all definitions are mine unless stated otherwise – for this reason definitions will largely NOT be transliterations.
for now i’m only going to include words that may be hard/confusing to look up online. will be continuously updated.
if u would like a word added to this, pls let me know!
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- Ashke: plural “ashk’im”. hebrew. colloquial short-form of “ashkenazi”/”ashkenazim”
- Ashkenazi: plural “ashkenazim”. hebrew. jews who settled around central + eastern europe post-galut. not quite an ethnicity, the categorization of “ashkenazi” relates to specific cultural + religious practices (within the religion of judaism, ex: singing different tunes for prayers, etc) developed by jews in these areas. * * ashkenazi jews are not descendents of khazar converts, nor are they white/european converts, nor are all ashkenazim white-passing. the majority of ashkenazi jews are genetically levantine mixed with european. * *
- Ashkenormativity: a north american phenomenon in which askhenazi jewish identity is centralized and the ashke historical narrative dominates over all others. (in the future i will link to a more detailed exploration of the term and why it exists)
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- Galut: hebrew. literally “exile”, the most common english translation is “diaspora”
- Goy: plural “goyim”. hebrew. a non-jew. original hebrew translates to “of the nations”. NOT A SLUR, NOT DEROGATORY.
- Goyische: yiddish. of non-jews, not jewish.
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- Mizrahi: plural “mizrahim”. hebrew. jews who remained in the MENA region post-galut (though it is disputed whether or not “mizrahi” applies to maghrebi jews…jewish identity is NOT linear or simple). not quite an ethnicity, mizrahim used to be considered sephardim because of their similar (not same) cultural + religious practices (as opposed to those of ashkenazim).
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- Queerkeit: yiddish. “queer things”
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- Sephardi/Sfaradi: plural sephardim/sfaradim. hebrew. (english adjective: sephardic) jews who settled around andalucia + the iberian peninsula post-galut. not quite an ethnicity, the categorization of “sephardi” relates to specific cultural + religious practices (within the religion of judaism, ex: singing different tunes for prayers, etc) developed by jews in these areas.
- Shoah/HaShoah: hebrew. “the catastrophe” – the holocaust.
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- Yiddish: yiddish. literally “jewish,” this is the name of the language developed by jews in eastern europe. can be understood as “judeo-german,” it is a germanic base including some hebrew language that is written in a modified hebrew script. ashkenazi hebrew is essentially hebrew spoken with yiddish pronounciation. historically there were at least several different dialects of yiddish, but after the murder of most of the world’s diverse yiddish speakers during ha shoah (the holocaust) klal-sprach (german dialect) has been standardized.
- Yiddishkeit: yiddish. “jewish things”
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feigeleh 