Test Your Yiddish Skills (5)

Instructions:

• Click the dot next to each answer you think is correct.
• If you check the wrong answer, simply click the correct one to change it.
• When finished, enter your name and click the "Submit" button.
• Your answers will be checked and your score will appear on a new page where you can see how you did.

(Source: some items were inspired by "Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction? Yiddish Trivia," by Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe.)

Questions

1. What was the hot Yiddish word in August 2000 that was spurred by news coverage of Joe Lieberman, Democratic candidate for vice president?

A. shtik
B. chutzpah
C. goy
D. haimish

2. What new word entered the Yiddish language in 1903?

A. oysesn
B. pushke
C. krenk
D. bankes

3. What is meant by the term "yenta telebenter"?

A. a nudnik – a pesty, nagging woman
B. a gonif – a dishonest woman
C. a klaperkeh – a talkative “Mrs. National Enquirer”
D. a yuchna – a coarse, loud-mouthed, gossipy woman

4. What's "keshi-meshi"?

A. It’s from an old Yiddish radio jingle for a cockroach problem.
B. It’s a nutritious carb-counting kosher cereal.
C. It refers to a "Shabbos goy."
D. It’s Yiddish for bowtie egg noodles with buckwheat groats.

5. At the Chicago Seven trial, Abbie Hoffman shouted these words at Judge Julius Hoffman:

A. Ver derharget in a goyisha goss!
B. Veys nor vos du host tsu ton!
C. Zulst nuhr alleh gehargit krenk!
D. A shondeh far di goyim!

6. According to Will Shortz, what is the most used Yiddish word in crossword puzzles?

A. nosh (with its various forms)
B. yenta (with its various forms)
C. shmo (and its various spellings)
D. gelt

7. A customer asks the waiter for a glezele tay mit tzuker. What does he want?

A. a two-cents plain
B. an egg cream
C. a cup of tea with a sugar cube
D. a piece of frosted sponge cake

8. According to the Miriam Kressyn-Seymour Rexite duo, "Love and marriage,"

A. und azoy geht es.
B. geyt tzuzamen vi zup un knaydlakh.
C. dos lebn vert dan azoy gut.
D. fun dayn moyl in gots oyern.

9. Kinderschlep means to

A. transport your kids and their friends in your car.
B. educate or instruct your kids while driving them around.
C. drag the kids out shopping with you.
D. have a bragging conversation about your grandkids.

10. The "Tsene Rene" (Tsena Ure'en) is:

A. a play from Sholom Aleichem.
B. the first Yiddish dictionary.
C. the first Jewish woman’s movement.
D. a religious study book for woman.