Israel – Oy gevalt! You can sure feel like a schlemiel getting around Eretz Yisroel sometimes. Especially if you’re a kvetch who doesn’t have the chutzpa to ask for directions because you only speak Yiddish.
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But there’s no need to feel like a shmendrik anymore, because beginning this week, the iGO8 Judaism GPS is available in Yiddish – it’s their latest shtick.
The machers at iGO, a subsidiary of Nav N Go, have designed the new device for the Orthodox market in Israel. Now Yiddish-speakers in areas such as Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Modi’in Illit and Ashdod can use the product to locate more than 10,000 unique Jewish interest points – including the addresses and telephone numbers of thousands of synagogues, mikves (ritual baths) and kosher restaurants.
What also distinguishes it from other GPS gadgets is that more secular points of interest – such as nightclubs, non-kosher restaurants and Internet cafes – are not in the database.
Even the interface is designed with the religious consumer in mind – when the device is switched on, the user is automatically shown the Travelers’ Prayer. Instead of pressing “OK” to skip to the next screen, the option is instead “Amen.”
It may give you naches to discover that the new Yiddish version was not based on any market research or overwhelming demand. David Wiernik, Nav N Go president, says the idea was born at an iGO press conference last month, when a technology journalist asked him if a Yiddish version was in the pipeline.
Upon answering “no,” Wiernik realized he liked the suggestion.
“I looked at the journalist and thought, ‘You got me. I’d never thought about it,’ so I told him I would accept the challenge. My immediate response was ‘yes,’ without even looking at the consumer market.”
A mensch, no?
Many in the know are positive about this new meshuggener gadget. Yossi Gur, manager of the Avis branch in the capital’s Romema neighborhood, says: “We have a lot of Orthodox customers in this location, many of whom speak Yiddish, and two-thirds of them ask for a GPS. This new device is a great idea, and it would work really well in our station.”
The Yiddish edition reaches stores one month and $20,000 (what it cost to develop) after the iGO8 Judaism Hebrew version, and is exclusively available with QUE navigation devices. It is priced at between NIS 1,200 and NIS 1,499.
Will it have all kevorim as POI’s? That would be great.
Yiddish is a dying language so I’m not sure there is much future for this business. Most yingleich in EY are learning Hebrew, lashon hakodesh, and don’t want anything to do with yiddish. Even some of the ultram frumme yeshivos and kolels are teaching only in Hebrew.
Meer muzen alle gein loifen koifen this niye chatchke zei zulen zehn es loint zei!
BS”D
Yiddish is not dying and this is one way to make sure it does not die. Rather than imposing Yiddish, developments like this make it “cool” and part of the modern world. (So does Lipa and even modern kids want to know what he is singing and are picking up bits of Yiddish here and there.
Is it true that it checks to see how your wife and daughters are dressed and if they are not dressed right for certain places in Y-m and RBS it bellows “SHIKSA AROSS!” so that they don’t get stoned or beaten?
Burech hashem
ס’געוואלדיגע זאך.
perfect time before lag beomer i am sure its going to make it easier fir lots of yiddish speaking tourists
I’m wish I can use it in the U.S.
A must have toy now for all chassidische tutzachs und machers.
when is a issur ccoming out
Please make sure to find where you are going on a map if you are not familiar with the territory. I personally know of people who were told to go into arab areas by their GPS machines. B”H they had a general idea of where they were, and avoided Ramallah. GPS machines show you the shortest directions. Make sure that they are also the safest.
Dude, whether it’s sad or not sad to say, Yiddish as the language of the Jewish people we had before the churban is dead. It’s still spoken by a few million yidden now, but most of them are not observant, and the language will mostly continue to flourish in chassidishe circles which are limited enclaves that are insular and don’t have much of an impact on the Jewish world at large. Litvaks by and large don’t speak or comprehend mome loshen. The language called “yiddish” spoken in this country is a disgusting adulteration of momme loshen with English, some yeshivish expressions, etc., not the way our ancestors kept it going over a course of almost 1,000 yrs in Europe. Whether we like it or not, Hebrew has triumphed, so work with the cards dealt.
yiddish is b”h live and well ! the numbers of yiddish speakers are growing by leaps and bounds ke”h ! Thats in america eretz yisruel as well as in Europe
The chasiddesher world is growing strong and has a large impact on the jewish world
Yes yiddish as being the lang. for seculer jews has died.
The yiddish spoken today is usually not much worse off then was spoken in pre churben Europe.
adraba! because it’s a live lang. it keeps on changing (try to read a english book of 100-to 200 years ago and tell me how much u understand) The yiddishe of prewar was different then the yiddesh of 150 years b/4 then etc.
words of Slavic lang. (or arabic for the yrushalmi yiddish) that entered yiddish depending on were the yiddin were, are in no way diffrent then the english words entering today’s Yiddish (usually it replaces the slovic words first ,or for things that weren’t in those days like cars and computers etc.)
According to the article the GPS device covers Eretz Yisroel. Does it also cover the parts of Israel that aren’t in Eretz Yisroel?
The advertisers just could not state “Medinat Yisrael” considering the yiddish-speaking public that would rent their cars. Having the police and the army on standby ready to rescue these yiddish speakers on a moment’s notice out of Ramallah where they can make a wrong turn with this GPS, though, is taken for granted.