By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Our special license
plate correspondent, Melanie Rubin, espied two more "Jewish" plates
for our collection: one allowing a father to kvell about his wonderful
daughter; the other enabling a driver to protest the pollution and sewage that
regularly foul our ocean, especially after winter rains in California.
The first, on a California signature plate, combines Hebrew and English:
ABA2JEN. Aba is "father"; 2 is license-plate speak for
"to," and Jen most probably is a wonderful young lady named
"Jennifer" or some derivative. The driver is a proud papa in
other words. Whoever he is, he probably has many photos of his daughter
in his wallet, ready to be shown at a moment's notice. Just like I have
for my grandson.
The second message was on a California license plate that urges us to
"protect our coast and ocean," and depicts the tail of a diving
whale. Therein lay the tale when combined with the message KUKEN.
We went to a Yiddish/
English website maintained by Natalya Belinsky called the "Everyday
Yiddish-English-Yiddish Dictionary" to decipher this one. Using our word
search tool for "kuken" we found that it is commonly used in the
expression, gai kuken ahfen yam, a curse meaning (pardon the
expletive): "go shit in the ocean." As the driver wants the oceans
protected, we assumed that he wished to enjoin society from further pollution
of this wonderful global resource. In the San Diego/ Tijuana areas,
sewage runoff during winter flood season is a major problem, frequently
forcing closure of beaches.
Our collection grows. We'll be delighted if you will send in photos of
Jewish license plates that you see.
Yiddish: Upright, outstanding
person
Hebrew/English: Father to Jen
Yididish: For you, only good
Hebrew: In
peace
Yiddish: Grandma
Yiddish: Grandma
2
Hebrew: Wisdom
Hebrew & English: Mother to 3
Hebrew & English: Mother for
4
Hebrew: Life
18
Yiddish: Excrement
Yiddish: Little Mindy
Yiddish: Woe is me,
Ma
English
& Hebrew: San Diego Mother
Biblical: A life as long as
Moses
Yiddish:
Grandpa