Every Day Is Tu B’Shevat at Adat Ari El’s ‘Green Adat’
Every Day Is Tu B’Shevat at Adat Ari El’s ‘Green Adat’
Every Day Is Tu B’Shevat at Adat Ari El’s ‘Green Adat’ Read More »
February 8, 2020
The First ‘Harry Potter’ Book is Now Available in Yiddish
(JTA) — As of today, the first book in the Harry Potter series is available in Yiddish.
“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” — or “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” as it is known in the United States — was released in Yiddish by the Swedish publisher Olniansky Tekst Farlag on Friday. (Yiddish is an official language in Sweden.)
It was translated by Arun Visnawath, 29, the son of an Indian-American father and Gitl Schaecter-Visnawath, author of the “Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary.” Her father was a professor of Yiddish at Columbia University.
Yair Rosenberg chronicles the story behind the translation in Tablet — from how Visnawath renamed Quidditch as the equivalent of “shoot-broom” to how he felt about the book’s goblins, which some have called anti-Semitic.
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Alexander Vindman, Jewish Staffer Who Testified in Impeachment Hearings, Reportedly to be Removed from National Security Council
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The White House is set to remove Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the Jewish staffer who was among the first to raise flags about President Donald Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate a political rival, from the National Security Council.
Trump said on Friday that he was unhappy with Vindman, and two senior White House officials told the New York Times that Vindman would be reassigned to the Pentagon.
“Well I’m not happy with him — you think I’m supposed to be happy with him? I’m not,” Trump said. Pressed as to whether he would seek Vindman’s removal, he said, “They’ll be making that decision,” without specifying to whom he was referring.
Vindman’s removal from the National Security Council, which shapes national security policy, comes just days after Trump was acquitted by the Republican-led U.S. Senate in an impeachment trial that centered on Trump’s Ukraine dealings.
Vindman testified to Congress during impeachment hearings that he alerted his superiors immediately after listening to the call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, believing that Trump was signaling that he would withhold critical defense aid if Ukraine did not investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
Vindman said during his testimony that his father, who in the 1970s fled from the former Soviet Union with his Jewish family, feared that his speaking out would bring retaliation.