Aviya Kushner is the Forward’s language columnist and the author of Wolf Lamb Bomb and The Grammar of God. Follow her on Twitter @AviyaKushner.
Aviya Kushner
By Aviya Kushner
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Culture Why There’s More To Israeli Literature Than Just Hebrew
An unusual session at the World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem chaired by prominent literary critic Dan Laor celebrated the contributions to Israeli literature of writers writing in languages other than Hebrew. For anyone familiar with Israeli literary history, the subject itself is a big deal — because for decades, non-Hebrew writing was discouraged…
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Culture Meet The 25-Year-Old Israeli Scientist Who Created Women In Translation Month
August is Women in Translation Month, which aims to bring attention to a depressing and little-known literary fact: women writers are translated far less often than male writers. This means many women writers have almost no chance of being heard outside their home country — and in practical terms, remaining untranslated means a diminished chance…
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Culture Why Words Matter When Newspapers Cover Trump
I am an incurable saver of newspapers, and I just couldn’t throw out Israeli newspaper coverage of Donald Trump’s visit to Israel. Something in the language gnawed at me, and now I know what it was: the invocation of Jewish text and tradition to describe an American president who is the most divisive in recent…
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Art Tel Aviv’s Love Car Is Israel’s Graffiti In Motion
Tel Aviv’s Florentin neighborhood is known for its constantly changing graffiti — and for the artists, eccentrics, hipsters, and refugees that call it home. But there is also the Love Car. The Love Car changes parking spots, resurfacing in different corners of the neighborhood. Covered in hearts, it is a form of moving graffiti. If…
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Culture Ivanka Trump Was ‘Unelected’ — Is That A New Word?
The internet raged after a photograph of a pink-clad Ivanka Trump sitting at the G-20 meeting in place of the president was snapped by a Russian official and widely shared. “Unelected and unqualified hand bag designer, sitting at a table as an equal with world leaders. America has never looked so ridiculous,” went a tweet…
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Culture Why Israel’s Word Of The Year Is ‘Perfect’
Each time I return to Israel, a new word greets me. I usually realize somewhere around baggage claim that a previously unused word is the word of the moment — because it’s plastered on advertisements of all kinds. Whatever the word is, I soon see and hear it everywhere, and I’m always amazed and amused…
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Culture The Bible’s Coming To Public School — At Least In Kentucky
A new law in Kentucky makes it legal to teach a Bible elective course in public schools as part of the social studies curriculum. The bill easily passed the State House and Senate, and was signed by Governor Matt Bevin. The video of Bevin signing the bill is currently the most popular video on WDRB,…
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Culture So, How Do You Observe Shabbat In Reykjavik?
Shabbat lasts three days in Reykjavik, Iceland, as I discovered when I found myself there for a writing conference. Shabbat began at 11:16 p.m. on Friday night, according to Chabad’s ever-helpful online calendar that lists candle-lighting times around the world, and finally ended at 1:27 on Sunday morning. Travelers to Iceland in summer often remark…
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