Comments on: American Apparel has a Spiritual Leader

By: narcsblog ›

narcsblog › — Wed, 06 May 2009 02:29:45 +0000

[...] “Woody Allen is our spiritual leader.” (American Apparel spokeswoman Alexandra Spunt via jewlicious ) so If they succeed in proving his name is mud, does that means that they at American Apparel [...]

By: IP Osgoode » The Commercial Value of Woody Allen’s Image

IP Osgoode » The Commercial Value of Woody Allen’s Image — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:06:37 +0000

[...] The billboards featured a still shot from Allen’s film Annie Hall of him dressed as a Hasidic Jew with the phrase “the Holy Rebbe” written in Yiddish above Allen’s image and the words “American Apparel” written in English beside his image (photos of the billboards can be seen here and here). [...]

By: froylein

froylein — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:22:21 +0000

Yoni, the thing is that neither German nor Yiddish, unlike all other Indo-European languages, pronounce voiced consonants at the end of a word, so words ending in -g are pronounced as if they were ending in -k. Since Yiddish words of German origin are just transliterated, different ways of spelling may occur. Words ending in -ig though, as long as they are not followed by a suffix, are pronounced like /ich/ (the pronunciation /ik/ is improper); the voiced -g- is pronounced if a suffix follows. Since Middle High German as well as those dialects were Yiddish originated use a soft or even voiced consonant sound at the end of “heilig”, the -g is indeed the more accurate way to go. When klal sprakh, the attempt at a standardized Yiddish never really acceptd by native speakers, was created, its “makers” tried to get as far away with its spelling from the German versions as possible so it wouldn’t resemble German too much. This inevitably made for the mutilation of spelling and even pronunciation as many nowaday native speakers of Yiddish only are third-generation speakers of it.

By: The Rebbe Sues:

The Rebbe Sues: — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:58:53 +0000

[...] has a more adversarial reading of the ad-campaign: Reached for comment, American Apparel spokeswoman Alexandra Spunt stated [...]

By: Samantha P

Samantha P — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:24:47 +0000

“Woody Allen is our spiritual leader” they must be atheists.

it’s pretty funny, but i could see why he’s angry, don’t use my face to push your poorly made clothing! hahaha!

By: chimpokomon

chimpokomon — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:46:17 +0000

Allen is lame, and the people discussing the yiddish writting are as well. It is after all called AMERICAN APPAREL on a billboard in a LATINO neighborhood. Im sure lots and lots of Americans, let alone Latin Americans speak yiddish

By: Jewlicious » Blog Archive » Woody Allen Sues American Apparel

Jewlicious » Blog Archive » Woody Allen Sues American Apparel — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:39:42 +0000

[...] of our readers might recall our timely reporting on an American Apparel ad showing Woody Allen as a rebbe, using an image taken from Annie Hall. As we reported, the ad was taken down quickly [...]

By: Nate Westheimer

Nate Westheimer — Tue, 15 May 2007 04:14:30 +0000

Just confirming… the ad is down here in NYC. I just walked by it (not there).

By: ck

ck — Sun, 13 May 2007 20:28:15 +0000

Uh… in case you didn’t get it dwave, I am a Moroccan (that’s one R and two Cs btw) Jew. The point was that even I, with my understandably limited mastery of the intricacies of any language, let alone Yiddish, knew that American Apparel had chosen the high-Yiddish spelling in their ad. They did not make a spelling error as Yoni had claimed.

So relax. We’re not making fun of Moroccans. We’re making fun of the vus vus. OK?

By: dwave

dwave — Sun, 13 May 2007 19:14:21 +0000

anything more about morrocans and I will step on your כף

By: ck

ck — Sun, 13 May 2007 06:07:31 +0000

Look into it Yoni. You’ll see that I am right. And then you can tell people that you were skooled in Yiddish by a Moroccan Jew. This will give me such great naches!

By: DK

DK — Sun, 13 May 2007 05:18:37 +0000

sorry about those tags. Motzei shabbos, if you know what I’m sayin’.

By: DK

DK — Sun, 13 May 2007 05:16:48 +0000

Regardless of grammar, it is clear even to Zionists that Litvak = highbrow and Galicianner = lowbrow, and on that, there is no debate.

Yoni wrote,

“That I’m dating a Yekke.” Well, (speaking from what I heard on the gas), many of us of Lithuanian-Jewish descent end up dating half Yekkes because they are the closest thing to Lithuanian Jews, who are no longer plentiful, except for South Africans, who don’t usually come here unfortunately. Which is a shame, because if I have to date one more “spiritual” Galicianner chick, I am going to scream. What a bunch of rubbish that is. Whatever happened to good old fashioned Apikorsus?

Anyway, there is a Yemenite community that is more Litvish than the Litvaks. They don’t even say the bracha “hanothain l’oyaif coach, because it’s based on Kabbalah, and that’s narishkeit. Right, ck?

Anyway, how hot is that? Chocolate Litvak maidlach! But they never go out with me twice. You know why? Because they are racists.

By: Serge

Serge — Sun, 13 May 2007 04:35:50 +0000

Of course, the Yiddish does not “derive” from the modern high-German spelling. Both derive from dialects spoken earlier in history, at which time neither the German nor Yiddish languages had been codified authoritatively. Both today’s German and Yiddish spellings are branches from those roots; neither is subordinate to the other.

The belief that Eastern European Jews were “flouting” pronunciation conventions is similarly incorrect, because based on the same misapprehension of how history unfolded.

By: Yoni

Yoni — Sat, 12 May 2007 18:53:48 +0000

That I’m dating a Yekke–and studying German–actually contributed to my accusation of the mistaken spelling. The German word from which the Yiddish derives is heiliger, with a G. Incidentally, a Google search for הייליג yields 882 results, including the Wikipedia spelling, while הייליק yields a mere 290 results.

While I haven’t yet looked into it yet, I would imagine that the ק derives from confusion deciphering the German “g,” which ranges from the hard English “g” to Arabic “ghayin” to Hebrew ח. If anything, then, הייליק would then be the lowbrow spelling/pronunciation and yet another manifestation of the flouting of pronunciation conventions among Eastern European Jews.

By: Rabbi Yonah

Rabbi Yonah — Fri, 11 May 2007 23:33:19 +0000

Yoni- CK is correct.
Uriel Weinrich in his Yiddish Dictionary spells it withק

Good shabbos

By: Ephraim

Ephraim — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:56:44 +0000

Right. Ham dinner with Grammy Hall in “Annie Hall”.

I know that opinions on Allen are sharply divided, but “Annie Hall” is a brilliant, original, and poignant film. It is extremely difficult to make a laugh-out-loud comedy that also cuts to the bone regarding the messiness of personal relationships. It’s still one of my favorite films.

I eventually got tired of Allen’s “aren’t Jews grotesque” angle and his idiotic pronouncements on Jewish/Israeli politics, but he is, in a way, the cinema’s version of Philip Roth. Love him or hate him, it’s impossible to ignore his work.

By: Esther

Esther — Fri, 11 May 2007 17:24:08 +0000

OK, all here's my analysis. See "Woody Allen is Our Homeboy," over at Beliefnet.

By: ck

ck — Fri, 11 May 2007 17:00:59 +0000

Oh Yoni. That’s not true. Spelling it with a gimmel would be ok if you’re a lowbrow Galicianner – but the high brow Litvish spelling is with a kuf. What? You need to be skooled in the intricacies of Yiddish spelling by a stupid Moroccan? I expect better from someone who is dating a Yekke. Shabbat Shalom Yonaleh…

By: Larry Mark

Larry Mark — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:50:12 +0000

well.. he was a saintly rebbe in the early nightclub years…. but since Interiors… he ain’t so saintly. although he does play some mean clarinet. On the other hand, if American Apparel’s CEO, Dov C. has an appetite for kinky… welll maybe Allen actually is their saintly rebbe… or their wunderlicher heiliger rebbe