Yiddish term meaning "incompetent person" or "fool"
Schlemiel (
Yiddish: שלומיאל; sometimes spelled shlemiel or shlumiel) is a Yiddish term meaning "inept/incompetent person" or "fool".[1] It is a common archetype in
Jewish humor, and so-called "schlemiel jokes" depict the schlemiel falling into unfortunate situations.[2]
Meaning
The inept schlemiel is often presented alongside the unlucky schlimazel. A Yiddish saying explains that "a schlemiel is somebody who often spills his soup and a schlimazel is the person it lands on".[3] The schlemiel is similar to the schmuck but, as stated in a 2010 essay in The Forward, a schmuck can improve himself while "a schlemiel, a schlimazel and a
schmendrik are irredeemably what they are".[4]
The etymology of the term is unsure.
Ernest Klein in his Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language suggests that the word comes from the Hebrew term shelo mo'il, meaning "useless".[5] Another theory is that the word is derived from the name
Shelumiel, an Israelite chieftain.[6]
Heyse and some other etymologists suggest that the name comes from the words "shlomi" + "el" in the meaning "God is my salvation", i.e., a Schlemiel hopes that God will save him.[7]
According to Harvard University literature professor
Ruth Wisse, the schlemiel as a type emerges in the
Yiddish literature of the period of
Jewish emancipation.[8]
In a 1944 essay,
Hannah Arendt argues that
Charlie Chaplin'sTramp character is a schlemiel whose only comfort is "the kindness and humanity of casual acquaintances".[9]
Many of
Woody Allen's films feature Allen portraying a schlemiel type, particularly in his relations with women.[10]
Larry David's character on the
HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm serves as a modern schlemiel, encountering "problems that affect contemporary middle- to upper-class American Jews".[11]
^The Shlemiel as a Modern Hero, by
Ruth Wisse, University of Chicago Press, 1971. Review: Avni, Abraham. Comparative Literature, vol. 25, no. 4, 1973, pp. 361–363.
JSTOR1769513
^Arendt, Hannah (1944). "The Jew as Pariah: A Hidden Tradition". Jewish Social Studies. 6 (2): 99–122.
JSTOR4464588.
^Feuer, Menachem (2013). "The Schlemiel in Woody Allen's Later Films". In Bailey, Peter; Girgus, Sam (eds.). A Companion to Woody Allen. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 403–423.
doi:
10.1002/9781118514870.ch19.
ISBN9781118514870.