Tag: Language
“Interfaith” is so 1970s!
Navigating the Linguistic Quagmire of the “Interfaith” World A few years ago at an interfaith conference I overheard a senior scholar complain, “‘Interfaith’ is so seventies!” He was expr... Read More
Pokeakh Ivrim: Opening Our Minds to New Forms of Inclusion
This post originally appeared on Ritualwell. Typically when we think of access in general and in Jewish community specifically, we first default to thinking about physical access—is the bimah acce... Read More
A Lonely Atonement: Yom Kippur in the Islamic Studies Reading Rooom
It’s Erev Yom Kippur. Perhaps the holiest night of the Jewish year. I’m sitting in the Islamic Studies Reading Room at Columbia’s Butler Library, reading through Shi’a manifest... Read More
Disrupting the Narrative: Israel and Palestine (Part II)
Abigail recently returned from a two-week-long Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East (UUJME) human rights delegation to Israel and Palestine. UUJME’s mission is “to promote pea... Read More
“But Not in Number”: One and Many in Hebrew Grammar
Hebrew contains a feature which, to my knowledge, is unique among both Semitic and non-Semitic languages. That is, there is a small but significant class of nouns which are plural in form but singular... Read More
Identifying the Spirit of the Poetic
As a student of religion, above all else, I am committed to identifying the spirit of the poetic in my work. I turn to writing as a form of prayer, a languaged response to the unlanguaged Other of the... Read More
Mourning the Crimes of Thanksgiving
We recently celebrated a Thanksgiving service in observance of the national American holiday at my church. As we sung our way through several hymns, I felt more troubled than grateful. The words to th... Read More
You use the words you know
One of the unexpected things I have told friends about in my learning to speak Arabic over the past five years is the fact that I am much more talkative in Arabic than I am in English. In Arabic, my... Read More