Haaretz's 'What should you name your baby?' quiz

Buzzfeed is at it again. Solomon or Sigmund? Dharma or Deborah? Whether you’re expecting, trying or simply procrastinating, Haaretz helps you choose your child's Jewish, Hebrew or defiantly universalist name.
By Judd Yadid for Haaretz

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The Secret History of X & O

An Investigation Into the Religious Roots of the Symbols for Hugs & Kisses

By Nadine Epstein for Moment Magazine

I grew up in a family wary of anything overtly Christian. My father transformed the expression “cross your fingers” into “star your fingers” because, as he used to explain, crosses are Christian and thus not for Jews. Yet at the same time, my mother taught me to write “x” and “o”—a kiss and a hug—after my signature. So deeply embedded was this English-language tradition that I am sure it never crossed her mind—she was a proper Jewish mom as well as the executive director of the Jewish Community Center—that the “x” might have anything to do with a cross.

I never thought about it myself until she passed away in 2012 and I began to emit streams of “x’s” and “o’s” like a binary love code in the countless personal and professional emails that consume much of my daily life. Suddenly I became curious about where these symbols come from, these ur-emoticons that English speakers of all faiths sprinkle so liberally across our correspondence.

The Internet abounds with origin theories of all kinds. I found visual explanations: that “x” resembles a kiss; “o” looks like an embrace; and together “x” and “o” form a kiss on a face. Then there were auditory
associations such as the similarity in the pronunciation of “x” and “kiss.” But it very quickly became apparent that x most likely evolved from the written tradition. A simple, easily drawn shape, it entered the Western alphabet as the ancient Phoenician letter samekh for the consonant sound “s.” In early Hebrew it was the letter taw and makes an appearance in the Book of Ezekiel as a mark set “upon the foreheads” to distinguish the good men of Jerusalem from the bad.

When Christianity came along, it co-opted the “x.” “In Christian texts, one abbreviation of the Greek word Christos—meaning messiah—used the first two Greek letters of Christos, chi (X) and rho (P), combined into one shape,” says Stephen Goranson, a historian of religion at Duke University who studies the etymology of symbols and words. “So both orientations of crossed lines—X shape and the more-or-less lower case T shape—took on religious significance among Christians.” No one knows exactly how this happened: One story is that in 312 CE the Roman Emperor Constantine saw the chi-rho in a dream in which God told him “in this sign you will conquer.” Constantine went on to legalize Christianity, which later became the official religion of Rome.

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Kibbutz Culture Changes — and Kids Come Back

Good-Bye Collective Farms. Hello Community Living.

By Yermi Brenner for The Jewish Daily Forward

Ravid Brosh and Noa Tzur-Brosh woke up one morning in their peaceful suburban home in Rockville, Md., and found that after a long period of discussion, both had reached the same decision: to return to the kibbutz.

Not that life was bad — the couple had relocated to the United States from Israel five years earlier, and they were about to receive the much-coveted green card that would allow them to stay as permanent residents. He had a well-paying job, and she was studying photography. Both their children spoke English fluently; their daughter, Romy, excelled in a public school, their son, Ivri, in a Jewish kindergarten. They had a comfortable life, according to Tzur-Brosh.

But by 2008 they felt that the best place for them and for their children was Hatzor, the kibbutz where Tzur-Brosh, now 41, was born and raised.

The Brosh family’s personal decision is part of a wider trend. After years of decline or stagnation, the population of kibbutzim is now on the rise. In 2001 there were about 115,700 residents in 268 kibbutzim in Israel, according to the government’s Central Bureau of Statistics. Today there are 155,455 people living in kibbutzim. Seventy-five percent of this population growth has occurred since 2008.

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Chicken cartel driving up prices in Israel ahead of Passover

The price of fresh chicken has spiked 20% since the summer; supermarkets blame chicken farmers, slaughterhouses - and the law.

By Adi Dovrat-Meseritz and Ora Coren for Haaretz

By coordinating production levels and reducing supply, farmers and slaughterhouses have been steadily pushing up the price of chicken for the past year and a half, according to supermarket chains.

“The farmers and the slaughterhouses, which often own [the farms], are running a cartel, which drove up prices by dozens of percentage points," said a senior executive at a major grocery store chain. "We need more competition over such a basic product.”

The chicken farmers don’t deny it — Israeli antitrust law actually allows farmers to coordinate prices and behave as a cartel. The farmers say they are just trying to avoid selling at a loss and blame the supermarkets for raising prices at consumers’ expense.

The price of fresh chicken has increased 20% since June 2012, and chicken breast prices are up 25%, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics. Prices are expected to jump another 10% by Passover, in two weeks, say supermarket sources, which would mark an all-time high.

In the past 10 years — since March 2004 — the price of fresh chicken has increased 27%, and chicken breast is up 30%.

Grocery store chains say that for the past two months, the slaughterhouses have been gradually raising prices and intend to keep doing so until the holiday.

“Over the past two weeks, all the slaughterhouses we work with called and said they’re raising prices by 5%. So far, we’ve managed to stop them. But I think the closer we come to the holiday, and demand increases, we won’t be able to fight and prices will increase by about 10%,” said an executive at a midsized grocery store chain. “Currently, we’re paying 16 shekels per kilo. By the holiday, it’ll definitely be at least 18 shekels.”

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