had fun with it.



4. For example, for an honest translation and etymology of "shaygetz" or "shiksa," see the Meggido Modern Hebrew-English Dictionary:
   
   "sheqetz: unclean animal, loathsome creature, abomination...."



5. thils is an updated version of leo rosten's original book. it appears a bit overdone in its scholarly definitions. i purchased the book as a gift for someone who was interested in learning something about yiddish.

5 comments about Drek!: The Real Yiddish Your Bubbe Never Taught You.

1. I bought this as a guide for my boyfriend, who is technically Jewish but doesn't really practice, as a fun way to learn something more about the culture he comes from as well as to just have some fun with language. This book was easy to read and digest, the phonetic guide was very helpful, and it was entertaining.



2. What a fun book!! Easy to remember words with the translations right next to them. Even some history on the language of Yiddish. Very enjoyable.



3. I had hoped for something more than this skinny, undersized volume. to spin an old gag, "Life is a drek sandwich. Sometimes you get more bread... sometimes you get more drek." Not too much drek in this sandwich. For instance I wanted a definition of "Yutz." I had to go to Google to find it. And a couple of other terms that have more than one meaning left those alternatives unlisted.
   But it's better than no sandwich at all. And I found other volumes I might invesetigate later, if I find myself in need of such diversity.
   In brief, I got the Drek I paid for, but not much else.



4. This is a very funny book, I enjoyed it a lot and plan to share it with all my crazy relatives.



5. Just a cursory look at few pages brings back memories of my long departed mother who was an immigrant from Poland.

5 comments about Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish.

1. 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



2. 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.



3. we were disappointed with the content and glossary of this book.
   it was fun to skim and read over, but it didn't offer us much of an indept exposure to the most common terms.
   we found that most of the words we looked up and were interested in just weren't there.
   
   otherwise, it is easy to read and laid out in an interesting format for skimming.



4. It's a series - not to worry.
   
   Say, there's a "Baby Names for Dummies", so what's to kvetch? MY name wasn't in the book, was yours? It's your mother you should be talking to, not us! Once in a while, she'd like you to call, too, or at least write. So, what could it hurt? Your finger, it's broken, is it?



5. While searching for a book that explains the Yiddish language for the common person, I came across this book and what a book it is! It entertains and explains not only the language but also the people, places and circumstances that shows how Yiddish came to be. There are colorful examples, jokes and sayings to make anyone laugh! I found this to be quite an entertaining book, even if you have little interest in Yiddish.

5 comments about Yiddish with Dick and Jane.

1. we thought we were buying this book for our baby so she can experience some yiddish while we read her a 'classic'...but we found ourselves laughing out loud as we began to read.
   our 90 year old mother kept reading the book out loud and commenting on the text.
   we had so much fun with it we ended up buying another for a gift for our friend.
   it's not alot of substance, but it certainly is a fun read.
   probably best if not read to the little ones though as it has some pretty tough topics such as grandma falling down and ending up in hospital etc.



2. Oy vey. Was this a book! You shouldn't know from it, kinnohurrah. Such a book it was. So much fun and it made it so easy to learn Yiddish.



3. This book was soo funny, I gave it as a gift to my daughter. It is DIck and Jane all over again only with Jewsih terminology and Oiy Vey you can Pish in your pants laughing so hard, My daughter loved it and i know it brought back words her grandparents used to use all the time. You have to read it aloud to get the full affect. We laughed out loud all night long. It is a must in every household.



4. This book is hysterical! It is a great gift for anyone wanting to learn Yiddish or for anyone who grew up with Yiddish.



5. Clever spin on translation of colorful Yiddush phrases in that familiar "Dick and Jane" primer context.

4 comments about Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do) (P.S.).

1. Oy, Shprintse, what a book! It's a lecture on Yiddish, no doubt, and also on religion as the essential part to understand what's going on in the language. And it's so funny on such a high level that one may think the jokes will be missed -- but that's what I feared when I read "Born To Kvetch" already which has turned into a hit instead. Wex is not resting on the success of BTK (don't even think of Dennis Rader or the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company). JSN risks to introduce its own transliteration on top of YIVO's. But, hell, it works and turns pronunciation into fun! This is not a Yiddish for Dummies. Kvelling on scholarship, life and love, Just Say Nu manages to unite science, fun and understanding of a language that -- and this book proves it -- has SURVIVED hell.



2. a waste of money.
   
   my chief criticism is the author's idiosynchratic phonetic spelling of the yiddish words. by doing this he made the written yiddish almost indecipherable. it was the flip side of the author who translated shakespeare into yiddish and then boasted his translation was new and improved.



3. With Just Say Nu, Michael Wex has again given us something rare in popular literature about Yiddish, a laugh out loud synthesis of scholarship and humor. It's an entry point to Yiddish that I wish had been around when I started studying the language as an undergraduate.
   
   In fact, Just Say Nu should probably have been published before Born To Kvetch. It covers the basics that Kvetch (which covers much more advanced cultural contexts of Yiddish life) skipped over. Just Say Nu literally starts at the beginning, covering the nuances of language basics (like greetings and interjections) and delves into the many non-verbal aspects of Yiddish conversation.
   
   Just Say Nu will give the you the conversational tools to handle any Jewish situation, whether it's running into Rabbi Goldberg at the burlesque house or getting your pain in the ass brother or sister to pass the milk at the table.
   
   I only have one quarrel with Mr. Wex. He claims that Yiddish is unique in that it can diminish human misery without providing a concomitant increase in happiness. Yiddish brings me closer to the entirety of Jewish experience, both the good and the bad, the cursed and the blessed, the happy and the reserved. Just Say Nu, and the richness of Yiddish within it, did indeed provide an increase in happiness.



4. This is an excellent reference for Yiddish expressions, but not the crisp and witty humor I was expecting.

5 comments about Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (P.S.).

1. Kvetch is the art of complaining. The book is written in Yiddish rather
   than standard German. The author explains how Jews take their Yiddish
   with them into Slavic countries. Acceptance of Talmudic authority
   distinguishes Jews from non-Jews. The Fasting of the Firstborn is
   described on the eve of Passover in gratitude for G-d having spared
   them.
   
   Kosher foods are described in detail. These foods are considered fit,
   proper or right. i.e. fish with fins and scales; all birds not forbidden
   in the Talmud; mammals with clover hooves that chew the cud or eat
   noisily with their mouths open.
   
   Luckily, the volume contains an extensive glossary for the readership.
   The acquisition would be excellent for both Jews and non-Jews alike.



2. Reading has been limited so far, but even in small bits it's enjoyable and memorable.



3. Is the man a genius or what?
   There is so much wit, wisdom and brilliant insight in this book that I am in awe of Wex's accomplishment. I have lived with Yiddish since I was a child. Wex has a very deep grasp of the neshomeh, the soul of the language and of Ashkenazi Jewry. I laughed so hard as I read and reread passages from Born to kvetch. The laughter of recognition.
   
   Often I would find myself stopping and shouting, Ot azoy! ( Right on!) Finally, someone has not only gotten it but has the seykhel to put it on paper in a coherent and truly hysterical fashion, one which really represents the best in Yiddish humor. What is this humor? It is a presentation of the facts in a way that reminds us of the absurdity of life. Wex has gotten the Ashkenazi Jewish psyche down pat. Go no further. This is it.
   
   But I digress.
   
   Yiddish is ( yes, it's still very much alive in spite of what some paskudnyaks have written) one of the most exciting, self-deprecating, honest modes of communication around. If you like to laugh this is your language. If you want to cry ( and possibly kvetch a bit, too - it wouldn't hurt) climb on board. The literature of Yiddish ( much of it untranslated) rivals the best in the world. I used to listen to the news on a NY radio station, WEVD, read in Yiddish. It was hilarious. Jon Stewart, eat your heart out. This is where it all started. Jewish comedians grew up immersed in Yiddish.Notice how many there are and were - Marx Bros, Three Stooges, Jack Benny, Seinfeld, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, etc.- not only often often use Yiddish phrases but their entire world outlook is taken lock, stock and bagel from Yiddish.
   
   By the way, Wex yearly gives classes in which he expounds on many related themes, all of them from his unique and authentic Yiddish background, at the Klezkamp gatherings in NY. Well worth the price of admission.
   
   I learned more about the psychology of the Eastern European Jewish world ( ie. most American Jews) from this book than anywhere else. I also recognized my relatives.
   
   And, yes, Wex is the real thing. He grew up in a Yiddish-speaking Canadian home. His Yiddish is not university Yiddish, le-havdil, but the language that Ashkenazi Jews used to eat, laugh, perform carnal acts, and curse. You think that our parents and grandparents weren't human? This book will show you just how human they were .
   
   Wex has put the Yid back into Yiddish.



4. Only a mad genius could create a work like Born to Kvetch. This book is a potpourris of just about everything but the kitchen sink. A rumination on the language and culture of Yiddish, Wex takes his time translating the Yiddish mindset in hilarious English prose, weighing the two languages against each other with examples from Shakespeare, the Bible,American TV, Yiddish fiction, newspapers, translations of the Bible. His deep knowledge of religious and popular culture shows through in his unlikely combinations of similes which have the capacity to make the reader laugh out loud (a difficult task for a book to do). Wex also had the endearing habit of reinforcing all the stereotypes about Yiddish which its detractors stressed and its critics tried to refute (like it is the language of exile, for example). Wex is happy with Yiddish as a type of German jive, a language created so Jews could have their own nation in exile, a golus of words, and Wex plays with Jewish stereotypes with just enjoy of a deft touch to avoid offensiveness.



5. This is a great book; I was expecting just a fairly usual compendium of Yiddishisms, but Wex has shown how language is related to the philosophy behind the language, and how Yiddish is a window on the worldview of the Jews in their period of exile. But not as a dry academic treatise; at times I was, really literally, laughing out loud.