Talk:Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague

Latest comment: 1 year ago by S. Valkemirer in topic Yiddish neyfelekh 'infants' is the word needed here.

Avigdor Kara edit

The article says the oldest grave is Kara's, but the plaque accompanying the grave says the headstone is actually a 20th century facsimile. Which doesn't necessarily change that the grave is the oldest, but I wonder if that distinction might be worth mentioning in the article. postdlf (talk) 00:12, 23 April 2010 (UTC)Reply

Yiddish neyfelekh 'infants' is the word needed here. edit

"On the hill Nephele (nephele is a miscarriage in Hebrew) were buried children who died before the age of one month."

Hebrew has no word that could even by a stretch of the imagination be romanized as "nephele" (that is, in three syllables).

A miscarriage, furthermore, results in a fetus that is not viable, whereas the criterion for burial in this part of the cemetery was broader: only the stillborn and infants who lived no more than a month could be buried there.

The only appropriate word here is Yiddish noun נײפֿעלע (neyfele), the meaning of which is 'infant', which meaning is appreciably more appropriate for the area than 'miscarriage'.

The singular form (given in the previous paragraph) is unusual here. We expect the plural, נײפֿעלעך (neyfelekh)'infants'. Someone must have copied an erroneous or a misprinted source.S. Valkemirer (talk) 02:42, 17 April 2023 (UTC)Reply