To SCHVITZ: A Yiddish word: Schvitz: to perspire
Schvitz: to be nervous
Durchshvitz (/doorkh*shvitz/): to persevere
Schvitz (noun): a steam bath, where people sweat
Schvitzer (noun, adjective): a big shot (who can afford to sit in a schvitz and shoot the breeze with fellow schvitzers)
Short story: When I became the Assistant Director of the Jewish Community Center of Pittsburgh, the community continued its YM&WHA (Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association;) historically it was a Jewish version of the YMCA, because back in the day, Jews were prohibited from joining Christian oriented YMCA’s, so we created our own. I was working this job in the late ’70s and at the YM&WHA was an old-time health club, with a very popular steam bath, where older men could spend hours on end, doing nothing but taking a SCHVITZ. I, at the time, was a youngster and wanted to earn the respect of these ELDERS, and asking one of my mentors (a man of a certain age, of which I NOW find myself, he said to take a long SCHVITZ, listen to the stories of the old country, let the men complain about being retired, their children taking over the family business and fucking that up, and how they love their wives, but hate all the shopping they do. OY, I thought this was one HELLISH way to get to know these members. I did, however, because many of these men were the original pillars of the Jewish Community, and I felt an obligation to get to know them. So, it was time to TAKE A SCHVITZ. I walked into the area where the sauna was located, approached the four steps up to enter the steam bath, when one man said, welcome, but what is that? For a minute, I wanted to say my balls, but they were covered by my swimsuit, so I looked confused. He then said the SCHVITZ is to purify yourself, no swim trunks…OY, who knew!
I have SCHVITED about the state of our UNION…CONSTITUTION…DEMOCRACY… and the potential for a future of a FASCIST Government…an AUTHORITARIAN Government…a THEOCRACY…a DICTATORSHIP. To me, these are REAL possibilities, and I did not live my 71 years, and raise two children for my future to be blighted and bloated by bigoted, bull shit artists, so I do all I can to try and change an outcome. But honestly, after seeing a few photos of the Orange Turd, desperate to take center stage, once again, when he was in North Carolina I had to chuckle (I never laugh at him, because to do so is to take your eye off of his scheming)…BUT, I thought of the phrase…THE EMPORER HAS NO CLOTHES…and the story that ass lickers are always afraid of telling the ASS-WIPE, the truth…this time, however, it seems the ASS-LICKERS, never told the feeble-minded idiot…HIS PANTS WERE ON BACKWARDS…I bet a lot of them were SCHVITING afterward!
