More than a quarter of a century ago, Leo Rosten published the first comprehensive and hilariously entertaining lexicon of the colorful and deeply expressive language of Yiddish. Said "to give body and soul to the Yiddish language," The Joys of Yiddish went on to become an indispensable tool for writers, journalists, politicians, and students, as well as a perennial bestseller for three decades. Rosten described his book as "a relaxed lexicon of Yiddish, Hebrew, and Yinglish words often encountered in English, plus dozens that ought to be, with serendipitous excursions into Jewish humor, habits, holidays, history, religion, ceremonies, folklore, and cuisine-the whole generously garnished with stories, anecdotes, epigrams, Talmudic quotations, folk sayings, and jokes." To this day, it is considered the seminal work on Yiddish in America-a true classic and a staple in the libraries of Jews and non-Jews alike. With the recent renaissance of interest in Yiddish, and in keeping with a language that embodies the variety and vibrancy of life itself, The New Joys of Yiddish brings Leo Rosten's masterful work up to date. Revised for the first time by Lawrence Bush in close consultation with Rosten's daughters, it retains the spirit of the original-with its wonderful jokes, tidbits of cultural history, Talmudic and Biblical references, and tips on pronunciation-and enhances it with hundreds of new entries, thoughtful commentary on how Yiddish has evolved over the years, and an invaluable new English-to-Yiddish index. In addition, The New Joys of Yiddish includes wondrous and amusing illustrations by renowned artist R.O. Blechman.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
A great joke book, but not such a great language book:
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. 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... more info
joys of yiddish:
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:
For example, for an honest translation and etymology of "shaygetz" or "shiksa," see the Meggido Modern Hebrew-English Dictionary: "sheqetz: unclean animal, loathsome creature, abomination...."
Sorta 'new' joys of yiddish:
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.
