Philologos
By Philologos
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Culture What Should We Call Christian Bible?
Last week I dealt with the New American Haggadah, edited by novelist Jonathan Safran Foer. A few days after writing the column, I noticed an op-ed by Foer in The New York Times in which he discussed the new Haggadah in light of his evolving relationship with Jewish tradition. Speaking about how raising children has…
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Culture Haggadah, New and Improved
The New American Haggadah, which some of you may have on your Seder table this year, has gotten enough publicity without me, thus saving me the need to introduce it. There are things I like about it, such as its stunning graphic design, and things I don’t, such as the overall triteness and sometimes irritating…
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Culture Difference Between a Slob and a ‘Zhlob’
Judith Ronat writes from Kfar Saba in Israel: “The etymologies in my dictionary don’t support any connection, but I would like to hear your opinion. Is there any connection between the Yiddish word zhlob and the English ‘slob’?” There is a connection, but it’s not etymological. Rather, it’s that English “slob” has influenced the meaning…
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Culture Rewriting ‘Hatikvah’ as Anthem for All
Back in 1998, I wrote a column about “Hatikvah.” It was occasioned by a European Cup soccer game between Israel and Austria, before which, as usual on such occasions, the national anthems of both countries were played. When the band struck up the Israeli anthem, the whole Israeli team joined in singing it except for…
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News A Political Football
Originally published in the Forward September 18, 1998. A soccer game and Israel’s national anthem are the subjects of this week’s column. The game, which I watched on TV, took place recently in Vienna between Austria and Israel as part of the European Championship qualifying matches, and ended in a 1-1 draw. Before the opening…
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Culture Obama’s Got Our Back. Is That Good?
I must admit that when my eye first caught the phrase “Obama: U.S. will always have Israel’s back” in a March 6 newspaper report on the Obama-Netanyahu meeting in the White House, I was worried. Although I wasn’t sure what it meant, it didn’t sound good. My first two associations were with “I’ll have your…
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Culture Deciphering Secrets of the ‘Patio Tomb’
Some of you may have heard or read in recent days about the “Patio Tomb” in Jerusalem’s southern neighborhood of Talpiot, a Second-Temple-period cave, now situated beneath an apartment building, in which a team of archaeologists sponsored by the University of North Carolina claims to have found the earliest known Christian burial site — indeed,…
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Culture Nudge, Nudge. Wink, Wink.
Charles Krauthamer of Teaneck, N.J. (not to be confused with the Washington columnist of the same name), writes to ask: “A word used in Israel to mean ‘to pester’ is l’najez. I always assumed that it came from the Yiddish word ‘nudge’ until I was told that it came from Arabic. Can you help?” The…
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