An "elter" (senior) was soaking up 'di zun" (the sun) on a Florida beach when a little "boitshick"--about 10-years-old--in his swimming trunks and carrying a Harry Potter towel, came up to her. He asked, "Do you believe in God?" She was surprised by the question, but replied, "Yo" (Yes). Then he asked a "tsvyter" (second) question: "Do you go to synagogue on 'shabes'?" "Yo." He then asked, "Do you give 'tsedakah'?" Again, her answer was "yes." He then asked five more questions:

1. Do you read your Bible and pray every day?
2. Do you light a menorah?
3. Do you make your own chicken soup?
4. Do you have an "ainikel" (grandchild)?
5. Do you read the Forward or The Jewish Press?

The woman was beginning to think, "Nu shoyn"--you done yet?" By then her curiosity was very much aroused. The little lad sighed with relief and said, "Will you hold my quarter while I go in swimming?"

Chutzpah? Saichel? (common sense?) "Opgehit"? (careful?) Who knows?

Alan M. Dershowitz says, "American Jews need more chutzpah." Paul Krugman (New York Times columnist) said [in 2002] that "Alan Greenspan has chutzpah." Joe Sharkey (New York Times) wrote, "Hillary Clinton may have come by way of Illinois, Arkansas and Washington, but she's all the New Yorker she needs to be: She's mastered chutzpah." Michael Wolfe (New York Magazine) wrote, "The stories of his [Steven Brill] financial ups and downs, his deals, his battles, his chutzpa, are legion... He is what my father used to call 'an operator.'" And Bijan--the designer--wrote, "I have the chutzpah and the power to show orange and yellow and violet"

Rabbi Benjamin Blech define "chutspenik" (or "khutspenik") as "a person with chutspe (or "khutspe").

Shown below is a chronology of facts/ definitions/trivia all dealing with the Yiddish word "chutzpah." (Note the different ways the word is spelled!)

2005 - "Chutzpah and courage have certain elements in common. But they are on the opposite ends of the scale. Courage is a great virtue, while chutzpah is generally a negative trait."
Rabbi Zelig Pliskin - A personal development coach in Jerusalem

Definition: "khutspe" as chutzpa, overweening gall
Michael Wex "Born To Kvetch"

"And chutzpah is something Elaine Stritch is never short of, witness those who saw/heard her literally pried away from the mike during her rambling Tony Awards acceptance speech."
Jeannie Lieberman

2004 - "Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick generated a lot of buzz with their recent return to Broadway's The Producers, and not all of it was admiring. Some felt that the original stars of the Mel Brooks musical had a lot of chutzpah asking for a reported $100,000 per week to treat the boards again, for a limited run ending April 4."
Elysa Gardner (USA Today)

New York Times Headline: ALAN KING, COMIC WITH CHUTZPAH, DIES AT 76. Bruce Weber wrote,
"He [Alan King] also appeared onstage, most recently in the title role in 'Mr. Goldwyn,' a 2002 off Broadway play about the movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn, whom Mr. King portrayed as a man of chutzpah and brass very much like himself.'

2003 - "Now a large percentage of Crown Heights youth grew up with secularly raised parents whose command of Yiddish is limited to choice phrases from their immigrant forebears. Girls tend to sprinkle their English with Yiddish and Hebrew words ("I ate Shabbos lunch by the Rothsteins', and I mamash couldn't believe how chuzpadick those kids are" loosely translates as "I ate Shabbos lunch at the Rothsteins' house, and I really couldn't believe how obnoxious those kids are").
Stephanie Wellen Levine "Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers - An Intimate Journey Among Hasidic Girls"

2002 - "She [Totie Fields] was the first female standup who worked like a man. With chutzpah."
Freddie Roman Source:
Marnie Winston Macauley's book, "A Little Joy, A LIttle Oy"

2001 - Review of "Chutzpah!"
"Chutzpah!" gives insight into their incredible professional and their, often heartbreaking, personal lives. From success to failure; through romance and heartbreaks; tsuris and simchas--They have endured with determination and chutzpah!"
Marsha Spelling

"Often we mix up two different things--real chutzpa and verbal expressions of feelings. A child who voices his opinion and disagrees with what we say or with certain rules we set in the house is not necessarily a chutzpanik. He might be an extroverted child who is set on expressing his feeling openly, while we might be quick to judge him and pin that label on him. In this way, we can really cause him to be one, if we're not careful in our appraisal. However, by making a distinction between real chutzpah and outward expression of feelings, we can avoid many confrontations with our children."
Menucha Fuchs parenting counselor/author Dei'AhVeDibur

1997 - "Chutzpah" (definition)
A person who places the following ad in the newspaper:
BOOKKEEPER. EXP. ALL PHASES. VERY HEAVY VALIUM.

1991 - "When it comes to using chutzpah to help others, there are few as effective as Alan Dershowitz. That is why his fascinating book must be read by three groups of people: those who think Jews need more chutzpah; those who think Jews need less chutzpah; those who haven't made up their minds."
Natan Sharansky Book jacket of Alan M.Dershowitz's book, "Chutzpah"

1972 - The first reported judicial application of "chutzpah" was reported this year. The Georgia Court of Appeals used it in a case involving a break-in at a sheriff's office to steal guns. Now THAT'S CHUTZPAH!