Jonathan Orr-Stav

Personal Details

Bio

Orr-Stav is a bilingual Anglo-Israeli translator and writer who has made the Hebrew language and texts radically more accessible to non-Hebrew speakers, through his book "Aleph Through the Looking Glass" (Yale Univ. Press) and the invention of SimHebrew™ (the first lossless and machine-automated method of converting Square Hebrew to Roman characters). A popular speaker, he is a Top Writer on Quora, and a Most-Viewed Writer on the Hebrew language.

Current position (1)

Director

Orr-Stav Communications

Achievements (1)

Aleph Through the Looking Glass

A new and innovative approach to learning the Hebrew script. Drawing on the common ancestry of European and Hebrew alphabets and the natural inclinations of the writing hand, Orr-Stav shows how the Hebrew script may be understood and acquired almost intuitively in three steps

Degrees (2)

Mathematics and Computer Science

Hebrew University, Jerusalem

1981 to 1982

Architecture and Computer-Aided-Design

Architectural Association, London

1982 to 1988

Presentations

Presentations (2)

Three Steps to Learning the Hebrew Script

Drawing on historical but mostly forgotten links between the Hebrew script and the Greek and Roman alphabets, in this talk I show how the Hebrew alphabet can be understood and learned in three steps.

Arabic Hebrew: How modern Hebrew is really spoken

This unofficial form of modern Hebrew is very extensive, and such an integral part of everyday speech, that most Israelis are often unaware of its existence. Anyone seeking to gain a true knowledge of modern spoken Hebrew must acquaint themselves with this side of Hebrew that does not appear in any siddur or Hebrew language textbook. In this talk, the most important terms, meanings, origins, and uses in everyday language will be reviewed.

Reviews

Testimonials (4)

Superb presentation, informative and entertaining. It was a subject you researched extremely well and the slides were extremely well designed. I particularly enjoyed the background and history. – Larry Gontovnick, Victoria, B.C.
Larry Gontovnick
Verified
Jonathan’s talk Aleph Through the Looking Glass is very professionally presented. He shares his extensive knowledge so that everyone comes away with a solid understanding of the fascinating development of the Hebrew language. He allows for a lot of give and take with his listeners who feel that they are actively involved learners, not just bystanders. . He exploits his wonderful sense of humor while explaining some complicated points. Aleph Through the Looking Glass has as much information for professional linguists as it does for people simply interested in Hebrew. I left the talk wishing I could be one of his regular students. The question many of his listeners asked after the talk was: when is the next one?
Heshi Olson
Verified
"Fantastic – like a National Geographic Documentary on the history of the Hebrew language."
Michelle Morton
Verified
I attended Mr. Orr-Stav's presentation Aleph Through the Looking Glass, and welcome the opportunity to offer my review of his efforts. I definitely recommend it to others. I found it most informative and would rated it 4 out of 5.
Sandra Glass
Verified

Personal Details

Presentations

Expertise (8)

Clients

Awards & certifications (1)

Reviews