yiddel

Despite the disarming diminutive, the one happy yiddel emerges as the baleful Yid of tradition.

Philip Roth and the Jews: An Exchange Syrkin, Marie 1974

And the voice is that of Roth not of Portnoy, for no "happy yiddel" would refer to himself as such in this context.

Philip Roth and the Jews: An Exchange Syrkin, Marie 1974

Despite the disarming diminutive and the antic humor, this "happy yiddel," gloating simultaneously over the conquest of a Gentile "background" and the demolition of a Goy is cast from a familiar mould.

Philip Roth and the Jews: An Exchange Syrkin, Marie 1974

Portnoy describes his delight when as a liberal member of a committee investigating television scandals he manages to expose a Goy: "Yes, I was one happy yiddel… busily exploding Charlie's honor and integrity….

Philip Roth and the Jews: An Exchange Syrkin, Marie 1974

For Portnoy, Assistant Commissioner of Human Opportunity, the phony Jewish liberal par excellence, offers as his prime achievement his exposure of an "Ur-Wasp" in the television quiz scandals: "Yes, I was one happy yiddel down there in Washington, a little Stern Gang of my own, busily exploding Charlie's honor and integrity, while simultaneously becoming lover to that aristocratic Yankee beauty whose forebears arrived on these shores in the 17th century.

Philip Roth and the Jews: An Exchange Syrkin, Marie 1974