Chutzpah (chutz·pah): noun.
Supreme self-confidence: nerve, gall.
Synonyms: see temerity.
Example: Agriprocessors is asking the United States Supreme Court to overturn a vote to unionize at its Brooklyn distribution center. “In September 2005, the company’s Brooklyn employees voted 15 to 5 to unionize. . . . Days after the vote, Agriprocessors stunned its employees by announcing that it would not recognize the union because, it said, it had just discovered that 17 of the workers were illegal immigrants” (Steven Greenhouse, “Meatpacker in Brooklyn Challenges a Union Vote,” New York Times, 31 August 2008).
For more information about this unsavory brand of Chutzpah, see, also, Nathaniel Popper, “In Rubashkins’ Backyard, Another Tale of Labor Strife: Kosher Giant Turns to Supreme Court in Fight with Immigrants” (Jewish Daily Forward, 14 August 2008).
Andrew Pollack is a longtime labor activist.
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