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 What’s Marijuana Doing In The Talmud — And Hashish Too?
For linguists, copy editors, and Hebrew obsessives the world over, this has been a marijuana-filled week. Allow me to explain: this week, the Associated Press issued guidelines on the use of marijuana in news stories — the word, not the drug. And also this week, the Academy of Hebrew Language took to Twitter to explain…
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Culture Absolutely Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Schnorrers
I grew up in Monsey, New York, where schnorrers of all kinds go door to door, asking for help paying for everything from a daughter’s wedding to major surgery to yeshiva tuition to something as basic as feeding many mouths. The busiest times come when Shabbat approaches, on Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons. I never…
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Culture Amos Oz’s Daughter Claims Israeli Authors Can’t Win The Nobel. Is She Right?
Fania Oz-Salzberger, the historian, author and daughter of Amos Oz, took to Twitter to offer what she described as “one tweet and that’s it” on the subject of Amos Oz and the Nobel Prize. Tweeting in Hebrew, she made three points: “1. He’s not dreaming and he’s not trying. He knew long ago that it…
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Culture How This Bible Got To Jerusalem — And Other Secrets Of Gershom Scholem’s Library
If you have ever wanted to visit the private library of a major intellectual, the place to be is Jerusalem, where Gershom Scholem’s personal library — along with the desk he wrote on — lives inside a room at the National Library of Israel. The space is homey, and feels a bit like a private…
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Culture Why Israel’s National Library Is Such A Treasure Trove For The Jewish People
Did you know that Stefan Zweig’s suicide note is housed in the National Library of Israel? So are Gershom Scholem’s love letters to his first wife, which mention the time he saw the poet Chaim Nachman Bialik at lunch, along with the philosopher Ahad Ha’am. In a recent visit, I held my breath as I…
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Culture How Fight Over African Immigrants Is (Literally) Dividing Houses In Israel
The refugee crisis in Israel is personal for many Israelis. In South Tel Aviv’s Shapira neighborhood, where most residents have modest incomes, one house has two signs — half the house calls for letting refugees stay; the other calls for sending them out of Israel. One sign reads: “South Tel Aviv Is Against the Expulsion.”…
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Culture Why Vowels Matter So Much At The Passover Seder — Really!
Some Seders focus on the plot of the Haggadah — the hunger-fueled journey to Egypt, the 400 years of ensuing enslavement, the long and brutal struggle against Pharaoh’s cruelty and, at last, the triumphant Exodus. But in families like mine, the main event is not plot, it’s the vowels. Dinner is postponed indefinitely as relatives…
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Culture How Vashti Said No — And Faced The Consequences
Every time a scandal erupts around the sexual behavior of a powerful man, someone seems to ask, “Well, why didn’t she say no?” It so happens that the Book of Esther begins with the story of a woman who “says no,” and it demonstrates that the consequences of “saying no” can be severe: Queen Vashti…
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