We Are Family

I have all my sisters — and my elteronkel and my ureynikl
and my shtifburder — with me.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

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Q: I would like to know how far Iran is derived from the ancient
you can trace the beginning of the Aryana, "the country of the
Aryans." The Jews of Iran (and
different Jewish groups, Sephardi parts of Afghanistan) developed
and Ashkenazi.
their own language, called
Also, I read in a book that Iran- Judeo-Persian, written in He-
ian Jews are of Aryan background. brew characters. If you are
Is that right? Also, can you explain thinking that the Jews of Iran
are not Jewish in origin, but of
how Semitic different Jewish peo- the same ethnic stock as the
ple are?
gentile Iranians, there is no ev-
From reader J.K. in Atlanta, Ga. idence to support such a belief.
A: The division of the Jewish All the historical records show
people into Sephardi and that Iranian Jews are de-
Ashkenazi has its origins in the scended from the Jewish com-
period of the Roman occupation munity of ancient Babylonia.
of Eretz Yisrael. Roman perse-
Regarding the last part of
cution led many Jews to emi- your question: "Semitic" is a lin-
grate, often to various parts of guistic term. Hebrew is a Se-
the Roman Empire. Some mi- mitic language, so is Arabic and
grated to Spain (there is an un- so is Aramaic, in which much
proven, though old, tradition of the Talmud was written. In
that Jews began to live in the the 19th and 20th centuries, it
Iberian Peninsula during the was common to use "Semitic"
reign of King Solomon). Later, as a racial or ethnic .designa-
many also settled in Portugal. tion. Modern anthropology re-
The Jews of Spain and Portu- jects such a usage. Judaism
gal developed into what we now itself makes no such distinction
call Sephardic Jewry.
and does not recognize the con-
Other Jews went to the cept of race. Either a person is
Rhine Valley (which today Jewish or he is not. Phys-
forms part of the border be- ical appearance and
tween France and Germany). language make no / (
From the Rhine Valley, Jews difference. Ha- k t
spread eastward, into Germany lachah is concerned
proper, and later into Poland, primarily with a (
Russia and the rest of eastern person's behav-
Europe. These Jews became the ior — that is,
Ashkenazim.
living according
Through the generations, the to the Torah.
Jews of Spain retained many of How "Semitic"
the religious traditions and pro- someone is makes
nunciation of Hebrew from the no sense, either
Land of Israel. The Ashkenaz- in Jewish or
im drew much of their tradition secular thought.
from the Jewish community of
Babylonia (today Iraq). With
Q: Like most
time, the two groups developed
Jewish
families,
their own customs, traditions
mine
is
growing
and practices.
In an earlier column, Tell Me and spreading in
Why explained that there are all kinds of complicated ways. So
many Jews who are neither I need to know what to call these
Sephardi nor Ashkenazi. Most- people. I know the Yiddish words
ly, these are Jews from various
parts of Africa and Asia. Usu- for grandmother and grandfather
ally, they are referred to as Ori- are bubbie and zayde. Aunt is tante.
ental Jewry. They include (but But what are the terms for great-
are not limited to) the Jews of grandmother, great-grandfather,
Yemen, Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran and
great-aunt and great-uncle? And,
India.
As to the Jews of Iran having in the way of Hillary Clinton's "it
an Aryan background, perhaps takes a village" speech, what are
you are confusing the language the Yiddish words for stepmother
of Iran with its Jews. The and stepfather? Did they have step-
Iranian languages, including
in the shtetl?
Persian, belong to the Indo-Eu- bubbles
Thank you for your attention. I
ropean family, within which
Old Iranian and Sanskrit form can't find my dog-eared copy of The
the Aryan group. "Aryan" itself Joys of Yiddish.
is a Sanskrit word that means
From reader S.B. in Atlanta, Ga.
"noble." The modern name of

A: There was never a need to
look to the Joys of Yiddish to
begin with. Could you possibly
have a reason for turning to
someone like Leo Rosten — OK,
so the guy has had a few books
published on the subject —
when you have Tell Me Why,
which is the greatest expert on
every subject in the entire uni-
verse? I think not, my fine
friend. I think not.
For this question, Tell Me
Why turned to world-renowned
Yiddish scholar Phillip Apple-
baum. He offered this insight-
ful information regarding
Yiddish and terms for kinship:
The prefix "great" used with
ancestry is elter. Thus, great-
grandfather is elterzaydeh, and
great-grandniother is elter-
bobeh. The same word also is
used for great-aunt or great-un-
cle. But first — keep in mind
that many Yiddish speakers
use both the German and Yid-
dish terms for these relation-
ships. The Yiddish word for
aunt is mumeh and uncle is fet-
ter, and the German words are
tante and onkel. So a great-
aunt would be elter-
mumeh or eltertante, and
great-uncle would be
elterfetter or elteronkel.
The prefix "great"
for progeny is ur.
This would make a
great-grandchild an
ureynikl (either a
male or fe-
male grand-
child is an

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eynikl).

Yes, people in the
shtetl had second
marriages, and
parents end-
), ed up with
stepchildren,
which resulted
in stepbrothers and stepsisters,
stepparents and stepgrand-
parents. The operative Yiddish
word for "step" is shtif, pro-
nounced "shteef." Thus, a
stepbrother is shtifbruder; step-
mother is shtifmameh; step-
grandfather is shtifzaydeh and
so on.

(,,'t

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