One thing became clear this morning as I dropped my kids off for their first week of summer camp and we were all red and damp just from the wait for the bus: We are all in for a summer full of schvitzing.
If one must sweat profusely all summer, then at least they can take comfort in the fact that the Yiddish word for sweating — “shvitzing” or “schvitzing” — is pretty adorable, especially when paired with an “oy” or “oy vey” that accents that misery.
Of course, shvitzing isn’t only for the summertime. Some Jews go out to look for it purposely at the sauna, dubbed the “shvitz,” at the local JCC gym or in special Jewish-Russian bathhouses, which were particularly popular in New York. The shvits at Coney Island, near Nathan’s, was a place for young men to sweat off and sleep off their inebriation.
One was also recently featured in Netflix’s hot rabbi hit “Nobody Wants This.” Sasha, Rabbi Noah’s brother (Timothy Simons) goes to talk business with his Jewish dad at the schvitz, a second office for many a Jewish businessman (a practice illustrated in “The Old Jewish Men’s Guide to Eating, Sleeping, and Futzing Around”).
The Yiddish word also recently inspired these 1970s New York-inspired pair of Moscot glasses frames. The copy on the Jewish-owned family business’s site lets you know these glasses are all about keeping your cool while working up a shvitz.
And yes, there is a Yiddish workout tape called “Shvitz” because we all need to schvitz a little to keep our bodies limber.
Growing up in Israel, I didn’t know that “shvitz,” from the German “schwitzen,” means “to sweat,” but I did know the word “schvitzer.” A schvitzer is someone who won’t stop bragging about their achievements, perceived and real, and I learned it was really important not to be one. “To show off” in Hebrew is “lehaschvitz.” Those words are some of many that come to Hebrew from Yiddish.
I don’t want to be a schvitzer, but I think I’m about to set the record for the number of times one can say “oy, I’m schvitzing here” in one summer, and the season has barely even started. You’re welcome to join me in the kvetching about schvitzing all season long.
