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Yiddish Quotes

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Yiddish Quotes

“My letter,” Bella said in Yiddish that was a bit garbled, but perfectly understandable. “I want my letter back and she won’t give it to me. Why doesn’t she understand my English?” “That’s Yiddish you’re speaking,” Yetta said. “No, it’s not,” Bella said irritably. “It’s the English I learned in the factory.” “It’s Yiddish! You must have learned Yiddish because there were so many of us Jews in the factory. Listen”—Yetta switched languages—“English sounds like this.” Bella stared up at Yetta, her eyes seeming to grow in her pale face. “I don’t even know what Yiddish is,” she said, in Yiddish….. “Bella learned Yiddish by mistake,” Yetta said. “She thought she was speaking English.” “Wish I could learn a new language just by mistake,” Jane said. “I’ve been studying Italian for weeks, and it’s totally useless.”

NovelComedyUprisingYiddishEsl
Book:Uprising
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“Of course, the Shtrakenzer bride, though perfect, was not suitable; Mrs. Shpilman knew that. Long before the maid came to say that nobody could find Mendel, that he had disappeared sometime in the course of the night, Mrs. Shilman has known that no degree of accomplishment, beauty, or fire in a girl would ever suit her son. But there was always a shortfall, wasn’t there? Between the match that the Holy One, blessed be He, envisioned and the reality of the situation under the chuppah. Between commandment and observance, heaven and earth, husband and wife, Zion and Jew.”

MarriageRealismJudaismUtopiaDeterminismZionismYiddishArranged MarriageUtopianism
Book:The Yiddish Policemen's Union
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“The noble old synagogue had been profaned and turned into a stable by the Nazis, and left open to the elements by the Communists, at least after they had briefly employed it as a 'furniture facility.' It had then been vandalized and perhaps accidentally set aflame by incurious and callous local 'youths.' Only the well-crafted walls really stood, though a recent grant from the European Union had allowed a makeshift roof and some wooden scaffolding to hold up and enclose the shell until further notice. Adjacent were the remains of a mikvah bath for the ritual purification of women, and a kosher abattoir for the ritual slaughter of beasts: I had to feel that it was grotesque that these obscurantist relics were the only ones to have survived. In a corner of the yard lay a pile of smashed stones on which appeared inscriptions in Hebrew and sometimes Yiddish. These were all that remained of the gravestones. There wasn't a Jew left in the town, and there hadn't been one, said Mr. Kichler, since 1945.”

ReligionCommunismWorld War IiAnimalsJudaismEuropean UnionHebrewRelicsJewsNazisRitualsYiddishVandalism1945ObscurantismSynagoguesAnimal SacrificeTombstonesDesecrationWomen And ReligionWroclawAbattoirsAnimal SlaughterJerzy KichlerMikvahsWhite Stork SynagogueWomen In Judaism
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“I have heard from my father and mother all the answers that faith in God could offer to those who doubt and search for the truth. In our home and in many other homes the eternal questions were more actual than the latest news in the Yiddish newspaper. In spite of all the disenchantments and all my skepticism I believe that the nations can learn much from those Jews, their way of thinking, their way of bringing up children, their finding happiness where others see nothing but misery and humiliation.”

ThinkingWayBelieveChildrenHomeMotherFatherI BelieveNationsAnswersDoubtHeardOffersFindingsEternalNewsMiseryJewNewspapersSpiteFaith In GodSkepticismHumiliationWay Of ThinkingFinding HappinessYiddishDisenchantment
Book:Aspects of I.B. Singer
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“The truth is that what the great religions preached, the Yiddish-speaking people of the ghettos practiced day in and day out. They were the people of The Book in the truest sense of the word. They knew of no greater joy than the study of man and human relations, which they called Torah, Talmud, Mussar, Cabala.”

PeopleMenHumansBookJoyStudyGreaterTruth IsRelationGhettoTruestHuman RelationsTorahYiddish
Book:Aspects of I.B. Singer
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“Yiddish, the language which will ever bear witness to the violence and murder inflicted on us, bear the marks of our expulsions from land to land, the language which absorbed the wails of the fathers, the laments of the generations, the poison and bitterness of history, the language whose precious jewels are the undried, uncongealed Jewish tears.”

FatherLanguageViolenceGenerationsLandTearsBearsMarkMurderWitnessPoisonBitternessJewelsLamentYiddishExpulsionPrecious Jewels
Author:I. L. Peretz
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“I tended to listen to doo-wop, but my grandmother would always have the radio on all day and she'd start with Yiddish and then move on to gospel and later to "make believe" ballroom music. I got to hear all kinds of music and my mother would get up to go to work listening to country music. That was her alarm clock. My dad was a jazz lover and listened to the man who wrote "Misty", Errol Garner. He loved piano players, so I got to listen to that as well.”

MenBelieveWellsKindCountryMovingMotherPlayerHe ManListeningLoversDadJazzMy DadRadioAll KindsGet UpClockPianoGrandmotherMy GrandmotherAlarmsMake BelieveBallroomMistyAlarm ClocksYiddish
Author:Richie Havens
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“I work in Hebrew. Hebrew is deeply inspired by other languages. Not now, for the last three thousand years, Hebrew has been penetrated and fertilized by ancient Semitic languages - by Aramaic, by Greek, by Latin, by Arabic, by Yiddish, by Latino, by German, by Russian, by English, I could go on and on. It's very much like English. The English language took in many many fertilizations, many many genes, from other languages, from foreign languages - Latin, French, Nordic languages, German, Scandinavian languages. Every language has influences and is an influence.”

LanguageInfluenceInspiredAncientGreekLatinEnglish LanguageLatinoHebrewForeign LanguageYiddish
Author:Amos Oz
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