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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Terrible Translation at Jpost.com

This is just too funny:



Who are these "female rabbis"? Are they graduates of the Reform movement's Hebrew Union College, the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary, or both? Here is what they wrote:
The letter states, "There are quite a few Arab workers who give themselves Hebrew names. Yusef turns into Yosef, Samir turns into Sami, and Awabad turns into Ami. They ask to be close to you, try to find favor with you, and give you all the attention in world, they are actually here knowing to act with courtesy, acting as if they really care for you, say a good word, but their behavior is only temporary. The moment you are in their hands, in their village, under their control, everything changes."

"Your life will never go back to the way it was, and the attention you so desired will turn into curses, beatings, and humiliations," the letter warns.
Say what? My gut feeling was that there is something is very wrong here. A quick check on the Arutz 7 web site determined that the letter was not composed by "female rabbis", but by the wives of regular Orthodox rabbis. Someone at jpost translated "rabbaniot" (in Yiddish "rebbetzins") as "female rabbis"! Among the signatories: Rebbetzin Esther Lior of Kiryat Arba (Rabbi Dov Lior's wife) and Rebbetzin Shlamit Melamed of Beit El(Rabbi Zalmen Melamed's wife).

This reminded me of an old Yiddish saying:"It's a lot easier to become a rebbetzin than to become a rabbi." However, at jpost it's the same thing!

1 comment:

yaak said...

It looks like they corrected it, but great catch!

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