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The New Yorker drew criticism from several commentators online after publishing a review of a new book whose author links Hebrew punctuation to colonialism and the history of Jewish migration to Israel.
The book, titled “On the Mark: From Periods to Interrobangs, How Punctuation Remade the World” and written by author Florence Hazrat, is drawing scrutiny after the New Yorker’s Louis Menand highlighted its claim that punctuation marks in the Hebrew language are “relics” of a “brutal colonial system.”
The review written by Menand describes Hazrat’s book as “irreverent and delightfully intellectual,” but says its premise — that the “history of punctuation is the history of humanity” — leads to “overreach.”
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“Today this brutal oppression (aided and abetted by the United States, Germany, and a host of other countries through arms deliveries, technological support, and trade deals) has evolved into the worst crime of all crimes: genocide,” Hazrat wrote.
Hazrat goes on to argue in her book that adding punctuation helped turn Hebrew from a written language into a spoken one.
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She argues that the introduction of punctuation into the language is “paving the way for an artificial sense of unity among Jewish people from all over the globe, encouraging them to move to the land that already had people—a people made to suffer and bear the brunt of European antisemitism in the most horrendous ways for generations.”
While Menand takes issue with Hazrat’s stance on the topic in his review, writing that “It seems (the reason is not altogether clear) that, had Yiddish been the official language of Israel, atrocities might have been avoided,” the New Yorker’s decision to publish the review prompted criticism from several commentators online.
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In an X post, deputy editor of Jewish News UK Daniel Sugarman, blasted the argument, writing, “The author of this book is, predictably, an academic in the UK and a ‘BBC New Generation Thinker.’”
“Seems like the new generation has the same thoughts as older generations when it comes to pseudoscientific crap roping in Jews,” he continued.
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Isaac de Castro, audience editor of Tablet Magazine, also took to social media to weigh in, writing in an X post that “We’re at the ‘Hebrew punctuation is a colonialist tool to oppress Palestinians, the real victims of European antisemitism, and assemble a worldwide cabal of Jews, previously completely unaffiliated’ stage of mass psychosis.”
In another post to X, a user said they would cancel their New Yorker subscription, adding the publication “should never have published this.”
Digital reached out to Hazrat and the New Yorker for comment.
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Former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, an outspoken Jewish voice, also denounced the claims, telling Digital that “blaming commas and question marks for regional conflict shows just how deeply antisemitism rots basic critical thinking.”
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“The attempt to demonize Hebrew down to its punctuation isn’t serious linguistics. It is an obsessive crusade to deny the Jewish people our history, language, and humanity,” Aronberg said. “There is no issue too absurd, and apparently no punctuation mark too small, for modern anti-Israel activists to twist into an indictment against the Jewish state.”
