Posts

Barack Obama’s Pan-Semitic Opportunity

By Adam LeBor / May 27, 2008

Earlier this year I wrote an article for Jewcy arguing that Barack Obama was good for the Jews. One of my more light-hearted points was that 'Barack' is essentially the same word as 'Baruch', and both mean 'blessed', so Jews should vote for him. The article was passed to Obama through a friend of mine who is friends with one of his advisers on Jewish affairs and Israel. I thought he must have read it, for lo and behold, he told a synagogue audience in Florida last Thursday that they can call him 'Baruch'.

The audience laughed and smiled in response.

But sadly for my future career plans as presidential inter-faith adviser, it seems that he has known about Baruch-Barack for several years. Daniel Koffler advises me that Obama has been working the Semitic cognate thing since 2003.

Even so, the similarities among Hebrew, Arabic, Swahili could still be a useful tack for Obama as he tries to negotiate a path between his Arabic and Swahili names and multi-cultural heritage and his Jewish supporters. He could, perhaps even should, start lacing his speeches with other examples of almost-identical phrases. Of course we know that Hebrew and Arabic share much vocabulary, but it's still suprising quite how similar they are once you start looking. Wikipedia's guide to Semitic languages is very good on this. Personally, I found that several years of Hebrew school and time on a kibbutz ulpan was a solid basis for learning Arabic at Leeds University. The two languages are, roughly speaking, about as similar as Dutch and German.

The best way for Obama to greet his audiences, of whatever faith, would be with 'Shalom Aleichem-Salaam Aleykum', meaning ‘Peace be upon you'. This could even be a subtle set-up for Baruch-Barack, as the ‘chet' in ‘Aleichem' and ‘Baruch' becomes a ‘kaf' in both Arabic versions. He could continue with ‘Beyti-Beytak', meaning ‘My house is your house', a traditional Arabic greeting. That would not need a Hebrew version as ‘Beyt' means house in both languages. He could even put his yad-yad (hand) on his lev-qalb (heart) as he spoke. And that would send a message about what unites Jews and Arabs, instead of dividing them.

POST A COMMENT

  • By Efendisiz 11/27/08 at 4:50 p.m. UTC

    http://www.alsohbet.com
    http://www.kelebek.us
    http://www.hikayelerim.org

    thank you ;)

  • By Payday Loan Advocate 10/1/08 at 6:31 a.m. UTC


    The payday loan industry has been
    the key target for corrupt politicians, from all sides, seeking an increase in
    voter support at the expense of what’s best for the general public. Governors
    of several states including, Georgia, North Carolina, and Oregon completely
    drove payday loan businesses out of their states. The negative effects of
    driving out payday loan companies from these states, appears to have not been
    the best idea for its’ citizens. For instance, in Georgia, the bankruptcy
    filings, bounced checks and foreclosures all grew overwhelmingly after the cash
    advance option was taken away from them. In spite of this downbeat information,
    following the closure of payday loans in these states, several other governors
    continue to try and follow suit. Leading national politicians, such as
    presidential hopeful Barack Obama, are now making it their mission to eliminate
    the industry completely once and for all. Should such efforts be judged
    successful, the possibility is very real for increased unemployment rates, more
    debt, more foreclosures and an even more crippled economy.

     

    Post Courtesy of Personal Money
    Store

    Professional Blogging Team

    Feed Back:  1-866-641-3406

    Home:
    http://personalmoneystore.com/NoFaxPaydayLoans.html

    Blog:
    http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/

     

     

  • By Rick Ross 5/30/08 at 11:26 p.m. UTC

    I can't believe no one ever thought of this. What better way to solve the problems between jews and arabs than to point out that they speak a similar langauge. I can't believe no one thought of this before. In fact if someone had pointed out to the lebanese christians and lebanese muslims that THEY SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE there might never have been a civil war. As you say Hebrew and Arabic are as similar as Dutch and German, and it isn't like there haven't been any wars or invasions of one of those countries by the other in the past century among those two countries. And what better person to introduce this idea than Barack Hussien Obama. Once jews realized Barack is similar to Baruch I'm sure their worries about him attending a farakahnite church and having anti-israeli advisors and having ties to PLO spokesman like Khalidi and Said won't matter at all. I wonder what hebrew word Hussien is similar to?

Wanna post your own comments?