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in pencil at top of left margin Hecht, Mike [1982] newspaper clipping hand-written: WSJ Dec 14, 1982 The Bookshelf "Hooray for Yiddish" By Leo Rosten

Oy, Aha! and Other Nice Words from Leo Rosten By ROBERT DAWIDOFF

   Leo Rosten was five years old when he was initiated into the expressive delights of his native Yiddish.  It seems his father told him a joke;

joke is bracketed in red ink with a red arrow pointing to it Three cross eyed witnesses stood before the bench of a cross-eyed judge. "What's your name?" the judge asked the first man. "Eli Krantz," replied the second. "I wasn't talking to you!" snapped the judge. "I didn't italicized: say anything !" cried the third. And Mr. Rosten's die was cast.

   "Hoorray for Yiddish!" (Simon and Schuster; 363 pages; $15.95) continues and expands on Mr. Rosten's "The Joys of Yiddish."  Like the previous book, it is written about a language that has survived the historical experience that gave it its character, to show how it has survived and how it may yet thrive.  And, like its predecessor, "Hooray for Yiddish!: is written with the qualities of humor, expression and pungency that it claims for its subject.
    This is a book about English.  For, if Yiddish is the ancient vernacular of northern European Jews, it has become an element in the mix of American English too.  Mr. Rosten's point is that many Yiddish words and expressions, together with moods and syntactical arrangements and ways of saying things in English are identifiably "Yinglish."
    Mr. Rosten also thinks the connection between Yiddish and humor is indissoluble; the language was in part meant to express the Jews' sense of their condition in life, as opposed to Hebrew, which was for prayer and study, and the language of the country, which was public and formal.  Yiddish was a colloquial language that expressed certain ordinary things better than others.   Mr. Rosten believes that humor sometimes saved Jews from despair.
    In this book, Mr. Rosten continues his examples of Yiddish words in regular use.  He defines them, explains their origin, and then shows how they are used, in sample sentences and with stories and jokes.   For example, he defines the kibitzer as one who: comments from the sidelines, offers unasked-for-advice, wisecracks, needles, fools around, wastes time, second guesses nastily, distracts through irritating patter, sticks his  nose into the business of others, humors others along.  The distinctions Mr. Rosten makes here and throughout the book have the effect of showing how many kinds of ordinary behavior Yiddish knows about.
   Sometimes he wants to add a Yiddish word to the language:  italics:  drem'l means "a sweet, pleasant catnap."  Other times, he takes expressions and gives them written form;  "dotso" which means:  "1.  That is true.  2.  Is that so?  3.  Can you believe it?  4.  I'll be darned!"  The following story illustrates:
   Mr. Thornycroft Peabody, somewhat tipsy, exclaimed, "I'll have you know, Mr. Podovitz, that I come from one of the first families of Boston.   In fact one of my ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence."  "Is italicized: dotso?" murmured Podovitz.  "One of mine signed the Ten Commandments."
   The showpieces of this book are Mr. Rosten's entries on such words as "oy" and "nu" and "Aha!"  He gives 24 uses of oy, remarking that "italicized: oy is not a word; italicized: oy is a vocabulary":

Scene: A restaurant in Hitler's Vienna.

   Four Jews are in a coffee house, seated glumly before their italicized:  schlag.  First Man:  Oy.  Second Man:  italicized:  Oy vey.  Third Man: italicized: Vey iz mir.  Fourth Man:  If you three don't stop talking politics, I'll get out of  here.
  One of the interesting things about this book is how many times Yinglish seems to resemble other forms of ethnic or adapted English.  One thinks of black comedienne Moms Mabley's version of italicized: alav ha-sholem may he rest in peace; she used to talk about her old man and how useless he was and then catch herself up and remind herself that if you can't say anything good about the dead, don't say anything at all and then look around with a smile, "He dead . . . GOOD!"  Is there black Yinglish or Italian Yinglish?
   The one characteristic Yinglish tone Mr. Rosten avoids is that of know-it-all;  he makes "Hooray for Yiddish!" agreeable by avoiding the pomposity that expertise so often brings and for which, alas, Yinglish has as many resources as any other language.  His book deserves to be spared what he spared  us in writing it so nicely, so, instead of a critical italicized: megilla, let's end with this story about the Jewish mother who gave her son two neckties on Hanukkah.  "The boy hurried into his bedroom, ripped off the tie he was wearing, put on one of the ties his mother had bought him, and hurried back, 'Look, Mama!  Isn't it gorgeous?'  Mama asked, 'What's the matter?  You don't like the other one?"  Of course, why mama gave sonny two ties on italicized: one Hanukkah day, when there are, after all, italicized: eight . . . . Enough already!

handwritten in red in right margin Jack: Paul Romane phoned to tell me Gladys died. Will you forgive me for not phoning you? Whether or no - May '83 be a good and healthy year for you. Mike