Filthy Yiddish Jokes, in Volume
NEWS ITEM: Mameloshn abounds with dirty sayings — a fact made evident in a newly re-published book, “Yiddish Sayings Mama Never Taught You.” Some believe the volume will encourage young students of the language.
Why shouldn’t Jews, like other folks,
Enjoy their share of dirty jokes?
In ev’ry culture, ev’ry clime,
One finds that humor reeks with slime.
Old Sigmund Freud discovered this,
Through keen psychoanalysis.
(His insights were in fact so shrewd,
They quickly dubbed him “filthy Jude”.)
Scant difference exists between,
Erotic stuff and the obscene.
Vulgarity, like sewage, thrives,
Wherever humans are alive.
Like noxious fumes within the gut,
Arises laughter born of smut.
Exemptions to this moral blight,
Do not apply to Yiddishkeit.
Of “purity” be disabused!
Instead, just simply be amused.
Do tales of spice equate to vice,
Or constitute “not being nice”?
Off-color jokes are nothing new,
And shouldn’t raise a cry-and-hue!
Who cares if tales from mamelush,
Release in some the prudish blush?
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO