reII us whg Fur morn
deserves W win a diamond
from Tapper's Jewel%
An Israeli By Any
Other Name
NECHEMIA MEYERS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
R
ehovot — When you hear
that a child by the name of
Or, Tal, Omer or Stay has
been born, you have no way
of knowing whether the infant is
a boy or a girl. For these names,
and two dozen others, are no
longer sexually specific.
This is the latest fashion in
name-giving, which began to lose
its Diaspora rigidity with the on-
set of Zionist settlement in Israel
nearly 120 years ago. Until that
time a Jewish boy was likely to be
called Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
David, Shlomo or Moshe. A Jew-
Kids 14 and under, here's your chance to tell the world, in 100 words or less,
just how great your mom really is! (Pre-schoolers can send a drawing.)
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SECQ1ND PRIZE: 1/4 ct. tw. Diamond Heart Pendant in 14 kt. gold, $289 Retail
THIRD PRIZE: 14 kt. gold and Diamond Huggie Earrings, $135 Retail
All mother's entered will receive a free gift from Tapper's
We've extended the deadline until Saturday, May 10. Bring your entry
to Tapper's, or you can mail your essay or drawing with the entry blank below
to Tapper's at 6337 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield, MI 48322
Winners will be drawn randomly from all entries recieved by deadline. One entry per child.
ATTACH ENTRY BLANK TO ESSAY OR DRAWING
CHILD'S NAME
MOTHER'S NAME
ADDRESS
CITY
ZIP
DAYTIME PHONE
L
J
810-932-7700
jr 800-337-GIFT
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Elliott Kolodin
Phone: 810-661-2490
ish girl, with few exceptions, was
called Esther, Sarah, Rachel,
Leah, Miriam or Deborah. More-
over, they were almost always
named after a deceased relative.
Zionism changed both customs.
The first settlers, Haifa Profes-
sor Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi
points out, "chose names that were
symbolic either of Jewish sover-
eignty (like Amaziah and Shaul)
or of nationalist leadership dur-
ing the period when Jews lacked
sovereignty (like Bar-Kochba).
"Sometimes, in addition, there
was an explicit rejection of Jew-
ish tradition when a child was
named after a historic figure who
didn't get a 'good writeup' in the
Bible, someone like Absalom, King
David's rebellious son."
This rejection went still further
with the so-called "Canaanites," a
group, active in the 40s, which
claimed that the Jews of Palestine
were distinct from the Jews of the
Diaspora and should be known as
Hebrews. The "Canaanites" also
argued that contemporary He-
brew culture should look for in-
spiration to the ancient cultures
of the Middle East. And so it was
only natural for movement
founder Yonatan Ratosh to name
two of his children Hamman
(meaning child of the sun) and Sa-
haran (meaning moon child).
Others, though by no means
"Canaanites," also chose to depart
from tradition by naming their
children after non-Jews men-
tioned in the Bible, figures like
Nimrod (described in Jewish leg-
ends as Abraham's persecutor)
and Anat (a Canaanite goddess).
Beit-Hallahmi points out that
Israelis, who now have 10,000 en-
tries in their constantly growing
and changing roster of
names, are unique in this
respect. The Times of Lon-
don and the New York
Times ,he notes, have an-
nually published a list of
favorite names for chil-
dren over the last 100
years. John, Richard and
George have been on every
single list.
In Israel, parents of the
last few generations began
to look to nature for inspi-
ration, often choosing to
name their children after
flowers, trees, rock forma-
tions or seasons of the
year.
And of late there has
been a spate of names that
sound equally natural in
Tel Aviv and New York,
names like Tom (inno-
cence in Hebrew), Shirley
(my song in Hebrew) and Guy
(valley).
Whether the parents who
choose them are preparing their
children for emigration is any-
body's guess.
❑
Poetic Clash
A Memorial, written by famed Is-
raeli author Aharon Megged,
shows how the choice of a child's
name may cause a clash between
generations.
It tells about a man living in Is-
rael in the early 1950s who lost
one branch of his family in the
Holocaust, including his beloved
grandson, Mendelle. The other
branch survived in Israel and his
granddaughter, Raya, is about to
give birth to his first great-grand-
child. The grandfather wants the
child to be named after his grand-
son, but his Israeli granddaugh-
ter is horrified by the name.
She reacts to the suggestion by
saying: 'This is a Diaspora name,
ugly, horrible. I could never pro-
nounce it. Do you want me to hate
my child?"