Building a bridge back to the BibleBackground on Ariel Sabar's book is here.
By Jessica Elgot, July 5, 2012 (The Jewish Chronicle)
Professor Yona Sabar is one of the last Jews on the planet who could have a conversation with Jesus, in his mother tongue.
When Professor Sabar arrived in Israel from northern Iraq in 1951, he imagined the language he grew up speaking was Kurdish - until a Hebrew University academic identified it as Aramaic.
Now an LA-based academic who has devoted his life to the study of the language, Professor Sabar believes he is now one of the last speakers of the language, and has embarked on a project to find other speakers of Aramaic, which has more than 100 dialects, before the language is lost forever.
The professor and his son Ariel spoke last week at the Royal Geographical Society in London about his experiences growing up in Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan, documented in his son's book, My Father's Paradise.
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The article concludes with this tidbit:
Since moving to the US to study, Professor Sabar has contributed lines of Aramaic to many Hollywood films and shows, including George Burns' Oh God!, The X-Files and Curb Your Enthusiasm, although not The Passion of the Christ:Some recent posts on Mel Gibson and his—now evidently defunct—Maccabees movie project are here and links.
"Mel Gibson wanted a Christian to do it," Professor Sabar revealed.