So I am cruising through the Jewish press, and came across a news story that Hitler’s reading glasses are up for sale.
The report uses the above construction for Hitler’s name. OK, “Nazi devil” I can understand, but what is “(ym’s)”?
Apparently it means Yimach Smmo Vazicho “deceased enemy of the jewish people” ( !!! )
from here:
coremelt, from your own cite, it is for deceased enemies of the Jewish people, and it means “may his name be wiped out”.
Wow, some people can really hold a grudge.
Thank you very much.
Interesting. I have never heard of anything like this in modern times (I knew that historically figures like the emperor Hadrian were described using terms like “May his bones be crushed” by Jewish writers).
What kind of publication was it ? Would a secular publication use an honorific (if thats the right word) like this to describe historical figures (or is it only Hitler, which would be understandable, though what about other Nazi figures ?). Are there certain figures how are described positively this way (e.g. are people who’ve been honored as “Righteous among the Nations” actually given that that title when referred to in these kind of publications ?).
It’s an alternate way of noting the fact that he’s dead. Think about it - would you say, “Adolph Hitler, R.I.P.”? Do you *want *Hitler to rest in peace? It’s the same in Hebrew. The equivalent of R.I.P is Z.L., for zichrono libracha, “of blessed memory”; this obviously wouldn’t apply in this case. So it’s replaced by the phrase in the OP, which means “strike his name and his memory”.
This is all kind of archaic, anyway. Most Jews generally don’t add any negative descriptors to Adolph Hitler, because Adolph Hitler is already the worse thing you can call someone.
Jews still hold a grudge against Pharaoh, and that was 3,500 years ago. With Hitler, we’re just warming up.
Well, that may be happening.
A graph of first name popularity will show that Adolf or Adolph has declined a great deal since the 1940’s (and it was falling in popularity even then) – it’s effectively so low now that it’s off the charts.
My father, a Jew no less, changed his name from Adolph to Randolph when he came over.