Philologos
By Philologos
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Culture Can We Mix Jewish and Italian?
Stanley Sadinsky of Waterford, Conn., writes: “In recent stories in the Forward about the Triangle tragedy, the victims of the fire were referred to as predominantly ‘Jewish and Italian’ immigrants. Since ‘Jewish’ is a religious connotation and ‘Italian’ refers to country of origin, this descriptive mix was wrong. What should have been said was that…
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Culture And Rains in Their Due Season
It rained fairly heavily in Israel the week after Passover, and since anything more than a few drops is rare here after April, it was probably the year’s last downpour. Real rain is unlikely to fall again before late September or October, and there are years in which the first autumn showers don’t come until…
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Culture Israel and the ‘M’ Word
On the face of it, there was no need for anyone to be embarrassed by the much publicized WikiLeaks disclosure that Israel’s former minister of housing, Labor Party member Yitzhak Herzog, told an American diplomat in 2006 that ex-defense minister and then Labor Party head Amir Peretz was perceived by the Israeli public as being…
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Culture You Don’t Have To Be Dr. Dolittle
Translations of the Bible should refer to animals as “he” or “she” rather than as “it,” says PETA, an animal rights organization whose full name is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, according to the March 25 edition of the New York Daily News. Now that “the public recognizes that animals are feeling, intelligent…
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Culture Questioning the Questions
Ruth Fath of Princeton, N.J., asks a timely question: “Does the Yiddish word kashe, as in the fir kashes, the ‘Four Questions’ asked at the beginning of the Seder, come from the same root as the Hebrew word kasheh, ‘difficult’? Our rabbi points out that in Hebrew the Four Questions are known as arba ha-kushyot,…
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Culture Do We Nosh on Celery or Cupcakes?
This question comes from David Chanoff of Marlborough, Mass.: “I recently had an argument with a friend about the word ‘nosh.’ He grew up with Yiddish-speaking parents. I grew up around Yiddish-speaking grandparents. He maintained that to nosh means to snack on sweets, while I said it meant just to snack. I’m pretty sure I’m…
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News Enumerating Jewish Denominations
Warren Handel writes from Edwardsville, Ill.: ?Perhaps I am mistaken, but I had always understood the term ?denomination? to refer to varieties of Christianity. When did the term come into use to describe varieties of Judaism? What terminology did it replace?? Mr. Handel is not mistaken. Religious groupings such as Lutheranism, Calvinism, Presbyterianism, Methodism and…
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Culture A Geek by Any Other Name Would Smell
Israel went to the polls March 15, not to elect a new Knesset or prime minister, but to choose the winners of the popular reality show “Ha-Yafa v’ha-Khnun.” Named after the American TV program “Beauty and the Geek,” “Ha-Yafa v’ha-Khnun” was also modeled on it and has been, in terms of ratings, one of the…
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