Born to Kvetch by Michael Wex is a book about Yiddish. But that means it is about Jewish culture, Jewish history, Jewish sociology, in fact about almost anything Jewish. Professor Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady” could tell where a person came from by their accent and Wex does an absolutely amazing job of describing Jewish life through the ages by the words and phrases captured in Yiddish.
Jewish culture has almost always been one suffering from (and seemingly relishing in) constant exile and discrimination. They have made it an art form, Yiddish being one way to encode their communication to exclude gentiles. After all, gentiles might find out something that Jews like and keep it from them or something they don’t like and force them to live with it. So they talk in doublespeak, contradictions, and nonsense phrases.
Using words borrowed from surrounding cultures (German is probably the most prominent example), applying a healthy dose of dialect and accent, then saying the exact opposite of what you really mean. That is the secret of Yiddish.
Things learned along the way: The Jews have a prayer for successfully using the toilet. Racism and sexism are built into Yiddish – you literally CAN’T be politically correct in Yiddish.
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