Hebrew name for US "Lands of the Covenant" remains mystery

IMRA ^ | 1-12-05

[SJackson]

Hebrew name for US "Lands of the Covenant" remains mystery Aaron Lerner Date: 11 January 2005

The United States is called "Lands of the Covenant" (Artzot Habrit) in Hebrew.

It is commonly thought that this name was given in order to avoid confusion with the Hebrew name for the United Nations.

IMRA asked Israel Radio's "Moment of Hebrew" program for the source of the name.

They find that the term appears in Hebrew papers as early as 1857 - in the Hamagid L'Israel weekly.

[madison10]

"Separatists" does not mean "Jews." Where did you get that notion? They were separated from the common Government-sponsored Christianity of the day. They were Bible-believers as opposed to church-believers. Jews? Don't think so.

[Thinkin' Gal]

The curious thing about Iceland is their naming system. I don't know how common it is around the world (it's out of place in Europe, anyway), but it is structured in the same manner as the Biblical tradition.

Example: Þor, son of Einar, would have that as his name: Þor Einarsson. A daughter Áma, would be Áma Einarsdottir.

[wardaddy]

South Carolina had the first constitution anywhere that mentioned Jews by name as having specific religious freedom there.

Sepahardic Jews (mostly) prospered in the antebellum South...

Rosen's "The Jewish Confederates" of which I have a signed copy is a good source.

and to anyone who has already heard me tell this before 50 times I'm sorry.

doing my part to dispel myths.

[SJackson]

I've seen both terms used "separatists" and "strangers" in referring to different people. Wish I had my old school books ... .

As I understand it separatists refers to the 40 or so Pilgrims. Strangers appears once in Bradfords papers, referring to the 60 or so non-Pilgrims on the Mayflower, but was not a commonly used term. I believe the term "strangers" was popularized by a book published in the 1940s, but not much used before that. There's nothing I've ever seen that would equate strangers with Jews, and as I've noted if a single proven Jew sailed on the Mayflower, I'm certain it would be noted in multiple sources, particularly publications of Jewish history.

[SJackson]

Next thing you're going to tell me we (you) could have had a Jewish Vice-President nearly a century and a half before Joe Lieberman, had he been foolish enough to take the job. The press would be disappointed :>)

[Thinkin' Gal]

Eretz Israel (Land of Israel)
eretz moledet (native land)
Artzot habrit (United States)

Now that I'm looking at this, it doesn't seem like the correct order. I don't have my books. It's probably

Artzot habrit (United States)
Eretz Israel (Land of Israel)
eretz moledet (native land)

or per chance it was hamoledet.

Well, they were all together, and that was the point. Maybe it would be better to write ts instead of tz, so there isn't a ZOT in/on the US. :-/

[Thinkin' Gal]

I forgot to mention...

The USSR's Hebrew name also contains/ed a "brit". I figured this was also to indicate the "union" (alliance, covenant) of Soviet Socialist Republics. Not having my dictionary handy, I just can't think of the entire Hebrew name. It would translate as the alliance of countries or republics, or some such.

I don't know what other countries (if any) include "brit" in their Hebrew names, but is noteworthy that the largest aliah of Jews in recent times, was the exodus out of the former Soviet bloc.

First the Jews, then the Joes...

[wardaddy]

lol...well as matter of fact...my Benjamen feint earlier had brought it to mind.

[SaltyJoe]

I've heard the term "yank" came from Dutch who were trying to return the old insult of calling some one a "John Cheese" (originating from the Flemish). That's like a Civil War soldier calling a Confederate a "Johnny Reb" or a Vietnam US soldier calling the Viet Cong "Charlie".

The exception to the Dutch returning the insult/nick name "John Cheese" is that they would say in a thick accent, "Yan Keys" or "Yankees". It was shortened to "Yank".

Don't take my word alone (WARNING, this site uses the "N" word):

http://members.lycos.co.uk/brisray/misc/mrace.htm

From the Online Etymology Dictionary I found Yankee - 1683, probably applied disparagingly by Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam (New York) to English colonists in neighboring Connecticut. It may be from Du. Janke, dim. of common personal name Jan, or from Jan Kes familiar form of "John Cornelius," or perhaps an alternative of Jan Kees, dialect variant of Jan Kaas, literally "John Cheese," the generic nickname the Flemings used for Dutchmen. It originally seems to have been applied insultingly to Dutch, especially freebooters, before they turned around and slapped it on the English. In England a term of contempt (1750s) before its use as a general term for "native of New England" (1765). Shortened form Yank in reference to "an American" first recorded 1778.

Wikipedia says that one suggestion is that it derives from Dutch Janke, diminutive of Jan (John), or Jan Kees, for "John Cheese", a nickname for English settlers bestowed by the Dutch in the early days of New York City. The phrase was probably popularized by the English in the song Yankee Doodle Dandee to describe New Yorkers, and perhaps, all (Northern) Americans in the colonies.


The term probably originated in old New Amsterdam, New Holland and New York, in the Mid-Atlantic. It then was adopted by the British to describe (Northern) colonists. In the Civil War, the phrase referred to all residents and soldiers of northern or free states, usually used derisively by rebel troops and secession sympathizers.

The New York Yankees baseball team refocused attention on New York, and the need to describe the rural, New Englander of puritan stock probably caused reporters and authors to bring back the slang shorthand term Yankee. Finally, citizens of other countries, including the British during the World Wars, referred to all Americans as Yanks. This is not to be confused with the British slang wank, which is something else entirely.

The term Yankee is still used in The South as a derisive term for persons from any state north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Wikipedia also has the following :-

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is an Easterner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

[Redcloak]

Maybe it would be more liberally translated: Lands of the Constitution.

That was my first thought. The term dates to a time when the US Constitution was a unique instrument in the world.

[ChicagoHebrew]

Um.. I think you were probably responding to someone else. I never argued that Catholicism is "Bible based."

As for Catholicism and Jews, yes, it's been a troubled history, but a remarkably brighter one since John XXIII.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Family members wave farewell as the Military Sealift Command (MSC) hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) gets underway from Naval Base San Diego, California, on January 5, 2005, to support Operation Unified Assistance. The Mercy will head to South East Asia to provide assistance to victims of the devastating Tsunami that hit the region December 26, 2004. Mercy contains 12 fully equipped operating rooms, a 1,000-bed hospital facility, digital radiological services, a diagnostic and clinical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab, a cat scan and two oxygen-producing plants. The hospital ship is a converted San Clemente-class super tanker. Picture taken January 5, 2005. REUTERS/U.S. Navy (news - web sites)/Daniel Woods-Handout EDITORIAL USE ONLY

The hospital ship is a converted San Clemente-class super tanker.

San Clemente = Saint Clement, a named derived from...

Main Entry: clem·en·cy
Pronunciation: 'kle-m&n(t)-sE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -cies
1 a : disposition to be merciful and especially to moderate the severity of punishment due b : an act or instance of leniency
2 : pleasant mildness of weather
synonym see MERCY

Hmmm, a San Clemente-class super tanker, coverted to a Mercy hospital ship. The other San Clemente-class tanker converted to a hospital ship is the Comfort. Two, double. Reminds me of the mercy here...

Isaiah 40:1-5

1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.
3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

But I digress...

A couple of factoids about San Clemente, California. It's 208* ft above sea level. That's the same as "USA" in Hebrew (ARtzot HaBrit is abbreviated to a'hbr)*. And its city flower is the bougainvillea, a flowery and showy but very thorny bush that shoots out vigorous canes.

http://www.usacitiesonline.com/cacountysanclemente.htm

 

* alef =1, resh = 200, hei = 5, bet = 2, total = 208

And not a few minutes ago, I was wondering what the 208 (in the Hebrew abbreviation) could possibly mean.

San Clemente has been battling the floodwaters of SoCal. And Mercy has left Pearl Harbor.

[ruthles]

Where can I find a copy of this?

[ruthles]

In one "politicially correct" lesson of Thanksgiving, one teacher asserted that the pilgrims took the idea of Thanksgiving from the Indians. Could the american indians be one of the lost tribes of Israel?

[wideawake]

Good points to repeat.

[TASMANIANRED]

US is land of the covenant and the UN is no land, all corruption.

[ruthles]

Why were the Jews the source of true wealth in Spain? I know I heard the Spanish looting of South America of gold created such a disparity in wealth that it was the demise of Spain being a super power. But I never learned what role the Jews played?

[MarkL]

Perhaps it refers to Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, who is transported to The Land:

I doubt that they were refering to a leper who happens to also be a rapist.

Mark

[Doctor Stochastic]

Certainly the family traditions of the Southwestern Crypto-Jews indicate that it was more healthy to leave Spain than to stay.

[DSBull]

Y'all can have all this land both here and there, my promise land is heaven with Jesus....