# Poll for Jewish Dopers **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 10, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493 "2003-07-10T16:20:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/77aa72/32.png) [@Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_On_My_Sleeve)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/1 "2003-07-10T16:20:27Z")
What (if anything) do Jewish people think of the non-Jewish who regularly use Yiddish words? I happen to think, being non-Jewish, that Yiddish is really cool and has words for things that can’t be said as well in English. * * * Never intend to offend, so if I say anything insensitive, point it out, but know that it’s just ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/2 "2003-07-10T16:29:42Z")
I once worked with a young lady who constantly used the word **schmuck** inappropriately. She got very embarassed when I told her what it really meant. I don’t think about who is using Yiddish words, as long as they are used correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/3 "2003-07-10T16:30:44Z")
Not an issue, as long as they are used correctly in context. Some are so common that they have become part of English, although I am always surprised at the extent to which this is not the case when I venture outside urban areas or into areas where there is little or no Jewish population. Yay multiculturalism! ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/77aa72/32.png) [@Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_On_My_Sleeve)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/4 "2003-07-10T16:52:57Z")
So, you mean it’s not okay to tell your boss he’s your favorite Schmuck? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/5 "2003-07-10T16:56:39Z")
Not unless you mean it literally (schmuck literally means penis) and are willing both to back it up and face the natural results of said backing up. (My sister, then age 8 or so, once got mad at Dad and called him a schmuck. He almost got really pissed off, until he realized she probably had no idea what it meant.) ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/6 "2003-07-10T17:00:30Z")
Like others say, as long as they are used correctly! My aunt’s business partner is of Norwegian and Swedish descent, and totally looks it. Over the years, she’s picked up a ton of Yiddish, especially from my aunt, and she uses it freely (and accurately.) It’s kind of funny to have an immense torrent of idiosyncratic Yiddish pouring out of the least Jewish-looking person around! ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/77aa72/32.png) [@Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_On_My_Sleeve)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/7 "2003-07-10T17:00:38Z")
Was joking!! ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/77aa72/32.png) [@Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_On_My_Sleeve)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/8 "2003-07-10T17:02:39Z")
I wouldn’t use a word until I looked it up. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/9 "2003-07-10T17:04:59Z")
Have you seen \*_A Mighty Wind_ You must, if you haven’t! Without too many spoilers, let’s just say there is a particular character who unexpectedly throws in a lot of Yiddish, to quite hilarious effect. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/10 "2003-07-10T17:08:53Z")
There aren’t many Jews around where I live (Oklahoma) so really the only Okies who know any Yiddish are the ones who watch Seinfeld. That being said, I don’t really know Yiddish, so if they use it wrong, I usually don’t know it. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/77aa72/32.png) [@Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_On_My_Sleeve)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/11 "2003-07-10T17:10:29Z")
Perhaps I will make my friend go with me to see next week! ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/12 "2003-07-10T17:40:45Z")
I don’t mind. I have a co-worker (who, despite having an identifiably Jewish last name is not Jewish [he’s an African-American]) who can rattle off Hebrew and Yiddish phrases. If I ask him how he’s doing he routinely says _Boruch Hashem_ (a traditional Jewish colloquialism for “Thank God.”) or _HaKol B’Seder_ (literally: “everything is in order,” usually meant to mean “Everything’s OK.” He blew me over one time on a Friday when he told me _Baruch Hashem zeh yom HaShishi_ (“Thank God it’s Friday.”). Of course there was the time that I saw him in the bathroom and when I asked him how he was, he said _Baruch Hashem_. I had to instruct him that we don’t use such terminology in the bathroom. 🙂 Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/13 "2003-07-10T18:41:37Z")
Being a Jew, I think Yiddish makes everything funnier, i.e. that scene in “A Mighty Wind.” I was saying to a friend that something was (I’m going to do phonetic b/c I dont know the spelling) fakoktah, and she asked me to repeat what I said. Turns out her roommate, who is not Jewish, thought she’d made up that very same word. Then there’s those who think “spatula” and “far-fetched” are Yiddish words. Oy. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/14 "2003-07-10T18:52:15Z")
In New York Yiddish is so prevalent that I never minded. I never learned it from my grandmother (who really spoke it) so though I’m Jewish I wouldn’t say I had more of a right to use it than anyone else. I rather suspect most people who use schmuck don’t know what it means. (And it has other roots - it was very odd in Austria to see all the jewelers with “schmuck” on their signs.) Joke from Leo Rosten A man in Miami wants to impress everyone, so he rents a camel and rides it up and down the streets. Soon afterwards the camel gets stolen and the man goes to the police. “What’s the camel’s name” they ask him. He doesn’t know. “Age?” No clue. Finally they ask if he knows anything about the camel. “Yes, he says, I know it’s male?” “How do you know that?” “Because when I was riding down the street, everyone shouted ‘Look at the schmuck on that camel!’” ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/77aa72/32.png) [@Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_On_My_Sleeve)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/15 "2003-07-10T19:36:27Z")
What do you think people think schmuck means? I mean, as a non-Jewish person, I have used it when I really, really wanted to insult someone (which is rare, of course), and I’ve heard Jewish people use it that way. I figured it meant the same as calling someone a dick in the bad way. We also use dick to refer to the penis in a non-insulting way, too, no? ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/16 "2003-07-10T19:48:30Z")
Peopel think it means idiot, generally. The word “putz” is also misused in this fashion, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ac91a4/32.png) [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/17 "2003-07-10T20:45:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by zev\_steinhardt \* > \*\*I have a co-worker (who, despite having an identifiably Jewish last name is not Jewish [he’s an African-American]) who can rattle off Hebrew and Yiddish phrases. \*\* I once had an African-American supervisor who wished me a “good Shabbos” on a Friday afternoon. He must have seen that I was surprised, because he explained that he picked the phrase up from some other Jewish people who worked for him. ;j ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/18 "2003-07-10T23:24:32Z")
Like any other words, it’s fine by me so long as they are used correctly. Haj ---
**Author:** ![Geoduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c37758/32.png) [@Geoduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geoduck)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/19 "2003-07-11T03:38:34Z")
I don’t mind, but I do tactfully correct folks on inappropriate uses after the fact. The words shmuck and putz are high on that list. I think I am more peeved by people who spell shmuck, “schmuck”. ---
**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493/20 "2003-07-11T04:20:24Z")
That’s the one reason I’ve never liked Smucker’s Jam. Just never liked the name - Smuckers — too close. Even after their reassurance – “With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good.” It’s like they know! - [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-jewish-dopers/187493.md?page=2)