A Jewish student told me this week, “I visited Israel” (he used the word ha’aretz – literally, “the land” – like Israelis do when referring to their country) “for the first time this summer.” That was probably one of the few sentences he was capable of saying in a Hebrew that dripped with a Midwest American accent. “What do you mean when you say ha’aretz?” I asked the student, who had no idea what I meant. “Never mind,” I said, and wondered whether someone is allowed to call the country by its private name if he doesn’t belong to it, if it’s not his aretz, Sayed Kashua writes from Illinois.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 17:11:26 +0000
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