Nuts & Bolts – Corrections for Dreidels and Hebrew
Nuts & Bolts – Corrections for Dreidels and Hebrew
When creating cards for a specific holiday, profession, religion, nationality, or tradition, etc., unless you are an expert, it’s important to do a little research and ensure you use the correct symbols, imagery and terminology. It looks like GCU has missed some incorrect Hebrew lettering and dreidels.In addition to a dreidel being specific to Hanukkah and not any other Jewish holiday or occasion, the 4 characters on the dreidel stand for Nes Gadol Haya Sham which translates to “A great miracle happened there,” referring to the miracle of the oil during the Hanukkah story. Since Hebrew is written from right to left, the art/characters should appear right to left and be depicted as shown below:
נ (nun), ג (gimel), ה (hei), ש (shin)
To depict it correctly using the image below: Visually, if you show two sides, the correct order from right to left is: Nun to the right of gimel, gimel to the right of hey, hey to the right of shin, shin to the right of nun.
While many online examples of dreidels have the order mixed up, it’s akin to someone creating art to represent the 4th of July and adding “A.S.U.” or “S.A.U.” (instead of U.S.A). While each letter is present, the phrase only has meaning in a particular order, which is incorrect in the prior example. For the purposes of making art it should be displayed on a dreidel in the order of right to left to be correct and culturally accurate.
We are noticing that in the world of AI, details are often missed or misinterpreted; AI-generated images frequently get this wrong. See here as a reminder for AI generated work and the need for artists’ due diligence and scrutiny.
This is a good reminder of the importance of knowing the nuances of different languages, cultures and holidays to ensure you hit the nail on the head. Even if you think you’re a subject matter expert, doing a little research can inspire a fresh take or different angle.
Please check your store to see if you’ve made this innocent error and get a head start by editing your cards.
GCU artist, Mira Scharf of Mulberry Pie Studios, has generously offered to act as a subject matter expert for us. She is happy to advise and review any Hebrew lettering and dreidel designs for artists. Please feel free to reach out to Mira directly at:scharfmira@gmail.com
See the following related topics to guide you:
Cultural Symbols & Terminology
The difference is made in the details and thank you, Mira!
Mindy
GCU Community Manager
mindy@gcuniverse.com
Greeting Card Universe154 East Prospect Avenue, Suite B
Danville, CA 94526
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