True – here, the most natural pronunciation for an English speaker does recognize the German way of pronouncing each letter (English is a Germanic language, so nothing too exotic there), but not a specific German rule for when a particular sound should change unexpectedly. “Unexpectedly” because a typical English speaker will expect each letter or diphthong to have the same sound value in any context. They know intellectually that’s not always true – English itself is one of the worst violators-- but the extra knowledge and effort it takes to learn these “violations” in a foreign language is just the sort of thing that separates the mass of typical English speakers from the minority who have at least embarked on the journey toward learning that other language.
In any case, few would call pronunciations revealing a lack of such knowledge “translations.”
Outside of Israel, Jews often have a Hebrew name in addition to their regular name, which is used inside their own community and for liturgical purposes. Sometimes, the two are simply the same name in two languages - an Isaac is also Yitzhak; in other cases the two names are unconnected. My grandfather’s English name, for instance, was Charles, while his Hebrew name was Betzalel.
As to why the custom exists - it’s a minority group thing. You choose a name in the common tongue name to make things easier with outsiders, and a name in your own language for your own people. Jews have a lot more experience in being a minority than almost anyone else.
Speaking of Israeli/Hebrew names, it was not unusual for Spanish language media in my youth to refer to the recently deceased former leader with the Spanish transposition as “Simón” Peres, which had the fun bonus of making it sound like a Puerto Rican was Israeli Foreign Minister
In the Western world. In the non-Western world there are several minorities of long standing and dispersal who do not do this (Sikhs, Parsees come to mind).
Many do, or did (there are very few Jews left in Arab countries, after all). For instance, former Israeli Minister of Defense, Basra native Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, was better known by his Arabic name “Fuad”; the late religious leader Ovadia Yosef was called Abdullah Yusuf before immigrating to Israel, and so on.
Incidentally, Jews from Arab countries are generally not referred to as “Arab Jews”. The accepted term is “Mizrahi” (Oriental), although to be fair, that also covers Jews from anywhere in the Muslim world, including non-Arab countries.
Well, yes, however how different the name does vary. Ishaq is different enough from Yikshak (Isaac in English for those following). But Yousaf and Yosef are pretty much the same, and the differences in pronunciation for that name (or Yacob) are often dependent on the dialects of the Arab world, I have noticed Levantine Arabs pronounce Yousaf closer to Yosef anyway, and Yacub more like “Yacoove”. Would Levantine origin Arabic-speaking Jews have pronunciations closer to Hebrew ones than say Mesopotamian ones.
I suppose it depends on who’s speaking. For instance, my own Hebrew name is Yehoshua, and my English name is Joshua (note that the latter is a translation of the former). Most people, Israelis and Americans, call me “Josh”*. Americans and other English-speakers pronounce it in the usual fashion for their country of origin, while Israelis pronounce the “O” sound like the Hebrew “ו”, which is sort of half way between O in “Jones” and the U in “Push”. I believe the Arabic O sound is very similar.
Similarly, Levantine Arabs would probably pronounce Yusuf as “Yousaf”, while Israelis, if they don’t say “Yosef”, would probably say “Yusuf”, because that’s how the name is usually transcribed in Hebrew.
I never liked “Yehoshua” that much. It’s a very uncool name for someone my age; my parents were new immigrants when I was born, so I can’t blame them for giving me a crappy name. Joshua, after all, is one of the most common names for American Jewish men of my generation, so they meant well. I’ve been “Josh” to everyone except my accountant and dentist since I was 18 years old.
Interestingly, the actor whose parents named him Philip Finkel adopted the first name Fyvush for the Yiddish theater, and kept the stage name even when he moved to English-speaking Broadway, film, and television roles. So only his closest associates would have ever called him “Philip” or “Phil”!
Chinese names are typically rendered in Japanese according to the Japanese pronunciation of their Kanji/Hanzi characters.
Mao Zedong - Mou Takutou
Chiang Kai-shek - Shou Kaiseki
Xi Jinping - Shuu Kinpei
Korean names, on the other hand, are typically written in kanji (at least for the family names), but given phonetic readings to match their Korean pronunciation as closely as possible.
