Brian Williams, Yiddishist?

By Gabriel Sanders

Published May 11, 2007, issue of May 11, 2007.

A debate over Yiddish usage broke out in our offices this week, and it was settled by an unlikely authority: “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams.

The brouhaha centered on last Sunday night’s episode of HBO’s series “The Sopranos” and what seemed to some a strangely placed Yiddish locution. While engaged in conversation with the show’s perennially aggrieved Christopher Moltisanti character, a fellow recovering alcoholic — through the smoke of his post-AA-meeting cigarette and with a decidedly goyish inflection — let slip the word “tsoris.”

Some on staff, arguing that tsoris — Yiddish for “trouble” — has entered the American vernacular, found the use of the word unremarkable; others maintained that it was worthy of note. Williams sided with the second camp.

Writing as a guest blogger on the Web site Slate, the anchor, who is a New Jersey native and a “Sopranos” devotee, said he was “rocked” by the use of the word.

“What was striking about it,” Williams said later, in an interview with The Shmooze, “was how incredibly white-bread the cigarette-smoking guy was.”

The dapper newsman proved to have a better ear for mamaloshn than fellow blogger — and onetime Forward hand — Jeffrey Goldberg, who, in a subsequent post, wrote, “How is it that a guy named Williams heard tsoris and one named Goldberg didn’t?”

So is tsoris in a different league than, say, chutzpah?

“That’s pretty entry level,” Williams said. “This goes with ponim, mishpokhe, shpilkes and keynehoreh. This is for the pros. This is Triple-A ball.”

Before getting off the phone, Williams — a self-described “loyal observer of the language and culture” — couldn’t resist taking a swipe at the show that follows “The Sopranos” in HBO’s Sunday lineup: “Entourage,” the most recent episode of which was largely devoted to the Yom Kippur “observance” of scruple-free super-agent Ari Gold.

“I actually thought it went over the top,” he said. “A very, very caricatured depiction.”

Read previous Forward coverage of “The Sopranos” (here and here) and “Entourage” (here).

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Comments

Barry Malkin Fri. May 11, 2007: tsuris... is the way we pronounced it in El Bronx.

Mort Persky Fri. May 11, 2007: "Keynehoreh"? It's really "keyn einhoreh" -- keyn=no, and einhoreh=evil eye. In my family it was "keyn einhoreh" or "keyn einhoreh nit." This was always said in response to news of a blessing, in response to something really good happening -- usually to somebody's close relative, preferably a son or daughter. So it was a while before I learned that the words did not signify a blessing, but (in true Jewish form) the absence of a curse.

Mook Thu. May 10, 2007: Such a mensch!

B. K. Elsden Fri. May 11, 2007: On the other hand, it promotes a stereotype to call the AA particpant on "The Sopranos" "white-bread." What does Williams think a Jew looks like? Or do all Jews on TV have to look a certain way? Jews come in all colors and in many ethnicities. Williams is no expert.

Joe Altschule Thu. May 10, 2007: Yeah, but has Brian Williams heard about the dyslexic Rabbi who kept saying, "Yo, Yo"

Kristen Sat. May 12, 2007: B.K., the character he is referring to is one that has appeared in nearly every episode of all six seasons of the show. He's not Jewish, a fact even discussed earlier in the current season when he begins dating a Jewish woman. I think Williams' comment was an accurate reflection of the character as developed throughout the show, not a simple "oh, he doesn't *look* Jewish." And as a WASP-by-birth Jew-by-choice, if anyone should find this offensive it should be me :)

Leslie Pollock Fri. May 11, 2007: After seeing Mr Williams on bended knee to Jimmy (the jerk) Carter on a C-Span rebroadcast anything he has to say about Jews, Israel or the world, has to be regarded suspiciously. For that matter, what with Mathews, Imus and his producer, NBC in general is feeding my paranoia.

Perley J. Thibodeau Fri. May 11, 2007: I love the few Yiddish words that my dear Jewish friends have taught me over the years. Yiddish used to be very commonly used in show business years ago, and I still find them to be very descriptive of certain situations. I'd hate to be banned from using them at this late stage in my life.

Bernard Yablin Sun. May 13, 2007: I dont remember any Yiddish spoken on the Brian Williams' NBC evening News.Is it now time?

Philip Sun. May 13, 2007: Hey, after watching "Broadway Danny Rose," Woody Allen's movie about a washed-up Italian singer, I love using the word..."adjida"! [sp?] I wonder how adjida compares to tsuris?

B. K. Elsden Wed. May 16, 2007: Kristen, it was not the Christopher Moltisanti character who made the comment; the character in question was at an AA meeting and said something *to* Christopher. I've watched the show for all six seasons, too, and I've never seen him before. Also, this is not an issue for WASP-looking Jews only (and I am one, by the way, despite what you seem to be implying); all Jews should be opposed to stereotyping.

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Menachem Sat. Jun 16, 2007: Before crowning Brian Williams as an honorary Yeed, I remember a very fact-challenged report from Israel he did a number of years ago that was designed to cast Israel in a very bad light. I have been turned off by him ever since. Why is Gabriel Sanders writing a fawning piece about him in the Forward?

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