Philologos
By Philologos
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Culture Israel’s Freedom Fries Moment
It was, I suppose, predictable. In Israel there is now a movement to change the name of Turkish coffee, or kafey turki, as it is known in Hebrew. Bad enough, the movement’s proponents say, to be insulted by the Turkish government, denounced by its prime minister and have one’s flag burned by Turkish demonstrators without…
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News What Makes A Macher?
Most of us know what a macher (with the “ch,” as in Bach) is, but what do you call one in English? This question came to mind recently, in connection with the Holyland real estate scandal in Jerusalem, whose suspects include city mayor Uri Lupolianski and ex-prime minister Ehud Olmert. The key player in the…
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Culture Live Long and Super
Ron D. Wegsman writes from the Bronx: “The Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently carried a feature article about the first supermarket in Israel, the ‘Supersol’ on Ben-Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv, which is where my mother shopped for groceries when I was a baby. I had always thought that this supermarket (and subsequent ones in the…
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Culture Twice Beware the Aryan Nation
Thinking about Iran and the Bomb the other day (what newspaper reader doesn’t?), it struck me as a curious coincidence that, for the second time in some of our lifetimes, Jews are being threatened with mass destruction in the name of the same ancient Indo-European word. This is because “Iran” and “Aryan” are connected. The…
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Culture Talking for Weeks, in Tongues
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it…
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Culture Etiquette for Schmucks, Schlemiels, Schlimazels and Schmendriks
Last week’s column, a reply to a reader’s query about the Yiddish word mentsh, invoked Michael Wex’s 2009 book, “How To Be a Mentsh (& not a Shmuck).” Today, we return to the second half of Wex’s title, spurred by Paramount Pictures’ announcement of the release, this summer, of a new comedy directed by Jay…
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News The Mentsch as Everywoman?
Sherry Leffert writes from Cambridge, Mass.: “A German-speaking, non-Jewish friend of mine likes to compare German words with Yiddish ones. Recently, we were talking about Yiddish mentsh and German Mensch. Since the primary meaning of both words is a man, we were wondering: Does their secondary meaning of a person of integrity and honor refer…
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Culture Mapping the World at Your Dinner Table
Adam Gladstone writes: “The Hebrew word for tablecloth is mapa. This sounds a lot like the English word map, which according to my dictionary is derived from Latin mappa mundi, that is, ‘a sheet of the world.’ Is it possible that Hebrew mapa derives from the Latin word for sheet?” Possible? Definitely — but this…
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