How Well Does My Computer Translate Hebrew?

In the end, one doesn’t know what to be struck by more: the fact that a computer can translate Hebrew at all, or the fact that when it does, it does so atrociously.

Got a question for Philologos? Ask him yourself at philologos@mosaicmagazine.com.

The Mosaic reader David Black has a question concerning a computer translation of a Hebrew article.

The article, “On the Specter of Conversion” (Al Ḥezyon ha-Sh’mad), was published in 1910 by the well-known author Yosef Ḥayyim Brenner in the Palestinian Labor Zionist weekly Hapo’el Hatsa’ir. In this piece, whose appearance caused a public furor that eventually came to be known as “the Brenner Affair,” Brenner stated that the Jewish fear of losing large numbers of converts to Christianity, though obsessively discussed in the Jewish press, was unfounded. The fact that religious faith was weakening among the downtrodden Jewish masses of Eastern Europe was not a threat to Jewish identity, Brenner argued, because Jewish identity did not depend on a belief in Judaism. One could be a fully identified and even nationalistic Jew without thinking Judaism superior to other religions, or while admiring Jesus and the New Testament.

Subscribe to Continue Reading

Get the best Jewish ideas and conversations. Subscribe to Tikvah Ideas All Access for $10/month

Already subscribed? Sign in

Got a question for Philologos? Ask him yourself at philologos@mosaicmagazine.com.

The Mosaic reader David Black has a question concerning a computer translation of a Hebrew article.

The article, “On the Specter of Conversion” (Al Ḥezyon ha-Sh’mad), was published in 1910 by the well-known author Yosef Ḥayyim Brenner in the Palestinian Labor Zionist weekly Hapo’el Hatsa’ir. In this piece, whose appearance caused a public furor that eventually came to be known as “the Brenner Affair,” Brenner stated that the Jewish fear of losing large numbers of converts to Christianity, though obsessively discussed in the Jewish press, was unfounded. The fact that religious faith was weakening among the downtrodden Jewish masses of Eastern Europe was not a threat to Jewish identity, Brenner argued, because Jewish identity did not depend on a belief in Judaism. One could be a fully identified and even nationalistic Jew without thinking Judaism superior to other religions, or while admiring Jesus and the New Testament.

Save Save Gift Gift