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Helene Winer
June 1, 2007
Your Glossary of Yiddish Words
My not identifiably jewish psychiatrist used the word “hak” to mean something like insist, and I responded with Hak mir arain. She asked why I said that and I replied that Hak was a Yiddish word that I knew only as part of that phrase. She insisted it was an English term so we looked in the dictionary and it was no where to be found in any spelling – only to pawn, be in debt, or part of an animal leg. Later I found your really great phrase source and there it was, very close to how I remember it sounding. I know no Yiddish but my grandparents all spoke Yiddish regularly. Thanks, and I will send a contribution. Helene Winer
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