And in really important news, The Academy for the Hebrew Language has announced the now official, and proper, Hebrew word for emoji.

The new word is "simlon" - סמלון

Interestingly, the word simlon sounds like smiley, but that's not where they took it from. They re-conjugated the word "semel", which means symbol or emblem.

It should be noted that the original "official" Hebrew word for emoji was partzufon, from the word partzuf, face, but that was when emojis were just smileys. Now that they are all sorts of symbols, simlon is a more encompassing word.

I would also note that simlon is very similar sounding, though not in spelling, to simla, a dress, and just by listening one might think a simlon is a small dress. But it isn't. :-)

You can find this word and other new Hebrew words on the Academy's FB page..

👌👍😀

here is an ad that has been posted around the neighborhood (and probably other areas)..


this is an ad for a course for educators to teach them to educate according to a specific method.

For some reason, the advertisement is in Hebrew though the course itself is going to be in English.. That makes me scratch my head.

The funny part is that it says "the curse will be in English", instead of saying "the course". Funny typo. My explanation is that everything will be in Hebrew except for when they teach the curses because there are, famously, no curse words in the Hebrew language - so those they'll have to teach in English!

I used to listen to Avshalom Kor on the radio all the time. I think he is great. He somehow turns a boring topic - language and grammar - into something interesting.

Kor, speaking to students about the Hebrew language, commented that Olmert's greatest crime was not the corruption he was involved in - that's just money, and money wrongly taken can be returned. The real crime, Kor said, is that in the generation of the renewal of Jews in Israel the fact that Olmert built a neighborhood in Jerusalem and named it "Holyland", instead of a proper Hebrew name, is the greatest of his crimes.
source: Srugim

I say book him on that too.

Funnily enough, Kor also said that whenever he hears a Member of Knesset talking on the radio and making grammar mistakes he sends a text message letting him know of the mistake. Kor is a grammar ninja!

Some MKs on the right side of the political spectrum, from the parties including Yisrael Beyteynu, Likud and Habayit Hayehudi, are working to propose a new law.

The new law would really just be the cancellation of a clause that was adopted from the British Mandate.

The law proposal would be to take away the status of Arabic as an official language of the State of Israel. If the law would pass, Israel would no longer publish its official forms and announcements in Arabic, as it does now in addition to Hebrew. As well, the Arabic language would cease to be used in government offices and in the courts. The proposal does make an exception for road signs, saying road signs would continue to be published with Arabic included, as everybody has the right to use the language they prefer.

The law is being proposed by MK Shimon Ohayoun (Yisrael Beyteynu), in coordination with MKs Dovid Rotem and Chemed Amar, along with moshe Feiglin (Likud) and Orit Strouk (Habayit Hayehudi).

There have been attempts to pass similar laws in the past, always unsuccessfully.

The reason for the proposal is that most countries have their national language, the language spoken by most of its population. The Hebrew language as the national language needs to be anchored in law. Passing the proposal would effect more societal cohesion and would build a collective identity...
source: Haaretz

I don't have a strong opinion on this. I am in favor of it generally, despite the acknowledgement that we still have a sizable Muslim population. It does help that many of the Muslims are splitting off of Israel - whether in the West Bank or Gaza, but there will still be plenty that will remain in Israel as Israeli citizens. I dont know if that justifies its status as a national language, but it leaves me in the position of being in favor, but not strongly. It is actually probably more justified to add Amharic or Russian as official languages than to leave Arabic as an official language.

Even though the timing is so close to the conflict/war with Gaza, at least that is not the official reason being given.

I do think it is good to have one language and promote only Hebrew. we have minority languages of all types in use. If they are not protected, Arabic need not be either. It can, obviously, still be used, it just wont have official status.

In what might be considered a strange announcement, Mayor of Netanya Miriam Fireberg said she refuses to be a tadpole.

Not too long ago the Academy of the Hebrew Language introduced some new words into the Hebrew language, as it does on occasion. One of those words was a feminized version of an existing word. The word for head, rosh, was adjusted for women to roshat - the usage being in the word for mayor or prime minister - instead of having a woman be called "rosh ir" or rosh memshala", a woman could, or maybe should, be called "roshat ir" or "roshat memshala".

Fireberg protests the new title, and even did so when she was introduced as "roshet ir Netanya" before her speech at an academic institution in Netanya. Fireberg said "I am not a roshat, not a roshan, but a rosh ir". A roshan is a tadpole. Later, on radio, Fireberg said again that she disapproves of the new words - she is just a rosh ir she said - "what is a roshat? I am not a tadpole." Fireberg said she should be called "rosh ir" and that's it, or she could be called Giveret Rosh Ir - Ms. Mayor, but she is not a rosha, a tadpole or a frog.

I just thought it was funny that Fireberg is protesting the similarity of the new title for its similarity to the word for tadpole. But she even has support for Dr. Avshalom Kor - probably the most famous linguist in Israel and the foremost expert on the Hebrew language and grammar.

Kor said Fireberg is really right - the word is not correct or necessary. The Academy created it due to social needs and wants, and they based it on a single source in Tanakh where the word "rosh" was feminized, but the reality is that the noun rosh does not have a feminine form - the word rosh is used in both male and female forms.
source: Ynet 

The Knesset Committee of Work, Welfare and Health (not sure why all those get bundled into one committee together) approved a new enactment declared by the Health Ministry by which doctors, clinical criminologists and communicational clinicians who wish to convert their foreign license to work in those fields, will only be allowed to do so if they can show a basic command of the Hebrew language.

According to MK Chaim Katz (Likud), the chairman of this committee, "Aliyah to Israel is to be blessed, and I am aware of the difficulties of the language, but the good of the patient has priority".
(source: ynet)


I do not know what they consider "basic", but now such people who make aliyah might have to go to ulpan first before they jump right into work.

I hope it wont discourage aliyah, as people might see it, or be afraid that it might be, as an impediment to finding gainful employment. I might suggest that the Jewish Agency, or maybe Nefesh bNefesh, might operate ulpans in the USA (maybe they already do?) so that people approved for aliyah can already begin getting a grasp of the language before landing here when they want to start looking for work right away...

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The city department of developing cultural events for the haredi public, called Agaf Che"n Charedi, has put out a booklet of events sponsored and subsidized by the city that will be taking place during Chanukah.

The booklet contains all the events with all the relevant information: location, price, date, etc. Some of the events have both a showing in Hebrew and a showing in English.

Interestingly, there are two films for women that are going to be showing, each with a time in Hebrew and a time for an English showing.

If you pay attention, for both of those shows, the Hebrew show has tickets selling at 30 NIS per ticket, with the option of buying 4 tickets for 100 NIS, yet the English show has only one option of tickets selling for 40 NIS each, and no discount for multiple tickets.

I wonder why they are charging more for the English than the Hebrew event. Especially if the event is subsidized by the city - why should there be a difference of price? Are they assuming the English speaking crowd is wealthy and therefore they can get away with charging them more?

It seems discriminatory to me.

Or maybe it is just standard fare - I have this theory that if you call any service provider that specializes in the anglo community you will probably be paying more for the service call than if you called an Israeli service provider who does not focus on the Anglo community. Perhaps, if my theory is correct, this is another manifestation of the same issue.

The Jewish commissioner of the NBA must be running some sort of Hebrew ulpan for players, with the increase in the number of Jews playing ball at the professional level, along with guys like Ama're Stoudamire finding out they might have Jewish roots and immediately jumping over to Israel for a visit.

The latest revelation is that Shaq has been going to Hebrew school as well. Is he Jewish? Will he come visit us in Israel? Will Shaq be on the next Nefesh B'Nefesh flight and come home to his brothers in Israel?

Who knows, but here are his blessings, in Hebrew, for the upcoming new year...

(hattip: Israellycool)

My little boy had a tiyul today from school. The tiyul included the mothers who were supposed to come.

They were told they would be going to a place in Ashdod called, and you need to be reading this with an Israeli Hebrew accent, "Partee Zan Park".

The mothers (even the purely Israeli ones), not knowing what this was going to be, all expected it to be some tiyul through the woods or a park that was a memorial to the partisans.

Sure enough, they got there, and the place was an indoor amusement park named "Party Zone Park".

Transportation Minister Yaakov Katz has grandiose plans to Hebraize the road signs across Israel, creating a standard for the spellings of city names. (source: Ynet)

it can get confusing as you drive and notice that each sign directing you to a city might have the name of the city spelled differently. Sometimes it is no big deal, but other times it can cause you to be unsure of whether or not you are going in the right direction.

By Hebraizing the spellings, as long as he remains consistent in the spelling, it will solve all those problems. Even with Hebraizing the names, if he would just establish a standard it would also solve the problem. But Hebraizing at the same time is killing two birds with one stone. There is no reason the State of Israel needs to remain with the same crazy spellings from the days of the Turkish rule and British rule. It is about time Israel put its footprint on the roads.

True, it might cause some havoc for an interim period. All the GPS units, along with maps, will need to be updated, along with possible general confusion. But in the long run I think it is a great idea.

Israel recently released the 2 shekel coin.

There is a raging debate what nickname to call the new coin by. The two main suggestions, I think, are "shnekel" and "shtekel".

Shnekel is a combination of "Shnei Shekel" - 2 shekel in Hebrew.
Shtekel is a combination of "Shtei Shekel" - 2 shekel in Hebrew.

I do not know which is grammatically correct. One would be feminine and one would be masculine tense. I do not know if coins are considered masculine or feminine, but the structure of the word seems to be masculine. I think that would make "shnekel" more correct. But grammar was never my favorite subject, so I might be wrong.

A reader pointed me to this website where you can vote on the name "shtekel"..