The luck of the Yiddish
On a recent Chanukah visit to Monsey, N.Y., we discovered “Gelt.”
Not the chocolate coins, but rather the Yiddish-language children’s game, which is popular in the area’s chasidic communities.
The game takes players through a month; it has 30 spaces, one for every day, divided into rows for weeks and columns for days. Players land on spaces and follow instructions — on difference spaces they can draw “post” and “mitzvah” cards (modeled on Monopoly’s “chance” and “community chest,”) receive gelt, or follow other directions written on the board in Yiddish that exceeds our narrow vocabulary.
But wait. Is that a green-clad leprechaun on the cover of the game?
Why yes it is.
But look closely. On the first square of the game board itself, the leprechaun boasts a respectable, if decidedly un-Irish, set of peyos.
Gevalt!
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