# Looking for a Hebrew verb meaning "to lose faith". **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143 "2018-11-07T17:06:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/1 "2018-11-07T17:06:46Z")
Hi I’m looking for a Hebrew verb meaning “to lose faith”. I was hoping to find out how Jews expressed losing faith in the death camps. I look forward to your feedback. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/2 "2018-11-07T17:54:29Z")
Have you tried looking up “אובדן אמונה”? That would literally be “loss of faith”. Also inmates at death camps would not necessarily be speaking or writing Hebrew. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/3 "2018-11-07T18:17:29Z")
The Hebrew revival began in the late 19th century but was mostly confined to the [Yishuv.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yishuv) The vast majority of European Jews in the camps would have spoken Yiddish rather than Hebrew. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/4 "2018-11-07T20:04:29Z")
The OP might check out [Frieda Aaron’s compilation _Bearing the Unbearable: Yiddish and Polish Poetry in the Ghettos and Concentration Camps_](https://www.sunypress.edu/p-1015-bearing-the-unbearable.aspx). Also the personal correspondence in the [“Last Letters from the Holocaust” in the Yad Vashem Archives](https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/last-letters/1941/index.asp#/home), some of which was written in the camps. I don’t know whether any of these writings describe loss of faith specifically, but it will be a better way to get an idea of how the victims actually expressed their feelings than modern dictionary definitions. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/5 "2018-11-08T03:14:00Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Have you tried looking up “אובדן אמונה”? That would literally be “loss of faith”. Also inmates at death camps would not necessarily be speaking or writing Hebrew. I’m pretty sure it’s not a simple word-for-word translation as you gave it. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/6 "2018-11-08T03:58:17Z")
> [@davidmich](#): > > I’m pretty sure it’s not a simple word-for-word translation as you gave it. OK, but eg [here](https://www.betipulnet.co.il/particles/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%91%D7%93%D7%9F_%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%94_%D7%91%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%90%D7%94) is a post on a psychology portal whose title incorporates the exact phrase I quoted. Do you remember in what context you came across your verb? (Biblical, psychological literature, poetry,…?) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/7 "2018-11-08T04:19:30Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > OK, but eg [here](https://www.betipulnet.co.il/particles/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%91%D7%93%D7%9F_%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%94_%D7%91%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%90%D7%94) is a post on a psychology portal whose title incorporates the exact phrase I quoted. ETA I mean a post on loss of religious faith during the Holocaust, not some random post ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/8 "2018-11-08T06:05:09Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > ETA I mean a post on loss of religious faith during the Holocaust, not some random post Thank you DPRK. That is helpful. It’s surprising that there is so little in English on this topic that I could find. I’m interested in which term Elie Wiesel might have used in the context of his own survival in Auschwitz and his novel “Night”. So much of what I find online is preoccupied with strengthening one’s faith as opposed to losing it. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/9 "2018-11-08T07:16:22Z")
> [@davidmich](#): > > Thank you DPRK. That is helpful. It’s surprising that there is so little in English on this topic that I could find. I’m interested in which term Elie Wiesel might have used in the context of his own survival in Auschwitz and his novel “Night”… SFIAK Wiesel wrote about his experiences in successively in Yiddish, in French and in English, but never in Hebrew. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/10 "2018-11-08T11:32:48Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > SFIAK Wiesel wrote about his experiences in successively in Yiddish, in French and in English, but never in Hebrew. Thanks UDS. Does anyone know how to pronounce אובדן אמונה? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/12 "2018-11-08T13:17:07Z")
> [@davidmich](#): > > Thanks UDS. > > Does anyone know how to pronounce אובדן אמונה? _ohv-DAHN eh-moo-NAH_. More or less. And yes, it is the correct Hebrew phrase. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-hebrew-verb-meaning-to-lose-faith/824143/13 "2018-11-08T15:49:31Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > _ohv-DAHN eh-moo-NAH_. More or less. > > And yes, it is the correct Hebrew phrase. Thank you Alessan. Thank you all.