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Leo Rosten ("The New Joys of Yiddish") explains the meaning of a "sheyner Yid": Literally, sheyner Yid means "beautiful Jew," but the phrase is used not as a comment on physical attractiveness, but to praise personal character, rectitude, and Yiddishkayt ("Jewishness").
New York City resident--and "kinstler" (artist), Jason Shelowitz-- is an "etiket" (etiquette) maven. He's putting up signs that encourage New Yorkers to do, instead of don't."
We've always had signs that read:
Don't Walk
Don't Block
Don't Spit ("shpayen" means to spit)
Don't flick Your Butts on the Ground,
Put Them Out and Throw Them in
the Trash
What signs encourage New Yorkers to 'do', instead of 'don't.' One reads:
Clean Up After Your Horse Pay Attention While Walking Your Facebook Status Update Can Wait [and my favorite] Pull Up Your Pants - No One Wants To See Your Underwear
Note: Zane Tankel, who owns 34 Applebee's franchises, says that when he opens a restaurant and is interviewing, we will have guys show up with their pants hanging below their crotch, and their hat on sideways. The recruiters will say to them, "If you're here for a job, go home and get dressed like you're applying for a job, then come back."
Shelowitz's plan is to spread these signs across the five boroughs; right now he only has about 40 of them.
Shelowitz says, "I don't think I'm going to change the world but if people laugh ("lakhn") or smile ("shmeykhl") when they see these [signs] then that's cool."
Laughing is exactly what people are doing, especially when they see the sign that shows a man walking with his jeans hanging below his buttocks ("tokhes") and the sign reads:
Pull Up Your Pants, No One Wants to See Your Underwear.
Shelowitz has a Master's Degree in Communications Design from Pratt Institute.
In 2010, when he was 30 years old, he launched a guerrilla "Subway Etiquette" poster campaign. Yes, he was fed up with irritating "unterban" (subway) behavior: (nail-clipping, noise-pollution, seat-hogs, stair-blockers, butt-touchers, and open-mouth coughers.)
He wrote rules about them, too.
RELIGION
Sure, we have freedom of speech in this great country. That doesn't mean that people want to be preached to when they are trapped in a Subway car. Everyone has a different religion & beliefs. Please keep it to yourself, false prophets.
HYGIENE
If you cough or sneeze, cover it up with the inside of your arm. Don't cover with your hand and then grab the pole. It's nasty and you are spreading your germs. If you are really sick, try and avoid the Subway all together. Also, keep your finger out of your nose. Please.
Note: Jason used double-sided tape to hang his signs so that there's no "shmutz" (mess) when the signs are removed.
Yes, Jason is being embraced by the masses for his "gut" (good) deed and public art project. He is a "sheyner Yid."
--------------------------------------------
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe's favorite subway
sign was for Dr. Jonathan Zizmor, The
Subway Doctor. Zizmor is probably one of
the hundred most recognizable New Yorkers. His "punim" (face) was plastered
across one out of every five subway cars
behind a rainbow background that
immediately catches your "oyg" (eye). He's the former Chief of Dermatology at St.
Vincent's Hospital and has authored many books on skin care. He was also named
one of the ten best doctors in America by
Harper's Bazaar.
Yes, just one commercial shot on a hand- held camera made him as iconic of a New Yorker as Tom Carvel. He took a lot of heat when his subway ads appeared. [referring to his fellow doctors], "No one was even advertising."
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