Pintele Yid

Pintele Yid, often translated as "Jewish spark", is a Yiddish phrase describing the notion that every Jewish person has an essential core of Jewishness within them, even if they are assimilated or are unaware of their Jewishness.^[1] Jewish converts may also be described as having a pintele Yid that led them to Judaism.^[2] The term is most commonly used by Ashkenazim and Orthodox Jews.^[3]

Etymology

Pintele is a diminutive Yiddish word for "little point" and Yid is a term for a Jewish person, so pintele Yid can be translated literally as "the little point of a Jew".^[4] The Hebrew language equivalent of the term is "Nitzotz HaYehudi".^[5]

See also

• Crypto-Judaism
• Jewish assimilation
• Yiddishkeit