Chutzpah Chutzpah Chutzpah () is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. It derives from the Hebrew word "" (), meaning "insolence", "cheek" or "audacity". Thus the original Yiddish word has a strongly negative connotation but the form which entered English through Ameridish has taken on a broader meaning, having been popularized through vernacular use in film, literature, and television. The word is sometimes interpreted—particularly in business parlance—as meaning the amount of courage, mettle or ardor that an individual has. In Hebrew, "chutzpah" is used indignantly, to describe someone who has overstepped the boundaries of accepted behavior. In traditional
California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language Los Angeles area. California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language The California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language (CYCL) started in 1999 and serves as a multi-generational center for the teaching, promotion, celebration and learning of Yiddish in all of its embodiments, with an emphasis on the arts and other areas that influence the cultural formations that inform its existence. The institute owes its establishment to Miriam Koral, who is the Founding Director, and who, as a Yiddish instructor at UCLA and native Yiddish speaker, created the center and community that brings world-renowned Yiddish authors, playwrights, musicians, poets, artists and