Why There Are More Yiddish Idioms in Israeli Hebrew than in American English

By the time Yiddish-speakers arrived in America and pre-state Palestine, English already had a rich vernacular, while Hebrew had none at all.

Got a question for Philologos? Ask him directly at philologos@mosaicmagazine.com.

Mosaic reader Aaron M. Lampert writes:

There is an Israeli expression zeh lo holekh b’regel, “it doesn’t go on foot,” that is used to describe a significant achievement. I’ve been told that it originates in the Yiddish idiom s’geyt nisht tsu fus, which means the same thing, but where does that come from?

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Got a question for Philologos? Ask him directly at philologos@mosaicmagazine.com.

Mosaic reader Aaron M. Lampert writes:

There is an Israeli expression zeh lo holekh b’regel, “it doesn’t go on foot,” that is used to describe a significant achievement. I’ve been told that it originates in the Yiddish idiom s’geyt nisht tsu fus, which means the same thing, but where does that come from?

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