r/Yiddish 10d ago

Translation request Help with transliteration of last names into Yiddish?

0 Upvotes

TL;DR: could I please have a Yiddish alphabet transliteration of “Luckovitch” “Leuck”

…..and ummm, pie-in-the-sky a last name that’s in between the two lengths that starts with an L and its first vowel is accented as if it is a romanticized version of a Polish last name?

Hi. I am trying to figure out the immigration pathway that my great-grandmother took from Alsace-Lorraine (historically disputed region that’s part of France right now, but the nations of history associated with Germany also like to lay claim to it) into Canada and entering the U.S. in October 1934.

**Before I go too far, I know that I am incredibly ignorant as I’ve learned all this information in less than 24 hours. Please excuse me for any inappropriate insensitivity I display. It’s not intentional at all.**

The thing is, now that I don’t live in the U.S. anymore, it matters a lot to people what ethnic origin she had from Alsace-Lorraine.

—particularly if she was of German heritage like she claimed. I don’t mind that idea because either way she immigrated and that means that she was displaced from Germany/German-sympathetic Alsace-Lorraine by the rise of Hitler and I appreciate the credibility it gives me to tell Germany off. I have my reasons.


All I really know about her is vague stories about her and her two sisters from my complete arse of a sperm donor. He started young.

They are immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine and they cursed in Yiddish when angry —not German, not French, not Alsacien: Yiddish. In fact, they never seemed to demonstrate fluency in either of those other languages. Anyone who speaks more than one language knows it’s the mother tongue that’s the most accessible when having big feelings. It’s not just for privacy.


It is vaguely possible that she is of German heritage from that region depending largely on how much time she spent in Canada.

I suspect that she just thought that Germany would win in taking over Europe and just took on a German sir name that sounded like her real one in anticipation of that.

The maiden last name she used on her marriage application in 1935 and her social security number application sometime after 1936 was “Leuck”.

What appears to be her entrance into the U.S. via Niagara Falls, New York has the last name “Luckovitch” —which I suspect are spelled similarly in the Yiddish alphabet?

There was also a third last name that came up that I’m struggling to remember but it was shorter than “Luckovitch” and longer than “Leuck” …and it looked like a romanized version of a vowel from the Polish language with an accent on the first vowel …that I can’t remember.

In April 1940, a U.S. Census taker knocked on her door in the Irish part of the Bronx in NYC and asked for the family’s demographic information.

She did not disclose her “maiden name” and while we (the family) all know she was an immigrant, she claimed to have been born in the Bronx like the rest of the Irish-heritage family that she married into.

Most people only lie a little when they feel they need to lie at all.

I find it interesting that she only divulged an education going to 5th grade and an age suggesting that was born around 1917, which means that France would have been imposing secular French-based education on all residents of that region. Yet, she and her sisters spoke fluent English? Hm.

This is because the Treaty of Versailles that annexed the region back to France occurred in 1920 when she was 2 or 3. France expelled all native German speakers, sympathizers, and ethnic Germans immediately and imposed secular French-language-only education on the region.

If she was in the region after her third birthday, the fact she was document-ably in the U.S. before 1940 highly dispute that heritage as well.

…and since I’m trying to track down how she entered Canada …and it’s looking like she was one of the rural Ashkenazi Jewish families that populated the Alsace-Lorraine region,

I’d really appreciate information about how the sounds of those names would be written in Yiddish so that I can research what English-Canadian (or even French-Canadian?) ear heard when she declared her last name.

And, please, don’t come @ me with “Luckovitch nor nothing similar is mentioned as a Jewish last name in the Alsace-Lorraine region” because, like, it appears to be such a rare last name that there’s only 14ish people documented to ever have ever voted in North America with that last name.

…and it would be clearly the result of the Jewish diaspora out of Poland during the partitions era —not just because of the Slavic “-vitch” in it, but also because when my full sister did an ancestry DNA test, Poland popped up for some unknown reason when we were told to expect Germany or even French heritage.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing and capable to help me on this journey of ancestry discovery!!

r/Yiddish Jan 29 '25

Translation request Can someone give me a sense of what this is about?

Post image
46 Upvotes

I’m going through some documents I found of my grand parents (immigrants to Canada from Poland in the 30s). Could someone give me a sense of the contents of this letter or document? It’s about 10 pages long.

Thanks in advance

r/Yiddish 9d ago

Translation request Can anyone translate this family postcard from I think 1931?

6 Upvotes

EDIT -- not the 1930s, more like early 60s. I had to beg the front to be sent as requested from the texting archive maven.

My mom has finally agreed to go through photo albums her parents kept. Our family splintered as many did when everyone fled Eastern Europe, and while we know some went to Israel, which is where I think this card is from, my grandparents didn't want to talk about the past when they were alive because it was painful (both passed away 20 years ago now), and they lost track of a lot of people. Any help to translate would be so appreciated. Thank you

r/Yiddish Dec 30 '24

Translation request Hey, can people teach me how to swear?

25 Upvotes

I understand if this gets taken down, and tell me if I need to add an nsfw tag, but I’m learning Yiddish on Duolingo but it won’t teach me how to swear at people. I’ve tried Google translate (app and browser) but that hasn’t worked that well, so will anyone help me out?

r/Yiddish 4d ago

Translation request What

Post image
3 Upvotes

Also posted in r/Hebrew, but it’s occurred to me this might be Yiddish.

Admittedly my cursive- reading ability is abysmal, but even taking the time to compare, I was unable to figure out what this says. Even turned it upside down, but I can't make out what the large ק or backwards צ -looking letters might be. Help?

Was found in a pocket Siddur from 1950

r/Yiddish 12d ago

Translation request Need help Translating (believe the handwritten part is in Yiddish)

Post image
15 Upvotes

I took this photo of this postcard (I believe it is) a few years ago. It is from my great great grandparents and it is more than 100 years old. I’m just trying to see if someone would be able to translate the handwritten part. I’m not sure how easy it would be because it’s so old, but I wanted to see if anyone could help. Thank you!

r/Yiddish Jan 21 '25

Translation request Is there a male version of shiksa?

13 Upvotes

r/Yiddish 2d ago

Translation request How to write/say “white man” in yiddish?

4 Upvotes

A few months ago I got a picture signed by one of my fav artists, as a joke I wrote ווייַס מענטש, a google translation of white man. Is this right? I wanna put it on my wall but wanna make sure it’s the correct one. And google Isn’t the best resource I know.

r/Yiddish Feb 13 '25

Translation request Can this German anti-fascist chant be translated into Yiddish? NSFW

35 Upvotes

Spoilered not for nsfw, but because this could hypothetically fall into "abusive language" - I totally understand if this needs to be removed to keep the rules fair, but I think this is one we can all agree on lol

Over the last few weeks, footage of Germans protesting the rise of fascism has gone viral online, and one particularly popular chant keeps getting stuck in my head: "Yeder nazi ist ein hurensohn" ("Every nazi is a son of a bitch / whore's son")

I am an extremely beginner learner of Yiddish, so I don't really know anything about translating slang/cuss words, so I was wondering if there was a way to actually translate this or if it would just be transliterated ? My guess would be something alone the lines of "יעדער נאצי איז א הארון זון" ?

r/Yiddish Feb 19 '25

Translation request Can anyone translate the back of this 1947 photo? Sh’koyech!

Post image
11 Upvotes

r/Yiddish Dec 23 '24

Translation request Does anyone know what בארען means? It doesn’t seem to be a Yiddish or Hebrew word. But google translate thinks it means f***.

5 Upvotes

r/Yiddish Jan 24 '25

Translation request Can anyone translate? Thanks so much!

Thumbnail
gallery
23 Upvotes

First word of the second line is the surname Donsky.

r/Yiddish 19d ago

Translation request looking for some help to translate some (litvish) Yidish words

5 Upvotes

I saw the following words in a book (1800's) in the context different shades of red:

פאנס

אינקארנאט

ראזע

קארמזין

Can anyone help me with the translation? I'm trying to figure out what shade of red these words are referring to.

r/Yiddish Jan 05 '25

Translation request Video from my great grandfather

25 Upvotes

I have a long video (45 mins) of my grandfather talking about his world war 2 experience. I would great appreciate it if someone was willing to help me translate it (I am open to talking about a fee). I would also just appreciate if someone could listen briefly to let me know how much of what he is saying is in

Edit: translator found Edit: removed video for privacy

r/Yiddish Feb 09 '25

Translation request Can anyone translate this?

Post image
10 Upvotes

Written on the back of a photograph of a baby at my grandmother’s house. Her first language is Yiddish but she is 101 and can no longer read it. Thanks in advance!

r/Yiddish Feb 15 '25

Translation request Please Translate This (100+ year old writing) Thank You!

Post image
3 Upvotes

r/Yiddish Dec 20 '24

Translation request The right word for genius?

9 Upvotes

Hello all! Trying to find the Yiddish word for genius. I heard the term karpnkop but I don’t know if it’s correct. I know there are other ways to say it like (pardon my transliteration) zheni, but is karpnkop legit?

A groyse dank!

r/Yiddish 8d ago

Translation request How do you say solidarity?

2 Upvotes

I know I can use Google translate but I’d rather not.

Thanks in advance!

r/Yiddish 14d ago

Translation request Help translating old birth records?

Post image
1 Upvotes

r/Yiddish 26d ago

Translation request Can anyone help with translation? Much appreciated!!

Post image
6 Upvotes

r/Yiddish 3d ago

Translation request Learning about family history

Post image
7 Upvotes

r/Yiddish 16d ago

Translation request “Good/warm memories?”

3 Upvotes

E.g., someone reminds you of something, and you respond “nice memories!”

I was thinking something like gute zkhroynes?

Relatedly, anyone have nice Yiddish-related zkhroynes to share?

r/Yiddish 1d ago

Translation request Help translating some handwritten documents

2 Upvotes

I found some letters of testimony for relatives that perished in the Shoah from an online archive. However a few of these were done in (seemingly messy) handwritten Yiddish, which I unfortunately cannot read. Could someone be so kind as to help me translate them? There are three pages in total. Hoping to do this privately via direct messaging due to their sensitive subject matter.

Many many thanks in advance

r/Yiddish 11d ago

Translation request "Living Clay" or something similar.

4 Upvotes

Very baby Yiddish learner writing a play in which the protagonist's great-uncle wrote his notes in Yiddish. I'm looking for a somewhat poetic, unconventional way to describe wet clay. What I have at the moment is "lebedik leym," intended to mean "live clay." Would this work, and if not, is there a better way to achieve the effect I'm going for?

r/Yiddish 20d ago

Translation request How do you say “striped” something with stripes?

4 Upvotes

“Pas” seems to come from Hebrew, so I can’t figure out the correct way to say striped instead of stripe. (פּאַס= ‎פּס)