Tagged: Yiddish

Why Jewish Humour Is Not Self-Deprecation

Jewish humour is often misread as self-mockery. In fact, it is a disciplined form of irony designed to resist certainty, fanaticism, and the misuse of power. Rooted in Ashkenazi experience, it functions as an internal defence against oppression and moral intoxication, protecting dignity without surrender and scepticism without nihilism.

The Language the City Forgot

South Williamsburg is one of the few places in the modern city where Yiddish never became nostalgia. It remained a working language, passed from parents to children, spoken in homes, schools, shops, and streets. This essay walks the neighbourhood from the inside, tracing how a language survived not through sentiment, but through daily necessity and design.