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World Jewish News
"People of the World Inscribe the Bible" Project is coming to Dnepropetrovsk
29.03.2009
The project "People of the World Inscribe the Bible," which has already been to 54 countries, is now taking place in Ukraine. In September 2008 it traveled to Kiev and Zhitomir, in March 2009 it was held in Lvov, but Community Center plans to begin the project in Dnepropetrovsk on the 5th of April.
The project is conceived and implemented by the well-known PR specialist Amos Rolnik, a septuagenarian Israeli, who has worked for many years in the publishing business. Prior to that, he brought to many countries of the world another project - "Children of the World Illustrate the Bible." Amos Rolnik heads all the international projects of "The Bible Valley," which includes many well-known personalities, according to their English website http://www.biblevalley.org.
The idea of this project is to rewrite all the books of Tanach by hand. Every verse is written on the special sheet by a person in his handwriting, and then he receives a special certificate, and the sheet is sent to Israel where, eventually, it will be put into the "Bible House," which has not yet been built. Before one begin rewriting the text, the person fills in the registration form, where indicates his or her detailed personal information.
The events of "People of the World Inscribe the Bible" project are held at book exhibitions, cultural festivals, they are organized as individual activities, in accordance with the specifics of each country. Writing a line of text from the Bible is offered to the distinguished members of the local community, and representatives of other faiths, and, necessarily, to a variety of dignitaries, including representatives of the authorities.
Each person who will write the text in Dnepropetrovsk will get a special certificate attesting that the man wrote a certain verse. It will be signed by the organizer of the entire project Amos Rolnik and the officials - Ambassador of the State of Israel in Ukraine, the Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs, the Chief Rabbi of Dnepropetrovsk, the program director of JDC and the main sponsor of the project in Ukraine.
Such actions on rewriting Tanach already took place in various countries from India to Latin America. The sheets with exotic Tamil, Chinese and Arabic fonts Amos Rolnik shows with great pleasure.
The organizers see the importance is the fact that everyone writes the text of the Book of books in their native language. However, this raises some difficulties. For example, almost all Latin American countries use a single language - Spanish, and in other countries many different languages are used. In Ukraine rewriting will be in the Ukrainian language, while most of the Jews, and almost half the population of the country, speak Russian as their native language. But, according to organizers, the Ukrainian language will be able to unite all those who want to participate in this project, planned to be held in 110 cities of Ukraine.
"In the world the Bible is translated into 2,035 languages," proudly says Amos Rolnik. It is difficult to say how many of them are the translations of the Jewish Tanach or the so-called Old Testament texts, which have a common basis, but are very different from each other. In Ukraine, says Amos Rolnik, exactly the Jewish Tanach will be written in the Ukrainian language.
However, with the Ukrainian translation of the text there is a problem which, moreover, is very sensitive. The point is that the Ukrainian translation of Tanach still does not exist. "There are only a few versions of the Christian Bible in the Ukrainian language," said the well-known historian and social activist Vitally Nahmanovich, "but none of them is universally accepted, and moreover, they are not translations of the Jewish Torah. The translation of sacred texts in general is a separate problem, requiring a profound religious and cultural knowledge. Translating the Torah to the Ukrainian language is an acute and daunting task, but it requires a serious academic approach. Any haste is unacceptable, and is in fact a profanation, which may be perceived as a clear disregard for the spiritual values."
Amos Rolnik and "The Bible Valley Society," however, are not confused by such warnings. One of the leaders of this society Zvi Kesseh explained that the rewritten text in no way claims to be an academic or adequate transfer of the texts of Torah, the scriptures and the prophets. According to him, everyone will receive a sheet with the Ukrainian text, prepared by his organization, but each writer will be free to make any amendments. Usually "The Bible Valley Society" faces the issue of choice of several options of the translation, and in Ukraine, they were faced with the problem of the lack thereof.
Upon noticing the absence of the Ukrainian translation of Tanach, "The Bible Valley Society" decided to quickly set up at least some Ukrainian text. To do this, they, as reported in an interview with Amos Rolnik to The Canadian Jewish News , invited nine people, who are translating the text. He told the journalists of the djc.com.ua site that "they adjust it to the Russian translation of the publication 'Mosad Harav KOOK.'" The names of translators remained unrevealed both by Amos Rolnik and Zvi Kesseh, so the issue of their qualifications is unclear.
On the other hand, the organizers of the "People of the World Inscribe the Bible" project clearly do not pay much attention to the aspect of the translation and its quality. "The entire project is conceived as drawing attention to our common heritage, the Israeli gift to the world," said Zvi Kesseh. "We want to shift focus from the Middle East conflict to the unique cultural contribution of the Jewish people to the world and, consequently, to the position of Israel. We want to attract the attention of people who cherish the Bible to Israel and our main project - the Bible Valley."
For the organizers, the entire project "People of the World Inscribe the Bible" is just one of many programs that support the creation of a special Bible Valley near Jerusalem, where all the historical realities will be recreated. However, this required enormous resources, and it was decided to hold the campaigns to attract as many people as possible to this idea. One such campaign is the "People of the World Inscribe the Bible."
For example, funding for the campaign "People of the World Inscribe the Bible" in Ukraine was found during a similar action in Canada. All expenditures are covered by Nathan Jacobson, who was present at the event in Kiev, Zhitomir, and who is expected at the event in Dnepropetrovsk.
The idea of holding this action in Ukraine has received strong support from the JDC, and one of the most prominent leaders in community matters - doctor Aaron Weiss.
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