Aviya Kushner is the Forward’s language columnist and the author of Wolf Lamb Bomb and The Grammar of God.
Aviya Kushner
By Aviya Kushner
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Culture Does The Book Of Esther Have The Longest Word In The Hebrew Bible?
For word nerds, the Book of Esther contains a special treat — the longest word in the Tanakh. Technically, v’ha’achshadrapanim and its eleven letters makes it the length champion of the entire Hebrew Bible. It means “and the satraps” or “and the governors of the provinces of the Persian Empire,” and it comes near the…
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Culture Ilya Kaminsky: A Poet At The Height Of His Powers, Questioning Everything
Deaf Republic: Poems By Ilya Kaminsky Graywolf Press, $16, 80 pages The poetry world has been waiting for Ilya Kaminsky’s new collection for fifteen years — but this is the book that will bring him wide readership outside of the small yet passionate continent of poetry readers. This is the book that will let readers…
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Culture What Hebrew Means To Americans
What We Talk About When We Talk About Hebrew (And What It Means to Americans) Edited by Naomi B. Sokoloff and Nancy E. Berg University of Washington Press, $30 In the 1980s, the king of minimalist fiction, Raymond Carver, published a story titled “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” Both the story…
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Culture Want To Learn Arabic? Start With ‘The Little Prince’
Here’s something lovely and unexpected — “The Little Prince” published in Arabic transliterated into Hebrew, as well as in Arabic itself. Al-Amir Lehzir is accompanied by a CD of the Arabic narration. Readers of Hebrew can easily follow along, and a short sound clip is up at the publisher’s website. There is also a video…
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Culture Why Making Hebrew Nonbinary Is So Crucial
The Israeli poet Yona Wallach memorably wrote that “Hebrew is a sex maniac.” Wallach, who died in 1985, was no stranger to attention-grabbing subjects: One of her poems discusses sex with tefillin. Today, pronouns are a hot topic, and Wallach’s poem “Hebrew,” which explains why gender-neutral language is easier to accomplish in English, is the…
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Culture A Very Yiddish Way To Respond To Brexit
When it comes to describing baffling human behavior, Yiddish excels, and perhaps the same is true for describing baffling government behavior. As Brexit descends into no-one-knows-what’s-happening mode, and as March 29th — or Brexit day — gets perilously closer, Twitter is lighting up with Yiddish explanations for British politics. “The Yiddish word for “Brexit” is…
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Culture Suddenly, Yiddish Theater Is Everywhere!
“Fiddler on the Roof” has made headlines of late as public figures have expressed their love for Yiddish theater. Interestingly, what brings on the love is the Yiddish language itself. Alan Dershowitz is not primarily known as a theater critic, but he was so moved by a recent Yiddish performance of “Fiddler on the Roof”…
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Culture Why Online Etiquette is an International Conundrum
When I spent a month in Germany, I noticed how swiftly every danke, or “thank you,” was immediately followed by bitte, or “you’re welcome.” All the Germans I encountered seemed determined to make sure I noticed just how polite they were, and how prompt they were with their politeness. But recently, while emailing an institute…
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