Yiddish: Oishe geveine lech

[Inquisitive_Inquisitor]

Hello there!
I am reading a book with some phrases in Yiddish (I hope I'm not too wrong) which are transcribed in English. The first one is "Oishe geveine lech". Could anyone help me guess what it might mean?
The book is Jan Eliasberg's Hanna's War.

 

[Mr.Dent]

If you can provide more context for the phrase it would help. What was the situation? What does the entire paragraph say?
I'm taking a guess here -- Moishe (a man's name) was lekh (This would probably be the usual transliteration). "Lekh" by itself does not mean anything as far as I know, but it does form an integral part of many different words. You can look it up here to get an idea: Yiddish dictionary lookup

 

[L'irlandais]

I have it on good authority.

...

Oishe Geveine Lech is a more formal version of the Yiddish slang phrase “Oy Gevalt…” which, roughly translated, means “Oh, for crying out loud…”

In context: Epstein is verbally "rolling his eyes" and using a Yiddish expression that comments on the over the top, borderline ludicrous security measures being taken by the military in ordering everyone at Los Alamos to refer to the bomb only by the absurd word “gadget.”

...
@Inquisitive_Inquisitor

 

[Mr.Dent]

Great research L'irlandais!

Thanks for the reference. I'm afraid I am not supposed to provide too much context But still, thank you!

I don't understand. Context is always helpful and in fact the forum rules require it.

 

[Demiurg]

Oishe Geveine Lech is a more formal version of the Yiddish slang phrase “Oy Gevalt…” which, roughly translated, means “Oh, for crying out loud…”

Does Jan Eliasberg speak Yiddish? To me "oishe geveine lech" looks like a spelling variant of "oysergeveynlekh" (German: außergewöhnlich) - extraordinary.

 

[L'irlandais]

I don’t know if the author speaks Yiddish, she has a Jewish surname. However the main character was inspired by Lise Meitner, who did speak Yiddish. Lise Meitner | Jewish Women's Archive. So the author may have gotten help with it, if she doesn’t speak the language herself.