The plant and the fruits which inspired the term

Sabra (Hebrew: צבר‎, pronounced tsabar; ṣabra) is a term used to describe a Jew born in Israel; the term is also usually inclusive of Jews born during the period of the establishment of the state of Israel.^[1] The word "sabra" is Arabic and Hebrew. Immigrants to the British Mandate for Palestine began using it in the early 1930s, according to the The Dictionary of Slang (Hebrew) written by Israeli Rubik Rozental. The allusion is to a tenacious, thorny desert plant with a thick hide that conceals a sweet, softer interior, suggesting that even though the Israeli Sabra are rough and masculine on the outside, they are delicate and sensitive on the inside. In the United States, this cactus variety is known as the Prickly Pear. In 2010 over 4,000,000 Israeli Jews (70%) were Sabras, with an even greater percentage of Israeli Jewish youths falling into this category.^[2]

History[link]

The term was used a lot politically by the Zionist movement, to celebrate the "New Jew" which the movement created. Unlike the "old Jew" who was born in exile, and was stereotypically bourgeois, the "New Jew" was stereotypically a kibbutz member (or a farmer in a Moshav). "The old Jew" spoke European languages or Hebrew with a heavy accent, while the Sabra spoke the Hebrew language as a mother tongue. Unlike the "Old Jew" who did not fight for his self-defense, the Sabra fought in the Jewish resistance movements, in the Palmach and after the establishment of Israel in the IDF.

The sociological characteristics of the sabra were examined by Oz Almog in his book The Sabra - The Creation of the New Jew.^[3] According to Almog the term "Tzabar" originated from the insult "Sabras" directed towards migrants of the First Aliyah (which consisted of the first generation of native born members of the Zionist movement) by migrants of the Second Aliyah and the Third Aliyah. The changing of the meaning of the term, to emphasize the softer interior rather than the roughness, was done by the journalist Uri Kesari who published an essay, "We Are the Leaves of the Sabra!", on 18 April 1931 in the newspaper Doar HaYom in which he argued against the discrimination which was cast against the native-born by the new immigrants.^[4]

Independence and afterward[link]

The prestige of the Sabra person increased during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and especially after it ended. The Israeli public, and especially the older generation, tended to attribute the achievements of the war to the country's "sabras", while minimizing the part of the new immigrants and other groups. Even descriptions of the achievements of Operation Kadesh (1956) emphasized the image of the Sabra. The large immigration to Israel of Jews from Islamic countries during the 1950s, the penetration of Western culture and primarily the American culture, as well as the social and political changes which were created following the Six Day War and Yom Kippur War, resulted in a decline of the use of the term after the 1970s and even to pikfok in heroic myths which were attributed to the Sabra term.

In relation, those who were born in the country after independence in 1948 became known as the "Dor haMedina" (Hebrew: דור המדינה‎), or "Statehood Generation", and have been largely described by cultural commentators as being motivated less by the strident nationalism and/or socialism of the pre-independence settler generations and more by a general cultural pragmatism and sensitivity to the mass-cultural output of Western powers.^[5]

In culture[link]

The Sabra received an artistic and symbolic representation in the form of the illustrated character "Srulik" (which wears shorts, sandals and a Tembel hat), created by cartoonist Dosh. Another character which become famous was that of the Israeli children's TV program "Kishkashta" which was a speaking cactus.

The English form of the word, Sabra, served Israeli manufacturers who wanted to brand their products as typical Israeli products, which was sold in the foreign markets. As a result, "Sabra liqueur" and "Sabra sport" (the sports model of the "Sussita") were created. The world's largest hummus manufacturer (as of 2009) is a U.S. company called the Sabra Dipping Company.^[6]

In popular culture, an episode of Saturday Night Live contained a skit entitled "Sabra Price Is Right" featuring Tom Hanks as the guest host. The skit is a parody of Israel-born Jews making bargains with people that think that the show is actually The Price Is Right. In the skit, Tom Hanks and the other Sabra are actually bargaining with the contestants and making them buy the products that they guess the price for rather than win it. The skit concludes with an Arab portrayed by Dana Carvey who bargains in the same manner as the Sabra and in the middle of their argument, they all "disco" as the skit concludes.^[7]

In Politics[link]

The first sabra to exercise the powers of the office of the Prime Minister of Israel was Yigal Allon, who served as acting prime minister from February to March 1969; he was born in Kfar Tavor. The first sabra to serve as Prime Minister rather than acting Prime Minister was Yitzhak Rabin, who first held the office 1974-77, and then again 1992-1995. Since Rabin first took office, there have been four other sabra Prime Ministers: the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is the first and (so far) only sabra Prime Minister to have been born in the modern state since Israel's declaration of independence in 1948; he first took office in 1996, before leaving office in 1999 and returning in 2009.^{[citation needed]} Furthermore, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert were all born in what is now the territory of the State of Israel during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Youtube video of Kishkashta
• Hebrew site with video of Kishkashta

A person is a being, such as a human, that has certain capacities or attributes constituting personhood, the precise definition of which is the subject of much controversy.^{[vague language]} The common plural of "person", "people", is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), so the plural "persons" is often used in contexts which require precision such as philosophical and legal writing.

Etymology[link]

In ancient Rome, the word "persona" (Latin) or "prosopon" (πρόσωπον: Greek) originally referred to the masks worn by actors on stage. The various masks represented the various "personae" in the stage play, while the masks themselves helped the actor's voice resonate and made it easier for the audience to hear.^[1]

In Roman law, the word "persona" became used to refer to a role played in court, and it became established that it was the role rather than the actor that could have rights, powers, and duties, because different individuals could assume the same roles, the rights, powers, and duties followed the role rather than the actor, and each individual could act in more than one role, each a different "person" in law.^{[tortured english][citation needed]}

The concept of a "person" was further developed during the Trinitarian and Christological debates of the first through sixth centuries. Since then, a number of important changes to the word's meaning and use have taken place, and attempts have been made to redefine the word with varying degrees of adoption and influence.

Many modern speakers of colloquial English conflate the meanings of role and actor, which can result in some confusion when they try to enter into legal discourse.^{[citation needed]}

Personhood[link]

An abstract painting of a person by Paul Klee. The concept of a person can be very challenging to define.

Personhood is the status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law, and is closely tied to legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to law, only a natural person or legal personality has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and legal liability. Personhood continues to be a topic of international debate. Historically, personhood was questioned during the abolition of slavery, the fight for women's rights and animal rights, debates about abortion, fetal rights and reproductive rights as well as debates about corporate personhood.^[2]

Various specific debates have focused and continue to focus on questions about the personhood of different classes of entities. Historically, the personhood of animals, women, and slaves has been a catalyst of social upheaval. Today, most living adult humans are usually considered persons, but depending on the context, theory or definition, the category of "person" may be taken to include such non-human entities as animals, corporations, sovereign states or other polities, estates in probate, artificial intelligences, or extraterrestrial life; and may exclude some human entities in prenatal development or those with extreme mental impairments or injuries. A deceased person may be considered a person or property, depending on jurisdiction.

Personal identity[link]

What does it take for individuals to persist from moment to moment — or in other words, for the same individual to exist at different moments?

Personal identity is the unique numerical identity of persons through time. That is to say, the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time can be said to be the same person, persisting through time. In the modern philosophy of mind, this concept of personal identity is sometimes referred to as the diachronic problem of personal identity. The synchronic problem is grounded in the question of what features or traits characterize a given person at one time.

Identity is an issue for both continental philosophy and analytic philosophy. A key question in continental philosophy is in what sense we can maintain the modern conception of identity, while realizing many of our prior assumptions about the world are incorrect.

Proposed solutions to the problem of personal identity include continuity of the physical body, continuity of an immaterial mind or soul, continuity of consciousness or memory, the bundle theory of self, and proposals that there are actually no persons or selves which persist over time at all.

See also[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Lukes, Steven; Carrithers, Michael; Collins, Steven, eds. (1987). The category of the person: Anthropology, philosophy, history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-27757-4. 
• Cornelia J.de Vogel The concept of personality in Greek and Christian thought. In Studies in philosophy and the history of philosophy. Vol. 2. Edited by J. K. Ryan, Washington: Catholic University of America Press 1963. pp. 20–60
• Puccetti, Roland (1968). Persons: A Study of Possible Moral Agents in the Universe. London: Macmillan and Company. 
•  "Person". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
• Korfmacher, Carsten (May 29, 2006). "Personal Identity". The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://www.iep.utm.edu/p/person-i.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-09. 

External links[link]

Look up person in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Rights of Non-Human Persons Program (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies)

Allan Roy Edwards (March 12, 1937 – August 16, 1999) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played 206 games in the National Hockey League. He was born in Seneca Township, Ontario. On June 6, 1967 Pittsburgh Penguins selected him in the expanstion draft, but traded Edwards to the Detroit Red Wings the next day. Roy Edwards spent six seasons with the Detroit Red Wings (1967–68) to (1973–74). During the (1971–72) he played for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In 1958 at age 21, Edwards backstopped the Whitby Dunlops, Canada's representative, to the World Hockey Championship at Oslo, Norway, posting a perfect 7–0 record with three shutouts and an 0.86 goals-against average. The Dunlops captain was future Boston Bruins General Manager Harry Sinden.

In 1960 he became property of the Chicago Black Hawks. His name was engraved on the Stanley Cup in 1961, despite never having played a single game for Chicago. If fact Edwards did not play his first NHL game until 1967-68 season for Detroit, 7 season after being engraved on the Stanley Cup.

Edwards' road to the NHL was a long, windy one. In nine years, he played for seven teams in four leagues. Then in 1967–68, Roger Crozier stunned the Red Wings by announcing his retirement due to illness. The 30-year-old made much of his opportunity, leading the team in games and wins for four consecutive seasons.

A collision in 1970 with an opposing forward and the goalpost caused a hairline fracture in Edwards' skull, headaches and dizzy spells. His health caused him to retire, but only briefly. After a one-season comeback with the Penguins, he returned to the Wings. His 1972–73 season was his finest: winning 27 games and posting an NHL-leading six shutouts. The following season, he lost his first three decisions and retired, permanently.

Edwards was uncle to Don Edwards, another NHL goalie noted for his longevity.

External links[link]

• Roy Edwards's career stats at The Internet Hockey Database
• Wings of Legend:Roy Edwards, DetroitRedWings.com, retrieved on May 27, 2007
• Roy Edwards's biography at Legends of Hockey
• Masks from the Past: Roy Edwards, classic fibreglass goalie masks, www.hockeymasks.com, retrieved on May 27, 2007
• Obituary at LostHockey.com

Cheb Hasni (Arabic : الشاب حسني) born Hasni Chakroun (February 1, 1968 – September 29, 1994) was a performer of Algerian Raï music. He was popular across North Africa, having reached the height of his career in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was the son of a welder and grew up in a working class family where he was one of seven children. Hasni is most well known for his love songs, but he also dealt with taboo subjects such as divorce and alcohol. He was murdered in 1994.

Early career[link]

Born in Oran, Algeria, Cheb Hasni was interested in performing from an early age. In an interview published in the French newspaper Libération in 1992, Hasni recounted how "everyone knew me in our neighbourhood when I was a kid. I was always walking up the road with my school bag thrown off my shoulder, singing my head off"^{[citation needed]}. Hasni was also talented in football and a good student, but these traits were overshadowed by his musical interests.

Hasni's first significant performance as a singer occurred when he attended a local wedding party, where the group led by the famous Naoui brothers was playing. Impressed by his voice, they invited him to perform on stage at a well-known cabaret, La Guinguette.

The second major launching point in Hasni's career came shortly afterwards when a producer asked him to record with Raï performer Chaba Zahouania. During the summer of 1987 the pair recorded a provocative song by Algerian standards, "Beraka" ("The Shack"), gaining them much attention. The subjects of his songs were controversial and made the song popular with Algerian youth, who contributed to the song's estimated sales of one million copies. The success of "Beraka" made Hasni famous, and a controversial subject with both critics and Islamic fundamentalists already concerned over the popularity of the Raï genre. Another major hit was "El Visa" a song about migration, which sold approximately 250,000 cassettes.

Fame[link]

Like many other Raï artists based in Algeria, Cheb Hasni spent more time performing abroad (giving concerts everywhere from Paris, Marseilles, and Boston to Washington DC, Tunis, Casablanca, and Tokyo, to name a few cities) than at home, due to curfews and musical restrictions in Algeria at the time. Hasni’s last concert in his native country was on 5 July 1993, when he performed to an audience of over 150,000 fans in Algiers at an event organised to celebrate Algerian independence.

Hasni became one of the most prolific artists on the Raï scene, recording around 100 cassettes during his career. His distinctive "Raï love" style soon inspired imitators, notably Cheb Nasro, who launched his career in 1988 with the hit "Pour te faire plaisir".

Death[link]

Hasni's fame and controversial songs led to his receiving death threats from Islamic fundamentalist extremists. His primary residence remained in Oran, even though his family lived in the then safer environment of France. On September 29, 1994, he was the first raï musician to be murdered, outside his parents' home in the Gambetta district of Oran.^[1] His death came amid other violent actions against notable North African performers. A few days before his death, Kabylian singing star Lounès Matoub was abducted by the GIA. The following year, on February 15, 1995, Raï producer Rachid Baba-Ahmed was assassinated in Oran.

References[link]

External links[link]

1. (French) "Hasni une légende a l image de l Algerie"
2. (French) Site on Cheb Hasni (sounds et videos)
3. (French) « Cheb Hasni, une legende a l'image de l'Algerie »
4. (French) "Cheb Hasni, histoire d'une tragédie"
5. (French) "Le raï et Cheb Hasni"
6. (French) "biographie de Cheb Hasni"