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Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
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There's an old song--"Sign, sign, everywhere the sign...do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?"
STARTING IN ABOUT 1906, ENTERPRISING INDIVIDUALS WOULD POST SIGNS ON THEIR DOORS WHICH READ:
LETTERS TO THE BINTEL BRIEF WRITTEN HERE.
25 - 50 CENTS.
OTHERS--MEN AND WOMEN--WENT TO THE EDITORIAL OFFICE OF THE FORWARD TO ASK THAT SOMEONE WRITE A LETTER FOR THEM ABOUT THEIR PROBLEMS.
TODAY, DUE TO THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, WE KNOW THAT WE'RE IN A PERIOD OF "GEFERLECH"/"GEFERLEKH" (dangerous) LIVING. The signs read:
WARNING: OBAMACARE MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.
(A Times Square billboard sponsored by the Heritage Foundation)YOSEMITE PARK CLOSED
SHUTDOWN THE SHUTDOWN
(protests in Kansas City, MO)
"Geb a kuk" (Give a look) at the signs posted in your "cheder" (elementary school), bank, klayder (clothing) store, "shpitol (hospital), etc. Some are"komish"--funny--while others are meant to scare ("ibershrekn").
TEMPLE BETH AM posted this sign:
DO NOT TAKE THIS
FLYER DOWN
THERE IS A VERY
ANGRY HORNET
HIDING BEHIND IT
WHO WILL STING
YOU IN THE NECK
OH GOD SEE
THAT BULGE
RIGHT THERE
THAT'S HIM.
A Brooklyn Orthodox Jewish retail shop that require "modesty" of their customers, posted this sign in their window:
NO SHORTS, NO BAREFOOT, NO SLEEVELESS,
NO LOW CUT NECKLINE
ALLOWED IN THIS STORE.
The city argues that the signs are discriminatory against women, non-Jews and the non-religious by making them feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in the Lee Avenue stores.
A grocery store in Manhattan hung a sign that said:
ENGLISH ONLY ZONE
Three of the signs are inside the Jubilee Store, and are directed toward its employees. After Eyewitness News spoke with the manager, saying that some customers were offended by the signs, he took all of them down.
Hank Adams, a customer, said,"I don't think a sign like that has a place in New York City; we're too diverse a culture here at this point. We can all live with multiple languages and we can all figure it out."
Then there's the headline, "City Sues Satmar Hasid-Owned Stores Over Modesty signs." Customers at Satmar-run stores in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, require their shoppers to adhere to specific rules about dress. The signs are "pretty specific to women," according to Clifford Molqueen, deputy commissioner and general counsel to the human rights commission.
Marc Stern, a civil rights expert, says that businesses are allowed to set dress codes. Private clubs in Manhattan requires all guests in attendance to wear a shirt and shoes at all times. If you walked into some private clubs in Manhattan in shorts and a halter top, you would be tackled by the doorman. Some restaurants, in fact, kept a few spare sport coats handy on a rack just in case some boorish individual came to the door without one. And the management at Barclay Center, Brooklyn, reserves the right to deny entry to guests wearing clothing items displaying offensive text and/or images.
In 2012, the New York Post ran this headline:
IT'S ‘VEY' OUT OF LINE - FURY AT HASIDIC BIZ DRESS CODES
When a Post reporter visited Lee Avenue in a sleeveless dress, some store owners stared at her shoulders, while others refused to look her in the face.
And then there's the fake synagogue marquee sign:
BETH SHOLOM SYNAGOGUE
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
PLEASE VOTE
FOR THE SHVARTZEH!
On Oct. 12, 2008, A congregant came up to Rabbi Jason Miller on Yom Kippur to ask if he'd seen the above-shown sign. The sign ISN'T located anywhere in "di velt" (the world). It's a fake photo created with software. There are blank church sign templets which allow people to enter whatever they like for the church/synagogue/mosque. Someone created the sign board...and chose to e-mail it to a lot of Jewish people on Rosh Hashanah.
As we all know, the word "shvartzeh" means black or Negro. It is also cryptonyms for black servants, employs, customers, etc. Gill Mann feels the same about terms like "shikse," "shagetz" and "goyim"--they should not be used.
Another fake sign read:
BETH SHOLOM SYNAGOGUE
MADOFF BRIS TODAY
NOT JUST THE FORESKIN
THE WHOLE SCHMCK
NO ANESTHESIA. FUN FOR ALL.
Yes, Madoff is a "gonif"/"ganef"--a thief. "Er iz mir a beyn in haldz." (He's a bone in my throat.)
Other signs of the times:
| pet shop | "If your bag or purse is big enough to stuff a cat in, you must check it behind the counter. (Cats stolen before the sign was posted: 3. Cats stolen after the sign was posted: 0.) |
| street person | "ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE ME MONEY OR SHOULD I FAKE A LIMP?" "DESPERATE NEED OF HAIR WEAVE. PLEASE HELP." |
| restaurant ("restoran") | "IF YOU NEED A SALT SHAKER, WE BUY THEM AT WALMART AND YOU CAN, TOO, INSTEAD OF STEALING OURS." |
| beach ("plazhe") | "THIEVES GO TO THE BEACH, TOO. KEEP YOUR BELONGINGS SAFE." |
| office ("byuro") | "I KNOW THE DOW JUST DROPPED 600 PTS, BUT PLEASE DON'T EAT LUNCHES THAT ARE NOT YOURS." |
| beauty parlor ("sheynkayt-salon) | "THANK YOU FOR NOT KVETCHING." |
| Elderhostel course description: | "MINK. SHMINK: THE INFLUENCE OF YIDDISH ON AMERICA." (2001) |
| movie theater marquee (Flushing, Queens, 1993) | NOW PLAYING THE OY LUCK CLUB |
| yard sign | "I'M NOT RETIRED. I'M A PROFESSIONAL ZEYDE." |
| restaurant sign, Singer Island, Florida |
"SUNDAY BRUNCH INCLUDES SNOW CRAB LEGS AND A RAW BAR. ALL THIS FOR $19.95. THAT'S BUPKES FOR THIS FEAST." |
| theatre sign: | "CHU CHEM - THE 1st CHINESE JEWISH MUSICAL" |
| magazine ("zhurnal") New York Magazine, 9/23/13 |
The approval Matrix listed the following under "Brilliant" ("brilyant"): "Your landlady hears you shtupping! And other lessons in apartment-building sex in Amy Grace Loyd's, "The Affairsof Others." |
| theatre review: | "FARBLONDJET, Oct. 15 - Nov. 19, by Jeremy Kareken. "Farblondjet shows the story of a young man as he looks for love amongst the ruins of a dying civilization, the Jewish Catskills. There, he finds the one love he can not have, the father he never liked and a whole list of tsuris, mishugas, and maybe a shtup or two." |
| elevator ("der lift") | This sign appeared in a NYC elevator: DEAR FLOOR #2 |
And Newsday reported (6/28/13) that "Sabbath Rules Spur Elevator Dispute." Residents of a six-story Manhattan building are in a fight over a slow ("pamelekh") elevator.
Elderly Orthodox Jewish residents want one of two elevators slowed down on Friday nights and Saturdays to help comply with rules of not operating machinery on the Sabbath.
But rent-stabilized tenants in 33 of the 86 apartments at 10 W. 65th St. said the loss of 83 seconds is not acceptable.
The state authority that regulates rents sided with the elderly tenants in April. But the building's landlord, Touro College, said that ruling violates civil rights laws and has sued the agency. Touro rents about half of the units to observant Jewish students.
The Division of Housing and Community Renewal declined to comment.
| cemetery ("beys-oylem") | A cemetery posted the following sign: DRIVE CAREFULLY - WE CAN WAIT. |
And, last, but not least, a billboard sign on a highway ("shosey") outside of Austin, Texas, said: |
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| "NOBODY READS BILLBOARDS... BUT YOU JUST DID!" |
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