I'm Yiddish

Back in '10, or so, I had to call a locksmith to the house. A young woman drove up in a van, showed me her ID badge, and proceeded to work on my lock. Her first name was Tahel, Yael, or something to that effect. Her last name was nothing ending in 'stein,' or 'berg,' it was absolutely a Hebrew-looking name.

So I said to her "Wow, you must be Israeli, you have a beautiful name." Her reply, in a beautiful accent was something like, "Thank you for not thinking I'm Jewish. My name is Hebrew, but I'm not Jewish. Not everybody from Israel is Jewish, you know." 

I replied, "Well, my last name is German, but the Germans tell me it's Jewish." I showed her my ID, and she immediately said, "Your name is not German, it's Yiddish."

I remarked, "Hmmm, I thought Yiddish was a dialect of Hebrew and not associated with family names." Her reply was along the lines of "No, no, that's where you're wrong. Everybody thinks that, and they're all wrong." 


Anyhow, very interesting conversation ensued between she and I, and I was better educated. Nice woman.


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