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PERSIAN SERVICE: THE IRANIAN PEOPLE DO
WEAR “BLEKHENE HEYZN” (JEANS)!
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
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Note: "Blekhene heyzn" means "work pants" or jeans.
Jewishpress.com (10/7/13) reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is not "perfekt" (perfect). But, don't worry. "Alts vet zikh oysglaykhn"--Everything will smooth itself out.
Netanyahu told BBC's Persian service, "I think if the Iranian people had freedom, they would wear jeans, listen to Western music, and have free elections."
Pictures and tweets from Iran flooded the "internets" (internet). Many "yung" (young) Iranians say that they indeed wear jeans. One offered to send a photo to Netanyahu if his spies in Iran didn't see people who wear jeans and listen to Western songs by their iPhone. (BTW, the Yiddish word for spy is "shpyon").
Mohamed Nezamabdi, a student at Tehran University, tweeted, "Not only we wear jeans, but also listen to foreign language musics [sic]! I bet he thinks that we ride horses instead of cars."
IF Netanyahu had said, "If Iranian women were free, they would not have to cover their hair and walk in public in loose clothing," he would have been on safer ground.
Casual dress--like jeans--made the news back in 2007. Israel's parliament unleashed "di mode" (fashion) police ahead of the opening of its annual "vinter" (winter) session, saying visitors wearing "unbecoming attire" would be barred from entering.
The order appeared to be aimed specifically at the local media and parliamentary staffers. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office issued a similar ("enlekh") dress code after a female journalist arrived at a news conference in a skin-baring top.
Shelly Yachimovich, a lawmaker, told Army Radio that one of her male staffers was barred from entering the Knesset early Monday because he was wearing jeans.
"Entrance to the Knesset will be barred to anyone wearing unbecoming attire, such as sleeveless T-shirts, short pants, jeans, and, for women, short T-shirts that expose the midriff." (Source: miamiherald.com)
And, in 1977, three Israeli brothers--Joe, Ralph, and Avi Nakash--bought television time to hype their own brand of jeans, called Jordache, BEFORE THEY'D EVEN MADE ANY. The ploy worked BIG!
Back in the States, some said that George W. Bush looked better and far more comfortable in his trim-fitting cowboy jeans--often accessorized with a big, "zilber" (silver) buckled belt--than he did in a suit. And when Bush wore jeans, his secret agents looked like fashion twins. The agents coordinated their wardrobes.
Ronald Reagan looked straight out of central casting in his denim, sometimes topped off with a jauntily cocked cowboy "hut" (hat). And back then you didn't buy your jeans pre-distressed.
A few years ago, a number of people began "kritikirn" (to criticize) President Barack Obama for the high-waisted, rumpled, baggy Levis, he donned to throw out the first pitch at Major League Baseball's All-Star Game in St. Louis. Obama admitted to "Today" show anchor, Meredith Vieira, "I'm a little frumpy, I hate to shop, those jeans are comfortable. I'm sorry I'm not the guy. (His pants were dubbed "mom jeans.")
And so, Prime Minister Netanyahu should remember this Yiddish proverb:
"Az me redt, derredt men zich." (If you keep on talking, you will end up
saying what you didn't intend to say.)
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MARJORIE WOLFE REMEMBERS being called a "Bunionette"--
(Rich Hall "Sniglet")
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