| The New Joys of Yiddish : Completely Updated |  | Author: Leo Rosten
Category: Book
Buy New: $27.13
New (5) Used (7) from $21.86
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 1132084
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Updated
Pages: 496
Number Of Items: 1
ASIN: B00021LMZ4
Publication Date: October 2, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Read bybr4 cassettes/6 hoursbrbrWith joy and unrestrained ikvelling/i, Random House AudioBooks announces a smartly updated new edition of Leo Rosten's classic celebration and exploration of the Yiddish language#8212;the first time on audio!brbrFrom ichutzpa /ito ishmooze, oy vay /ito ishlep/i, a wealth of Yiddish words have entered common American parlance, rolling off the tongues of Jews and non-Jews alike. More than a quarter of a century ago, Leo Rosten presented the first comprehensive and hilariously entertaining lexicon of this colorful and deeply expressive language. iThe New Joys of Yiddish /iwent on to become a perennial bestseller in both hardcover and paperback.brbrWith the recent renaissance of interest in Yiddish, and in keeping with a language that embodies the variety and vibrancy of life itself, this new edition brings Rosten's masterful work up to date. Revised by editor Lawrence Bush, in close consultation with Rosten's daughters, it retains the spirit of the original#8212;with its wonderful jokes, tidbits of cultural history, Talmudic and Biblical references, and tips on pronunciation#8212;and enhances it with hundreds of new entries and thoughtful commentary on how Yiddish has evolved over the years.brbriThe New Joys of Yiddish /iis nothing less than a mitzvah ("a 'good work,' a virtuous, kind, considerate, ethical deed") for those who loved the original book and for those discovering the pleasures of Yiddish for the first time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
A great joke book, but not such a great language book November 24, 2008
lexo1941 (Dublin, Ireland)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I used to have an old 70s paperback of the original version of "The Joys of Yiddish", but I eventually got rid of it because I found it a bit too superficial in its coverage. Being a language nerd I wanted to come to grips with Yiddish as a real language, and not just be able to drop the odd word into my conversation. br / br /So I was in a bookshop on my lunch hour and this revised edition was sitting on the shelf beckoning to me and smiling. I gave in. It wasn't the definitions that got me, nor was it the occasional softpedalling when it came to etymology. The late great Israeli dissident Israel Shahak observed that the entry on "shaygets", which Rosten says is of "Possible Hebrew origin", obscures the fact that it's certainly derived from the Hebrew word "sheqets", which is used in the Torah to refer to things that are unclean - which in turn means that "shaygets" has a nastier and murkier edge than Rosten was willing to admit. (However, Webster's New World Hebrew-English dictionary, which is explicitly about modern Hebrew, defines "sheygets" only as "1. non-Jewish youngster; 2. [slang] cheeky fellow or young Jew with a non-Jewish appearance", so perhaps the word has lost some of its sting over the centuries. Then again, my Pocket Ben-Yehuda Hebrew-English Dictionary, dating from 1951, defines "sheqets" as an "unclean animal". Go figure.) br / br /Elsewhere, I am forced to quibble with Rosten's suggestion that "shamus", meaning a cop or detective, is derived from the Yiddish "shammes". "Shammes" is pronounced (according to Rosten) SHAH-mes, but "shamus" is pronounced SHAY-mus, exactly like the Irish name "Seamus", which Rosten mentions as a possible origin but appears not to agree with. Slang being an oral thing, I am inclined to agree with those who regard shamus-meaning-cop as being of Irish origin. br / br /I for one applaud Lawrence Bush's commentary, which has the virtue of leaving Rosten's original text unchanged but adds much-needed historical perspective. I don't understand the complaint that it's ruined the book, because the book is still there (and secondhand copies of the original are not hard to find.) br / br /No, the real pleasure of the book is Rosten's unparalleled collection of jokes. There may be more comprehensive anthologies of Jewish humour, but few of them can boast Rosten's impeccable comic timing. The book is worth the cover price for the jokes alone. My favourite one is about the two Israeli spies captured in Cairo. They are put up against the wall and the firing squad marches in. The Egyptian captain asks the first spy "Do you have any last requests?" The first spy says "A cigarette," and the captain gives him a cigarette, lights it and turns to the second one. "Do you have any last requests?" he asks, and the second spy spits in the captain's face. "Harry!" says the first spy, "please! Don't make trouble!" br / br /If you want to learn about Yiddish, and why wouldn't you, there are plenty of excellent scholarly and popular works to consult. Dovid Katz's "Words on Fire" is an absorbing history of the language and his hard-to-find "Grammar of the Yiddish Language" is an essential resource. I am currently awaiting delivery of Uriel Weinreich's much-praised Yiddish-English/English-Yiddish dictionary. In the meantime, Bush has done a good job of updating and expanding Rosten's very entertaining book. It's not the best book on Yiddish, but it's probably the most popular one and with good reason.
 joys of yiddish July 19, 2008
Sy Rosen
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
thils is an updated version of leo rosten's original book. it appears a bit overdone in its scholarly definitions. i purchased the book as a gift for someone who was interested in learning something about yiddish.
 sanitized for understandable reasons May 1, 2008
Terry Dolorosa (Concord, CA USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
For example, for an honest translation and etymology of "shaygetz" or "shiksa," see the Meggido Modern Hebrew-English Dictionary: br / br /"sheqetz: unclean animal, loathsome creature, abomination...."
Sorta 'new' joys of yiddish January 29, 2008
wildfoxes (Denver, CO United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I hoped there'd me more actual language and less American-isms. But I get it now that I've read it - and the introductions. It was not intended as such. But I didn't really know that before I bought it. It's a classic, and I still really had fun with it.
Get an older edition, without the irrelevant and/or PC footnotes February 8, 2007
Lucien the Librarian (Toronto)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
There's no need to repeat the deservedly fine comments already posted about Rosten's book. I simply wish to recommend buying any edition PRIOR to this 2001 revision by Lawrence Bush. While Bush does preserve Rosten's witty text intact, he spoils things by adding agenda-driven footnotes throughout. Bush castigates Rosten for making Reform jokes (please! I was raised Reform, and I found them funny) and ruins the humourous "shadchan" (matchmaker) entry by going on at length about Jewish domestic abuse (a problem to be sure, but no more so than in any other ethnicity). Lighten up, Bush! Finally, he inserts commercials for Reconstructionism and Jewish Renewal, which are valid expressions of Judaism but are post-1950s American in origin and NOT a part of the old Yiddish culture Rosten celebrates. Stick with Rosten's original text if you can find it.
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