cachaça—(Spanish) Distilled spirit made from fermented sugarcane juice.

caftan—(Spanish) Pimp. Derived from cafetão, the long coat worn by religious Eastern European Jews.

casa chorizo—(Spanish) A long and skinny row of attached dwellings.

casita—(Spanish) Small house or a guest villa.

challah—Braided bread used for Shabbat and Jewish holidays.

charoset—Traditional Passover food of chopped apples, dates, raisins, nuts, and honey.

chazzan—Cantor.

chimichurri—(Spanish) Sauce made of herbs.

compadritos—(Spanish) Rural gauchos who appeared in Argentine cities as a result of urbanization.

conventillos—(Spanish) Little convents. An ironic name for Jewish tenements in Buenos Aires.

davening—Reciting the prescribed Jewish liturgical prayers.

diligence—(French) A horse-drawn stagecoach/passenger conveyance service.

dreck—Rubbish.

dulce de leche—(Spanish) Sweet condensed milk.

dybbuk—A malicious possessing spirit that enters the soul.

farshlepte plog—Chronic plague.

farshteyst—Do you understand?

ganef—Thief.

gehenom—Hell.

get—Jewish divorce.

goy—Non-Jew (plural goyim).

Haggadah—The Passover text recited at the Seder dinner, describing the Jews’ exodus from Egypt over three thousand years ago.

halacha—Jewish law and jurisprudence, based on the Talmud.

Hashem—God (literally “the name”).

ima—Mommy, mother.

kaddish—A prayer for the dead, recited in Aramaic.

kashrut—The overall rules determining what’s kosher.

klezmer—Musician.

kneidlach—Matzo balls (for soup).

knish—Dough filled with either ground meat, mashed potatoes, kasha, or onions.

kosher—Food that adheres to Jewish dietary restrictions.

kreplach—Dumplings stuffed with meat, potatoes, or cheese.

kurve—A vulgar word for a prostitute.

lechayim—To life. A salutation upon drinking alcohol.

maven—An expert.

mazel—Luck, fortune.

mendeveshkes—(Russian) Pubic lice.

meshuge—Crazy, insane.

metziah—Great find, a bargain.

mezuzah—Piece of Torah-inscribed parchment in a tiny decorative case that is hung on the side of a door.

mikveh—Jewish communal ritual bath.

milonga—(Spanish) Dance hall for tango.

minyan—Quorum of ten men required by Jewish law for a public prayer.

mitzvah—(1) Good deed; (2) Decreed religious rule.

muzhik—(Russian) Peasant.

nigunim—Wordless Jewish religious melodies, joyous or mournful.

ocho—(Spanish) Eight. In tango, marking the figure eight on the floor.

Once—(Spanish) A district in Buenos Aires, so named because of the no. 11 train station. Pronounced “OWN-say.”

palanca—(Spanish) In tango, levering a woman to help her jump.

peyes—Coiled sidelocks Orthodox Jewish men grow.

piastre—(Turkish) An Ottoman coin, one hundredth of a lira.

pikuach nefesh—The principle that the preservation of human life takes precedence over all the other commandments in Judaism.

pisherke—A nobody, an insignificant person (literally a boy who pees in his pants).

pitzik—Diminutive to describe a very small thing or person.

polaca(s)—(Polish) A derogatory name for prostitutes born in Eastern European countries.

pulke—Chicken drumstick, thigh.

punchkes—Jelly donuts (a Chanukah delicacy).

puta—(Spanish) A vulgar name for a prostitute.

quebrada—(Spanish) In tango, a sudden body twist.

reb—Mister. An honorific title, not a rabbinic one.

sarafan—(Russian) A long, trapezoidal traditional Russian jumper dress; a pinafore.