First Person: To SBL: Be a Mentsch

Home > Magazines > BAR > March/April 2000

“Mentsch” is one of those Yiddish words that has found its way into English. It means a decent human being, someone who is generous, who does not overreach. Leo Rosten says it refers to someone who has “a sense of what is right, responsible, decorous.”a For more than 25 years, three societies—the Society for Biblical Literature (SBL), the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR)—held a joint annual meeting in which scholars of the Bible, religion and archaeology gathered to present papers to one another. In the early days, attendance was small enough […]

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Footnotes

The Joys of Yiddish (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968), p. 234.

See Hershel Shanks, “Rx for ASOR,” BAR 24:02.

That’s another Yiddish expression. It literally means “sit-flesh” and refers to the ability to sit for long hours.

These scholarly sessions should not be confused with Bible Fest—a popular seminar that we organize for the benefit of BAR readers (rather than scholars) at the same time and in the same city as the Annual Meeting. Next year’s Bible Fest will be in Nashville in November.