Iran’s Jewish languages are dying. Can intrepid linguists save them before it’s too late?
The Jewish Language Project is racing the clock to preserve a rapidly disappearing heritage
Aramaic
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Music Will Israel Recognizes ‘Aramaics’ as Separate Ethnic Group?
(Reuters) — In the green hills of the Galilee, where Jesus is said to have preached two thousand years ago, a group of Aramaic speakers looking to revive the language of Christ are celebrating a victory in their quest to safeguard their heritage. In a place where tensions run high on issues of ethnicity, faith and…
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Israel News Pope Francis Spars With Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu Over Language of Jesus
(Reuters) — Pope Francis and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traded words on Monday over the language spoken by Jesus two millennia ago. “Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew,” Netanyahu told Francis, at a public meeting in Jerusalem in which the Israeli leader cited a strong connection between Judaism and Christianity. “Aramaic,”…
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Breaking News Update Your Facebook Status — In Ancient Aramaic!
Facebook users are always looking for ways to make their statuses stand out on the uber-popular social network. One user has put a unique spin on the quest for original updates, tapping into the ancient Semitic language of Aramaic to create an entire page in the Canaanite tongue. And now, the person running a new…
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Israel News Maronite Christians Seek To Revive Aramaic Language
On a hot August day in the Galilee, a group of schoolchildren in the Arab Christian village of Jish counted diligently, from one to 10, after their instructor. But the words, though similar to Arabic and Hebrew, were neither. ”Chada, tarteyn, telat, arba, khamesh,” they recited, ”shet, shva, tamney, teysha, asar.” At this unique summer…
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Culture Cheers! We’re Not Poisoned — Or Are We?
Two interesting comments have come from readers about [my November 25 column][1] on the Jewish toast “l’chaim,” which I traced back to a medieval custom, still practiced by Sephardic and Middle Eastern Jews, that is connected to the Kiddush, the traditional Sabbath and holiday blessing over wine. The first of these, from Harold Zvi Slutzkin…
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The Schmooze Did Jews Invent the Question Mark?
Somehow, it’s not surprising that Jews, who are known to answer a question with a question, may have invented the question mark. Reuters reports that manuscript specialist Chip Coakley of Cambridge University was studying biblical manuscripts at the British Museum in London when he determined that the “zagwa elaya” (two dots resembling a the modern…
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