Yona Sabar
Kurdistani Jewish scholar, linguist and researcher
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Yona Sabar (Hebrew: יוֹנָה צַבָּר; born 1938 in Zakho, Iraq) is a Kurdistani Jewish scholar, linguist and researcher. He is professor emeritus of Hebrew at the University of California, Los Angeles. A native speaker of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic, Sabar has published more than 90 research articles about Jewish Neo-Aramaic and the folklore of the Jews of Kurdistan.
Yona Sabar | |
|---|---|
יוֹנָה צַבָּר | |
| Born | Yona Sabagha 1938 (age 87–88) |
| Education | Hebrew University of Jerusalem (B.A. in Hebrew and Arabic, 1963), Yale University (Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, 1970) |
| Occupations | Scholar, linguist, researcher |
| Years active | 1963–present |
| Employer | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Known for | Research on Jewish Neo-Aramaic and folklore of Kurdish Jews |
| Notable work | The Folk Literature of the Kurdistani Jews, A Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dictionary |
| Children | Ariel Sabar Ilan Sabar |
| Awards | Subject of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning memoir by his son, Ariel Sabar |
Early life
Sabar was born in the town of Zakho in northern Iraq in 1938 as Yona Sabagha.[1] He was the last known Jewish boy bar mitzvahed in Zakho. Due to the Arab-Israeli conflict of the 1950s, his family moved to Israel in 1951, when Sabar was 13 as a part of Operations Ezra and Nehemia.[2]
Sabar initially struggled to adapt to Israel as a lower-class immigrant who spoke Aramaic.[3] He worked in the National trade union Histadrut. After living in Israel, the family changed their surname to "Sabar" from the word for sabra, meaning prickly pear.[1]
Career
Sabar received a B.A. in Hebrew and Arabic from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1963 and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from Yale University in 1970. In 1972, he was hired as a professor of Hebrew and Aramaic at UCLA.
Sabar has written multiple articles for the Jewish Journal on the etymology of Hebrew words, such as the roots of "Mount Sinai".[4]
Sabar served as the Aramaic dialect coach for the 2013 6x05 episode of True Blood "Fuck the Pain Away."[5]
My Father's Paradise
His immigrant journey from the hills of Kurdistan to the highways of Los Angeles is the subject of an award-winning memoir entitled My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for his Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by his son, Ariel Sabar, an American author and journalist.[6] Ariel Sabar's book on his father's life won the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.[7]
Works
- The Folk Literature of the Kurdistani Jews: An Anthology, Yale University Press, 232 pp., 1982. ISBN 978-0-300-02698-6
- Sabar, Yona (2002). A Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dictionary: Dialects of Amidya, Dihok, Nerwa and Zakho, Northwestern Iraq. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 9783447045575.
- Sabar, Yona (2003). "Aramaic, once an International Language, now on the Verge of Expiration: Are the Days of its Last Vestiges Numbered?". When Languages Collide: Perspectives on Language Conflict, Language Competition, and Language Coexistence. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. pp. 222–234. ISBN 9780814209134.
- Sabar, Yona (2009). "Mene Mene, Tekel uPharsin (Daniel 5:25): Are the Days of Jewish and Christian Neo-Aramaic Dialects Numbered?" (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 23 (2): 6–17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-07-15.