Shoytz Launches Online Store to Save Yiddish From Oblivion: Dying Language Refuses to Go Down Without a Fight

Shoytz, a Yiddish/Jewish fashion company, has launched its online store, featuring its bestselling Mensch shirt, and others, just in time for the High Holidays.

Brooklyn, NY (PRWEB) August 28, 2004 -- Fans of the dying language Yiddish, a blend of Hebrew and German once commonly spoken by Eastern European Jews, can now find Yiddish-themed apparel at Shoytz (http://www.shoytz.com). Ever since Madonna first donned a t-shirt that said "Shiksa" (the Yiddish word for a non-Jewish woman), the race was on. The newest player on the scene, Shoytz (the company name represents shirts with a Yiddish accent) has just launched its online store. New designs, as well as baby and children's apparel, will soon follow.

The t-shirts use those Yiddish words that have become part of the American vernacular to create clever plays-on-words using contemporary references. One shirt says "Mensch" (the Yiddish word for a good guy) under a picture of the men's room symbol. Another says "Shtetl Fabulous", a play on the popular hip-hop phrase, "Ghetto Fabulous". Still another, "Urban Kvetch", harkens back to the dot-com boom and the ill- fated company "Urban Fetch".

"Jon and I really just wanted to put the 'oy' back in shirts," says Shoytz co-founder Josh Goldstein. "And what better way to do that, really, than to rock a Gefilte shirt that pictures a shark."

Co-founder Jonathan Polsky concurs. "Is gefilte a type of fish? Can you have a pet gefilte fish? How many times can you say the word gefilte? These questions have perplexed me since my earliest Passover seder. I was all verklempt until we founded Shoytz."

Prior to the launch of http://www.shoytz.com, Shoytz have been available at select New York City street fairs.

Shoytz was founded in 2002 by Josh Goldstein, an architect; Rachel Goldstein, a web designer; and Jonathan Polsky, a book production manager. All three are graduates of Washington University in St. Louis. The company is based in Brooklyn, NY.

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