Watch Elderly Jews Explain Yiddish Words
You wouldn’t plotz if you lost a bingo game; zaftig is ‘more plump than heavy’
September 11, 2014
Screengrab from 'Yiddish Part One.' (YouTube)
The folks at the Los Angeles Jewish Home have put together an adorable, Internet-ready video of some of their residents explaining the various meanings of Yiddish words. They go through the usual suspects—schvitz, schmuck, tuchus—as well as some less often heard terms like geshmak.
It’s a sweet video, with the participants—filmed in front of an extremely high-tech looking Bingo screen—seeming to really enjoy their on-camera walk down memory lane.
“It is so funny that we come from different streaks, but the Yiddish language and the Yiddish songs are always the same,” one woman says.
Best of all, it’s called Yiddish Part One, which means there’s definitely a Part Two and maybe even a Part Three in our future.
Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.
