The Oys of Yiddish and the Joys of Paul Simon
I often wonder if Eppy understood Yiddish*, and his opinion of the language, considering his repressed self-hatred of his Jewishness. (He once turned down management of a very young Paul Simon because he "looks too Jewish" ... !)
I'm almost positive zayde (grandfather) Isaac, an immigrant from Lithuania, must have spoken it. If the Epstein family was anything like mine with the Polish language (my father's paternal grandfather came from Poland) then daddy Harry would at least have known a few choice words and phrases.
What tickles me the most about Yiddish is that so many of its words and phrases have been adopted into the American lexicon. Sometimes a person isn't even aware he's using a Yiddish word.
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Recently I found evidence that Eppy did indeed speak yiddish, in the following:"Recognizing his negotiating skills, the Shorins sent Sy to London in 1964 to negotiate the rights for Topps to produce Beatles trading cards. Arriving without an appointment, Sy succeeded by speaking in Yiddish to Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topps#Company_history
Excellent resources explaining the origins of the Yiddish language:
from The New York Times
October 29, 1996
Judaism 101: Basic Yiddish
Wikipedia: The Yiddish Language
~and~
Wikipedia: Yinglish
This section is of particular interest:
Is Yiddish simply a dialect of German?
Here's the Yiddish Alphabet
(known as the "alef-beyz")
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Speaking of Paul Simon:
Yes, I'm very fond of him and his music is truly awesome -- but I'm not obsessed.
Nu, how did this post on Yiddish morph into a Paul Simon thingy, then?
Well, I looked up one photo, and then another and another... GAH!
and I'm such a sharing person...
HOVER OVER PICS FOR HIDDEN TEXT
CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGES
Many, many more photos - and lots of other goodies! - can be found at Paul-Simon.Info
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