Words to Know

The language Jewish families spoke in Central and Eastern Europe for about a thousand years. It is written with Hebrew letters and mixes German, Hebrew, and Slavic words. Bagel, klutz, and mensch came into English from Yiddish.

The ancient language of the Jewish people and of the Hebrew Bible. Amen and hallelujah came into English from Hebrew, through the Bible. Today Hebrew is spoken every day in Israel.

A round bread roll with a hole, boiled and then baked. Jewish bakers brought it from Eastern Europe to America, and the word came with it, from the Yiddish beygl.

A soft, braided bread that many Jewish families bake or buy for Friday evening, when the weekly day of rest begins. The braids are said to look like arms linked together.

A Yiddish word for "a person," used to mean a truly good and decent person. One of the warmest compliments in Yiddish. "What a mensch!"

Bold nerve: asking for what nobody else would dare to ask for. The word came from Hebrew into Yiddish and then into English. It can be a little rude or a little brave, depending on who is telling the story.

A story told out loud for so long that nobody knows who told it first. Other peoples have them too. The story of the crowded house was told in Yiddish for generations before it was written down.