Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Did Eliezer ben Yehudah Drink Espresso In A Tel Aviv Cafe: A History Lesson

Ora has a post on The Muqata which starts with an innocuous excerpt from a children's comic of Eliezer ben Yehudah and ends with a history lesson of early Israeli cities:
Children's paper Otiyot recently ran the following comics, part of a time-travel story series.



It says as follows:
Tel Aviv, end of the 19th century.
Waiter: How's the Hebrew dictionary coming along, Mr. Ben Yehuda?
Ben Yehuda: Fine, Gershon. Do you have an idea for a word to call for help?

There is one factual error and two conceptual errors in this comic.

Can you spot the historical errors?
Can you find them?
If not, here is the first one:
The most glaring error is of course the fact that Tel Aviv didn't exist in the 19th century. Though Jews built various neighborhoods in and around Jaffa in the late 19th century, Tel Aviv itself was only established in 1909.
But you'll have to go to the actual article to get the rest of your history lesson.

Enjoy.

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