With President Obama soon to arrive on the Vineyard, it seems appropriate to look back at an earlier visit. For instance, I was surprised to read and find a Yiddish word linked to our black president. To wit: The Chilmark Tavern’s advertisement in the Vineyard Gazette of August 28, 2009, noted that, “Obama Schlepped Here.” Naturally, because of my interest in Yiddish, I called Judy Russo, the then owner of the Chilmark Tavern, and learned that Obama did not schlep to or eat at the tavern. Indeed, Judy told me her friend Paul Petersiel, owner of the Red Rock Bistro in Swampscott, wrote the advertisement and suggested using the word schlepped.

I phoned Paul and found out that he did some consulting for the tavern and happens to know some Yiddish. At one point, he and Judy thought of using the phrase “Schlepped to the Vineyard” instead of “Schlepped here.” However, the final wording was just an idea for kidding and to garner attention by the ostensible incongruity of word pairing and send-up on the familiar usage of the phrase, President So and So Slept Here. The other night, my daughter, Donna, and I had dinner at the tavern with some friends where I discovered that Paul now owns the tavern and his daughter, Jenna, is the general manager.

Schlep is an interesting Yiddish word with many meanings and spellings. The late Leo Rosten, in his The Joys of Yiddish, spelled the word shlep leaving out the c. Mr. Rosten defined shlep as to drag, pull, or lag behind. However, if someone dresses disheveled or untidy, such a person could be considered looking like a shlep or a shlepper. Furthermore, as Yiddish words have moved to common usage, some of the Yiddish words have taken on additional meanings. Hence, today shlep could also mean to go somewhere. My daughter, Donna, who is working on a book of photographs of license plates with Yiddish, reported a North Carolina plate with ISHLPKDS.

The New York Times of Jan. 20, 1986, ran a full-page advertisement asking, “Why should you spend half an hour schlepping to New Jersey for a mattress you can’t get in New York?” On Feb. 12, 1986, the Times had another full-page advertisement showing a woman pulling a full shopping cart with one hand and holding an overflowing bag with the other and the words, “Why Shlepp!” For the second advertisement, for whatever the reason, the Times went with Mr. Rosten’s spelling by leaving out the c but went with two p’s. Of course, there is also the Yiddish-spelling standard suggested by the Institute for Jewish Research known as YIVO that was organized in 1925 in what is now Vilnius in Lithuania.

Yiddish is the mother tongue or language also known as the Mame-loshen of generations of Central and Eastern European or Oshkenazic Jews. Yiddish, though written with Hebrew letters, is different from Hebrew. Hebrew is the language of religious ceremonies, prayer and the state of Israel. Yiddish originated as a mixture of the German heard by Jews more than 1,000 years ago and Hebrew. As Jews moved eastward across Europe, often to save themselves or ordered out by decree, local words were added to their Yiddish vocabulary.

Jewish immigrants brought their Yiddish to the states and the Yiddishizing of local words continued. Yiddish moved easily into American English because, in the Untied States, Jews were safe, able to stay instead of having to move on, and Yiddish is a powerful language of nuances, expletives and cheerful-sounding words. Just as the U.S. is a nation of immigrants, words from most immigrant groups have found their way into American English. However, Yiddish has surpassed all immigrant group language contributions to American English. Indeed, Yiddish may actually be on its way to becoming an international language.

“Nu,” did Obama Shchlepped Here make for an interesting story!

Herbert Foster is author of Ribbin’, Jivin’, and Playin’ the Dozens and is completing the manuscript for Ghetto to Ghetto: Yiddish and Jive in Everyday Life. He lives in Edgartown.