Navigating a religion or culture you weren't brought up in can be challenging, to say the least.Under these circumstances, it is clear that he intended the Yiddish version, pronounced MAW-zil-Tawf, not the Hebrew rendition, pronounced maw-ZIL-Tove, and this is always pronounced the first way in the US under similar circumstances.
It's something most politicians find themselves doing at one point or another, though, whether it's in relating to constituents or appealing to donors.
………
As Gov. Scott Walker courts Republican mega-donor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson's support for a likely 2016 presidential run, he's found himself dining with top GOP donors — but also addressing a crowd at the Republican Jewish Coalition spring meeting.
………
These overtures represent a marked improvement from a letter Walker sent — also about a menorah — during his time as Milwaukee County executive.
In an undated letter unearthed by the liberal group One Wisconsin Now during the August release of documents from the first of two John Doe investigations related to the governor, Walker responded to a letter from Milwaukee attorney and chairman of the Wisconsin Center District Franklyn Gimbel.
Walker told Gimbel his office would be happy to display a menorah celebrating "The Eight Days of Chanukah" at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, and asked Gimbel to have a representative from Lubavitch of Wisconsin contact Walker's secretary, Dorothy Moore, to set it up.
The letter is signed, "Thank you again and Molotov."
Presumably, Walker meant to write "mazel tov" and didn't intend to wish good tidings of incendiary weapons. Perhaps it was a case of AutoCorrect or that pesky Microsoft Word paperclip causing shenanigans.
In any case, while the term is used in modern Hebrew, it is not used in Biblical Hebrew, and the term originated in Yiddish.
In either case, Governor Walker, don't even bother.
You are arguably the Whitest Guy in Wisconsin™, and you are just going to embarrass yourself.
0 comments :
Post a Comment