Masada
Located atop a mountain in the Negev desert, the
fortress is an iconic historical location for the Jewish people. The palace and fortification, now in ruins, stand for the collective suicide of the Jewish rebels so they would not have to surrender to the Roman Empire in the first century CE.
Me’a She’arim
An ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem.
Mukhtar
Refers to the head of an Arab village.
Ostjude
A derogatory term meaning “Jew from the East,” used by assimilated and educated Jews from central Europe to describe Eastern European Jews who spoke Yiddish. The
Ostjude
were often poor and dressed like today’s ultra-Orthodox.
Palmach
Founded in 1941, Palmach was the underground Jewish army during the British Mandate, and became the elite fighting force of the Haganah (
see:
Haganah). The word is defined literally as “Strike Force” in Hebrew.
Palyam
The maritime force of the Palmach that was set up in 1945. Palyam translates from Hebrew as “Sea Company.”
Revisionists
A right wing, nonreligious faction of the Zionist
Nationalist movement. Led by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, revisionist ideology is distinguished by its belief in restoring the historic Land of Israel to the Jewish state.
Roytzeh
Hebrew for “want.”
Sabra
A Hebrew term used to describe the “new Jew,” who was born in Israel and stereotypically a confident, better assimilated, laborer of the Zionist movement. The term alludes to the desert plant that was thorny and tough on the outside, and soft and sweet on the interior. Where the Sabras commonly cultivated the land and worked on
kibbutzim
, they were often compared to the European, “old Jews” who were born in exile.
Sheikh Abrek
A small village in the Jezreel Valley that was settled by Arab Armenian refugees in 1926. When they were relocated in the 1980’s, they left behind several graves on the northern hill.
Sheikh Jarrah
An Arab neighborhood, even today, that sits between the westward Jewish and eastward Arab communities in Jerusalem.
Tel-Hai
A site in the Northern Galilee in which a famous
battle was waged between Arabs and Jews in 1920. The Jews were led by Joseph Trumpeldor, a now iconic figure in Zionist history, who said before his death, “it is good to die for our country.”
Traumen
Yiddish for “dreams.”
Wadi
Arabic term referring to a valley or dry riverbed.
Yishuv
Meaning “settlement” in Hebrew, the term refers to the Jewish residents living in Palestine before Israel established statehood in 1948.
About the Author
YORAM KANIUK, one of Israel’s leading writers, was born in Tel Aviv in 1930. After being wounded in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, he moved to New York for 10 years. A novelist, painter and journalist, Kaniuk has published many novels, memoirs, short stories, non-fiction and books for children and youth. Named an Officer in France’s Order of Arts and Letters in 2012, Kaniuk is also the recipient of the Mediterranee Etranger (2000), the Newman Prize (2006), the Kugel Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2008), the France-Israel Foundation Award (2010) and the Sapir Prize (2010). In 2011, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University. Kaniuk’s books have been published in 20 languages.
ANTHONY BERRIS was born in the UK and has lived in Israel for most of his life, working as a teacher and freelance translator.