''Balabusta'' () is a

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

expression describing a good

homemaker Homemaking is mainly an American English, American and Canadian English, Canadian term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping, housewifery or household management. It is the act of overseeing the organizational ...

. The transliteration according to

YIVO YIVO (, , short for ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. Estab ...

Standard

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

is '' baleboste.'' The expression derives from the Hebrew term for "home owner" or "master of the house" – the Hebrew compound noun (lit: "master of the house") was borrowed in its masculine from and was pronounced according to the conventions of

Ashkenazi Hebrew Ashkenazi Hebrew (, ) is the pronunciation system for Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew favored for Jewish liturgical use and Torah study by Ashkenazi Jewish practice. Features As it is used parallel with Modern Hebrew, its phonological differences a ...

as ; in its feminine form, it is rendered as . The term ultimately became more popular than the original Hebrew expression for a (female) home owner, . (As used in

Modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...

, means "landlord".) Variants in pronunciation (''balabusta'' and ') are due to the phonologies of different Yiddish dialects, where the

pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. To This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or all language in a specific dialect—"correct" or "standard" pronunciation—or si ...

of אָ (komets alef) as /ɔ/ becomes /ʊ/ in some regions.

Connotations

The term historically has the positive connotation of an extremely competent and self-assured homemaker, though for some, the term has come to represent the feeling of being "chained to the stove" and denied opportunities outside the home. The traditional role of the baleboste is essentially that of the wife in Judaism; that is, she must manage the home in both practical terms - housekeeping duties such as cooking, cleaning, and maintaining the household finances - and spiritual ones, as in facilitating '' shalom bayit'', the Jewish religious concept of general domestic harmony, and good relations between husband and wife. Due in part to the coincidental similarity of the word to the English colloquialism "ballbuster", defined as "a person who is relentlessly aggressive, intimidating, or domineering", ''baleboste'' as used by English-speakers has taken on the connotation of assertiveness or bossiness.

In popular culture

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

folk song, "Baleboste Zisinke" ("sweet homemaker"), was first recorded by Joel Engel, an ethnomusicologist, critic, and composer. Engel joined fellow Jewish anthropologist and writer S. An-sky on his ethnographic expedition to the

Pale of Settlement The Pale of Settlement was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917 (''de facto'' until 1915) in which permanent settlement by Jews was allowed and beyond which the creation of new Jewish settlem ...

, where he first heard and recorded the song. The song was later reinterpreted by musician Socalled, who sampled a version of it for the song "Baleboste" on his 2007 album ''Ghettoblaster''. The track also features a sample from the midcentury Jewish-American comedian Belle Barth: "She says dirty words in a cute way and everybody digs her the most . . . 'cause she's a baleboste, she makes flanken hort ribswith kasha varnishkes." In 1970,

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being the ...

hosted a fundraiser for would-be Congresswoman

Bella Abzug Bella Abzug (; née Savitzky; July 24, 1920 – March 31, 1998), nicknamed "Battling Bella", was an American lawyer, politician, social activist, and a leader in the women's movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria ...

inviting volunteers to be called "Bellaboosters" as a play on the Yiddish expression, in reference to Abzug's slogan "a woman's place is in the House."

References

{{Women in Judaism Ashkenazi Jewish culture Judaism and women Yiddish words and phrases

Connotations

In popular culture

See also

References