Miriam Udel-Lambert, a professor of Yiddish language, literature and culture at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, says she had an active spiritual life before she got married and had two sons.

CNN: Busy moms learn how to balance family and faith

The word that springs to mind is neither French nor English, but one in New York's unofficial second language, Yiddish: chutzpah.

WSJ: The Musician and the Producer

Many Jews, in any case, had always found Yiddish theatre vulgar and the language an embarrassing hybrid.

ECONOMIST: Lillian Lux