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 Why A Hebrew Phrase Is Causing A Hullabaloo In Austria
Over beers in Jerusalem, a writer I know shared a fascinating linguistic tidbit from his recent research trip to Austria. He said he had heard the Hebrew phrase tohu va’vohu, from Genesis 1:2, memorably translated by Everett Fox as “wild and waste,” used in Vienna. As slang, he thought. In any case, tohu va’vohu seemed…
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Culture CIVILITY — Why Donald Trump Has Never Used That Word
As the language of public life has declined from dinner-table English to something previously considered unprintable, the word “civility” is suddenly everywhere — except Donald Trump’s lips. While Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed that she has the right to be served dinner at any restaurant, no matter what she says or does, her father,…
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Culture Could ‘Bubbes For Babies’ Change The Immigration Debate?
A group of passionate senior citizens in their eighties and nineties is organizing to protest the separation of children from their parents at the border, hoping that their age will “shine a spotlight” on the pain being inflicted on children. The effort is being spearheaded by 89-year-old Debbie Sherman and 82-year-old Susan Milliken, according to…
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Culture ‘INFEST’ — The Ugly Nazi History of Trump’s Chosen Verb About Immigrants
When President Trump characterized immigrants as “animals,” some people waved it away, claiming he was only referring to gang members. But his use of “infest” in connection to human beings is impossible to ignore. The president’s tweet that immigrants will “infest our Country” includes an alarming verb choice for anyone with knowledge of history. Characterizing…
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Culture ‘Very Biblical’ Doesn’t Mean What Jeff Sessions And Sarah Huckabee Sanders Think It Means
Attorney General Jefferson Sessions, recent recipient of a justice award from the Orthodox Union, had some bone-chilling commentary on the Bible this week, claiming it justified separating children and parents at the border—and using the same part of the New Testament, Romans 13, that had once been used to justify slavery. But let’s parse what…
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Culture What The Ayatollah Means By ‘Eradicating’ Israel
Let me begin by thanking Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei of Iran and Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic Monthly for the opportunity to investigate the word “eradicate.” I never thought I’d have the chance to express gratitude to Khamenei and Goldberg in the same sentence, but these are strange times. When the President of the United…
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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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