Noted Bible Scholar Dr. Joel M. Hoffman to Speak in Columbus, GA

January 23, 2012 – 2:21 pm

Contact: Ann Kimball
Telephone: (601) 362-6357
E-mail: akimball@isjl.org

For immediate release.


NOTED BIBLE SCHOLAR DR. JOEL M. HOFFMAN TO SPEAK IN COLUMBUS, GA

Jackson, MS, January 23, 2012 — Noted Bible scholar Dr. Joel M. Hoffman returns to the South on Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28 for two lectures at Temple Israel in Columbus, GA.

His first lecture (7:30pm on Friday) explains the inaccuracies in English Bible translations and how readers can see past the mistakes to find what Hoffman calls “the undiscovered beauty of the Bible.” The lecture is based on his popular And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning. His second, more focused lecture (1:00pm on Saturday) explores the role of exile in shaping the Jewish people.

The events are scheduled to take place at Temple Israel, 1617 Wildwood Ave., Columbus, GA and are open the public. Autographed books will be for sale afterward.

Though Hoffman travels widely throughout Europe and North America, his last appearance in the South was in January, 2011, when he addressed the Birmingham, Alabama Rotary Club.

Dr. Joel M. Hoffman is a noted expert in translation, Hebrew, and the Bible. He holds a doctorate in linguistics and has served on the faculties of Brandeis University and of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. He is the chief translator for the 10-volume series My People’s Prayer Book (winner of the National Jewish Book Award) and My People’s Passover Haggadah, both from Jewish Lights Publishing. He is the author of the critically acclaimed In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language, from NYU Press and, most recently, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning from St. Martin’s Press. He lives in Westchester, NY.

Hoffman’s visit is organized in partnership with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Founded in 2000 and based in Jackson, MS the Institute supports education, rabbinic services, cultural programming, history, and community engagement. The ISJL builds community by partnering with diverse Jewish congregations, churches, universities, and civic organizations across 13 southern states. Through this unique approach, the ISJL provides a visionary model of regional cooperation through which communities large and small assume a shared responsibility of Jewish life throughout the South.

For more information about the events, contact ISJL Director of Programming Ann Kimball: (601) 362-6357 or akimball@isjl.org.

For more information about And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning, contact St. Martin’s Press Publicist Joseph Rinaldi: 646/307-5565 or Joseph.Rinaldi@stmartins.com.

Dr. Hoffman can be reached at (718) 834-1080 or joel@lashon.net.

By andgodsaidadmin | Posted in Press Releases, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Dr. Hoffman at TEDx: Bible Translation and the Next Generation

September 23, 2011 – 9:20 am

Don’t miss Dr. Hoffman’s fascinating TEDx presentation on Bible translation and why it’s important for the next generation, available on TED.com and YouTube.

Dr. Joel M. Hoffman at TEDx East Hampton

Dr. Joel M. Hoffman at TEDx East Hampton

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The Europe Trip: Coming Home to JFK (Day 13)

June 21, 2011 – 10:29 am

JFK Airport in New York City is like an island of the Third World right here in the middle of the First.

The workers don’t speak English. The low ceilings are crumbling. It’s filthy. It’s chaotic. There aren’t enough taxis. And — unlike in many parts of the Third World — there’s isn’t even a hint of charm to make up for the shortcomings.

The contrast with Heathrow, which I had left eight hours earlier, was stark and depressing.

This time, my JFK ordeal began with the baggage claim. Electronic signs all over the area announced that our bags would be on Carousel 3. But as we were waiting around, a shoddily dressed worker yelled in broken English that our “bags on carouse’ one.” No one bothered to change the signs.

After I’d collected my luggage, I called “Dial 7″ car service to arrange to get home. “I’m in Delta International Arrivals,” I told the woman who answered the phone.

“Meet the car on Level 3 East, Door 1,” she told me in broken English. (There is no Level 3.)

I was parched from my flight, so first I went to a vending machine to spend $2.50 for a small bottle of water. The machine took $3 from me, displayed “credit: $3,” and refused to give me any water. So I waited in line and spent another $2.99 at Dunkin’ Donuts for water.

Now I had to find “Level 3.” I tried asking some people — security guards, porters, etc. — but I couldn’t find anyone who spoke English. Finally I asked a limo driver who was picking up another passenger.

“Only one place to meet cars,” he told me. And he told me how to get there. It was on the ground floor of a neighboring building, access to which is provided by a long, winding, narrow ramp adjacent to speeding cars. Unfortunately, while the ramp serves as a two-way connection between the buildings, it is only wide enough for one person.

Once I’d navigated the ramp, I saw a huge line of people waiting for taxis, and no taxis. Those poor folks, I thought. But there were also a dozen Lincoln Town Cars waiting for passengers. This must be the right place.

Now I called Dial 7 to tell them where I was. “You have to go to Level 3,” a receptionist insisted.

“I’m on the ground floor. There is no Level 3,” I tried to explain.

“Everyone else can find it!” she chastised me.

So I trudged back to where I had been, taking the ramp upward, searching for Level 3. “You canno’ go up there mahn,” a security guard yelled at me as I was half-way there. I turned around, walked down to the guard, and — in my own home town, mind you — explained that I was lost and I needed help.

It wasn’t until some 30 minutes later that the driver and I found each other — on the ground floor of domestic arrivals.

I don’t understand it. New York is so wonderful. Why is JFK so awful?

By Joel H. | Posted in Travel | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

The Europe Trip: London (Days 10-13)

June 21, 2011 – 10:10 am

Thursday was my first day with no teaching or international travel. I took advantage of my time off to visit Hampton Court Palace, built in the early 1500s by (soon-to-be Cardinal) Thomas Wolsey, then taken over soon after by King Henry VIII.

Hampton Court is where King Henry VIII wrote the Pope (in 1530) threatening a break with the Papacy, and it’s where (in 1604) King James I commissioned the King James Bible (“KJV”). Much later, in 1944, General (and soon-to-be President) Eisenhower planned the Normandy landings in neighboring Bushy Park.

Lying on the banks of the River Thames, it’s a magnificent estate, with a castle, palace, and beautiful grounds. I normally prefer raw nature to orderly plantings, but I have to admit, these formal gardens were outstanding (though the huge unnaturally-shaped trees were also a little freaky).

The palace sports what Ernest Law called “the most famous Maze in the history of the world.” It is the oldest surviving usable hedge maze, and it was the first maze to feature wrong paths and dead-ends.

I returned to London by boat. Most of the 3-hour journey along the Thames was relaxing, if a little dull, but approaching the Houses of Parliament (including Big Ben) by boat was lovely.

On Friday the rain forced me inside, so I went to the British Museum.

And on Saturday, after presenting in Finchley, I spent a bit of time in the London suburb of Muswell Hill, which overlooks downtown London.

Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill



On Sunday I had to leave. But before departing for the airport, I managed to fit in a quick visit to a school in Wimbledon, where I guest taught 6th graders. The school was bubbling with joy, laughter, and learning, and it left me with a sweet taste as I headed off to the airport to return to New York.

By Joel H. | Posted in Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

The Europe Trip: Reflections on London (Day 9)

June 20, 2011 – 3:28 pm

After several days in London (albeit with a break in Amsterdam), I felt like I was starting to get a feel for the city, at least parts of it. Because I was staying in the south and generally teaching in the north, I had already traversed the city a half dozen times, using, variously, trains, buses, subways (“The Underground”) and taxis.

The most efficient route involved Victoria Station as a connection between British Rail overground train service to/from the south and subways to/from the north. It’s still not entirely clear to me how a 14-mile journey can involve an hour of travel time on the subway and still require a train trip afterward, but that’s London.

Locating the right train at Victoria Station requires practice. If all you know is where you want to go, you don’t have much chance of getting there, because the “departures” display organizes platform information by time, not destination. You have to know when your train leaves and where it terminates in order to find the track.

So people mill around, staring at the departures display, waiting until a track number appears — information that frequently isn’t disclosed until only minutes before the train departs. Then they head for the train.

In my case, I had to scan a lot more information, because I didn’t always know the train schedule or which route would take me to Streatham Hill. I also had to remember that neither Streatham Commons nor Streatham was good enough. The sheer number of train stops combined with the fact that I had never heard of most of them made the task fairly tricky. And I didn’t want to miss a train, because they only run four times an hour.

After a while I learned that London Transport offers both on-line and voice-activated-cellphone services for planning a route. And it turns out that there are usually a half dozen possible ways to get from one point to another that all take about the same amount of time. Where I live in Westchester, that’s true of roads, and a driver has to weigh personal choice, road quality, traffic, etc., when choosing between otherwise equivalent options. Londoners, it seems, do the same for public transport.

I also learned that, unlike the New York City subway map, the Tube map is not geographically accurate. Places that are very close to each other may not be so close on the map, and, equally, the map may make some locales appear closer than they really are. (“Caution: Places on the map are closer than they appear.”) And, in fact, many Londoners only know the layout of the city though that map. I just read a newspaper report that native Londoners sometimes unknowingly spend 10 minutes or more in the Underground to cover what could have been a three minute walk.

By Joel H. | Posted in Travel | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)
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