Yona Sabar
Yona Sabar | |
|---|---|
יוֹנָה צַבָּר | |
| Born | Yona Sabar 1938 (age 86–87) |
| Nationality | Kurdistani Jewish |
| Education | Hebrew University of Jerusalem (B.A. in Hebrew and Arabic, 1963), Yale University (Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, 1970) |
| Occupation(s) | Scholar, linguist, researcher |
| Years active | 1963–present |
| Employer | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Known for | Research on Jewish Neo-Aramaic and folklore of Kurdish Jews |
| Notable work | The Folk Literature of the Kurdistani Jews, A Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dictionary |
| Children | Ariel Sabar |
| Awards | Subject of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning memoir by his son, Ariel Sabar |
Yona Sabar (Hebrew: יוֹנָה צַבָּר; born 1938 in Zakho, Iraq) is a Kurdistani Jewish scholar, linguist and researcher. He is professor emeritus of Hebrew at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a native speaker of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic and has published more than 90 research articles about Jewish Neo-Aramaic and the folklore of the Jews of Kurdistan.
Sabar was born in the town of Zakho in northern Iraq. His family moved to Israel in 1951. He received a B.A. in Hebrew and Arabic from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1963 and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from Yale University in 1970.
His immigrant journey from the hills of Kurdistan to the highways of Los Angeles is the subject of an award-winning memoir by his son, Ariel Sabar, an American author and journalist. Ariel Sabar's book My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for his Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq won the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.