The de-liberalization of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in Hebrew translation

• In Event: Interpretation: Translation and Illumination

Abstract

Few contemporary Jewish thinkers enjoy the status of Modern Orthodox English Rabbi Jonathan Sacks [1948-2020], arguably the most important theologian and leader of Anglo Jewry in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Sacks’ theology walks a fine line between particularistic and universalistic interpretations of Jewish ethics and religious law, and between liberal and conservative approaches to the challenges of Jewish identity in modernity. Thanks to the inclusive appeal of his theology, and the clarity and accessibility of his writing, Sacks has become increasingly popular in Israel in recent years; his works have reached the general public, and are invoked by religious and secular, liberal and conservative circles alike. With more than a dozen translations of his books into Hebrew since 2000, Sacks is the most translated of contemporary diaspora Jewish thinkers in Israel. However, his Hebrew translations have not yet been systematically explored.
As demonstrated in the field of translation studies in recent decades, translators and other stakeholders involved in the translation process do not always try to produce “transparent” or “impartial” renderings (to the extent that these are possible at all), but rather play an active ideological role in the mediation of ideas and values across cultures. Based on a close comparison of Sacks’ original works and their Hebrew translations, my talk will present findings on the appropriations and manipulations found in the Hebrew translations of some of Sacks’ most important works. While Sacks’ thought is often evoked in Israel as an example of inclusive, moderate, pluralistic religious thought, I will argue that the Israeli readership has met in Hebrew a somewhat diluted, de-liberalized version of Sacks’ thought, which robs it of some of its defining features. I will show how interferences in the Hebrew translations were manifested with respect to Sacks’ take on Jewish/non-Jewish relations, Jewish morality and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the status of modern science, and the particularity of Judaism in the face of other religions.

Author

• Omri Asscher, Bar-Ilan University