The Ashkenazi Road To Yiddish: A Special Way Of Thinking

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

In looking through the years of when this special family, Jacob and Leah and Rachel grew into the Jewish people of over 3,000 years of development, I can understand the hows and whys of what appears in today's world.  Israel is at a point of being hated for its elusiveness, of being a family still and yet being one of the strongest, a leader  in intellectual endeavors along with technical ones.  

What is Yiddish and where is it spoken?

In their development, they lived in Germany, and their language of Hebrew was easily invaded with a special line of  German, helping their minds to develop and grow even more dendrites;  making them pretty darn smart.  These are the Ashkenazi line of Jews. That's not to say that the Sephardis weren't this smart--they were and they developed this way, too.  But the German Jews picked up a new language they alone created----Yiddish, with a special way of showing with words a deep understanding of life.  

  I'm sure her sayings came from Yiddish sayings.....she was known for her sayings, they were so wise.  

“Don't be so humble - you are not that great.”
― Golda Meir

Yiddish is the traditional language of Eastern European Jews and is today spoken primarily in Israel, USA, Russia, and a handful of European countries. Yiddish originates from a German dialect mixed with Hebrew words and other languages. It is a wonderfully expressive language. Here are some great Yiddish sayings and expressions.                                                 

Of course, my favorite saying in Yiddish is:  Oy Gevalt!!! Oh my G-d, or Oh my 

"Oy is the Yiddish equivalent of “oh” and gevalt means “violence” or “force.” Thus, oy gevalt (“oh violence”) would be a cry for help in an emergency.

It has further been expanded to be an expression of wonder at anything disastrous. It is perfectly normal to say, “Oy gevalt, my cake flopped again!” even though there is no violence and not much of an emergency."

 Oy vey!  Literal meaning: "Oh, woe!" or "Oh, pain!" (oy means "woe/oh" from Hebrew/German roots; vey means "woe" from Aramaic or Middle High German).How it is used: An emotional shorthand for frustration, sorrow, exhaustion, or anxiety when faced with everyday troubles or bad news. 

Yiddish Words and Sayings On Being a Mensch

Jews use a Yiddish word to express the notion of being a full, honorable human being: Mensch. Here are some classic Yiddish insights into what constitutes menschlichkeit (being a mensch).Be a mensch !  

Az ich vel zayn vi er, ver vet zayn vi ich? If I’m going to be like him, who will be like me?  (being a copycat, a yes man, afraid of your own shadow, )

This saying echoes the words of Rabbi Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” (Pirkei Avot 1:14)

Vos m’iz geveynt af der yugent, azoy tut men af der elter. The habits we develop in youth are what we follow in old age. 

Az der man iz tsu gut far der velt, iz er tsu shlecht farn vayb! If a man is too good to the world, he could be too hard on his wife!

This classic Yiddish saying recognizes an elusive truth: it’s easy to be kind to acquaintances and people outside our daily lives. It’s more difficult to maintain kindness and patience for those with whom we have to live, cooperate and compromise.(Doesn't this sound like your mate?  Lots of comedians have had this problem in marriage, great on the stage but not at home)

Az me muz, ken men. If you have to, you can.

On Business

The Torah cautions us to be scrupulously honest and honorable in business, and contains numerous rules and laws ensuring principled behavior. Yiddish reflects this ethic, offering penetrating advice on business matters. (This makes me shudder, reading about many wealthy Jews getting away with rules and becoming wealthier, etc;  It seems like  ignoring the basics of Judaism, forgetting to go to shul (house of worship) (Synagogue) using the gift of a sharp mind their ancestors handed down to them, took them down the wrong path).  

Ehren is fil tei’erer far gelt!  Honor is dearer than money!

Az me ken nit vi me vil, muz men vellen vi me ken. If you can’t do what you like, you must like what you can do.

Mit gelt ken men nit shtoltsiren, me ken es laycht farliren!  Don’t be boastful about money, it’s easily lost.

Far gelt bakumt men alts, nor keyn sechel nit. Money buys everything except common sense.

Di kats hot lib fish, nor zi vil di fis nit ayn-netsn. The cat loves fish, but doesn’t want to get her feet wet. (This is a great one to show that work's reward, money, doesn't happen unless you work for it.) Get off your butt and get going!  

Sometimes you just have to wade in and put in the work to get what you want.

Kinder un gelt is a shaine velt. Children and money make a nice world.

On Determination

Zog nisht keyn mol az du geyst dem letstn veg. Don’t ever say you’re traveling your last road.

This saying comes from the “Partisan Song” by Hersh Glick, a Jewish partisan resistance fighter who was killed in 1944 at the age of 24. His Partisan Song became a rallying cry for Jews in the darkest days of the Holocaust and still inspires today.

On Common Sense

“Seichel’ in Yiddish means common sense. It is actually the Hebrew word for intelligence. In his autobiography Songs My Mother Taught Me, Marlon Brando uses the word “seichel” to sum up his view of the Jewish people as a whole: “There’s a Yiddish word, seychel, that provides a key explaining the most profound aspect of Jewish culture. It means to pursue knowledge and to leave the world a better place than when you entered it….”

Me varft nit aroys di umreyne vasser eyder me hot reynes. You don’t throw out the dirty water until you have a clean replacement. (I love this one--like don't leave a job unless you have a replacement.) 

A nar geyt tsvey mol dort vu a kliger geyt nit keyn eyntsik mol. A fool goes twice where a sensible person doesn’t even go once. (this is like don't do something again you know is wrong, and many of us are guilty of this.  We'll do it again and again).  

A mensch tracht un Got lacht. Man plans and God laughs.  (So there, Iran!)  

True wisdom means recognizing that not everything is in our control. Judaism urges us to focus on putting in our best efforts while realizing the outcome is the hands of the Almighty.                            

       Charlie and Moses (Morris) Yiddish only speakers-born 1906 and 1908 

Yiddish has words for more, of course.  Germans can understand quite a bit of the Yiddish language.  My father spoke nothing but Yiddish until he had to go to school.  When he got together with his sisters and mother, Yiddish was spoken.  That's all my bubba spoke!  

Resource:

https://aish.com/great-yiddish-expressions/?utm_source=ac

Chabad

How Yiddish and Hebrew Connect

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

      Some of Kalonymos family 

The Rhine Valley is the birthplace of the Yiddish speakers of Ashkenazi Judaism. From the 10th to 14th centuries, the "ShUM" cities of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz became a major cradle of European Jewish learning. Famous Jewish scholars, philosophers, and community leaders lived throughout the Rhine region.  Rashi (Solomon ben Isaac): Born in Troyes, France, the most prominent commentator on the Torah and Talmud studied at the yeshivas in Mainz and Worms before returning to France. The Kalonymos Family, of which I have traced my family from: An influential family of scholars and mystics who migrated from Italy to Mainz in the early Middle Ages, laying the foundations for early Ashkenazi Jewish mysticism (Hasidei Ashkenaz), are but a few well known Jews from this region  

Here are three common examples of Yiddish phrases written in Hebrew characters:

1. "What's up?" or "How are things?"

• Yiddish (Hebrew characters): וואָס הערט זיך
• Transliteration: Vos hertz zich? 

2. "Oh my gosh!" or "Woe is me!"

• Yiddish (Hebrew characters): אױ װײ
• Transliteration: Oy vey 

3. "You should live and be well!"

• Yiddish (Hebrew characters): זײַ געזונט
• Transliteration: Zay gezunt , can be used after one sneezes.

Yiddish originated in the 9th and 10th centuries in Central Europe when Ashkenazi Jews in the Rhine Valley adapted the local medieval High German dialects for their daily use. As a fusion language, it combined German grammar and vocabulary with a rich infusion of Hebrew, Aramaic, and various Slavic and Romance influences, all traditionally written using the Hebrew alphabet.  The Rhine Valley Origins (9th–12th Centuries): Following migrations from northern Italy and France, Jewish communities settled in the Rhineland of present-day Germany. They adopted the local Germanic dialects but naturally incorporated Hebrew and Aramaic terms. Because Hebrew was historically reserved strictly for prayer and holy texts, this new hybrid dialect became the vernacular for everyday business and social life.

The Eastern European Shift (13th–17th Centuries): Fleeing persecution in Central Europe, many Ashkenazi Jews migrated eastward into Slavic-speaking territories like Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine. During this phase, Yiddish absorbed a massive influx of Slavic vocabulary and grammatical structures, distancing it further from standard German.  My paternal ancestors came from Lithuania and Poland and the line married into many of the Ukraine area.  Their Yiddish pronunciation would have developed at this period.  Each country was a little different from each other, so if you were one of these Jews, you could tell where the other came from.  

Cultural Flourishing (19th–20th Centuries): Despite opposition from Enlightenment leaders who viewed it as merely a casual jargon, Yiddish became the foundation of a robust, secular cultural identity. The Jewish Enlightenment (known as the Haskalah) was an intellectual and social movement sweeping Europe from the 1770s to the 1880s. Leaders of the movement, known as maskilim (the wise), sought to combine traditional Jewish identity with secular education, European languages, and civic integration. Their work laid the groundwork for modern secular Jewish identity, Zionism, and Reform Judaism It supported a thriving ecosystem of literature, press, and theater, culminating in the 1908 Czernowitz Conference, which officially declared Yiddish a national language of the Jewish people.  Modern Era: The geographic dispersion caused by mass migrations and the devastating losses of the Holocaust drastically reduced the number of native Yiddish speakers globally. However, the language remains widely used today, particularly within Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox communities, while also being studied and preserved as a vital component of Jewish heritage. The Yiddish National Theater opened in New York City and consisted of plays done in Yiddish about the immigrants and their lives and other famous Yiddish literature.

However, when Jews started going back to Israel during the first Aliyah period (1880-1881), a pair, Deborah and Eliezer Ben Yehuda,  decided it was time to revive Hebrew as the national language once again.  Hebrew was revived as a spoken language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily through the efforts of lexicographer Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. By transitioning the language from a purely sacred, liturgical text into a modern, everyday tongue, it became the only successful large-scale linguistic revival in human history. So,  the couple responsible for reviving Hebrew and spreading its usage as a modern, everyday language in Israel was Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and his first wife, Deborah (Devora) Ben-Yehuda. After immigrating to Jerusalem in 1881, the couple established the world's first modern Hebrew-speaking household and committed to communicating solely in the ancient language. To me, that must have been agonizing at certain times with the impulse to speak in your native language.  

The First Native Speaker: The couple famously raised their son, Ben-Zion (later Itamar), to be the first native Hebrew speaker in over 1,500 years. They shielded him from other languages so Hebrew would be his only mother tongue.  Since ancient Hebrew lacked terms for modern items, Eliezer invented hundreds of everyday words (like glida for ice cream and milon for dictionary) by adapting biblical roots. Eliezer's relentless drive—including editing Jerusalem's first Hebrew newspaper, HaZvi, and establishing the Committee of the Hebrew Language in 1890—paved the way for the language to be adopted by new immigrant settlements. 

Hebrew alphabet
Script type	Abjad primarily, alphabet
Period	2nd–1st century BCE to present
Direction	Right-to-left
Languages	Hebrew; derivations used for Yiddish, Ladino, Mozarabic, Levantine Arabic, Aramaic, Knaanic, other Jewish languages

Reading from right to left;  Alphabet evree(meaning Hebrew) The dots under the letters are for beginners needed help with vowel sound

Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient Levant. Spanning over 3,000 years, its history is uniquely defined by a transition from a spoken vernacular to a sacred liturgical language, culminating in its modern revival as the national language of Israel. While Hebrew ceased to be a common spoken vernacular around 200 CE, it never fully "died". For roughly 1,700 years, Jews worldwide used it continuously for prayer, religious study, and as a written lingua franca to communicate across different countries. In fact, it was found that Columbus used it to write to his son, keeping his message personal. Hebrew print vs cursive script in writing

down below in cursive: a-b (aleph bet)-I forget the ph letter and here it is)

Hebrew Print is for is all printed works, newspapers , books , signs, billboards etc. But hand writing is in Hebrew Cursive Script letters.

 So, we find that the Haskalah was busy reviving Hebrew !  The revival began in the 18th century during the Jewish Enlightenment. Secular writers started publishing Hebrew newspapers and literature. They expanded the ancient vocabulary to describe modern, everyday topics, which slowly moved the language away from its exclusively religious context.   Ben-Yehuda must have been a part of this movemenat, as when he made a radical decision to speak only Hebrew at home. He raised his son, Ben-Zion, exclusively in Hebrew, making him the first native Hebrew speaker in nearly 2,000 years.  Eliezer ben Yehuda Invented Vocabulary: Ancient Hebrew had no words for modern inventions. Ben-Yehuda created thousands of new words (such as for "electricity" or "newspaper") by adapting ancient root words and borrowing from Arabic, French, and German.  He began compiling a massive, multi-volume dictionary that provided the standard vocabulary for the growing community.

The revival gained unstoppable momentum when early Zionist pioneers and educators in Ottoman Palestine made Hebrew the language of instruction in schools. By teaching children exclusively in Hebrew, it naturally became their mother tongue, passing rapidly from the classroom into the streets. Mass waves of Jewish immigrants began arriving from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, speaking entirely different languages like Yiddish, Ladino, and Arabic. Because no single diaspora language was universally shared, Hebrew was adopted as the shared national language, unifying the diverse population.  Today, Modern Hebrew is spoken by over 9 million people as the primary language of daily life, government, and culture in Israel. You can learn more about this unprecedented linguistic achievement on Wikipedia. 

My father spoke Yiddish in his home and learned English when he went to school. My bubba never did learn English !   I learned a few of his words, like botch 'n tuchus (spank your bottom) and then learned Hebrew in Sunday school at an early age but forgot much by aliyah time at age 37.  I had 9 months of school to learn a lot more in Haifa, but I got my teaching certificate.  

Germany's Role In Jewish Life

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                   

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Trump meet in the Oval Office on Monday for talks on bringing an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine. Several European leaders are joining Zelenskyy, as they try to find a way to end Russia's offensive.Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images   The European leaders joining the meeting were United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, President of the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Recognizing Palestine is not making Israel happy at all. Germany is not doing this-so far.  

 It is demonstrating that Oct.7, 2023 was smart to do and is the cause of a reward of recognition as a state. To attack a people in a surprise attack, and one at that which was horrid, and   reports mention killings by firearms, explosives, decapitation, mutilation, and incineration. The events were widely condemned and sparked a strong response from Israel. The attack was labelled the bloodiest in Israel's history and the deadliest for Jews since the Holocaust by many figures and media outlets in the West, including then-US president Joe Biden. 

How then, can 193 countries accept this?  

Recent reports indicate that Germany is not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term. This stance is distinct from other countries such as France, the UK, Canada, and Australia, which have indicated their intention to recognize a Palestinian state, potentially at the UN General Assembly in September. Germany's government has stated that its priority is to make progress towards a two-state solution, and it sees the recognition of Palestine as one of the final steps in that process. Germany has emphasized the importance of Israel's security, and its government's current position is that recognition of a Palestinian state should be the culmination of a negotiated peace process, not a premature action. 

Those recognizing another Muslim State, Palestine, in September. Green shows those who will do it.  Yellow is pending.  Gray is do not recognize.   Australia is the latest country to have said it is ready to bestow recognition on a Palestinian state.  In late July and August 2025, Australia, Canada, and France announced plans to recognize Palestine as a state at the upcoming UN General Assembly in September 2025.

Of the 193 states in the UN, 147 already have decided without the forethought of Germany to recognize a Palestine.  While the German government maintains this position, there has been a shift in public opinion within Germany, with a recent poll indicating that a majority of Germans (54%) support recognizing a Palestinian state.                                                         

                            Liquidation of Jewish bodies from gassing

Germany's mind-set brought on the Holocaust that caused 6 million Jews to lose their lives, and since then, the German guilt has caused its younger population to help bring about aid to create Israel.

Germany was one of the first countries that Jews of Judea populated after the Roman attack on Jerusalem in 70 CE that caused the burning of the Temple, city and destruction of the people. Over one million Jews died, and many of those died from starvation as that's how the Romans killed many of them first.   

During the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73 CE), particularly the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, estimates of Jewish deaths range from under 300,000 to over 1 million. While some historians like Josephus claim over a million deaths, these figures are debated and considered inflated. The most commonly cited figure is around 600,000, including those who died from famine and disease, according to Roman historian Tacitus.

 In addition to those killed, an estimated 97,000 Jews were taken captive, according to Facts and Details. The war also resulted in widespread destruction and loss of life in other parts of Palestine. 

    Ancient Germanic People discovered by Romans:  The first major contact between the Romans and Germanic peoples occurred in the late 2nd century BCE, when Germanic tribes began invading Roman territories. This initial interaction was marked by conflict, particularly with the Cimbri and Teutones tribes. Later, Julius Caesar's commentaries on the Gallic Wars provide the first written record of the term "Germanic" and describe their territories east of the Rhine. 

The term "barbarian" was a Roman label for groups outside their culture, including the Germanic tribes. While the Romans viewed them as uncivilized and warlike, the relationship was complex, involving conflict, trade, and even military service for some Germanic individuals within the Roman Empire. The Germanic tribes' incursions and eventual settlement within Roman territories contributed to the Western Roman Empire's decline. 

In ancient German history, the relationship with Rome was a complex mix of conflict and cooperation. While the Romans expanded into parts of Germany, particularly along the Rhine and Danube rivers, they never fully conquered the entire region, which they called Germania. The Germanic tribes, in turn, both resisted Roman advances and engaged in trade and even military service within the Roman Empire. This sounds a lot like Judea's history with Romans.  

Following the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, some Jews migrated to the Rhineland area of Germany, primarily as refugees or captives, contributing to the formation and growth of Jewish communities there. While the exact number is unknown, this migration, along with earlier Jewish presence in the region, led to the establishment of Jewish communities in cities like Cologne. 

Cause: The primary reason for Jewish migration to the Rhineland was the aftermath of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. Specifically: Some Jews were taken as prisoners of war and transported to various parts of the Roman Empire, including Italy, from where they later migrated to other areas. Jewish communities in the Roman Empire were involved in trade and commerce, and some Jews likely migrated to the Rhineland for economic opportunities. 

Tacitus, in his 98 CE(AD) work “Germany” as well as other Roman scholars never described the Germans with a sense of “fear”.. instead they very specifically describe them as "vigorous at the first onset but not tolerant of exhausting labour, tolerant of hunger and cold, but not of heat or thirst”. It would be unfathomable in the Roman context to describe them as “fearsome”. In fact, they were very settled people.

It was here in the Rhineland that Jews picked up the German language and combined it with their Hebrew and possibly Aramaic, which had started to replaceHebrew in some communities.  Yiddish emerged as a distinct language around the 10th century in the Rhineland region of Germany, as Jewish communities from France and Italy migrated there and combined their languages with the local Germanic dialects. This process of language formation is considered to have taken

 place over several centuries.  

                                             

                              Jews in Germany in 13th century

In 13th century Germany, Jewish men were required to wear a distinctive, pointed hat, often called a "Judenhut" or "Jewish hat," as a form of public identification and segregation. This practice, along with other discriminatory measures, was formalized at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, which decreed that Jews should be visually distinguishable from Christians. 

The hat served as a visual marker, similar to the yellow badge that would later be imposed, to prevent "confusion" and prevent "accidental" interactions between Christians and Jews. 

There were already Jewish communities in parts of the Roman Empire, including Italy, from which some Jews likely migrated to the Rhineland. A theory suggests that Jews migrated from Italy, where they had established communities, to the Rhineland during the Late Roman Empire.  Early Jewish settlements in the Rhineland were often near the Rhine River, with some Jews settling on the eastern bank. Over time, these settlements grew into well-established Jewish communities, particularly in cities like Cologne. In the early 4th century, the legal status of Jews in Cologne was similar to that of Jews in other parts of the Roman Empire, indicating a recognized presence. 

Along the Rhine River developed cities such as Mainz, Worms, Speyer with Jews. The first Crusade (1096-1099) attacks were made on Jews in Northern France and especially in  the Rhineland where massacres occurred in the cities along theRhine River.  Reports of the Crusade told of a rise to a messianic ferment, causingthe capture of Jerusalem in 1099 when Jews were massacred.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Germany

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/world/middleeast/palestinian-state-

recognition-maps.html#:~:text=Most%20countries%20in%20the%20United,the%

20U.N.%20assembly%20next%20month.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish%E2%80%93Roman_wars#:~:text=Impact

%20on%20the%20Jewish%20population,-The%20consequences%20for&text=

According%20to%20surviving%20ancient%20accounts,Jupiter%20and%20another

%20of%20himself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_hat#:~:text=The%20first%20recorded%20instance%20of,sometimes%20Jesus%20(see%20below).