See the 8 answer words debuted by Scot Ober.
| I | V | S | R | U | S | E | B | O | A | R | D | |||
| T | I | C | C | I | G | A | R | I | C | I | E | R | ||
| T | C | H | O | T | C | H | K | E | G | E | S | S | O | |
| I | N | U | R | E | S | C | H | M | A | L | T | Z | ||
| A | T | L | T | B | O | N | E | S | ||||||
| C | H | U | T | Z | P | A | H | O | U | I | ||||
| L | I | Z | A | S | L | A | P | T | A | L | E | S | ||
| A | Y | E | Y | I | D | D | I | S | H | A | L | A | ||
| P | A | R | M | A | A | T | T | A | O | V | A | L | ||
| I | R | E | O | Y | G | E | V | A | L | T | ||||
| B | I | N | D | E | R | M | I | L | ||||||
| M | E | G | I | L | L | A | H | S | I | N | A | I | ||
| A | L | I | B | I | V | E | R | K | L | E | M | P | T | |
| D | I | V | A | N | E | R | N | I | E | P | O | E | ||
| D | E | E | R | E | S | O | A | P | S | S | N |
SCOT: My inlaws were Jewish immigrants, and my wife and I bar mitzvahed three sons, so coming up with Yiddish expressions was not a problem. My only concern was that I include only entries that were sort of mainstream. In my first submission, Will accepted the theme entries but was not satisfied with the fill. That was when I brought on Jeff Chen to partner with me, and his fill, as usual, had plenty of sparkle.
The timeline was, I think, pretty typical for the NYT; I submitted the puzzle on Sep 11, 2017; it was accepted on Dec 11, 2017, and it is published today, Sep 19—about a year from start to finish.
| A | S | I | F | S | W | E | E | P | A | T | O | Z | ||
| L | A | N | A | T | H | R | E | E | L | O | N | I | ||
| M | A | R | L | O | I | L | E | R | T | M | E | N | ||
| A | B | I | C | Y | C | L | E | I | A | M | B | I | C | |
| O | A | K | S | I | O | W | A | |||||||
| C | A | N | T | S | T | A | N | D | O | N | I | T | S | |
| B | A | R | R | T | O | I | L | S | E | A | ||||
| O | R | G | Y | N | S | Y | N | C | L | I | E | N | ||
| N | E | O | T | I | T | O | A | T | M | S | ||||
| O | W | N | B | E | C | A | U | S | E | I | T | I | S | |
| I | C | K | Y | A | C | T | V | |||||||
| S | T | J | O | H | N | T | W | O | T | I | R | E | D | |
| M | O | E | N | A | F | O | F | L | A | I | D | E | ||
| U | G | L | I | M | A | R | I | E | N | O | N | E | ||
| T | A | L | C | E | D | I | T | S | S | T | A | R |