A group of right-wing Israeli lawmakers are proposing a bill to make Hebrew the sole official language of the state of Israel. The bill, which has the support of Knesset members from the Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, and Jewish Home parties, would break from current law, which mandates that Arabic as well as Hebrew must be…
Charles McLagan writes: “I am curious about the Hebrew numbers shesh and sheva [six and seven] and their other Semitic equivalents. They are clearly related to the English six and seven, and to like-sounding words for these two numbers in additional Indo-European languages. I wonder if you have any idea of how this came to…
(Reuters) — Using tunnels, mines, booby traps and snipers, Hamas fighters have inflicted record casualties on Israeli troops waging an offensive in the Gaza Strip, applying years of training in urban warfare with a new tactical acumen and suicidal resolve. The Israelis say weapons and know-how supplied by Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah make Hamas…
He has part ownership of an Israeli basketball team, sports a yarmulke before games and thinks Shabbat is “awesome.” Now, it seems Amar’e Stoudemire is ready for the next step: learning Hebrew. According to an email making the rounds, the basketball star is looking for a tutor: Please let me know if you have any…
Facebook (JTA) — I just got a text from someone who’s trying to blow me up. “The stupidity of your leaders put all of Israel under fire, and forced all the Israelis to go into shelters,” it said, sent by a user named SMSQASSAM. “We will continue bombing every place in Israel until they answer all…
Facebook It’s no surprise that in 2014, the war between Hamas and Israel is being fought on the Internet and social media front, as well as from the air (and possibly soon on the ground, as well). Both sides of the conflict are trying to get the world to understand and support their case for…
Hamas militants warned Israel for the first time, and in Hebrew, of an impending rocket attack, adopting psychological warfare with the Jewish state while trying to raise the morale of Gaza’s Palestinians harder hit by Israeli bombardment. Around 160 Palestinians in the tiny overcrowded enclave, most of them civilians, have been killed in six days…
(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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