“Something that’s acceptable to Orthodox Jews, especially food. Other Jews may also “eat kosher” on some level but are not required to.”

You must be a goy to say that. ALL Jews are required to keep the mitzvahs. All Jews are commanded to be Torah observant. There’s no such thing as ‘Orthodox Jews and other Jews’. There’s either Torah observant Jews or non-observant Jews.

Specifically, it is a derogatory word used to refer to certain women, namely, someone who is flaky or an airhead.

As in, she’s such a ditz. I hear this all the time; it’s slang but I never knew if this was a Yiddish word or not. It sure sounds like one.

To me, this was like meeting with friends whom I had not seen in a long time. I grew up in a Jewish home and used to speak and read Jewish and Hebrew fluently (and translate from the latter into the former as I read: cannot imagine how I did it, at the age of 11!) all of which is forgotten by now. I married outside my faith but always remained close to, and proud of, my heritage.

Regarding Mazeltov, although “Good luck” is an appropriate translation, I sense it is offered more in the vein of “Congratulations”, as it is, indeed, a celebration of something good, or a festive occasion, that has happened to the individual it is said to.

My two cents: “yeshive bocher” (both words from Hebrew), meaning those youths (male) who spent all their waking hours studying the Old Testament and Jumesh and Tanaj, the compilation of comments of rabbis and learned men.
And, I don’t remember if anybody included it, but “bris” is the name given to the ceremony of circumcission.

What I wanted to comment is that the influx of Yiddish words is so much more significant into English than it is in Spanish, my native tongue. With the exception of very few words, as for instance tuches, yarmulka, bris, Spanish has not incorporated much from Yiddish. Perhaps the size of the Jewish communities in Latin America may have something to do with it, or even the structure of the Spanish language. This leads me to the observation made by someone that Ladino is a “funny language”. I don’t really see how it is “funny”. Ladino is nothing but Middle Ages Spanish (of about the time Jews were expelled from Spain).

@Roberta: “hak nit in kop”: literal translation is “don’t hit me on the head” and we used it as “don’t try my patience” or “don’t insist” “stop bothering me”, “enough already”.

And to close my comment, Merriam-Webster (and many other dictionaries as well) has incorporated as parts of the English language and vocabulary, many words originating or borrowed from Yiddish and acknowledged as such in its etymology.