Fun Facts
Starting in the summer of 2021, the Jewish Language Project has presented "Fun Facts" - interesting insights about Jewish languages - on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and on TikTok starting in 2022 and Threads in 2023. Read the posts below to learn about the existence of languages you've never heard of, written texts from magic to newspapers, words from Hebrew and Aramaic, archaic pronunciations, and evidence of historical migrations and contact between Jewish communities.
If you're looking for particular content, you can search the page for keywords using the ctrl+F function on a Windows computer or command+F function on an Apple computer.
For future posts, we welcome suggestions from visitors like you.
In late 2022, we started an additional program: Jewish English Lexicon Word of the Week. See the archive here.
2025
January 9, 2025: Having A Ball
Persian Jews make a delightful dish called gondi, which are typically a type of meatball. Gondi toveh is a variant of gondi popular in the Iranian city of Kashan. The word gondi (literally meaning “ball-like”) probably comes from گند gond, an archaic word from Middle Persian and Parthian that means “testicle.” Toveh is Judeo-Kashani for taveh/tabeh, the Persian word for “frying pan.”
January 16, 2025: (Mis)translating Yiddish for Chinese Audiences
In 1921, writer Mao Dun wrote a Chinese article about Yiddish literature, including quotes from Y.L. Peretz and Simon Frug, rendered into Chinese from their English translations. But Mao Dun's lack of familiarity with Yiddish and Jewish culture led to several mistakes. He projected the relationship between oral Chinese (baihua) and classic Chinese (wenyan) onto the Hebrew-Yiddish debate, assuming Yiddish was a lower-class version of Hebrew with a different writing system. And in his excerpt from S.Y. Abramovitsch (Mendele the Book Peddler)'s Fishke der Krumer (Fishke the lame, 1869), he translated "payos" (pe'ot, sidelocks) as "earrings":
"Suddenly, he saw my earrings and dragged me to him. He grabbed a pair of scissors and sheared one of my earrings!... I saw my earring falling on the ground and could not help cover[ing] my face with tears: I had worn this pair of old, gray earrings from childhood until old age now."
Despite such misunderstandings, Mao Dun's article helped to promote vernacular Chinese literature using literary works from what he called "weak nations."
January 23, 2025: I'm a Little Tipad
Speakers of Haketia, an endangered Jewish language related to Ladino, use the word tipa or tipad to indicate a kettle. This is a loan from the English word "teapot." It's believed that the local Sephardic population heard the word from British traders who lived in Gibraltar and the Moroccan Atlantic coast.
January 30, 2025: Rules is Rules
Linguists have documented an up-and-coming phenomenon among Haredi Yiddish-Hebrew bilinguals in Israel: the animacy of an object is an important factor in verb agreement. Where plural nouns used to always take plural verbs, now plural inanimate nouns (like stones or shoes) can take singular verbs. Here are some examples:
Mentschn gayen zikhn khokhmes.
People go looking for knowledge.
Di klalim gayt azoy.
The rules go this way.
February 13, 2025: A Shady View of Trees
Trees tend to represent positive qualities in Jewish tradition, as in the biblical Hebrew expressions Etz hayim - "Tree of life"; and Tzadik katamar yifrah - "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree." However, these Ladino expressions about arvoles (trees) offer a slightly darker view of our arboreal friends:
Arvoles ke no dan fruta, mueven muncha oja.
Trees that don't bear fruit make a lot of leaves.
(Describes a person who boasts or shows off without accomplishing much.)
Arvoles pekan, ramales yoran.
Trees sin, branches cry.
(Children pay for their parents' sins.)
Arvole sin solambra.
A tree without a shadow.
(Describes a person who is self-interested and unhelpful.)
March 14, 2025: Minimizing Miracles
ניט אלע פורים טרעפט זיך א נס.
Nit ale purim treft zikh a nes.
A miracle doesn't happen every Purim.
Scholars trace this Yiddish proverb to an Aramaic expression in the Babylonian Talmud:
לָא בְּכֹל שַׁעְתָּא וְשַׁעְתָּא מִתְרְחִישׁ נִיסָּא
Lav be-khol sha'ata v-sha’ata mitrahesh nisa.
A miracle doesn't happen every hour.
–Tractate Megillah 7b
Notably, both expressions begin with negation– lav and nit– to emphatically downplay the possibility of miracles. The Talmudic sages and their Yiddish-speaking descendants are both warning the Jewish people not to rely on or expect divine wonders to happen today. Pragmatism as a Purim lesson: who knew?!
2024
January 3: Ladino in Cyrillic
Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) has been written in several alphabets, including Latin, Hebrew/Aramaic, Rashi, and Solitreo. Here's an example of Cyrillic-script Judeo-Spanish from the Sephardic community in Bulgaria. The text reads, "La Salidura de Mitsrayim," or "The Exodus from Egypt."
January 8: From Slavic with Love
The Hebrew word זה zeh "this" is sometimes used as a copula - to link the noun and the predicate, like "is" or "are" in English.
צלילה זה דבר מסוכן.
Diving is a dangerous thing.
This is likely due to Modern Hebrew's contact with Slavic languages, as they have words that mean "this" and serve as the copula: Russian eto, Ukrainian ce, and Polish to.
January 11: Rise of Hasidic Yiddish
Many Jewish languages are endangered, at risk of being lost forever. However, Hasidic Yiddish is not one of them!
Because of the prestige of Yiddish in certain Hasidic communities and reluctance among Hasidim to assimilate into other cultures, Hasidic Yiddish has been on the rise over the last decades, with about 78% of Hasidim able to speak the language. This language is also growing in educational, media, and literary use among Hasidic Jews.
January 15: Bagel Evolution
The English word bagel comes from the Yiddish beygl, but the 19th-century Eastern European version and the 20th-century American version of this beloved baked good were quite different. See the images above, with the Yiddish beygl on the left and the American bagel on the right.
January 25: La Regalo
Is 'gift' a masculine or feminine noun? In 18th-century Rome, it might depend on whether the speaker was Jewish! One theory for this is that even though regalo 'gift' is masculine in Italian, Jewish speakers inflected in according to the gender of the Hebrew word for gift, מתנה matana, which is feminine.
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January 27: Linguicide
Among the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust were millions of speakers of longstanding Jewish languages.
Most of these languages are now endangered, including Western Yiddish, Judeo-Alsatian, some dialects of Eastern Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Italian, Judeo-Greek, and Krymchak.
January 29: Jews and Salt
The old Jewish quarters in Moroccan cities are known as mellah, Arabic for 'salt.' This term originated in the 15th century in the Jewish neighborhood of Fez, referring to the salty marshland of that area. Subsequently, other cities in Morocco called their Jewish quarters mellah, including Marrakesh, Rabat, and Tetouan.
January 31: Out of Egypt
The first records of Jews creating theater are from Alexandria, Egypt, in the second century BCE. Ironically, the subject matter of this Jewish-Egyptian play was the biblical book of Exodus, which (among other things) tells the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt!
February 5: The Spiel's the Thing
In 15th-century Europe, troupes of actors traveled from house to house, dropping in to perform Purim spiels for family audiences. Players often involved the residents themselves in the performance by turning them into subjects of the court, diners at the king's feast, etc.
Spiel comes from the Yiddish verb shpiln, "to play." Today its meaning in Jewish English encompasses a long speech that often attempts to persuade - definitely not as much fun as a Purim play!
February 8: Multilingual Greek Theater
19th-century Greek theater often incorporated many other local languages into its scripts, and Jewish languages were no different. Plays like "Erotomanian Chatzianslanis" and "Monseiur Kozis" include Greek and Turkish, but also Judeo-Greek, Judeo-Spanish, and Judeo-Turkish, among others.
February 12: "Sha!" in the Theater
In the late 1800s through the 1920s, the Yiddish theater was an important gathering place for American Jews, sometimes "even more than the synagogue or the lodge." This idea was underscored by a spectator who, comparing their experience watching an English-language "gentile" play, wrote: "It is not like our Jewish theater. First of all I found it so quiet there... There are no cries of 'Sha!' (שא, Yiddish interjection: 'be quiet'), 'Shut up!,' or 'Order!' and no babies cried - as if there were no theater at all!"
February 15: Deyndzheres Minds
When borrowing terms from other languages, Haredi Yiddish speakers tend to incorporate them differently depending on the source language. Because both Yiddish and English are Germanic languages, English words are often incorporated directly into the sentence with no changes. In contrast, Hebrew borrowings undergo some morphological changes to fit into the Yiddish structure. You can see the difference in these examples:
a deyndzheres zakh ('a dangerous thing')
meshukhleldike otos ('latest-model cars')
February 19: Wili and Sympathy
Haketia, the name for Maghrebi Judeo-Spanish, includes many Arabic loanwords. For example, when somebody gets hurt, the person witnessing the situation might say A Wilí or Wilí-wilí. This exclamation of pain comes from the Arabic ويل (woe, affliction) plus ي (first person singular possessive pronoun). It can mean "I wish I would be hurt instead of you," or simply, as we might say in English, "Ouch!"
February 26: Double Jeopardy
Colloquial Modern Hebrew has an interrogative structure that uses both a content question word and a wh-question word (who / what / when / where / why) to assign some rhetorical value to a phrase. For example, the question ?למה מי מת lamah mi met 'why who died?' implies a level of sarcasm/humor/impatience not inherent to the simpler question מי מת 'who died?' This construction is hypothesized to originate from contact with Arabic and Jewish Neo-Aramaic, still spoken in Israel today, where the same pattern can be found.
February 29: The Ladino verb enheremar, to excommunicate, combines a Hebrew noun with a Spanish-based prefix and infinitive. The central word, herem חֵרֶם, indicates the most severe form of censure and requires that an individual be banned. One of the most famous people ever to be enheremado (excommunicated) was Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza (1632-1677), a Dutch Jewish philosopher of Portuguese descent who was banned by Amsterdam’s Sephardic community in 1656.
March 4: Washing Away Insults
In Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic, you can encourage an insulted friend with this expression: אשלכו בנטילה ishlikhu bi-ntila "{You'll get rid of it at netila." In other wods, "Put it behind you!" or "Throw it away!"
Netila is a reference to נטילת ידיים netilat yadayim, the Jewish hand-washing ritual that includes a blessing ending with that phrase.
March 8: Not the Queens English
The borough of Queens is the most linguistically diverse place on the planet, according to Ross Perlin's new book, Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York. Several endangered Jewish languages are spoken there, including Jewish Neo-Aramaic, Bukharian, Judeo-Georgian, and Juhuri.
March 11: Land of Cows
Spreakers of Alsatian Yiddish (sometimes called Judeo-Alsatian) refer to the neighboring country of Switzerland as Pores Medine, meaning "Land of Cows." The term derives from the Hebrew words פרות (parot, plural form of parah פרה "cow") and מדינה (medinah, meaning "country" or "state"); the phrase's syntax reflects the Germanic structure of Alsatian Yiddish.
While Pores Medine pokes gentle fun at the pastoral landscape associated with Switzerland, both Swiss and Alsatian Jews were known for their involvement in the cattle trading industry for centuries. In fact, the typical Jewish profession in the region was beheymes-hendler (cattle trader, from Hebrew בהמות livestock), and non-Jewish livestock traders were obliged to learn Yiddish to communicate with their colleagues.
March 20: Make Yourself Mordechai
The Ladino phrase (f)azerse de Modrohay literally means "to make oneself Mordechai" or "to do as Mordechai [does]." However, the phrase's metaphorical sense is "to pretend not to notice." This is based on the Book of Esther 3:2-3, wherein Mordechai refused to bow down to the evil Haman despite his high status in King Ahasuerus' court. The text describes how the courtiers, who all knelt before Haman, "spoke to him [Mordechai] day after day and he would not listen to them."
Note that in Ladino, metathesis (transposing sounds) causes the Hebrew name Mordechai [מָרְדֳּכַי]
to appear as Modrohay.
March 22: Purimkichlich
Although many people think of hamantaschen as the quintessential Jewish treat for Purim, Jews from Alsace-Lorraine have historically made purimkichlich פורים-קיכליך, Alsatian Yiddish for "Purim Cakes."
These were balls of sweet fried dough, similar to the beignets eaten elsewhere in France and in areas with French culinary influence.
April 2: Little Goat, Little Problem
One of the most well-known Literary Aramaic texts is Had Gadya (One Little Goat), recited every year at the end of the Passover seder. First published in the 1590 Prague Haggadah, Had Gadya is the most recent universally accepted addition to the Haggadah text.
However, ancient Aramaic speakers might criticize the language used here. Multiple verbs are conjugated incorrectly (d'zabin 'sold' instead of dizvan 'bought;' feminine aklha 'ate' for masculine shunra 'cat'), and the last three lines use the Hebrew noun phrases hashohet (the butcher), malakh hamavet (the Angel of Death), and Hakadosh Barukh Hu (the Holy One blessed be He), as opposed to their Aramaic counterparts nakhosa, malakha d'mota, and Kudsha Brikh Hu. Even so, the recitation of Had Gadya, along with the Kadish and other texts, has kept the ancient Aramaic language in use in Jewish communities around the world.
April 4: How Do You Say "Happy Passover"?
When it comes to Passover greetings, we like to have options.
April 8: From Roman Fish Sauce to Iraqi Charoset
Many are familiar with charoset, the fruit-and-nut dip that represents mortar in Passover symbology, but have you heard of ḥaliq? 10th-century rabbis, including Sa'adia Gaon, used ḥaliq as an alternative term for ḥaroset. One scholar traces this word to Latin allec, a fermented fish sauce popular in ancient Rome. Although the recipe has changed, words related to ḥaliq are still used today in some Jewish languages to refer to the sweet-and-sour dip:
Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic hilq
Iraqi Jewish Neo-Aramaic ḥəlliq
Judeo-Hamedani ḥaliká
Bukharian haliqo
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April 11: AUniquely Moroccan Passover Song - Who Knew?
An 1856 Moroccan Judeo-Arabic hagaddah features כָּאנְדְרִי נְדְרִיהוּם (Kaanₔdri Nₔdrihom), a translation of Eḥad mi yodea? (Who knows one?). The text’s distinctive Moroccan linguistic features include zouz instead of Standard Arabic ithnan (two) and the interchangeability of shin and sin, both pronounced /s/. Compared to other versions of this song, some of the numbers represent different items, such as:
13: tefilin (bar mitzvah)
10: minyan (prayer quorum)
7: ḥuppa (the days of wedding celebrations).
April 15: Haroset and Harisa
While preparing your haroset for Passover, you might realize that you've heard those consonants beyond this Hebrew word.
The root h.r.s., "to pound down," is connected to Aramaic harsana, "fish hash," and Arabic harisa, meaning "spice paste" in the Maghreb, and "porridge" in the medieval Arab East. Sweet!
April 18: A Ladino Ad for Manischewitz? Only in America
The longest-running Ladino newspaper in the United States, La Vara (The Stick), was published from 1922-1948 in New York City. This ad for Manischewitz-brand matza is from the April 12, 1935 edition. Its headline, El puevlo la demand (The people demand it), echoes the working-class rhetoric circulating in journalism in the 1930s.
Notably, the Ashkenazi matza company did not change the spelling of Manischewitz for this ad: the ayin and the double vav represent a Yiddish, rather than Ladino, writing system.
April 19: Hammer, Sickle, and Some Horseradish
The central text for the Passover seder, the Haggadah, has been published in many languages and formats over the centuries, reflecting the religious, artistic, and ideological orientations of diverse communities. Here is a Soviet Yiddish version entitled Hagode far gloyber un apikorsim (Haggadah for believers and heretics), published in Moscow in 1927.
To help disseminate Communist ideology, the author adapts the seder to the Russian Revolution. For example, he equates destroying leaven with destroying the bourgeois who remain in Russia. The hagode ends with the call: "This year revolution here - next year world-wide revolution!"
April 22: A Papiamentu Had Gadya
Jewish Papiamentu was historically spoken by Sephardic Jews on the island of Curaçao starting in the late 17th century. Despite its highly endangered status, this language is still utilized for ritualistic and creative endeavors. One enterprising linguist recently translated the classic Aramaic Passover song "Had Gadya" (One Little Goat) into Jewish Papiamentu. His translation, "Un Kabritu," appears above thanks to a very 21st-century invention: the Google font for Solitreo, the handwritten script for Ladino, another language historically spoken by Sephardic Jews.
April 28: Have a Green Year
Passover is a holiday closely associated with spring, as noted in Exodus 13:4: "at the set time in the month of Aḇiḇ" [אביב spring, literally the time of the crops growing green or the barley ears forming]. At Passover's conclusion, Levantine Jews traditionally exchange the Arabic phrase Santak khaḍra. This expression means "Have a green year" and is intended to welcome spring with life and greens. The same greeting is also used in some Jewish communities at the end of Rosh Hashana to usher in the new year.
June 4 2024: Day of the Rainbow
Today is Yom HaKeshet, or Rainbow Day, the 27th of Iyyar and day 42 of the Omer. In Modern Hebrew, keshet קשת refers to a bow in general (as in the hair accessory or archery gear) but also specifically indicates a rainbow. Yom HaKeshet references the day in the Hebrew calendar that the biblical Noah and his family saw a rainbow after the flood.
Jewish tradition offers a blessing upon seeing a rainbow and other natural miracles. The liturgy invokes God's covenant with humanity and all creation:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ אֶלוֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם זוֹכֵר הַבְּרִית וְנֶאֱמָן בִּבְרִיתוֹ וְקַיָם בְּמַאֲמָרוֹ Baruch ata Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam zocher ha’brit v’ne’eman bivrito v’kayam b’ma’amaro."
Blessed are You, our God, Ruler of the Universe, who remembers the covenant, and is faithful to God's covenant, and keeps God's promise.
June 12, 2024: Jewish Malayalam Shavuot Song
In the Jewish community of Kerala, India, women would sing a Jewish Malayalam song on Shavuot: "Muyimpa Tampirnte" (When Moses received knowledge). In the song, Mutaliyar (leader) Moses receives the Torah on Mount Sinai and drops the tablets because they are too heavy. The song also alludes to a Midrash about how the letters flew off the tablets when Moses came down the mountain and saw the golden calf.
June 20, 2024: Let Your Sol Shine
The Ladino word for sun, el sol, is masculine, but the name Sol is typically given to women. Common nicknames include Solucha and Solizika.
Here are some useful summer words using "sol":
el banyo de sol sun bath / sitting in the sun
tomar el sol to sunbathe (literally to take the sun)
la krema de sol suntan lotion (literally sun cream)
los antojos de sol sunglasses
The expression klaro komo el sol means "clear as day, evident." To quote Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), Sepharadi Jews would say, Nada de muevo debasho d'el sol (There is nothing new under the sun).
June 24, 2024: Modern Pride in Ladino
As with many languages, terminology for LGBTQ+ people in the Ladino-speaking community has historically included derogatory terms. But contemporary linguists have developed modern terminology for many queer identities, like gavá for "pride" (borrowing from Hebrew גאווה ga'avah) and fluíde and kuir (borrowing from English "fluid" and "queer").
June 27, 2024: So Long, Lonso
The Ladino word for bear, lonso, can serve as a way to deeply insult someone's character and intelligence. The word comes from Aragonese, a Romance variety spoken in northeastern Spain. Like Ladino, Aragonese is an endangered language.
Lonso gives rise to the Ladino noun lonsedad (despicability, contemptibility) as well as expressions like ke bayle el lonso (let the bear dance - i.e., he will get his just desserts).
July 1, 2024: Kebabylon
If you've ever been at a Jewish barbecue, you may have heard the Hebrew word mangal מנגל. It comes from the Arabic منقل, where the n.q.l consonants refer to moving something, like how barbecues can be moved from place to place.
Just as barbecues are mobile, so are words! The Arabic k sound probably became the Hebrew g sound as it transferred through the Bedouin community, which pronounces their k like a g.
July 8, 2024: A Wiggly Worm
In Judeo-Persian, the word kermaki means "worm-like one", but it can also be a label for someone who is perceived as mischievous and overly energetic.
Here's an example sentence:
בצ'ה כרמכי אומד כרם בריזה
Bache kermaki umad kerm berize.
The little worm-y kid came to annoy someone (literally: to spill worms).
July 11, 2024: A Dear Cockroach
Speakers of Moroccan Judeo-Arabic use the word khenfūsa, or "cockroach," to indicate someone perceived as ugly. Here is an expression using this word:
كل خنفوس عند امّه غزال
kəl khanfös ˁan ömm-o ġzäl
Every cockroach is a deer to its mother.
July 15, 2024: Catskills Cooking
The Yiddish word kokhaleyn is a portmanteau of the verb kokhen (to cook) and the adjective aleyn (alone). It refers to a rented room or modest bungalow with kitchen facilities that were sometimes shared with others. These cottages were typical of the Catskills, where over 1,000 Jewish resorts had been built by the mid-1950s. That era is sadly over, but the memories - and the snapshots - remain.
August 2, 2024: Dangling Smichut
In two-noun Hebrew phrases in the "construct state," also known as smichut, the first noun often changes form. For example, the word bayit (house) becomes bayt in the phrase beyt sefer (school, literally "house of book"). Speakers of Jewish English sometimes omit the second word in such phrases leaving what we might call dangling smichut.
Using words like Birkat and Bnos in everyday speech not only saves time, it also signifies insider status.
August 6, 2024: Silver and Shprakh
In the Yiddish poem O, mayn shprakh (Oh, My Language), Roshelle Weprinsky uses vivid colors and natural imagery to depict the writer's organic relationship to words. Here is an excerpt from Rebecca Weingart's translation of this poem:
Oh, my language,
you are silvery blue—
you are illustrious gold.
And what do I do with you?—
….
I braid you in forms according to my likeness,
I pluck you like flower buds from a white forest;
from a silver forest.
--From the collection Ruf fun fligl (Call of Wings), 1926
August 12, 2024: Give a Dog a Bone
If you abstain from eating meat in the nine days before Tisha B'Av, there's a Yiddish expression for the yearning you might be feeling.
ווי א הונט אין די נײַן טעג
Vi a hunt in di nayn teg.
[They are] like a dog in the nine days.
August 19, 2024: Setting the Tone with a Tambourine
Sephardic weddings, like many special lifecycle events in a Sephardic community, have traditionally featured a group of women singing and playing percussive instruments. The women who perform are called tanyaderas, from the Ladino verb tanyer (to play a musical instrument). The musicians' importance to the festive occasion is reflected in this Ladino expression:
No ay boda sin padero.
"There cannot be a wedding without a tambourine."
August 22, 2024: A Skewer Saga
Kebab, a word recognized worldwide for mouth-watering barbecued meat on a skewer, has a fascinating history. The verb KBB, meaning "to roast" or "to burn," appears in various Semitic languages. The first recorded mention of kebab is in the Babylonian Talmud: כבבא (kebaba), an Aramaic word referring to an unwelcome animal sacrifice. Since then, kebab's usage to indicate roasted meat has spread from the Middle East to Europe, Asia, and the Americas - and kebabs have become a welcome menu addition in many cuisines.
August 29, 2024: Punny Pet Names
Multilingual wordplay is common in the names Jews give to their pets. Our surveys revealed these punny names for dogs:
Hunter: hunt הונט is Yiddish for 'dog'
Perry: The Papillon breed of toy spaniel gets its name from the French word for butterfly. In Hebrew, butterfly is parpar, פרפר.
Groucho Barx: named for comedian Groucho Marx.
September 5, 2024: It's Purrsonal
If you think your pet is the cat's meow, why not give them a star-studded name? Here are some cat names based on famous Jews.
Tsilke Dropkitten: Named for Yiddish poet Celia Dropkin.
Golda Meow: Named for Israeli prime minister Golda Meir.
Purrchik: Named for Perchik, a character in Sholem Aleichem's "Fiddler on the Roof"
September 9, 2024: Fin-tastic Fish Names
Jewish owners of pet fish also get in on the pun game. One family named their betta fish "Ruth Betta Finsberg" in honor of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Another approach is to name your fish "Dog," a pun on the Hebrew word for fish: dag דג.
October 11, 2024: A Swinging Chicken
In Lishan Didan (Jewish Neo-Aramaic), sacrifice is a common motif used to express love and endearment. One way members of the Nash Didan community convey affection is with an idiom rooted in a Yom Kippur ritual:
ברישך גיגן, b'reshakh gejan
May I swing around on your head
The expression refers to the kapparot (Hebrew for atonements) ritual that involves swinging a live chicken overhead three times while reciting a blessing before Yom Kippur eve. This cross-cultural term of endearment can also be heard when speakers of Modern Hebrew and Jewish English call a younger relative kappara to convey closeness.
October 23, 2024: No Buzz in Your Boka
A popular Ladino expression encourages choosing your words wisely - or not saying anything at all.
.אין בוקה סיראדה נו אינטרה מושקה
En boka serada no entra moshka.
A fly does not enter a closed mouth.
November 29, 2024: Sounds of Sigd
Sigd is a holiday specific to the Ethiopian Jewish community, meaning 'worship' or 'prostrate'. Its observance includes reciting prayers in Ge'ez, a Semitic language used for reading scripture. You can see the similarities between Ge'ez and its cousin Hebrew in some of the cognates from the prayer Hale hale yabarekewo (Praise, Praise, Bless the One)
December 5, 2024: Foreshpayz Forever
Jews in Eastern Europe often served cold dishes as appetizers. The Yiddish word for this meal course was פֿאָרשפּײַז forshpayz (before food). Examples of forshpayzn could include smoked or pickled fish like herring, chopped liver, and eggplant salad. The cold appetizer course became an outright phenomenon in early 20th-century America, where dozens of "appetizing stores" popped up to serve the niche needs of Jewish immigrant customers. Sometimes nicknamed "appys," these specialty stores retain their culinary legacy today in venues like Russ & Daughters.
December 23, 2024: A Dough-Lightful Sephardic Treat
Popular during Hanukkah, the traditional Sephardic fritter known as a bumuelo is fried in oil and drenched in syrup. It is possible that the Moors brought this fried dough treat to Spain as early as the 8th century, and the recipe was part of Muslim-Jewish cultural exchange. The word bumuelo comes from the Spanish buñuelo, drawing from Old Spanish boño (lump). Culinary and linguistic relatives include the beignet, from Old French buigne (lump), and Yiddish pontshke (donut), ultimately from Proto-Slavic pǫkъ (bulge).
December 30, 2024: For the Girls
A Hanukkah tradition observed by Sephardi/Mizrahi communities is Chag HaBanot (Holiday of the Daughters), celebrating sisterhood among women. The celebration falls on the 6th or 7th night of Hanukkah - Rosh Hodesh Tevet - and can include singing piyyutim (liturgical poems), dancing, giving baskets of sweet foods, and lighting candles. The holiday has been known by several names:
Hebrew חג הבנות Hag HaBanot or ראש חודש לבנות Rosh Hodesh LaBanot
Judeo-Arabic עיד אלבנאת עיד אלבנאת
عيد البنات Eid al-banat
Jewish French Fête des Filles
2023
Jan. 2: Gabbers Unite!
The name of the subgenre of hardcore techno known as “gabber” comes from a Dutch Bargoens slang term meaning “friend,” which in turn originates from the Yiddish usage of חבֿר khaver (“buddy,” “friend” - from the Hebrew word חבר, also meaning “friend,” literally, someone connected to you). In Dutch, a G at the beginning of a word is pronounced like a hard kh sound.
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Jan. 23: Endangered Jewish Languages
Over the past two centuries, most longstanding Jewish languages have become endangered due to nationalistic language policies, migrations, and genocide.
Some endangered languages: Ladino, Judeo-Amazigh, Judeo-Alsatian, Bukharian, Judeo-Italian, Karaim, Judeo-Arabic, Jewish Malayalam, Krymchak, Judeo-Shirazi, Judeo-Esfahani, Jewish Neo-Aramaic, Judeo-Greek.
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Feb. 13: Signaling Solidarity - In Ukrainian
In the 19th century, most Jews in Ukraine spoke Yiddish. In 2020, most spoke Russian. Since the Russian invasion in 2022, many Jews have begun to learn more Ukrainian, and some leaders have incorporated more Ukrainian into their online writings - acts of solidarity and anti-Russian defiance.
Jan. 17: Jewish Origin of a French Insult
The French word for "gangsters," pègre, comes from Western Yiddish (and Hebrew) פגר "carcass, cadaver." It entered French slang through the jargon of Alsatian Jewish cattle traders and peddlers, who used it as an insult. During the early 19th century, there were significant contacts between Jewish merchants and the French
underworld, and many Yiddish/Hebrew words were absorbed into French
argot.
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Jan. 30: Rotwelsch
Rotwelsch ("beggars' incomprehensible language") refers to the argots spoken by marginalized groups in the German-speaking world, including thieves and vagabonds. Rotwelsch varieties contain many words from Yiddish and Hebrew. Here are a few examples from Liber Vagatorum (The Book of Vagabonds), a 16th-century work popularized by Martin Luther that includes a glossary of Rotwelsch:
ACHLEN (to eat, from אכל)
GFAR (village, from כפר)
MACKUM (city, from מקום)
Feb. 6: Tu Bishvat - The New Year of the Trees around the World
shbídi pherobá - Judeo-Georgian, 'seven species'
las frutas - Ladino, 'the fruits'
meva xuri - Bukharian, 'fruit eating'
fəth əl-'úd - Tunisian Judeo-Arabic, 'blossoming of the dry tree
mooedeh ilanoot - Jewish Persian, 'holiday of the trees'
tubizvat - Judeo-Italian, 'Tu Bishvat'
khamishoser - Yiddish, 'fifteen'
tubisbat - Judeo-Arabic & Haketia
mzdane 'ilane - Jewish Neo-Aramaic, 'gifts of the trees'
ʂev hindorho - Juhuri, 'the night of the trees'
Feb. 20: Moroccan Judeo-Tamazight
Jews in Morocco have spoken many languages, including Judeo-Arabic, Haketia (Judeo-Spanish), and Jewish French. In rural Southwestern Morocco, especially the High Atlas Mountains, some Jews spoke a Jewish version of Tamazight. This language is now endangered, but efforts to document it are underway.
Feb. 27: Judeo-Tamazight in Mulitlingual Texts
Since speakers of Judeo-Tamazight often preserved their language only orally, there are very few texts in this language. One of the first Judeo-Tamazight texts discovered utilized a mixture of Hebrew, Judeo-Tamazight, and Judeo-Arabic. In the 1970s, revitalization efforts resulted in the publication of a Judeom-Tamazight translation of the Passover Haggadah.
Jan. 9: A Mitzvah Gobbler
Schopfloch is a village in southern Germany where a Hebrew-filled secret language called “Lachoudisch” was spoken. Some residents still remember dozens of words, even decades after Jewish presence there ended. A fun example is Mizwefresser, literally “mitzvah gobbler” - someone of any religion who’s considered too religious.
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Mar. 6: לַלַנגֵי לַלַנגֵי: טוּרַוֵי רַנגֵי רַנגֵי
lalange, lalange: ˠturawe, range range!
Purim, Purim: the mountains, colorful colorful!
Every spring, the snow begins melting off the mountains of Northern Iran, revealing their festive colors just in time for lalange (Purim). This phenomenon gives rise to the popular proverb in Lishan Didan - Jewish Neo-Aramaic from Urmia, Iran.
Mar. 13: Greek Words in a 12th-century Hebrew Letter
A woman named Archondou wrote to her son, Fudayl, about her illness: "My eyes hurt very badly, and I give three zuz every week to the doctor, and I cannot move from this place." She wrote to him from Alexandria, requesting that he bring her to Cairo, where he lives. "If God is good to you, do me a favor and come quickly to fetch me out of here so that I do not die." The letter is written in Hebrew, but it also includes several Greek words written using Hebrew characters:
ארכודו, her name, Archondou
אלכסדריא, where the letter was written,
and טילרין, the Greek work for "mattress,"
Modern variants of Archondou's name include Αρχοντουλα, Αρχόντω, or Αρχοντία.
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Mar. 20: Morning Blessings - Women's Alternatives
Observant Jews recite blessings called Birkot Hashachar every morning. The third, as traditionally recited by men, gives thanks to God, "who did not make me a woman." Women's siddurim (prayer books) use various adaptations. Here are three early variations:
Ladino, 15th century
Bendicho tu YY nuestro Dio, rey para siempre que mi fizo cumo su vulentad.
Blessed are You, A(donay) our God, King for eternity, who made me according to his will.
Hebrew, 15th century
BA'I EM'H sheasitani isha v'lo ish.
Blessed are You Lord our God, Master of the Universe, for You made me a woman and not a man.
Judeo-Provencal, 14th century
Bendich Tu Sant Benezent nostre Diew rey dal segle ke fis mi fena.
Blessed art Thou Lord our God king of eternity who made me a woman.
Mar. 27: Geniza - A Treasure Trove
The word "geniza" has roots in Old Median and Old Persian, with the sounds g-n-z referring to a treasure depository. This derivation is particularly apt because of how a geniza, a specialized repository for the preservation of Jewish texts, serves as a unique and long-lasting treasure trove for language documentation, especially of Jewish languages. The largest known geniza is in Cairo, but there are many others in places like Masada in Israel, Yemen, and Afghanistan.
Apr. 3: Jewish or Judeo?
"Judeo-French" generally refers to French spoken by Jews in the Middle Ages and written in Hebrew letters. "Jewish French" generally refers to French spoken by contemporary Jews. Jewish French is influenced by the multiple languages that were spoken by Jews in Europe and North Africa before they immigrated to France. This includes some words from Yiddish, such as glatt, 'ultra-kosher,' and farbrengen, 'a leisurely Shabbat activity,' and many more words from North African Judeo-Arabic, such as dakha, 'a funny thing,' hmar, 'a donkey,' and laistor, an interjection meaning 'may God preserve!'
May 25: Shavuot: Holiday of Shrine Visiting
In regions where Arabic and Aramaic are spoken, such as Iraq and Kurdistan, Shavuot is called 'id-zyara, Holiday of Shrine Visiting. Many Jews in those areas used to visit traditional tombs where biblical prophets such as Ezekiel and Nahum are believed to be buried, and they would spend the holiday there.
May 29: Yahrzeit: Remembering Loved Ones
Variants of the Yiddish word yahrzeit/yortsayt ‘anniversary of a death’ are found in many Jewish languages, including Bukharian, Judeo-Arabic (Moroccan, Tunisian, Yemenite), Judeo-Italian, Juhuri, Ladino, and Singapore Jewish English. This reflects textual influence rather than contact with Yiddish speakers. The word יאר צײט appeared in several rabbinic Hebrew texts, including Sefer Minhagim (Amsterdam, 1635) and Ganzfried’s popular Kitsur Shulhan Aruch (Ungvar, 1864). The pronunciations range from yar sayat to arṣt (the emphatic ṣ in Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic reflecting the letter צ).
June 5: Jewish Swedish
After the Holocaust, many survivors moved to Sweden, leading to increased Yiddish influence in Jewish Swedish. For example, the Swedish word hålla ‘to hold’ has taken on the broader semantics of Yiddish haltn, ‘to hold,’ which also means to observe or to keep. Therefore, in Jewish Swedish, someone might say they hålla kosher or hålla Shabbes to indicate that they observe dietary laws or keep the Sabbath.
June 12: Training Austrian dogs in Hebrew
In Austria in the 1920s and ‘30s, a Zionist dog breeder and scientist named Rudolphina Menzel named her kennel "Bnai Satan" (children of Satan) and taught her dogs commands in Hebrew. In her book new Canine Pioneer, Susan Kahn writes, "While it was common practice to train police dogs in a foreign language so criminals could not communicate with dogs that were pursuing or attacking them, the spectacle of German military and police-dog trainers barking instructions at their dogs in rudimentary Hebrew must have provided Rudolphina with endless amusement and great satisfaction."
June 20: The Language of Pride
In the 1990s, Israeli activists were looking for a new way to describe LGBTQ+ identities, since the relevant Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew terms had negative connotations. They decided to adopt English terminology, signaling their belonging to a broader, global queer community. The originally proposed word for "gay" was גאה ge’eh, meaning "proud," but international words became more popular: gay, homo, lesbit, bi, trans, and queeri.
The acronym LGBT is להט”ב LaHaTaB, and the community calls itself Hakehila hage'ah - the proud community.
June 26: Yiddish Fronting
Verbal “focus fronting,” or adding verbal predicates to the front of a sentence for semantic effect, is common in Modern Hebrew. This is likely due to influence from Yiddish, in which this construction is extremely common.
For example:
Yiddish:
װײסן װײסט ער גאָרנישט
As for knowing, he knows nothing
Hebrew:
לקרוא, היא לא קוראת בכלל
As for reading, she does not read at all
July 3: We've Got Spirit
Jewish summer camps are a great environment to observe traditional Hebrew words take on specialized meanings. For example, the Biblical and Modern Hebrew word ruach רוח means 'wind,' or the 'spirit' or 'ghost' of a person. But at camp, you'll often hear cheers exclaiming "We've got ruach!" This expression layers on meanings of festive spirit or morale.
July 10: Jewish Russian Intonation
Jewish comedians during the Soviet Era often used a feature of Jewish Russian wherein intonation is changed to make a sentence mean its opposite. In one joke, Stalin receives a letter from Trotsky saying, "You were right I was wrong excuse me," but a Jewish advisor tells him that Trotsky actually had intended to say, "You were right? I was wrong? Excuse me!" Interpreted this way, Trotsky's letter means, "if you really believe that you were right and I was wrong, there is nothing to discuss further."
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July 17: Rashi and Judeo-French
If you've ever read the famous Torah scholar Rashi, you may have encountered some Judeo-French terminology he used, such as "grenouillière" - a swarm of frogs (Exodus 8:2), "espiement" - spying (Leviticus 19:16), and "noces" - nuptials (Jeremiah 2:2). Rashi often translated Hebrew terminology from the Torah and the Talmud into French for his readers who were not familiar with Hebrew, thereby adding elements of Old French to the primarily Hebrew and Aramaic Jewish textual tradition.
July 24: Hearing People Maintaining a Sign Language
The migration of most Jews from Algeria to Israel, France, and elsewhere in the 1940s-1960s led to the endangerment of Algerian Jewish Sign Language (AJSL). However, hearing relatives of Deaf immigrants are keeping the language alive in Israel. While Deaf immigrants learned Israeli Sign Language as they integrated into broader Deaf communities, their hearing relatives have continued to communicate with them in AJSL and pass it on to younger generations.
July 31: Iconicity in Sign Language
Algerian Jewish Sign Language is unique among sign languages in that it preserves many iconic signs that over time became more abstract in other languages. The sign for Shavuot, for example, depicts an act of spilling water, as throwing water on one another used to be a North African celebratory Shavuot tradition. The custom itself is lost now but survives in the sign.
August 7: Deaf or Mute?
In Algerian Jewish Sign Language, the sign for 'deaf' mimics a slicing of the tongue, relating to the ability to speak rather than to hear. This reflects a conflation of speech and hearing in some sign languages - American Sign Language and Israeli Sign Language refer to both the mouth and the ear in their signs for 'deaf.'
August 14: Insects, Mary or Moses?
Jews in various places have changed expressions to avoid Christian connotations. In Amharic, Ethiopian Jews call a certain type of grasshopper የሙሴ ፈረስ ya-muse faras (Moses' horse), while Christians call it የመርያም ፈረስ ya-maryam faras (Mary's horse). Similarly, the many words for ladybug in Yiddish include משה רבינוס קיִעלע moyshe rabeynes kíele (Moses Our Teacher's little cow) and משיחל meshiekhl (little messiah), Judaized versions of similar terms for ladybug in surrounding languages, such as Russian божья коровка (God's cow) and German Marienkäfer (Mary's beetle).
August 21: Sounding Outdated in Judeo-Catalan
Aside from their use of Hebrew letters and sporadic Hebrew words, medieval Judeo-Catalan texts are similar to contemporaneous Christian Catalan texts. However, there are a few instances of archaic features, such as crou 'cross' (compared to Christian creu) and far 'to do' (compared to Christian fer). Many Jewish languages retain archaic features due to the (relative) insularity of the communities who spoke them.
August 28: Vuzvuzim
What do various groups of Jews call each other? One term Sephardim used for Ashkenazim originates from a multilingual encounter: vuzvuzim. When Sephardim and Ashkenazim met in Palestine and later Israel, Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazim would ask, "Vuz? Vuz?" (What? What?). Sephardim found this phrase funny and began to use it, along with the Hebrew plural -im, to refer to Ashkenazim. Often the term was used in a derogatory way.
September 4: Talking About Reading
The Yiddish word לייענען (leynen) comes from Old French "leyer" and replaces the German "lesen," but the Ladino word מילדאר (meldar) comes from the Greek μελετάω (meletao), replacing the Spanish "leer," which comes from the same root as the Old French. So the Yiddish word for reading is derived from a Romance language, and the Ladino word is not.
September 7: Named for Jewish Holidays
In many times and places, Jews have used names of holidays and months as personal names.
General "festal" names include Yom Tov, Chaggai, and Chagit. Specific holiday names, like Pesach, Purim, and Chanuka, were popular among medieval Jewry. And names of Hebrew months, like Nissan, Sivan, and Ziv (the alternative name of Iyar), are also popular modern-day first names.
September 18: Micrography in a Medieval Mahzor
Micrography, the art of using a minute Hebrew script to depict figures or patterns on a page, arose in the 9th century. Jewish communities around the world, from Egypt and Yemen to Italy and Germany, have produced texts with ornate micrography illustrations.
According to experts, the Catalonian Micrography Mahzor, a Hebrew prayer book for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, was created in early 14th-century Spain. The Hebrew letters are written in semi-rounded Sephardic style, and the art reflects motifs common in Spanish Jewish art, Islamic art, and Latin art. In the page above, the tiny letters combine to form a picture of a falconer on a horse.
September 21: Fasting in Ladino Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jews call Yom Kippur dia de kipur (day of atonement) or simply kipur. The pre-fast meal at the start of the holiday is known as tomar tanit, which means 'to take the fast.' The break-the-fast meal is called kortar (el) tanit, which literally means 'to cut the fast.' Both phrases combine Romance-based verbs with the rabbinic Hebrew word for fast, תַּעֲנִית, which appears in Ladino as tani, tanid, tanit, and taanit. The solitreo rendering of the word (shown above) follows the Hebrew orthography, even though Ladino speakers often drop or change the final "tav."
September 28: Pudding Holiday in Judeo-Marathi
Instead of Sukkot, for centuries Indian Jews celebrated Khiricha San, "pudding holiday. San means holiday in the vernacular Marathi language, while khir is the name of a sweet pudding made of coconut milk and corn. The Khiricha San festival took place in parallel to Sukkot and reflected similar harvest themes. It was customary to burn incense near the dish of khir, say the Shema prayer, and then eat the khir with homemade grape juice and other traditional foods.
October 17: Sephardic and Ashkenazi Words of Comfort
מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם תְּנוּחָמוּ
Min hashamayim tenuhamu
May you be comforted from above.
הַמָּקוֹם יְנַחֵם אֶתְכֶם בְּתוֹךְ שְׁאַר אֲבֵלֵי צִיּוֹן וִירוּשָׁלַיִם
Hamakom yenahem etkhem betokh she'ar avelei tzion virushalayim
May God comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
November 2: Let Dreamers Dream
A Judeo-Arabic proverb from Fez, Morocco, says, "The one you see riding a reed branch, tell him congratulations on the horse!" This means, "Do not break the illusions of dreamers."
די ריתו ראכב עלא קצבא קול לו מבארך לעאוד
دي ريته راكب على قصبة قل له مبارك العود
di rīţ-o rākb ˁla ˀəṣba, ˀöl-lo mbārk l-ˁāwd
November 6: Blessing for Wellness
A traditional way of offering condolences in Lishan Didan (Jewish Neo-Aramaic from Urmia, Iran) is reshxun basime haweni. This expression means, "May your heads be well."
October 23: Pizza Ebraica
Rome's Jewish Ghetto is the birthplace of one of the city's more unusual pizza varieties. Pizza Ebraica, Italian for "Hebrew Pizza," is a sweet, dense pastry made with almonds, raisins, candied fruit, white wine, and olive oil. Dating back from a time when the word "pizza" simply meant a cake or a pie, Pizza Ebraica was often eaten by Roman Jews to celebrate a newborn baby's circumcision. Because of this, the pastry is also known as a Pizza di Beridde, beridde being the word for bris or brit milah in Giudaico-Romaneso, the Judeo-Italian language spoken by the Jews of Rome.
November 9: Pity the Nebekh
Amsterdam has a distinctive lingo which is different from other varieties of Dutch. In an election among citizens of Amsterdam for the most beautiful word in that dialect, achenebbisj won by a landslide. It's a conjunction of ach (a Dutch exclamation of pity) and nebekh (nebbish), a Yiddish word meaning 'pitiful,' 'ineffectual,' or 'unfortunate.' Put together, the word means 'shabby.' For example, one could ask, "Why does he live in such an achenebbisj part of town?"
November 13: Word Worship - Sigd
Sigd, the Ethiopian Jewish holiday celebrating acceptance of the Torah, has linguistic roots common to many Semitic languages. The Amharic word sigd ስግድ means “prostration,” and the same root letters are shared by the Hebrew words לסגוד lisgod ‘to worship/prostrate’ and מסגד misgad ‘mosque,’ as well as the Arabic word مَسْجِد masjid ‘mosque,’ and the Aramaic word סגד sged ‘prostration.’ How’s that for a holy word?
November 16: Beseder Back Home
Contact between Hebrew and Amharic among Ethiopian immigrants to Israel has birthed what can be called Israeli Amharic, a new contact language. When Ethiopian Israelis go to visit Ethiopia, they often integrate common Hebrew words into their Amharic, like כן ken 'yes' and בסדר beseder 'okay.' This has led to locals starting to say, "here come the beseders," meaning 'those who say beseder.'
November 27: Sephardic Semantics
Some Hebrew phrases in Ladino originated in religious contexts but gradually acquired a more metaphorical meaning, a common phenomenon in Jewish languages. One example of this is the expression (f)azer ose shalom, meaning "to scram or sneak away." Oseh shalom is Hebrew for "he makes peace" and refers to the conclusion of the Amidah prayer, when one says oseh shalom while taking three steps back. When combined with the Spanish verb azer (sometimes pronounced fazer), "to do," the Ladino expression indicates someone who is stepping backward with the intention to slip out. This conveys a sense of duplicity not indicated by the original liturgy.
November 30: When an acquaintance is ill, Sephardic Jews may say, Pasado ke te sea (seyga)! ThisLadino expression, which can be shortened to Pasado sea, means "May it (the illness) be a thing of the past." The expression is a calque from Turkish, which has the saying Geçmiş olsun, "may it pass." This kind of language contact with Turkish is a prominent feature of the Ladino spoken by Jews who lived in Ottoman lands.
December 7: I Say Manuro, You Say Menorah
While many Jewish languages use the Hebrew words menorah or hanukkiah refer to the candelabrum that holds the Hanukkah candles for all eight nights, there are some variations:
Moroccan Judeo-Arabic: ḥənka חנכה or חנכא - can refer to the holiday as well as the lamp
Farsi: Menoorā or Manoorā
Bukharian: Manūro Манӯро
December 12: Giving Light
Yiddish speakers may greet each other on Hanukkah with the phrase, "A likhtikn khanike!" This phrase uses the word likht ליכט (light) in a direct object construction. The meaning could be translated as, "(I wish you) a bright/luminous Hanukkah!"
December 14: Scroll of Antiochus
Hanukkah does not appear in the Hebrew Bible. Medieval Jews learned about the story by listening to a liturgical text called the Scroll of Antiochus. The Scroll has been translated from its original Aramaic into many languages, including Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Persian, Ladino, and Yiddish.
December 18: Winter Fruit
As winter approaches, many cultures preserve seasonal fruit into sweet & sour delicacies, such as compotes. Jewish communities around the world enjoy these festive stews of dried fruit for Hanukkah and other occasions until new fruit ripens. In the mountains of Iranian Azerbaijan, dried apricot and plum stews were known as aruge in Lišan Didan. In Baghdad, Jews added almonds to make a similar stew called ṭǝršana in Judeo-Arabic. In Eastern Europe, Jews made a stew of prunes and root vegetables known in Yiddish as tsimes.
December 21: Dawning in Ladino
Kuando se eskurese es para amaneser. This popular Ladino saying means, "When it's dark out, that's because dawn is coming."
El Amaneser (The Dawn) is also the name of the only continuously published Ladino newspaper in the world. It appears monthly as a supplement to the Turkish-Jewish newspaper Salom (Shalom).
December 26: Blessing for Bright Eyes
A common way of wishing someone well in Lishan Didan (Jewish Neo-Aramaic from Urmia, Iran) is enkhun bahure hawe (may your eyes be bright). The response is paltetun bahurula (may you come out into brightness). It is most commonly used for congratulations, but it can also be used as an expression of hope.
December 28: Desmazalado
The Ladino word desmazaldo, meaning "unlucky," demonstrates how Ladino mixes Hebrew words into a primarily Spanish structure. The Hebrew word mazal (luck) is given the Spanish prefix des- (un-) and the Spanish suffix -ado (having a trait).
2022
Judeo-Persian attracts interest from historians of Persian because it preserves archaic traits and words lost in New Persian. And, like several other Jewish languages, the earliest surviving evidence of New Persian is written in Hebrew letters.
Jewish Iranian Languages: Judeo-Persian is Persian written in the Hebrew script, whereas Judeo-Kashani, Judeo-Isfahani, Judeo-Shirazi, etc., are non-written Iranian languages that are etymologically distant from and mutually unintelligible with Persian.
A word made from numbers: Tu Bishvat, the "New Year for the Trees," is celebrated on the 15th of the month of Shevat in the Jewish lunar calendar. Tu is an acronym for the number 15 in the Hebrew alphabet counting system known as gematria, which assigns the numerical value of 9 to tet [ט] and 6 to vav [ו]. Together these letters make the sound “tu.”
Las Frutas: Among Sephardic Jews, Tu Bishvat is known as Las Frutas, which means The Fruits in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). Some communities host a symbolic seder called Frutikas, Little Fruits, including these symbolic foods:
vino - wine
(f)igos - figs
agranadas - pomegranates
azetunas - olives
datiles - dates
mansanas - apples
almendras - almonds
Many Names for Tu Bishvat:
Judeo-Italian: tubizvat (15th of Shevat)
Judeo-Arabic and Haketia: tubisbat (15th of Shevat)
Tunisian Judeo-Arabic: fətḥ əl-`úd (blossoming of the dry tree)
Tunisian Judeo-Arabic in Djerba: fətḥ əz-zərr (opening of the trees)
Judeo-Georgian: shbídi pherobá (seven species)
Ladino: las frutas (the fruits)
Yiddish: khamishoser (15)
Ilānot: Jewish communities in Iran and Central Asia have various names for Tu Bishvat:
- Bukharian / Judeo-Tajik from Uzbekistan: Meva Xūri (fruit eating)
- Judeo-Persian from Iran: Ilānot (trees) or Mooedeh Ilanoot (holiday of trees)
- Hulaula / Jewish Neo-Aramaic from Sanandaj, Iran: Mzdane 'Ilane (gifts of the trees)
Judeo-Isfahani: Though Judeo-Isfahani and Persian are quite different, we can find some commonalities. For example, both languages base the days of the week on Saturday: šanbe in Persian and šabbât in Judeo-Isfahani.
Day Persian Judeo-Isfahani
Sunday yek-šanbe ye-šabbâ(t)
Monday do-šanbe di-šabbâ(t)
Tuesday se-šanbe θe-šabbâ(t)
Wednesday čahâr-šanbe câr-šabbâ(t)
Thursday panj-šanbe bayn-šabbâ(t)
Friday jom-e ru(δ)-eδene
Saturday šanbe šabbât
Kashi / Judeo-Kashani: The Central Plateau Dialects of Kashan province were mostly replaced by Persian in the 20th century. They survive in a few rural communities and among elderly Jewish Kashani immigrants in the United States and Israel.
Jewish Braille: Many languages around the world have systems of Braille that enable blind people to read. Recently, a young language enthusiast created a Braille system for Judeo-Arabic.
Leche i Miel: To wish someone a good journey in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), you can say kaminos de leche i miel, "ways of milk and honey." This refers to the biblical Hebrew description of the holy land as eretz zavat ḥalav udvash, אֶרֶץ זָבַת חָלָב וּדְבָשׁ ("a land flowing with milk and honey"). In both languages, the phrase conveys the sweet promise of a different place.
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Love in Juhuri (Judeo-Tat):
Similar to te quiero in Spanish, mǝ ty-rǝ xosdǝnym in Juhuri means “I love you.” The use of the verb xosdǝ (to want) in this context makes many community members erroneously claim that there is no word for “love” in the language.
“Love” is myhbǝt in Juhuri, thus myhbǝt dyl-me (the love of my heart). “A person in love” is oşuq, so oşuq birǝm means “I fell in love, I am in love.” And the Jewish wedding ceremony huppah in Juhuri is called mǝhr, a cognate of Persian مهر (love, affection).
Te kero muncho bien: This beautiful expression for love is found in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), meaning, "I want all that is good for you." Other affectionate expressions in Ladino are presiado/presiada (precious); mi alma (my soul); and hanum (sweetie), which comes from the Turkish word hanım (lady). Someone who is especially beloved can be called hanumika.
Terms of affection in Jewish languages of Iran: The word jān (soul, dear) is used in Persian and various Jewish Iranian languages, often in the colloquial form joon. The Kurdish cognate, gyan, appears in Hulaula (Sanandaj Jewish Neo-Aramaic) as gyane (soul, dear) and gyani (my soul, my dear) - one of many examples of Kurdish influence in Jewish Neo-Aramaic.
A woman with two souls:
To say that a woman is pregnant, speakers of Hulaula (Jewish Neo-Aramaic) use the expression bakhta tre gyane, which means, “a woman with two souls.”
Regional Similarities around Kurdistan: Jewish varieties of Neo-Aramaic in towns around Kurdistan resemble each other more than the language of nearby non-Jews, likely reflecting contact and migration among Jewish communities in the region.
Storytelling in Judeo-Yazdi:
Jewish Iranian languages feature relatively few Hebrew words, and most relate to religious items. However, many Jewish Yazdis (from the city of Yazd) begin stories by reciting a formula based on Hebrew: bešem ašem nase onaslia ('in the name of the Lord, we will do and be successful').
A 12th-Century Jewish Puzzle Inventor:
Abraham Ibn Ezra was one of the most brilliant minds of the Golden Age of Spain. Famous as a poet, biblical commentator, astrologer, mathematician, and grammarian, he may also be considered an inventor of word puzzles! A 1924 JTA article cited Ibn Ezra's creation of a 5-word grid as a precursor to the modern crossword puzzle.
A Jewish Ukrainian Song:
Jews have spoken the Ukrainian language with words from Hebrew and Yiddish.
Shabes rano ja vstavaju (On Sabbath I get up early)
Taj v bejs-medresh pribihaju (and run into the prayer-house).
Jak v bejs-medresh pribihaju (as I run into the prayer-house),
Tales-tfiln nadivaju (I put on phylacteries and prayer shawl).
"When melodies are passed down through oral tradition, they require a continuing chain of transmission to keep the melodies alive. My project to notate Persian-Jewish prayer melodies is an attempt to preserve these melodies for future generations of Jews, non-Jews, Persians and non-Persians alike." --Cantor Jacqueline Rafii
"We don't have many historical records to prove our existence or history. Our languages and traditions are our historical records." --Alan Niku, filmmaker, scholar, and heritage speaker of Iranian Jewish languages
Where does the word homentashn (hamantaschen, hamentashen) come from? The Yiddish word homentashn is a Yiddishized version of a German pastry name, mahntasche. Mahn - in Yiddish mon - is poppy seed, the original (and, some say, best) flavor of these pastries, and tash is a pouch or pocket. Somehow this pastry became associated with Purim, and Jews recognized the similarity between the word mon and the name of the Purim villain, homon (Haman - boo!). Eventually these pastries became known as Haman pouches - homentashn. Some rabbis have continued this wordplay and assigned Hebrew meaning to both words: Haman tash (תש) - Haman is weakened.
Loanwords in Megillat Esther: Throughout history Jews have borrowed words from many languages, whether they were speaking/writing in Hebrew or a variant of the local language. Megillat Esther (the Book of Esther) is written in Hebrew but includes many loanwords:
saris (eunuch) from Akkadian
patshegen (copy) from Old Persian and Aramaic
ahashdarpan (satrap - a governor) from Old Persian
The names Esther and Mordechai are variants of Babylonian deities - Ishtar and Marduk.
Haman's Ears: The Hebrew phrase oznei haman (Haman's ears) appears in a 16th-century Hebrew play from Italy that puns on the biblical word for 'the manna' - haman. Jews in Italy and Sephardi communities ate ear-shaped fried dough called orecchi di aman (Judeo-Italian) and orejas de aman in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), 'ears of Haman.' The Hebrew version of this phrase was eventually adopted as the Modern Hebrew name for the triangular pastries brought to Israel by Ashkenazi Jews.
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Dialogue in Diaspora: What was Queen Esther's spoken language? Well, her Persian is good enough that Ahashverosh and Haman have no idea she's Jewish. But, based on other Diaspora Jewish language practices, it's likely that she changed her language when speaking with Mordechai, using Hebrew words and other distinctive features.
Purim for Juhuri (Judeo-Tat) Speakers:
Some people claim that Jews of the Eastern Caucasus are descendants of Esther and Mordechai. Whether this is true or not, Purim traditions seem to be deeply rooted in the culture of this community.
Names related to this holiday used to be popular among community members. Along with the traditional names Istir (Esther), Hǝdǝso (Hadassah), and Mǝrdǝxǝj (Mordechai), two additional feminine names were used: Istirǝmǝlkǝ (Esther ha-Malka) and Purim itself!
The holiday has a different name in Juhuri: Homunui or Homunu (perhaps derived from Haman).
And the delicious halva-like sweet prepared especially for this holiday is called hǝdisǝ or hǝsido (doesn’t it sound like Hadassah?)
Şorǝ Homunui gǝrdo! Happy Purim!
Honey and Onion: The Jewish Neo-Aramaic of Kurdish Jews in Iraq has many influences from Arabic. One example is this saying about the ups and downs of life:
Yom 'asal, yom basal,
"[Life is] a day honey, a day onion."
May we all have more days of 'asal than basal!
Bring Home a Stone: When borrowing from other languages like Arabic, Kurdish, and Turkish, Kurdish Jews have sometimes chosen rhyming expressions, like this one from Arabic: lamma tirja’ min safar, jib walaw ḥajar, “when you return from a journey, bring [a gift] even a stone." The idea is that the gift itself is less important than thinking about family members while you are away.
Masa, Meza, Mazal: A Ladino refran (expression) about Passover plays on the similar sounds linking three "m" words: Ni pesah sin masa, ni meza sin mazal, "neither Passover without matzah, nor a table without luck."
Charoset around the World:
חרוסת
charoseth, charosef - Judeo-Greek - Ioannina, Greece
haroset - Judeo-Italian - Venice, Italy
charouses - Western Yiddish - Amsterdam, Netherlands
khroyses - Yiddish - Lublin, Poland
harosi - Ladino - Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
rharoche - Judeo-French - Bayonne, France
Other words:
hilq, silan, shira - Judeo-Arabic - Baghdad, Iraq
laḥliq - Judeo-Arabic - Tripoli, Libya
dukkih - Judeo-Arabic - Sana‘a, Yemen
halegh - Judeo-Persian - Tehran, Iran
haliká - Judeo-Hamedani - Hamedan, Iran
ḥəllíq - Jewish Neo-Aramaic - Betanure, Iraq
Charoset Around the World: Map
The 4 Questions - A Multilingual Version:
The Passover Haggadah asks, Why is this night different from all other nights? These questions may be heard around the world:
Oles ts-allis nichtis trōmi chamets ē matsa? Ki mon tout t'nichta mono matsa. (Judeo-Greek)
Far vos ale nakht fun a gants yor, az mir viln, esn mir bitere grinsn, un az mir viln esn mir zise grinsn, ober di nakht fun peysekh esn mir nor bitere grinsn? (Yiddish)
Dar shab-hā-ye digar mā sabzi-rā dar serkeh hattā yek bār ham nemizanim; vali emshab do bār mizanim. (Jewish Persian)
Ke en todas las noches nos comientes i bevientes tanto asentados i tanto arescovdados i la noche la esta todos nos arescovdados? (Ladino/Judeo-Spanish)
Ha Lachma Anya in Judeo-Arabic:
This Aramaic text, found at the beginning of the Seder's Maggid (Telling) section, is one of Passover's most famous refrains.
Aramaic:
הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְּאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל
Ha lachma anya di achalu avhatana b'ara d'mitzrayim. Kol dichfin yeitei v'yeichol
Syrian Judeo-Arabic:
מִתלוּ הָאדָא כִבְז אֶלמַסַאּכִּין אִלַדִי אַכַּלוּ אָּבּהָָתָּנָא בְאָרְד מָצָר. כִּל מִינוּ ג'וּעָאן יִגִ'י וָיָאכּוֹל
Mitlu hadha khibz elmasakin iladhi akalu abhatana be-ard maṣar. Kil minu ju'an yiji wayakol.
English:
This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. All those who are hungry, let them enter and eat.
Happy Passover in Jewish Languages
Rhaz Gadeïa - Chad Gadya in Judeo-Provençal:
Chad Gadya (One Kid), often sung at the end of a Passover seder, is what's known as a cumulative song: new text is added with each repetition, so that the verses get progressively longer. Here is a Judeo-Provençal version of this Aramaic classic:
Es vengu lou Cadoch barourhou
Qu'avé chorhéta lou malarhama
Qu'avé chorhéta lou chorhet
Qu'avé chorhéta lou biou
Qu'avé bégu toute l'aïgue
Qu'avé moussa lou fiou
Qu'avé brula la vergue
Qu'avé pica lou tchin
Qu'avé mourdu lou ca
Qu'avé mandja lou cabri
Qu'avé 'tchéta moun païre un escu, dous escu,
Qu'avé 'tchéta moun païre un escu, dous escu,
Rhaz gadeïa, rhaz gadeïa.
Then came the Holy One blessed be He
who slaughtered the angel of death
who slaughtered the slaughterer
who slaughtered the ox
that drank all the water
that put out the fire
that burnt the stick
that beat the dog
that bit the cat
that ate the goat
that my father bought for one crown, two crowns,
that my father bought for one crown, two crowns,
one goat, one goat.
Mazuma: Jewish languages have had far reach in American non-Jewish communities. A version of mezumen, the Yiddish word for cash, was recorded in use by non-Jews in Kansas in 1916. Mazuma also appears in early 20th-century writing by O. Henry and H.L. Mencken. The word's origin lies in the Hebrew word mezuman – מְזֻמָּן, meaning "prepared, ready" – it's ready money.
Lekoudesch (from lashon kodesh, holy tongue), a dialect used by cattle traders in Germany, has 300-400 loanwords from Hebrew and Aramaic. For example, the word for no is lou (from lo - לא), and the word for good is dof (from tov - טוֹב). While Jews are no longer prominent in the cattle-trading industry, non-Jews in Germany continue to use these words today.
Fancy-Shmancy! Have you ever heard an English speaker add shm- to a word to indicate that what’s being discussed isn’t important? This phenomenon is known as “dismissive reduplication,” and it stems from Yiddish syntax. Now, reduplication occurs in English words that have no Yiddish or Jewish context. Isn't that fancy-shmancy!
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Cats & Rats: Kuando el gato se va de kaza, bailan los ratones. When the cat leaves the house, the rats dance. This Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) expression is akin to, "When the cat's away, the mice will play."
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Yiddish Gender Inclusivity: A list of gender-inclusive terms has been created by Yiddish speakers looking to embrace the gender identities and experiences of all speakers. Here are some of the words:
in between genders: צװישנמיניק
[TSVÍShNMINIK]
nonbinary: אומצװײיִק
[ÚMTSVEYIK]
gender spectrum: די גאַמע מינים
[DI GÁME MÍNIM]
gender-fluid: מין־פֿליסיק
[MÍN-FLÍSIK]
Merci or Merthe? In Judeo-Shirazi, a language spoken in Southwest Iran, "thank you" is merthe. If you think this sounds similar to the word for "thank you" in French, merci, you're right! The Persian languages are actually influenced by French.
Yiddish “Camp”: According to research on American English, Yiddishisms such as shmutz, kvetch, and chutzpah are more likely to be used by gay and bisexual non-Jews than by their heterosexual counterparts. One theory is the affinity between queer culture and Jewish stars like Joan Rivers and Bette Midler; Yiddish has become part of a “camp” sensibility. Whatever the reason, it’s clear that in the queer community, Yiddish words have acquired social significance beyond their Jewish origins.
Mano a Manim: The famous Portuguese dramatist Gil Vicente included a Judeo-Portuguese passage in his 1523 play, Farsa de Inês Pereira: "Alça manim dona, o dona, ha." Manim appears to be the Spanish mano (hand) combined with the Hebrew masculine plural suffix -im. Notably, neither part of the hybrid word manim is Portuguese!
In the London Spanish and Portuguese prayerbook, a special section of Mi sheberakh blessings, meant to be read on Yom Kippur, recalls the Spanish Inquisition. The Portuguese words translate as, "To all of our brethren confined by the Inquisition," and are followed by Hebrew liturgy requesting that God "bring them forth from darkness to light" (me'afelah le'orah).
Non komo muestro Dyo: Ein Kelohenu, a prayer of praise that repeats four different names of God in every verse, is generally sung in Hebrew. In recent years, a bilingual Hebrew-Ladino version has become popular even in non-Sephardic synagogues. Here’s the first verse:
Non komo muestro Dyo,
non komo muestro Senyor,
non komo muestro Rey,
non komo muestro Salvador.
Ein kelohenu, ein kadonenu, ein k’malkenu, ein k’moshi'enu.
There is none like our God, there is none like our Lord, there is none like our King, there is none like our Savior.
Note that it takes Ladino and English 4 or 6 words to express a 2-word Hebrew phrase.
Gender-neutral pronouns: Contemporary Jews are creating innovative linguistic - and artistic - forms. This Farsi image, by calligrapher Ruben Shimonov, features the gender-neutral 3rd-person pronoun ū with the word aziz ('dear') inside. Colors are inspired by the non-binary flag.
A Medieval Aramaic Poem for Shavuot:
Jews composed religious poetry in Aramaic long after they stopped speaking the language. Rabbi Meir ben Yitzhak (d. 1095) of Orléans wrote one such poem to preface the scriptural reading for Shavuot, which includes the Ten Commandments. Akdamut Millin (Introductory Words) describes the might of God, the majesty of the heavenly court, and the merit of the righteous. This evocative poem remains part of the traditional Shavuot service.
Moed-e Gol: The Jewish Persian term for Shavuot is moed-e gol, "Festival of Flowers." Gol means flower in Persian and refers to the widespread custom of celebrating this holiday through beautiful floral decorations and placing garlands on Torah scrolls. However, other explanations say that in earlier phases, gol could have been the Hebrew word gadol (great) or alternatively go'el (redemption).
A Velada Vigil: The Sephardic tradition of studying sacred texts all night on Shavuot is known as velada. This is the Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) word for guarding or watching. It stems from the Spanish verb velar (to watch over) as well as the Latin velare (to cover or conceal). On the island of Rhodes, the velada included chanting special songs and prayers in Ladino and Hebrew; in the morning, those who had kept the vigil would eat rose-scented milk pudding (sutlach) and savory pies.
A Judeo-Greek Hymn on Shavuot: Considered to be Europe's oldest Jewish community, Romaniote Jews spoke Greek and lived in places like Ioannia, Thessaloniki, and Corfu. This Judeo-Greek piyyut (liturgical poem or hymn), composed in the 16th-17th century, was likely sung on the second day of Shavuot. Its opening stanza includes a reference to Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema, which proclaims God's oneness.
Judeo-Syriac: This Geniza fragment - probably from 12th- or 13th-century Cairo - is a rare artifact of a Jew studying Syriac, a Christian dialect of Aramaic. On one side of the paper (pictured right), they practiced writing the Syriac alphabet and the names of the Patriarchs (e.g., Isḥāq/ܐܣܚܩ/אסחק as shown in the pink box). On the other side (pictured left), they transcribed Psalm 20 of the Peshitta - the Syriac Bible translation - into Hebrew script.
A Magical Spell in Judeo-Latin: This magical spell to catch a thief is a rare example of Judeo-Latin - Latin written in Hebrew script. The scribe of this fragment (which likely dates to the 12th-13th century CE) probably didn’t know Latin, but the words of the spell were evidently thought to be powerful enough to be written down. The spell begins by invoking Omni potentes sempiternes deus, "Omnipotent, eternal God."
Qurʾān/Miqraʾ; The word Qurʾān (קראן) in medieval Judeo-Arabic manuscripts usually means the same thing as the Hebrew word Miqraʾ (מקרא): Bible. In this Judeo-Arabic manuscript about the birth of Moses, the 12th-century Spanish poet Moshe Ibn ʿEzra uses the plural “qurʾānāt” (קראנאת - circled at left) to refer to prophetic books in general and “the great Qurʾān” (אלקראן אלאעטֿם - circled at right) to refer to the Torah. The verb root common to both “Qurʾān” and “Miqraʾ” is קרא, which connotes reading in Hebrew and reading or recitation in Arabic.
A Yiddish Haman in the Cairo Geniza: Three fragments of what is possibly the earliest-known Yiddish prayerbook have been found in the Cairo Geniza so far. Dating to approximately the 15th century, this text was likely a translation from a Hebrew prayerbook. Pictured here is the recently discovered third fragment, part of which includes the Yiddish translation of the Hebrew piyyut (liturgical poem) Asher Heni, which is recited on Purim after the reading of Megillat Esther. The names Haman and Agag, a king of the Amalekites, are circled.
A Spanish Siddur in the Cairo Geniza: A Geniza page from a roughly 16th-century Spanish translation of the siddur (prayerbook) includes the prayer "Yaʿale ve-Yavo," which is added to the liturgy on festivals and Rosh Chodesh (the first day of the month). The underlined phrase says en el dia del rreshodes este, “on this Rosh Chodesh day.” Reshodes combines two Hebrew words (רֹאשׁ - head, and חוֹדֶשׁ - month) into one Judeo-Spanish word. The prayer expresses hope for several divine attributes: gracia, bien, merce, and apiadar (grace, well-being, loving-kindness, and compassion).
A Judeo-Armenian Glossary: Many Geniza fragments are everyday documents like grocery lists or drafts of personal correspondence. We can only guess at the purpose of this glossary of common (and some not-so-common) Judeo-Arabic words, each word with its Armenian translation underneath—all written in Hebrew script.
Kon una flor no se faze el enverano. "One flower does not make the summer." The essence of this Ladino refran is that you should not get ahead of yourself. A similar expression is "Don't count your chickens before they hatch."
The noble origins of Yenta: The Yiddish women’s names Yenta and Yentl come from Gentil and Gentile (meaning noble, beautiful), names used by French- and Italian-speaking Jews in the Middle Ages. In Jewish English today, yenta generally refers to a gossipy woman or matchmaker - an association influenced by the character Yenta, played by Molly Picon, in the 1971 film Fiddler on the Roof.
The Yiddish term bedikes khomets, “the search for leavened foods,” is a ritual ridding the home of chametz before Passover. It was also used to refer to Russian police searches for illegal documents in suspected revolutionaries’ homes at the turn of the 20th century - a search for forbidden material.
"Habib Allah Eliyahu" (Elijah, the Beloved of God) is part of a family of Judeo-Arabic pizmonim (songs of praise) with the refrain habib Allah Eliyahu, sung in Jewish communities throughout the Levant and Iraq. It details the stories of Elijah the prophet. One Aleppian variation - "Eliyahu Bil Karmel" - spells out the sojourning of Elijah in the region, mentioning Jobar, Halab, Beirut, and Istanbul, among other places.
Romanized newspapers: Like many Jewish languages, Yiddish is usually written in Hebrew script. However, it has also been written using the Latin and even Cyrillic alphabets. In the years following World War II, many romanized Yiddish publications appeared in Europe, such as posters and newspapers printed in displaced persons’ camps in Germany. The motive was functional, not ideological - alef-beys type was difficult to find after presses were destroyed during the war.
An Appetite for Books: Yiddish has different words for "book" depending on whether it contains sacred or secular content. A seyfer indicates a "holy book" like the Bible, the Talmud, or a prayer book and comes from the Hebrew word sefer. Bukh comes from the German word buch and indicates non-sacred content. Some Yiddish-speaking butchers borrowed the Slavic-origin term for a cow's third stomach - knihe - which also means "book." Why? Because that organ reportedly resembles a codex-style book.
Yiddish Pseudonyms: Many women writers began publishing across the Yiddish diaspora in the early 1900s. They gained such popularity that some male authors published under female pseudonyms. After his poetry was rejected from the newspaper Freie Arbeiter Stimme (Free Voice of Labor), Jacob Glatstein submitted work under the pen name Klara Blum. The poems were then published and praised by the paper’s editor.
Where do you cry? In Northeastern Yiddish, voynen “to live” and veynen “to weep” are homophones: both sound like veynen. In order to avoid unhappy confusion, speakers use the phrase Vu freyt ir zikh? “Where do you rejoice?” instead of Vu voynt ir? “Where do you live?”
In mandate Palestine, anti-Yiddish activity included campaigns against showing films in the language—most infamously, a 1930 protest against a presentation of Mayn yidishe mame (“My Jewish mother”) in Tel Aviv, during which members of the Gedud megine ha-safah (Battalion of the Defenders of the [Hebrew] Language) disrupted the film and threw ink and “foul-smelling objects” at the screen.
Pinchas: What do Nḥaysí, Pilxaz, and Pincie have in common? They’re all forms of the biblical Hebrew name פנחס Pinchas (Phineas), the grandson of Aaron. Nḥaysí is Libyan Judeo-Arabic, Pilxaz is Judeo-Georgian, and Pincie is Jewish Polish.
阿無羅漢 - אברהם - Abraham:
Although there was not a significant tradition of Judeo-Chinese writing, the Jewish community in Kaifeng, China, wrote inscriptions and manuscripts in Chinese, sometimes interwoven with Hebrew. In a few cases, Chinese words, especially names, were written in Hebrew letters, such as גן שה zhāng shì (Miss Zhang) in a 17th-century Memorial Book. In other cases, Hebrew names were written in Chinese letters, such as 阿無羅漢 ā-wú-luó-hàn for אברהם (Abraham) in a 16th-century inscription.
Persian Torah Translation by a Sufi Rabbi: One of the earliest translations of the Torah into Persian (as opposed to Judeo-Persian) was by Sarmad Kashani (1590-1661), a Persian rabbi and merchant who became a wandering naked Sufi dervish in India. Though his many poems often espouse atheist ideas, he and his Hindu companion (some say lover), Abhay Chand, contributed to an early book of comparative religion (Dabestan-e Mazaheb) and represented Judaism at the court of Dara Shikoh, Crown Prince of Delhi. Sarmad was eventually executed for heresy by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.
Esta arastado komo la aftara de Tisha B'av. "It's dragging on like the haftarah of Tisha B'Av."
This Ladino expression of impatience refers to the tradition of reading from the book of Jeremiah on the Ninth of Av, a day of mourning and fasting that commemorates the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Sephardic tradition requires reading an elaborate Ladino midrash alongside the Hebrew haftarah; this addition considerably extends the duration of services.
Shab-e Noi! (Erev Tisha b’Av / When Pigs Fly): Some Iranian Jews call Tisha b'Av Noi (pronounced No-ee), likely from Noh, Persian for "nine." The phrase "Shab-e Noi!" (Erev Tisha B'Av), and its synonym "Ekhā!" (the Book of Lamentations, read on Tisha B'Av), can convey a particular kind of scoffing, much like the English phrases “Yeah, right!” and “When pigs fly!” These words can also be combined to intensify the skepticism, as in this example:
Son: "I'm going to get a dog for my birthday."
Dad: "Shab-e Noi o Ekhā!"
La ienti de Zion: The oldest known original work in Judeo-Italian is a kinah (elegy) known as La ienti (or genti) de Zion, "The People of Zion." Intended for use during the Tisha B'Av holiday, this liturgical poem dates to the 12th-13th century and presents the Jewish Italian vernacular in Hebrew characters. The text survives only in two 14th-century manuscripts of maḥzorim (holiday prayerbooks).
Zumer-time: The Yiddish word for summer, der zumer, is the basis of two delightful phrases:
di zumer-shprenklekh - freckles, literally “little summer spots”
and
dos zumer-feygele - butterfly, literally “little summer bird.”
El gameyo no ve su korkova, ve la del d'enfrente.
"A camel doesn't see his own hump, he sees the one that's in front of him."
This is said of someone who refuses to see his own faults but always points out the flaws of others. Generally, calling someone a gameyo is a way of insulting their intelligence in Ladino.
Chi nasce muor: This elegiac octave was written by the future Rabbi Leon de Modena when he was only thirteen, in memory of his teacher Moses della Rocca. An example of homophonous translation, it is fully comprehensible both in Hebrew and Judeo-Italian concurrently.
[includes image of original manuscript]
Onomastic wordplay: Coded Jewish names: Historically, some Jews have used names popular in their surrounding society and interpreted them as similar-sounding Hebrew words. For example, the Yiddish name Shneyer/Shneur comes from the Spanish/French senior, meaning “elder, master,” but Jews interpreted it as Hebrew shnei or – two light[s]. This practice continues among American Jews today: Aiden: Irish for little fire, interpreted as Eden; Amalya: international, interpreted as work of God; Eliana: Greek, interpreted as my God answered; Evan: Welsh version of John, interpreted as rock; Liam: Irish version of William, interpreted as my people; Lila: Persian for lilac tree, interpreted as night; Maya: international, interpreted as water
Divine inspiration: Many names used by Jews (and others), both ancient and modern, are theophoric, meaning they reference God. Some examples:
Boys:
Azriel (my help is God)
Daniel (God is my judge)
Eliav (my God is father)
Elior (God is my light)
Gabriel (strength of God)
Uriel (God is my light)
Girls:
Ariella (lioness of God)
Batya (daughter of God)
Danya (judgment of God)
Elisheva (God is my oath)
Galia (wave of God)
Talia (dew of God)
Names that Roar: Names meaning “lion” have circulated among Jews for centuries, in part because of symbolic associations with the tribe of Judah. These might have originally been local names, but they were often coded as Jewish. Some examples:
Ancient Rome: Leo
10th century Mainz: Juda ben Meir, a.k.a.Leontin
11th-12th centuries Byzantine Empire: Leo, Leon
15th century Portugal: Juda Abravanel, a.k.a. Leo Ebreo
16th century Florence: Juda, a.k.a. Leone
16th century Hungary: Arszlan (Turkish)
18th century Istanbul: Aslan
21st century America: Leo
Name Changing for Healing: In Jewish communities around the world, a gravely ill child would sometimes be given a new or additional name, often one that indicated life, old age, healing, or the child being (ritually) sold or abandoned. The reasoning is that the forces of illness would come looking for a specific person and turn away empty-handed if the name had been switched. Some examples of disease-fooling names in various languages:
Juhuri: Munosh (will [you] live), Ofdym ([I] found), Shende (thrown away)
Ladino/Judeo-Romance: Mercado (sold), Vidal (life), Vita (life)
Vivant (alive)
Yiddish: Alte (old woman), Alter (old man), Bobe (grandmother), Zeyde (grandfather)
Hebrew (multiple communities): Haya (living), Hayim (life), Nissim (miracles), Raphael (God healed)
Ester, Anna, and 'Abdallah: In many times and places, Jews have drawn baby names from a mix of sources. We can observe distinctly Jewish Biblical (Hebrew) names, local versions of Biblical names, and local non-Biblical names in common usage at the same time. Some examples:
• 10th-century Cairo: Ephraim, Miriam (Biblical Hebrew), Da’ud, Rebekah (local variants of Biblical), ‘Abdallah, Jamila (local non-Jewish: Arabic)
• 13th-century England: Jechiel, Zippora (Biblical Hebrew), Elias, Anna (local variants of Biblical), Peter, Joie (local non-Jewish: English, French)
• 16th-century Rome: Aron, Ester (Biblical Hebrew), Giuseppe, Rebecca (local variants of Biblical), Angelo, Allegrezza (local non-Jewish: Italian)
From Nancy to Noa: Top 10 girls’ names among Jewish respondents to the Survey of American Jewish Personal Names by decade of birth.
* indicates that the name is also in the US Top 10 for that decade.
[Includes a chart ranking names in the 1950s, 1980s, and 2010s.]
From Gary to Ari: Top 10 boys’ names among Jewish respondents to the Survey of American Jewish Personal Names by decade of birth. * indicates that the name is also in the US Top 10 for that decade. [Includes a chart ranking names in the 1950s, 1980s, and 2010s.]
Schalömchen - Hey There! The German-Jewish greeting Schalömchen is a diminutive form of Shalom. A play on the German Hallöchen, meaning “Hey there,” Schalömchen is a friendly, colloquial salutation that playfully adapts the Hebrew word שָׁלוֹם to a contemporary German context. In 2020, the city of Cologne decorated a tram with the words Schalömchen Köln! as part of an effort to celebrate the 1,700-year anniversary of the founding of the city’s Jewish community.
Judeo-Spanish Words, Greek Script: This poem was written by Jacob Joseph Sidis of Trikala in 1885, in Ladino, but using the Greek alphabet. [includes table showing Greek-Script Original, Latin Script, Hebrew Script, and English versions of the poem.]
Carrots and Cabbage for Rosh Hashana: Carrots and cabbage soup are traditional Rosh Hashana foods in Yiddish-speaking communities because of wordplay. Mern means both "carrots" and "to multiply" (as in, may we be fruitful and multiply in the new year). Kol mit vaser (cabbage with water) sounds like the Hebrew phrase kol mevaser (voice proclaiming), a harbinger of good news and the world to come.
Have a Punny New Year!:
Sephardic Jews have a tradition of starting the Rosh Hashana meal with a series of Yehi Ratsones - blessings that incorporate wordplay, using symbolic foods that echo similar words in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Ladino. In the American Sephardic community, the punning tradition appears in English too. Some examples of these hopeful blessings:
May it be Your will Lord our God and God of our ancestors…
… that this new year will be dated one when enmity, hatred, and a person’s desire for another’s harm, will be brought to an end. (date)
… that as You judge us, may the evil of the decree be squashed, but our virtue called out before you. (squash)
… that enmity, hatred, and a person’s desire for another’s harm, will be rooted out. (leek)
… that in the coming year we may go ahead in all we undertake. (fish head)
Heads or Tails?: In Judaico-Romanesco, the Roman dialect of Judeo-Italian, a general holiday greeting is bon monghedde (good holiday - the ayin in mo'ed מוֹעֵד, the Hebrew word for holiday, is pronounced "ng").
Here’s a Rosh Hashana-specific greeting:
Che sia un anno di testa e non di coda.
May it be a year of head and not of tail.
This refers to a Hebrew Yehi Ratson blessing, which is based on Deuteronomy 28:13:
וּנְתָֽנְךָ֨ יי לְרֹאשׁ֙ וְלֹ֣א לְזָנָ֔ב - God will make you the head, not the tail. Hence the Italian and Sephardic tradition of eating fish heads or lamb heads during the Jewish New Year.
Moroccan Judeo-Arabic New Year Greetings:
מועד טוב - maʕid tob
(traditionally male greeting): Good holiday
יכּון עליךּ לעאם מבארךּ -
ikun ʕlik l-ʕam mbark
(traditionally female greeting): Be the year blessed for you
Language: Judeo-Arabic
Location: Taroudant, Morocco
Pepitada: A drink traditionally served by Sephardic Jews for kortar tanid (breaking the fast) is pepitada. This milky concoction is made from toasted, crushed melon seeds with vanilla, orange blossom, or rosewater flavoring. Believed to soothe the stomach and rehydrate after fasting, the drink was especially popular in places like Bulgaria, Greece, and Rhodes. Pepitada (also called pipitada) derives its name from pepitas, the Ladino word for seeds that come from melons, squash, and pumpkins.
Puns in Holiday Greetings: On Chol Hamoed (intermediary days of) Sukkot and Pesach, people often wish each other “Moadim lesimcha,” (מוֹעֲדִים לְשִׂמְחָה, Hebrew for “times of celebration”). A common reply is: “Chagim uzmanim lesason” (חַגִּים וּזְמַנִּים לְשָׂשׂוֹן, Hebrew for “holidays and times for joy,” quoting from the Festival Kiddush blessing over the wine). A humorous Ladino alternative is “Chagim uzmanim a la stasion” (holidays and times to the station), referring to the common practice of vacationing during these holidays.
Judeo-Persian letter in the Afghan Genizah: The Afghan Geniza is a collection of 11th-century documents found in caves in the Samangan province of Afghanistan. This fragment is from a letter sent by a woman named Nāzuk bat Yosef to her relative Yehuda ben Daniel. It’s written in Judeo-Persian - Persian written in Hebrew characters.
From Latin to Aramaic to many Jewish languages: Ushpizin:
One Sukkot tradition involves the ushpizin (אושפיזין, singular: ushpiz), symbolic guests who are invited into the Sukkah because they represent specific spiritual qualities. This custom can be traced to the Zohar, a 13th-century Jewish mystical text written in Aramaic. The Aramaic word ushpiz comes from hospes, Latin for both "host" and "guest." Like its Latin antecedent, ushpiz shifted in meaning over the centuries: in the Aramaic of the Talmud, ushpiz referred to lodging or an innkeeper (that is, the host). By the medieval period, when kabbalists were developing their mystical philosophy, ushpiz had flipped to mean a guest (the object of hospitality).
S'chach, a Hebrew word, refers to the roofing over a sukkah. S'chach is used in Jewish languages around the world, including Judeo-Arabic, Haketia, Ladino, Yiddish, and Jewish English.
S'chach typically consists of branches, fronds, or a woven mat laid over the top of the temporary dwelling. The covering is supposed to provide shade during the day but also allow viewing of the stars in the night sky.
Rooted in the Hebrew verb meaning 'to cover,' the shade-giving s'chach symbolizes divine protection in Jewish theology. Indeed, the sukkah's image as the ultimate shelter appears in sacred texts, mystical thought, and liturgy.
Torah vs. The Evil Eye: In Persian, Jews use the phrases Turā dar miun ("The Torah in between") and Turā moghābel ("The Torah in front of") when talking about death, illness, or anything related to the evil eye. Functioning like the expression "God forbid," these phrases imply an expectation that the Torah has the power to protect people from bad things. Some examples of this interjection: "He went bankrupt, turā dar miun!" or "Turā moghābel, she got coronavirus!"
Hulaula, Jewish Neo-Aramaic from Sanandaj, Iran, uses a related phrase that multiplies the number of Torahs to the lucky number seven: šoa sefar ṭoṛae ga bayn haven (may there be seven sefer Torahs between [us and it]).
Juhuri alphabets: Like many Jewish languages, Juhuri has been recorded using orthographies based on different writing systems, including Hebrew, Cyrillic, and Latin. This Juhuri poem was published in Hebrew script during the Soviet period in 1927, shortly before an official Latin-based alphabet was instituted in 1929. “Dədəj nə ԧəjilho/A Mother and Her Children,” by Yocheved (Liza) Ravvinovich, appears in a second-grade Juhuri textbook.
Yiddish note from a 9-year-old typesetter: Tefilah le-Moshe (Prayers to Moses) was printed by Ella bat Moshe of Dessau in 1695 or 1696 at just nine years old. Her father, Moshe ben Avraham, or Moses Wolf, was a printer in Dessau, Germany. Ella worked in her father’s business as a typesetter. She added a note in Yiddish to the Hebrew piece, asking to be forgiven for any errors:
“The Yiddish letters I set with my own hand - I am Ella, daughter of Moses from Holland - a mere nine years old
- the sole girl amongst six children -
So when an error you should find -
Remember, this was set by one who is but a child”
A concerned mother: A 12th-century Judeo-Arabic letter from Miryam bat Maimon to her brother Moses Maimonides survives in the Cairo Genizah. Her son was studying at the time in Cairo. She writes: "I know that you’re very busy, but please, I’m not eating, I’m not sleeping. I’m so worried about my son. So please find out where your nephew is and let me know how he is. And if by any chance you discover that he’s not around, maybe he went somewhere else. If for some reason he’s not in Cairo, then you send him a letter and you give him a piece of your mind and include my letter with this."
Bukharian cradle ceremony: In addition to the Brit Milah, some Bukharian Jewish women celebrate the Gahvorabandon, a ceremony laying a newborn into a special cradle. The ceremony is shared with neighboring Muslim practices. One Bukharian (Judeo-Tajik) song sung for the ceremony is "Bacha-bacha bar jonem" (My child - my heart): "My dear child/My smiling pretty baby, my dear heart/You are my son/You are my, my first born/I'll lay down my life for you, my dear heart." The song is sung by a sozanda, a highly trained female singer.
A scribe and mother: Miriam bat Benayah was a part of a family of scribes in Sana'a, Yemen, in the late 1500s. Many of the words she may have written are unsigned and may have involved collaborative efforts by many family members. However, one piece at least is directly attributed to Miriam: a Humash that presents each line in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic. This type of document is known as a taj among Yemeni Jews. At the end of the piece, she wrote: "Do not condemn me for any errors that you may find, as I am a nursing woman." Jewish women in Sana'a at the time could not often write or read, and Miriam was well-known within the community.
Malayalam song notebooks:
Jewish Malayalam songs from Jewish women of Kerala, India, passed from mother to daughter both orally and in writing. Among 32 handwritten song notebooks are approximately 300 women’s songs. Although most of the community has left Kerala and many of the tunes have been forgotten, over the past 50 years singers have recorded some of the songs. One 2014 album is called “Oh, Lovely Parrot!” after a song in the compilation.
Lishana Deni lamentation songs:
Lel Huza is the name of a lamentation song cycle in Zakho Neo-Aramiac (Lishana Deni). These mourning narratives would traditionally be sung by women on the rooftops of the synagogues in Kurdistan after the evening service on the Eve of the 9th of Av. The oral traditions were passed from mother to daughter for generations and were first recorded in writing in the mid-20th century.
Hodo homonyms:
הוֹדוּ hodu - give thanks
הֹדּוּ hoddu - turkey
In Biblical Hebrew, הוֹדוּ hodu means give thanks (as in Psalms), and הֹדּוּ hoddu means India (as in the Book of Esther).The Modern Hebrew word for turkey, תרנגול הודו tarnegol hodu, "rooster of India," is based on similar words for turkey in European languages, including Yiddish indik, Polish indyk, and French dinde (d’inde - from India). These words stem from mistaken European references to the Americas - where this bird originated - as the "West Indies."
We can be thankful for the amusing coincidence that caused turkey and giving thanks to sound the same in Modern Hebrew.
You never write, you never call...Medieval Edition: Among the thousands of Jewish texts preserved in Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue are a number of manuscripts and fragments written in Yiddish. One of these is a 1567 letter written by Rachel bas Avraham Zussman, a Jewish widow who had moved from Prague to Jerusalem. Writing to her son Moshe, who was working in Cairo as a scribe, Rachel details her difficult financial situation and admonishes her son for not visiting or responding to her letters.
Question with Chicken Soup: The mixture of languages that contribute to Yiddish allows for multilingual wordplay. An example is kashe in this proverb: Di beste kashe af der velt iz kashe mit yoykh (“The best question in the world is cooked buckwheat with chicken soup”). Kashe from Aramaic means difficult question, and kashe from Slavic means buckwheat.
Ugly Menorah: In Judeo-Italian, Hanukkyà (from חנוכייה) means “an ugly old woman” because the Chanukah menorahs used in the community were old and usually not polished.
Before there was Chrismukah, there was Weihnukka. This fusion of the German words Weihnachten (Christmas) and Chanukka (Chanukah) was created by 19th century German-speaking Jews. In Austria and Germany, secularizing Jewish families began to adopt gift-giving and other celebratory practices from Christmas to the holiday of Chanukah. By the turn of the 20th century, many assimilated Jews celebrated Christmas as a secular winter holiday, lighting the menorah next to a decorated pine tree. Today, Weihnukka is still used to describe the amalgamation of Christmas and Chanukah celebrations that take place around the world during the holiday season.
Feline bad after a night of purrtying?:
A Yiddish phrase for “hangover” is der katsn-yomer, literally the cat’s lament.
2021
Benedice or Bentsch? The Yiddish word bentsh (bless) comes from Judeo-Italian benedice. Jews speaking a Jewish version of German didn’t want to use the German word for “bless,” segenen, because it also means to make the sign (of the cross). So they maintained a word used by their ancestors who spoke Judeo-Italian.
Calavassa Curiosity: The Judeo-Piedmontese word calavassa 'fool' comes from Ladino
קאלאבֿאסה kalavasa which means pumpkin.
'Poor Little Thing': In Mexico City, Sephardim and Syrian Jews use the words jazito/jazit/jazita 'poor little thing' as a term of endearment. This term comes from the Ladino word xazin meaning 'ill.'
Rahamim's Notebook: There exists one known text in which Malay, the language of Malaysia, is written in Hebrew characters. The text consists of one small notepad belonging to a Persian-speaking Jew named Rahamim Jacob Cohen who wrote in Hebrew, Judeo-Persian, Malay, Gujarati, and English.
Biblical Ge'ez: Ethiopian Jews read the Bible in Ge'ez, a semitic language distantly related to Hebrew. They also have their own religious literature written in Ge'ez such as 'The Death of Moses' and 'The Death of Aaron.'
The Memorial Book of the 15th-17th century Kai-feng Jewish community of China is written in both Chinese characters and Hebrew script, making it one of the first Chinese-Hebrew bilingual and biscriptal books in existence.
Israeli Sign Language (ISL) and Hebrew are completely separate languages. In fact, ISL is greatly influenced by German Sign Language more so than Hebrew. Today, it is used by about 10,000 people.
Jews in Dagestan/Azerbaijan wrote their language (Juhuri/Judeo-Tat, which is related to Persian) in four different writing systems in the 20th century: Hebrew, Latin, Dagestani Cyrillic, and Azerbaijani Cyrillic.
Syrian Judeo-Arabic includes some loanwords from Judeo-Spanish. For example, a bag for tallit or tefillin is called "kuracha," influenced by Judeo-Spanish "koracha," with the same meaning, which comes from Spanish coracha, "leather bag."
Alamak!: Older Syrian Jews in Mexico use the parting alamák, which derives from the Arabic phrase allah ma'ak 'God be with you,' to bless people when departing. Younger Syrian-Mexican Jews use alamák to mean 'goodbye.'
Karaeo-Hebrew: The script often used by the Karaites, a distinct Jewish sect, to write their biblical commentaries was preserved in the Cairo Genizah. The script is composed of Hebrew text written using Arabic letters. Karaeo-Hebrew is often referred to as the opposite of Judeo-Arabic script.
Did you know? Leonard Nimoy paid a psychiatrist for regular sessions because she was also a Yiddish expert and gave him the opportunity to use his Yiddish.
O Livro de Magika: The longest Judeo-Portuguese text in existence is called או ליברו די מגֿיקא O livro de magika ‘The Book of Magic,’ which has a heavy focus on astrology as well as medicine and geography.
Medieval Pizza: The first attested use of the word “pizza” in Italian is in Hebrew letters - פיצה, from a 14th-century glossary of difficult words in Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah.
Moses's Little Cow: In Yiddish, a word for ladybug is "Móyshe Rabéyne’s kíele” (literally, Moses Our Teacher’s little cow). The term was adopted from Slavic languages, substituting 'Moses' for 'Mary.'
Qırmızı Qəsəbə, located in Azerbaijan, is one of the last remaining strongholds for the Mountain Jewish language Juhuri (Judeo-Tat), and is the only all-Jewish city not located in the United States or Israel.
Spells and Rituals: Included in the Damascus Genizah is a magic booklet that contains magic spells and recipes written in both Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Judeo-Arabic. Spells that must be recited or inscribed are written in Aramaic, while ritual instructions are given in either Aramaic or Arabic.
Khma Ebraelisa: The first Jewish-Georgian periodical was established in 1918. It was called ხმა ებრაელისა Khma Ebraelisa 'The Jewish Voice.'
From Hebrew to Judeo-Greek: In Judeo-Greek, the word for 'a church' chasicha comes from the Hebrew word חשיכה hashekha 'darkness.'
The Judeo-Tat word lybɛlo, which is used to refer to the secret language used to prevent gentiles from understanding conversations between Jews, comes from Hebrew לא 'no' and Aramaic בַּרָּא 'outside.' Together, these words suggest that lybɛlo literally means that secrets should not be let outside of the community.
The term mashalá from the Arabic word Masha'Allah 'what God wills' is used by Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in multiple languages to protect against ayin hará 'the evil eye' when discussing a fortunate circumstance.
Remnants of Medieval Judeo-Italian: Only one modern dialect of Judeo-Italian is considered a remnant of medieval Judeo-Italian. Judeo-Ferrarese has preserved archaic traits such as personal pronouns that have gone extinct in other dialects - essa, essi, and esso instead of modern lo, la, and li.
Shomayim: While most Hebrew and Aramaic loanwords in Judeo-Tajik retained their original meanings, some shifted entirely. For example, shomayim שמיים means 'heaven' and 'sky' in Hebrew but has now come to mean 'an intoxicated man' in Judeo-Tajik.
Yemenite Hebrew: The Jewish community of Yemen, until recently one of the most isolated Jewish communities in the world, maintained a conservative approach to Hebrew pronunciation. For example, in Yemenite Hebrew, vāv/waw ו is pronounced /w/ in certain cases, whereas in Modern Israeli Hebrew, ו is pronounced /v/. Also unique to Yemenite Hebrew is the pronunciation of dālet ד. In Yemenite Hebrew, ד is pronounced like the ‘th’ in ‘this.’ In Modern Israeli Hebrew, ד is pronounced /d/ like the English “d” such as in ‘dog.’
Una pastora yo ami: The Ladino folk song Una pastora yo ami 'I Loved a Shepherdess' is based on the Ladino translation of the 1891 play O agapitikos tis voskopoulas, which was written by the Greek playwright Koromilas.
Cumbia Tujes Mit Tujes: Jewish Argentine authors have found creative ways to combine Yiddish and Spanish in their works. For example, author Carlos Ulanovsky cleverly coined the phrase cumbia tujes mit tujes 'butt to butt cumbia,' which uses the Yiddish word for 'backside' tujes (tuches), alongside the Latin American dance genre cumbia.
Pomegranate Euphemism: In Judeo-Greek rimonim means pomegranates but also breasts.
Maloche!: Contact between Western Yiddish and German resulted in many Hebrew words being integrated into modern German. For example, maloche 'hard work' (from Hebrew מלאכה) is now frequently used in German.
Jewish-Amharic Congratulatory Message: Jewish-Amharic speakers avoid the Orthodox Christian Amharic congratulatory message for a woman who has recently given birth
(እንኳን ማርያምማረችሽ / ǝnkwan Maryam maräččǝš / ‘it is good that Mary has pardoned you’), instead opting for (እንኳንእግዚአብሔርበሰላምገላገለሽ / ǝnkwan ǝgziʾabher bä-sälam gälag-gäläš / ‘it is good that God has relieved you peacefully’).
Toilet Euphemism: The word macom from the Hebrew מקום maqom 'place' is used as a euphemism for 'toilet' in several Judeo-Italian dialects.
The Judeo-Tat newspaper Zaħmətkəş / Захьметкеш / זחמתכּש (Worker), which was founded in 1928, played an important role in developing Judeo-Tat. It featured a "Learn" section, which included Judeo-Tat word lists and lessons.
Luterā'i: Iranian Jews often use a secret jargon, Luterā'i, to communicate with each other. This jargon consists primarily of heavy Hebrew and Aramaic vocabulary used with Persian syntax.
Jewish Malayalam incorporates Hebrew loanwords from sacred texts in compound verbs. For example, the compound verb for 'died' is śālŏm-ā.yi.tě which comes from the Hebrew word shalom שָׁלוֹם 'peace.'
Hebrew Revival: Modern Hebrew is the most successful revived language in history, but it was greatly influenced by Jewish diaspora languages. For example, Hebrew word order changed from verb-subject-object to subject-verb-object, widely attributed to the influence of Yiddish.
Haverkodik: In Hungarian, a term for 'being friendly' is haverkodik which stems from Hebrew xaver 'friend' and the Hungarian 3rd person verbal suffix of becoming. Once exclusively used by Hungarian Jews, the term has now made its way into the vocabulary of non-Jewish Hungarians.
Karanhy Bułut Black Cloud: Southwest Karaim is a Jewish language once spoken by Karaite communities in Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and the Crimea. One of the first known pieces of Southwest Karaim literature is the poem Karanhy Bułut 'Black Cloud', which was written by Joseph ben Yeshu'a from Ukraine in the 17th century.
Judeo-Greek: Several Judeo-Greek words of Hebrew/Aramaic origin became part of colloquial Greek, especially in Ioannina, where the Judeo-Greek-speaking Jewish community was centered. Examples include ganav (thief), emet (truth), and pasal (fool, from Hebrew ‘unacceptable’).
Jewish Papiamentu, which is spoken by the Jewish community in Curaçao, takes many loanwords from Hebrew. For example, horban 'suffering, calamity' comes from Hebrew חורבן 'destruction.'
Iranian Kurdistan: In Jewish Neo-Aramaic, a word for a Yeshiva in Iranian Kurdistan is "qaraulá" -- qara for "read" and the ula suffix for "ness".
Multiple Mezuzahs: In Judeo-Italian, mezuzah means the scroll placed on the doorpost but also a beautiful woman (someone the speaker would want to kiss, like they kiss a mezuzah).
Salkinson's Shakespeare: The first complete Shakespearean plays were translated into Hebrew by Isaac Salkinson, a Lithuanian Jew, in the 1870s. His translation of Romeo and Juliet was called רם ויעל
ram we-yaʿel ‘Ram and Jael.’
Shabbat Stew: Jewish communities around the world have their own recipes - and words - for the Shabbat stew that is cooked overnight. Several are based on a line in the Mishnah (Shabbat 2:7) regarding hiding/covering/insulating/ burying hot water/food for Shabbat. In Ladino, Judeo-Italian, and some varieties of Judeo-Arabic, the word is ḥammin/ḥamin (hot), as in the Mishnah. In Western Yiddish it is shalet, and in Eastern Yiddish, tsholnt/tshulnt, from Judeo-French chalant (hot), which leads to Jewish English cholent. Judeo-Arabic has various words, such as s'khina (hot), t'beet/t'bīt (spend the night), and tefina/dfina/adafina (buried, also found in Haketía and Old Judeo-Spanish).
Franbreu: In Franbreu, a hybrid Hebrew-French language spoken in Israel, what happens to words for which the corresponding French and Hebrew genders differ? Sometimes speakers use the French article with the gender of the Hebrew loanword, as in la gvina (Hebrew, feminine) a translation of le fromage (French, masculine) for 'the cheese.'
Modern Palestinian Judeo-Arabic: Starting in the 16th century, a community of Jews originating in Morocco lived in the Holy Land, especially in Safed and Tiberias in the Galilee region, and later in Jerusalem and Hebron. They developed a language based on their Maghrebi Judeo-Arabic and influenced by Palestinian Arabic, which came to be known as Modern Palestinian Judeo-Arabic (MPJA). MPJA flourished alongside Yiddish well into the 20th century, reaching a peak of about 10,000 speakers. Today, MPJA is considered "nearly extinct" and numbers only five remaining speakers in the Galilee region.
Qesim: Many Ethiopian Jews in Israel speak Hebraized Amharic. This blend of language leads to interesting morphological phenomena. For example, the term for priest in Amharic qes is pluralized using the Hebrew suffix -im as opposed to the Amharic suffix -očč to form qesim 'priests.'
Knis, Kenisa, and Knishta: Jews of the Middle East have many different words for synagogues, all based on the Aramaic word for "assembly." In Judeo-Arabic, it's knis, in Judeo-Persian and Karaite communities, kenisa, and in Neo-Aramaic-speaking communities, knishta.
Hebrew Loanwords in Israeli Russian: Speakers of Israeli Russian often use Hebrew loanwords to denote concepts that they have initially encountered in Israel. Examples of such loanwords include bitokhon 'security' instead of bezopastnost, and bituakh leumi 'social security' instead of social'noe obespechenie.
Berakha: Persian Jews use the Hebrew word berakha (blessing) both for counting people and for referring to finished food. "How many are we" is "chand berākha-im," or "how many blessings are we," and "the gondi is finished" is "gondi berākhā shod," meaning "the gondi has been blessed."
Llanito: In Gibraltar, the language called Llanito (or Yanito), a mixture of Spanish and English, includes many Hebrew words and other influences from Haketia, a Judeo-Spanish variety spoken in Northern Morocco.
Tavsili: Since the 11th century, the Jews of Georgia have maintained an orally transmitted translation of the Torah called the tavsili. Written in a combination of Old Georgian and vernacular Judeo-Georgian, the tavsili also includes many Hebrew words - unusual for Torah translations. The word tavsili is a Georgian cognate of the Arabic tafsir, the term used in the 10th century for Saadia Gaon's Judeo-Arabic Torah translation. This is due to contact between Arabic-speaking Jews and Georgian-speaking Jews in the 8th to 11th centuries following the Arab invasion of Georgia.
Hulaula: The name of the Jewish Neo-Aramaic language spoken in Sanandaj, Iran (Kurdish region) is Hulaula, which stems from Yudauta (Judaism). The sound changes that led to this word are found throughout this language: y dropped out, and d and t became l. Y'huda (Jew) > Huda > Hulá. Y'hudautha (Jewish) > Hudauta > Hulaulá.
Folk Etymology: Ladino/Judeo-Spanish calls God Dio (also spelled Dyo) to avoid the seeming plural of Spanish Dios.
More likely etymology: Medieval Spanish used both Dio and Dios, reflecting various Latin case endings. Dios won out at a time of Latinization (as did Jesus, rather than Jesu). But Jews maintained Dio due to their non-participation in this Christian Latinizing trend and a tendency toward archaic language.
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Proto-Feminist Prayer in Judeo-Provençal: A 15th-century women's prayer book, written in the Jewish language of Southern France, includes a unique blessing: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who made me a woman," Benedich Tu Sant Benezet nostre Diew rey dal segle ke fis mi fena, quite different from the original, "...who did not make me a woman."
Beshimantó!: Jews played an important role in the history of Papiamentu, the Iberian-based Creole language spoken in Curaçao and other Caribbean islands. The Papiamentu expression “Beshimantó!” means ‘good luck’ and could also be said when a glass object breaks. It derives from the Hebrew בסימן טוב be-siman tov, meaning ‘in a good sign,’ and refers to the glass-breaking tradition that concludes Jewish weddings.
Oh what a world: Jewish Neo-Aramaic uses the Hebrew עולם olam for ‘world,’ rather than the traditional Aramaic word עלמא alma. The use of Hebrew loanwords is a major difference between Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects and their Christian counterparts.
Who's who?: Many students of Hebrew remember singular pronouns by the jingle: “הוּא hu means ‘he’ and הִיא hee means ‘she.’” What about the nonbinary singular "they"? The Nonbinary Hebrew Project has created a new grammatical system with a third gender pronoun: הֶא heh. Just another example of language evolving to reflect its speakers’ realities.
Devilish Distance: It's the time of year when many people enjoy stories about ghosts and demons. The Ladino expression for "really far away" is ande se arapa el guerko, which literally means "where the devil shaves himself"--in other words, to hell and gone!
(W)rite of Passage: "Bar mitzvah" is the phrase for the coming-of-age ceremony and the Jewish adult status in European Jewish languages - Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Italian. But Jewish languages of Asia and North Africa - Haketía, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Georgian, Bukharian/Judeo-Tajik, Juhuri/Judeo-Tat, and various Iranian languages - generally use variants of "tefillin"/"tifillim," and Jewish Malayalam says that a boy has "joined the minyan."
Barmy: Contemporary Jewish communities have various abbreviations for this rite of passage, such as "die Bar" and "die Bat" in Germany, "el bar" and "la bat" in Latin America, and "barmy" in Australia. In North America, many have added to their repertoire gender-inclusive terms like "B mitzvah," "bnai mitzvah" (singular), or simply "mitzvah."
A Provençal Play: By 1896, Judeo-Provençal, the historic Jewish language of southern France had mostly disappeared. Even so, a cantor from Marseilles named Raoul Hirschler republished Harcanot et Barcanot, a Judeo-Provençal play that takes place in the late 18th century. Those who read it likely laughed at the comedic portrayal of their grandparents' language.
To Market, To Market: The Yiddish phrase yeder (yedn) montik un donershtik, literally "every Monday and Thursday," describes an event that repeats regularly, especially if you're kvetching. Why these particular days? These are the weekdays when Jews read Torah in a minyan. This tradition has roots in ancient Israel, where Mondays & Thursdays were market days that brought an influx of farmers to town -- creating a large built-in audience for the public Torah reading.
Judeo-Georgian Intonation: The Jewish community of Georgia is one of the oldest in the world (approx. 2600 years old!). Their speech differs from that of their non-Jewish neighbors in grammar and the use of Hebrew words. But the most distinctive feature - the one that non-Jews highlight when imitating Jewish speech - is their intonation, the melody of their sentences.
Hebrew-Arabic Contact: Hebrew words in Jewish languages sometimes take new forms. For example, Judeo-Arabic uses Arabic diminutive patterns in Hebrew words: a small siddur (prayerbook) is a sdidər, and a small lulav (palm frond) is a lwiləb.
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Jews around the world have many expressions to wish their dinner companions well. Yiddish speakers might say mit a gutn apetit (with a good appetite) or es gezunterheyt (eat in good health); Hebrew speakers say beteavon (a translation of the first Yiddish phrase).
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In Ladino, guests might say kome kon gana (eat with desire) or bendichas manos (blessed hands) as a way to compliment the cook. After a meal, some Sephardim place a hand on the table and say meza de alegria (a table of happiness).
In Judeo-Arabic, various words meaning "in health" can be said at the start of a meal: Morocco: b-ṣəḥḥkum, Egypt: bissiha, Iraq: awafi.
Let’s eat! Speakers of Judeo-Italian from Rome say buon pro te faccia – may something good be done for you [starting with the meal at hand].
In Judeo-Tajik, spoken by Bukharan Jews, Oshaton shavad! literally means “May whatever you’re eating be food!” The implication is, "May the food you’re eating be great, and may you have a good time eating it!" This phrase features the word osh - Bukharian for food and also for rice pilaf.
When someone says "Thank you!" for a meal, speakers of Juhuri (Judeo-Tat) reply ħəlol gərdo! This means, "May it be good [to you]!" The word ħəlol means "positively acquired" or "allowed, permitted''; if it sounds familiar, that's because it is a cognate of Arabic halal. Thus ħəloli in Juhuri means "kosher." By wishing someone ħəlol-ty! (or ħəlol-işmu! in the plural), you're wishing them well.
Hulaula is the Jewish Neo-Aramaic spoken by Kurdish Jews of Sanandaj, Iran. Before a meal, Hulaula speakers might say gyana basimta (female singular) or gyana basima (male singular), meaning "enjoy eating." The word gyana comes from Kurdish, while basima is Aramaic, a mixture typical of eastern Jewish Aramaic dialects. A Hulaula expression to say "thank you" after a meal is ilokh basime (literally "may your hand be well").
Got Gelt? The foil-wrapped chocolate coins known as gelt delight young and old on Hanukkah. This Jewish English word comes from the Yiddish gelt, meaning money in general, not just the coins given as gifts on Hanukkah. It stems from the 15th-century Germanic word gelt (gold, money).
Chanukia: Modern Israeli Hebrew includes influences from many Diaspora Jewish languages. A timely example is חנוכייה chanukiá (Chanukah candelabrum, menorah), which comes from Ladino hanukía.
Benadamlik: This Ladino word is a result of fusion between Hebrew and Turkish. Ben adam, literally "son of man," means "person" in Hebrew. The Turkish suffix -lik refers to "a quality." Benadamlik means humanness, acquiring in some contexts the religious or moral connotations of righteousness and positive character.
Ijos de mis ijos, dos vezes mis ijos: Children of my children, doubly my children. This poignant Ladino refran (proverb) illustrates the powerful love between grandparents and grandchildren.
Haketia: This North African variety of Judeo-Spanish includes many words from the surrounding spoken Arabic and from ancient Hebrew texts. Some examples:
Arabic: zinzelá (earthquake), estormía (cushion)
Hebrew: kehillá (community), enka‘asarse (to get angry, from ka‘as)
Echoes of Haketia in the Americas: Jews of Northern Moroccan origin living in Venezuela today teach Haketia words to Ashkenazi Jews, leading to a secret Jewish language variety distinct from Christian Venezuelan Spanish. These distinct words are also used in the Venezuelan Jewish diaspora in Miami and elsewhere.
Kratsmach: Based on the Yiddish for “scratch me" (krats mikh), the word Kratsmach is an in-group, euphemistic, often tongue-in-cheek way of referring to "Christmas" in Jewish English, especially among Jews who want to avoid uttering the name of Christ. It was likely coined by a bilingual Yiddish-English speaker in the United States, and today it is common among Orthodox Jews.
Erev Christmas: The Hebrew word erev (evening) is used in many Jewish languages to indicate the evening when a Jewish holiday begins or the day before a Jewish holiday (for example, erev Rosh Hashana). In Jewish English erev has both of these meanings, as well as an additional one: the day before a non-Jewish holiday.
Kwanzakkah: Black Jews in the United States coined this term to describe a dual celebration of Kwanzaa and Chanukah. This is an example of a portmanteau, a word that blends elements of two other words, like brunch, motel, and, of course, Chrismukkah.
Sylvester in Modern Hebrew: Israelis refer to the secular new year with the name of a Roman Pope from the 4th century CE. After his canonization by the Catholic Church in the 16th century, the date of December 31 was named Saint Sylvester's Day. European Jewish immigrants in Israel continued to call New Year's Eve by Sylvester's name, even though they did not observe it as a religious feast day.
Credits
These posts were created by Jewish Language Project interns Isaac Gantwerk Mayer, Sofia Rubio, Lael Sacho-Tanzer, and Aliza Benor, Director of Education and Engagement Hannah Pressman, Curator and Documentation Manager Eden Moyal, volunteers Ross Berman, Abby Graham, and Gittel Marcus, and Founding Director Sarah Bunin Benor, with input from many linguists, historians, and website visitors.
Sources
Our posts draw information from many sources, including:
Benor, Sarah Bunin, ed. 2002-. Jewish Language Website. Los Angeles: Jewish Language Project.
Benor, Sarah Bunin, and Ofra Tirosh-Becker, eds. Journal of Jewish Languages.
Hary, Benjamin, and Sarah Bunin Benor, eds. Languages in Jewish Communities, Past and Present. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2018.
Kahn, Lily, and Aaron Rubin, eds. 2015. Handbook of Jewish Languages. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
Lowenstein, Steven M. The Jewish Cultural Tapestry: International Jewish Folk Traditions. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Rubin, Aaron D., and Lily Kahn. 2021. Jewish Languages from A to Z. London: Routledge.