Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish

by Benjamin Blech

You're not idiot, of course. You can serve up a mean s'il vous plait in a French bistro, live la vida loca for a night of margaritas, and manage a sayonara! after sushi, sake, and karaoke. But when it comes to throwing around a little Yiddish, you feel like a total nebbish! Don't throw your hands in a helpless "Oy, vey" just yet! The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish is your guide to this unique tongue, whether you're tackling rules of grammar or just throwing around some key phrases so you sound a little less goyish. In this Complete Idiot's Guide you get a fascinating explanation of how and why Yiddish developed, an easy introduction to the Yiddish alphabet, as well as the distinctive sound of Yiddish, and all the Yiddish you'll need for communicating with family and friends or for bargain-hunting on New York's Lower East Side. This book contains a treasury of Yiddish words and phrases for every occasion.

Genres: Jewish, Religion, Judaism, Language

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 19, 2000

About the author

Benjamin Blech, born in Zurich in 1933, is an Orthodox rabbi who now lives in New York City.

Rabbi Blech has been a Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University since 1966, and was the Rabbi of Young Israel of Oceanside for 37 years. In addition to his work in the rabbinate, Rabbi Blech has written many books on Judaism and the Jewish people and speaks on Jewish topics to communities around the world.

Rabbi Blech received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yeshiva University, a Master of Arts degree in psychology from Columbia University, and rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.

Reviews

[Charles Jacobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to Yiddish with clear references to grammar and good structure. I particularly liked the references to poems and songs which expanded my vocabulary as well as interesting by bin their own right.

Need to note that it is written in English letters so does not help for trying to read Yiddish which uses Hebrew letters.

I read through this alongside the 15 minute Yiddish video series from nytf.org which follows a very similar structure but enables you to hear the spoken language and practice the lessons as well as being equally entertaining as the book itself.

[Neil Crowle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was very readable and gave many belly laughs. It will be reread over and over to get my head around the lessons needing to be learnt.

[Simcha York · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rabbi Benjamin Blech's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish offers a decent and enjoyable introduction to the Yiddish language and would likely serve as a useful companion to an introductory grammar or textbook for Yiddish.

This book does offer up a fair amount of vocabulary and grammar instruction, but not in the sort of systematic and repetitive fashion that would make it a good stand-alone text for learning the language. Instead, it is clearly intended to offer some introduction to Yiddish (and Yinglish) as it is actually used and to give the beginner something of a feel for the character of the language.

I would recommend this book to anyone just learning the language who is looking for an occasional and enjoyable alternative to a more traditional language textbook.

[Alita · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book as a text for a Yiddish class I was taking. It is perfect for that and will be an on-going tool I will use.