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FORMER "SHEYN" WOMEN?
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
The Yiddish word for beautiful is "sheyn."
A pretty girl is a "sheyn meydl."
There's a song titled, "Sheyn Bin Ikh Sheyn,"
which was recorded n the Vangard record.
The lyrics in English:
Pretty am I,
pretty,
Pretty is my name.
They propose the
finest of matches for me.
Even to a rabbi.
One who knows the Torah
Is very important -
And now my mother
thinks of me
As a blooming rose.
The newspapers have been reporting about
a website named BeautifulPeople.com.
This site has been described as an "elite
online club, where every member works the
door." To become a member, applicants are
required to be voted in by existing members of the "heypekh" (opposite) sex. Should
applicants secure enough positive votes from members, they will be granted
a full membership. BeautifulPeople.com has
become a global phenomenon.
The site claims to have a strict ban on "ugly people" ("mies"/"mieskayt" in Yiddish). They took drastic action after users posted photos of themselves celebrating Christmas [2009] and the New Year - revealing that they had "let themselves go."
If Golda Meir, the Iron Lady of the Middle East, were alive today, would she be granted a full membership in BeautifulPeople.com?
Ralph G. Martin ("Golda - Golda Meir: The Romantic Years"), wrote, "That was the single great surprise for me in this book-- Golda's beauty as a young woman, that full firm figure, the long lustrous hair, the magnetic sparkle, the way she threw her head back when she laughed." As an adult, few people would have described Golda as "sheyn."
Brains or Beauty? Shouldn't Golda be given credit for her wit? When the Israeli Cabinet was trying to deal with a series of assaults on women, one Minister suggested that women should not be allowed on the streets after dark. Golda protested: "Men are attacking the women, not the other way around. If there is going to be a curfew, let the men be locked up, not the women."
Would Gertrude Berg (Molly Goldberg) have been accepted by BeautifulPeople.com? This unpretentious, "zoftic," friendly, approachable Bronx housewife, told syndicated columnist, Hal Bogle [1950], "If I were glamorous, women wouldn't like me at all."
Hilda Kassell of the American Hebrew and Jewish Tribune, described Berg as a "soft, matronly, kindly type of woman who is good-looking enough to be representative of the more attractive type of Jewish woman." Glenn D. Smith, Jr., wrote, "Remember, Berg controlled her image and the role she played in creating and cultivating the Molly Goldberg persona."
Would a woman who wears an apron and speaks with a thick Yiddish accent, be considered "sheyn"?
Rebecca Honig Friedman [www.Jewess.canonist.com] wrote an article titled, "Should Jewish Women Look Frumpy or Hot?" She said, "...the Bible also depicts physical beauty as a liability. Abraham and Isaac, while traveling through foreign lands, both fear that their beautiful wives, Sarah and Rebecca, will be coveted by strange men, and that those covetous men might attempt to take what they want and kill the women's husbands."
Friedman continues, "Then, of course, there is Esther, who, by being beautiful, was able to win the love of the Persian King Ahashverosh and thus save the Jewish people from near-certain slaughter. Woe unto the Jewish people if Esther had been ugly!"
What advice do I have for BeautifulPeople. com?
"Me darf nit zayn sheyn; me darf hobn
kheyn."
(You don't have to be pretty if you have
charm.)
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Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe is the author of
two books:
"Yiddish for Dog & Cat Lovers" and
"Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction? Yiddish
Trivia." To order a copy, go to her
website: MarjorieGottliebWolfe.com
NU, what are you waiting for? Order the book!
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