Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a Passover gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
The Schmooze

Cursing the GOP in Yiddish

May your son the doctor introduce you to his fiancée, Bristol Palin.

May your child give his bar mitzvah speech on the genius of Ayn Rand.

May your insurance company decide constipation is a pre-existing condition.

It’s not clear who’s behind these Yiddish Curses for Republican Jews. But in just three days, the online phenomenon has attracted more than 5,000 Facebook “likes”, a thousand Twitter followers, and — presumably — some lucre for Barack Obama, whose campaign gets a nod with a “Donate to a Mensch” link.

“Do you have a dad who worships Sheldon Adelson?” asks YCRJ’s Facebook page. “A sister-in-law who answers everything with the words ‘but Israel…’ even though that isn’t a complete sentence and she hasn’t left Miami for 30 years? A brother who is convinced that Obama wants to ‘tax him to death’ even when you gently break it to him that he isn’t quite as rich as he thinks he is?

“Well, now you can make your shame and anger known wishing on them just exactly what they deserve. (And remind them if they want to see a real Marxist, there’s a picture of Grandma Sophie next to the bedroom mirror. And oy vey, is she disappointed.)”

You can also submit your own curse via Facebook. A suggestion from YCRJ: “A death panel? A death panel is too good for you!”

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.