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Full Glossary for The Assistant
Yiddish Unless Otherwise Noted
Der oilem iz a goilem (paffly Hebrew) The populace are dopes, the people is a dummy.
feh an exclamation of disgust.
gelt money
gesheft business establishment.
gink (American big city slang) guy, fellow, odd person.
gotten yu My God!, help!
goyim non-Jewish person.
Italyener Italian person.
landsleit person from the same old-world local Jewish community or shtetl.
parnusseh wages, source of income, or way of making a living.
pisher literal, one who urinates; figurative, a little or slight person, an inexperienced person, or something that adds up to little.
Poilisheh Polish person.
schmerz a blow.
schnapps hard liquor.
schwer literal, heavy; figurative, difficult, painful.
shikse a female non-Jew.
shlimozel person for whom nothing goes right; an unlucky person, a born loser.
tsu whether, if; to.
Yaskadal v'yiskadash shmey, rabo. B'olmo divre . . . (Hebrew). The first words of the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead: "Magnified and sanctified be His great name in the world which He has created according [to His will]."