Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s use of a Yiddish cuss word against Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has gotten him in trouble not just with Clinton’s camp, but also with Yiddish speakers in the United States.
Trump said during a campaign rally that in the 2008 Democratic primaries, Clinton “got schlonged” by Barack Obama, using a Yiddish term for a man’s genitals.
He later defended his comments, taking to Twitter and writing, “Once again, #MSM (mainstream media – ed.) is dishonest. ‘Schlonged’ is not vulgar. When I said Hillary got ‘schlonged’ that meant beaten badly.”
But the controversy did not end there, as Trump was the talk of the Yiddish festival in New York City on Thursday, where many participants were stunned by his “chutzpah” – another Yiddish word, meaning “audacity” and not always in the positive connotation.
According to CNN, attendees at the Yiddish New York cultural event had choice words for the Republican presidential candidate.
“It’s really perverse. It’s a filthy word in this context,” said Bob Blacksberg, a clarinetist who plays Klezmer music along with two of his sons.
“Everything he says is disgusting and he intends it to be disgusting,” said Miriam Isaacs, a Yiddish professor and linguist who is teaching a workshop at the festival.
“So often Yiddish is the butt of jokes or silly words. I have little patience for that anymore,” she added, noting she hopes to bring greater awareness to the rich traditions attached to the language during the festival, particularly after the Trump controversy.
Joanne Borts, a singer and actor who is a faculty member at Yiddish New York, told CNN that Trump doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of “schlong.” Nevertheless, “if he was trying to be offensive and pejorative, then he sort of did a good job,” Borts said.
Meanwhile, Aaron Blacksberg, an accordionist who is performing Klezmer music with his father at the festival, had a response for Trump with a Yiddish phrase of his own – the one meaning “go defecate in the ocean or the sea.”
We’ll let you look up the Yiddish for that one on your own, but Blacksberg did stress to CNN, “It’s not a nice thing to say, just to be clear about that.”
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