The Language
In the late middle ages, many German Jews moved east taking with them the everyday language of the people. There it became mixed with the local Polish and Russian an became what is now known as Yiddish. While educated Jews used Hebrew in business etc., Yiddish was the everyday language of the people. Since the Jews who to immigrated to the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries came from a number of European countries, Yiddish formed a bond and their a common language. Today it is still the first language of many Jews, including almost 200,000 in the United States. This is especially true in Hasidic communities where it is the language used in the schools. However, Hebrew is the language most used in prayer. (There is an exception to this: most Hasidic girls do not learn Hebrew so special prayer books in Yiddish have been prepared.)

Ninety percent of Yiddish words can still be traced to the original German but the spelling, pronunciation and even meaning has changed. It developed as an oral language concerned with everyday things, Tevye's Yiddish was often poor in vocabulary. There are words such as flowers, trees, and animals but not many for subspecies. For example there is breeds such as spaniel, terrier, etc. are all "a kind of dog".

Yiddish is usually written using Hebrew letters but is often found transliterated and written using modern alphabets. Since the transliteration is in the ear of the beholder, the same word can sometimes be found with two or more different spellings. For example, the names of the characters in the Tevye stories are spelt several ways. The third daughter can be found as Chava, Chvedka, and Eva.

On the other hand it is rich in invective. The "Jewish curse" is a genre all it's own. It is the special domain of Jewish women and, while graphic, is not usually taken seriously the way it can be in other cultures. It can be earthy and long, and often has a twist. Examples, translated from Yiddish are:

May you never be alone in bed: you should always have bedbugs, lice, fleas, etc.
May you grow so wealthy you can afford only the finest specialists.
You should find a gold piece on the sidewalk and be so arthritic you can't pick it up.
May you live in a house with a hundred rooms, and may each room have its own bed,
     and may you wander every night from room to room, and from bed to bed,
     unable to sleep.

In Israel, Hebrew and Arabic are the official languages and the use of Yiddish is discouraged.

Many Yiddish words have entered the English language and people use them everyday without knowing their source. Many refer to food. Here are some of them.

bagel: a donut-shaped roll
blintz: a cheese-filled crepe
chutzpah: nerve, audacity (Note: ch is pronounced as ch in the Scottish Loch, not as in church.
glitch: a minor misfunction
kibbutz: verbal joking in Yiddish. In English it means to give unwanted advice.
klutz: literally a block of wood, thus a dense clumsy person
kosher: according to Jewish laws such as those for properly prepared meat. In English it is used in a      negative sense for suspicious as in "something is not kosher"
kvetch: literally to press or squeeze, but in English has come to mean complain. In Yiddish a new      meaning has been adopted to computer use—click as in "click here"
latke: a potato pancake
maven: an expert
Mazel Tov: literally good luck but also used for congratulations
nosh: to eat a light snack
oy vey: exclamation of distress or pain
shalom: deep peace
shlep: to drag something
shlemiel: a clumsy person
schlock: cheap or shoddy
shmaltz (chicken fat) therefore schmaltzy: excessively sentimental of gushing
shmooze: make small talk, in English used as sweet talk to impress people
schnoz: a nose
shmutz: dirt, dirty
shtick: an actors bit of stage business
spiel: sales pitch
tush: rear end, buttocks
yente: female busybody or gossip (It does not mean matchmaker.)

In Jewish culture
This first book in Yiddish was printed in Poland in 1534. The nineteenth century was the golden age of Yiddish literature and Sholem Aleichem is regarded as one of the founders of modern literary Yiddish. For many years his works were available only to Yiddish speakers, but many have now been translated. He wrote of everyday life and how people survived by using humor. The popularity of Fiddler on the Roof has introduced many to his works and to Yiddish works in general.

The greatest Yiddish culture has had its greatest impact in the theatre. It spans many genres including operetta, musical comedy, revues, drama, et cetera. Professional Yiddish theatre could be found throughout Europe and America before World War II. Just as European theatre had its roots in the church pageants held on special days, Jewish theatre started in the Purim and Sukket celebrations where plays about Biblical stories were produced, not in the synagogues themselves but in the courtyards outside. (They were thought to be too profane to be produced inside a religion structure.)

By the nineteenth century there were Yiddish theatres in Poland and traveling Yiddish theatre groups. They became very popular among most Jews, but Orthodox and Hasidic groups opposed them so they would not have been available to Tevye and his friends. Between 1890 and 1940 there were over 200 Yiddish theatre groups in the United States, twenty-four in New York City alone. The Holocaust devastated it in Europe. and it was never popular in Israel, but there are still a few theatres in America. Many popular entertainment stars of the twentieth century got their start in Yiddish theatre.

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Revised February 2011
Please credit Lyric Opera San Diego when using this material.