Ofra Tirosh-Becker, the Bialik Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a professor of Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic and heads its Center for Jewish Languages. She is an executive member of The Academy of the Hebrew Language, the founding co-editor of the Journal of Jewish Languages (Brill) and a co-editor of the academic journal Massorot. Her books include the awards-winning two-volume book Rabbinic Excerpts in Medieval Karaite Literature (2011) and Jewish Languages: Text Specimens, Grammatical, Lexical, and Cultural sketches (with L. Edzard; 2021). Her new book, The Judeo-Arabic Dialect of Constantine (Algeria): A Linguistic Analysis of the Spoken and Written Varieties, will be published soon.

Lecture Summary:

Jewish journalism flourished in North Africa from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, providing an insight into the lives of North African Jewish communities and their spheres of interest, from local matters to global events. These newspapers also reflect the multilingual environment in which their writers were immersed, crafting a rich tapestry of foreign loanwords (mainly Hebrew and French) intricately woven into their Judeo-Arabic.

Sponsores: Jewish Studies Program, Department of Near Eastern Studies