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Article: Yiddish: A Nation of Words. (Books: life in Yiddishland).
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- February 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Miriam Weinstein Yiddish: A Nation of Words. Steerforth Press; 301 pages, $26
A bit more than thirty years ago Leo Rosten published The Joys of Yiddish, a warmhearted book that walked its readers through a wide variety of Yiddish jokes, salty aphorisms, and comic types. One learned, for example, how to distinguish between the schlemiel and his ever-present cousin the schlimazel, and the lengths that a schnorrer ("shameless beggar") would go to wangle a meal. Rosten, best known for his humorous New Yorker sketches, was well aware that humor depends, above all else, on three things: timing, timing, and timing. But even Rosten must have been amazed when The Joys of ...