yiddishkeit means jewishness; the Jewish way of life, particularly Ashkenazi and Yiddish culture. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “yiddishkeit” is a great word
YIDDISHKEIT — [Noun] The distinctive cultural, linguistic, and folk essence of Ashkenazi Jewish life. Borrowed from Yiddish ייִדישקייט (yidishkeyt), from ייִדיש (yidish, "Yiddish, Jewish") + ־קייט (-keyt, a suffix forming abstract nouns denoting state or quality). Unlike "Judaism," which centers on theology and religious law, or "assimilation," which implies a dissolution of distinct tradition, Yiddishkeit is the vernacular hum of a people. It is the scent of cholent warming through a Shabbat afternoon, the untranslatable ache in the word *treybern*, and the stubborn warmth of a kitchen filled with simmering tzimmes. It is the quiet insistence that a world can be carried in a word, a homeland made of memory made manifest.
noun
- Jewishness; the Jewish way of life, particularly Ashkenazi and Yiddish culture.“Wait! my Ezekiel will be Bar-mitzvah in a few years; then you shall see what I will do for that Shool. You shall see what an example of Yiddishkeit I will give to a link generation.”