July 2009
12 posts
Churbn - חורבן
Churbn - חורבן \CHUR-ben\ Noun: 1. Ruin, devastation (especially of the Temples in Jerusalem), destruction, desolation, havoc, catastrophe. 2. The Holocaust. Pronunciation: Click here and here to hear native Yiddish speakers use this word in conversation about the Destruction of the Beys Hamikdesh (the Temple in Jerusalem) and Tisho Bov (the Ninth of Av, when the Destruction is...
Yiddish Poetry of Interest
Jerome Rothenberg compiled a book of poetry about the Holocaust entitled Khurbn and Other Poems (New York: New Directions Publishing Corp, 1989), which has several poems with Yiddish titles, and authored an article on the topic as well: “Khurbn and Holocaust: Poetry After Auschwitz,” Dialectical Anthropology 24,3-4 (1999): 279-291.
Eyfele - עופעלע
Eyfele - עופעלע \EYF-eh-le\ Noun: Baby, infant. Synonyms: Zaygkind (זייגקינד) - from the words zaygn (זייגן), to suckle, and kind (קינד), child; viklkind (וויקלקינד) - from the verb vikln (וויקלען), to swaddle; and beybi (בייבי) - direct from the English. German equivalents: das Kind, das Baby, das Kleinkind, der Säugling (similar to zaygkind above), and der Infant. Notice the number of words...
Yiddish Online Dictionaries
For those interested, there are a number of Yiddish dictionaries available online, some better than others. I personally use Uriel Weinreich’s classic Modern English-Yiddish, Yiddish-English Dictionary, which is not available online (as far as I know), but for those who need an online resource, here is a small list: 1. http://www.cs.uky.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/~raphael/dictionary.cgi - A great...
Tzatzke - צאצקע
Tzatzke - צאצקע \TZATZ-ke\ Noun:
A toy, trinket, bauble; ornament. Alternate form: Tshatshke (טשאטשקע). Diminutive: Tsatskele (צאצקעלע). Synonym: Shpilchl (שפילכל). This word is a diminutive form of the more popular shpil (שפיל) - a play. Thus, it means something like “a plaything.” German equivalent: Spielzeug. Etymology: The word is apparently of Russian origin (according to...
Yiddish Newspaper Available Online
For those interested, one of the few surviving Yiddish weekly newspapers, the Algemeiner Zhurnal (דער אלגעמיינער זשורנאל), is available online: http://www.algemeiner.com/generic.asp?cat=4.
The paper, founded in 1972 by Gershon Jacobson, the head of a Chabad family, is unique in that it is a roughly Modern Orthodox weekly publication in Yiddish. Der Yid and Der Blatt, two weekly ultra-Orthodox...
Farblondzhen - פארבלאנדזשען
Farblondzhen - פארבלאנדזשען \far-BLON-dzhen\ Verb:
To lose one’s way, get lost; go astray, stray. Synonym: Farloyrn geyn (פארלוירן גיין). The word farloyrn (פארלוירן) is an adjective which can mean both physically lost as well as disoriented, bewildered, or flustered. German equivalent: There is no German equivalent, as far as I know, for farblondzhen. This is because German cannot...
Online Yiddish Book Archive
For those interested, there is an online archive, run by the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass., which contains over 10,000 Yiddish and Yiddish-related books free for downloading. Check it out at: http://www.archive.org/details/nationalyiddishbookcenter.
