A San Francisco teacher hired to translate into Hebrew President Trump’s “not very eloquent” (as she puts it) speeches this week in Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem said she isn’t proud of working for this administration and promised “my students get preference, especially over this particular president.”
Merav Rozenblum, a Hebrew teacher at Jewish Community High School of the Bay, also is a contract translator for the State Department and has worked with three presidents — including a 2013 trip to Israel with President Barack Obama.
Rozenblum, who moved from Israel to the U.S. in 2001 and has been working at the San Francisco high school for nine years, said her job is to exactly translate the president’s words from English to Hebrew, even if she disagrees with what he’s saying.
“The ethics of my profession require that I repeat whatever was said as precisely as I can without adding anything personal. If somebody reads my translation and can read between the lines my criticism, then I have not done my job well,” she said.
“Of course, when it comes to my principles, I would feel better translating for a president that did not offend about half of the American people. But when I work, this should not be reflected in anything that I do.”
Rozenblum and a colleague in Washington, D.C., were hired to translate Trump’s May 21 speech in Saudi Arabia at the Arab Islamic American Summit. They were told to expect a 3,000-word draft of the speech at 6 a.m. PDT on May 20, and agreed to divide it in half and then proofread the other’s work.
The draft arrived 12 hours late — at 6 p.m. Saturday — and the two translators were given until 6 a.m. Sunday to turn in their work. After Trump gave the address, the Hebrew version was updated to reflect minor changes he made in the actual speech.
“This president speaks in very short sentences, so it wasn’t a very difficult speech to translate,” Rozenblum said.
In the Jerusalem speech at the Israel Museum on May 23, Trump went off script to add a reference to the Manchester bombing. Rozenblum also changed her colleague’s translation of one of Trump’s comments there.
Talking about the American security partnership with Israel, Trump said, “under my administration you see the difference — big, big beautiful difference.” Her colleague in Washington “made it sound better” in the Hebrew version, Rozenblum said, but she stuck with his original words because “I wanted it to sound as lame as it was [by using] his usual hollow words.”
Rozenblum, who translated Obama’s 2009 “A New Beginning” speech at Cairo University into Hebrew, said the previous administration was well organized and that the speeches were more challenging to translate because they were better written and included quotes from the Talmud and the Quran.
Rozenblum traveled to the Middle East with Presidents George W. Bush and Obama as an interpreter. Presidents sometimes need the English version of a question asked at a news conference in a foreign language, for instance.
“The protocol requires that the president is interpreted by an American. They always travel with an interpreter, they cannot use local interpreters,” she said. “Just like there’s a special unit that brings the president’s water and food, they bring their own interpreters.”
A graduate of Bar Ilan University’s program for translators and interpreters, Rozenblum also translates Spanish into Hebrew. She said she felt better working for Obama than she does for Trump.
“I am not very proud of translating for this particular president, but I feel that I do my work for my colleagues, for the American people,” she said. “This is what I do, and I do it the best I can.”
This lady who has to hold her nose to do her job illustrates perfectly why Trump needs to step up hiring, so he can get rid of people like the ones that hire translators like this. They should look in Israel, as Trump is actually fairly popular there.
What a joke. First, she tells what’s her job and in the next sentence she violates her own rules. She failed already.
If you don’t like Trump, resign!
Obama is no longer nor ever will be president again, Thank GOD!
Not everyone liked Hillery…. Look at the final voting map. She lost!
So, more than half than the people liked Pres. Trump. Not an almost thing.
So, the almost half is irrelevant.
If you don’t like working for Trump, don´t go! on the trip.
You can say, no thank you or I am booked elsewhere!
Your job is not open to your Feelings and your Reworks.
So, you don’t need to feel apologetic if you work with Pres. Trump.
You just need to translate what is said or written spot on.
If you don’t, then you should be out of the Translation pool.
If the speech reads bad than it reads bad.
You are not a member of the Pres Pool that drafts speeches.
Often, I find that what maybe wrong in a local speech, is wrong sounding, because it is addressing a third party like N. Korea.
You are not the only Hebrew interpreter that speaks a third or fifth language.
There are Hebrew interpreters that like Pres. Trump.
Israel and The USA are full of interpreters.
Yes, I do translations also.
If you do your job correctly, then you are irrelevant.
Regards,
George
First of all it’s Hillary not Hillery. Second of all, Trump lost the popular vote by 62,984,825 to Hillary’s 65,853,516. Hillary received about 48 percent of the vote, while Trump received 46 percent (the rest being third party votes). Trump won off a flawed electoral college system which if you don’t understand (like the majority of americans), here is a link explaining it: http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/11/01/electoral-college-explainer-animation-orig.cnn. By the definition of popular the majority of americans who voted, support Hillary.
Finally, and more importantly, this country is built off of all ideas having a voice. Whether it be neo-nazis or ultra-feminists all people are supported by the same rights. This woman is completely allowed to voice her dissagrement with the current administration EVEN if she works for it.
Your indignation omits the millions of illegals that consistently vote for the party that gives them the goodies, like ballots printed is Spanish, or no border controls., no proof of citizenship required !
Here is an award-winning-non-biased fact checker that did my work for me: http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2016/nov/18/blog-posting/no-3-million-undocumented-immigrants-did-not-vote-/
If you need proof to know they in fact are not all “libretards” then here is another article they wrote bashing Hillary: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/aug/17/hillary-clinton/clinton-repeats-wrong-claim-no-other-2016-candidat/
Also here is another source (from the pulitzer website) reaffirming its award for reporting non-biased and factual information:
National Reporting
Staff of St. Petersburg Times
For “PolitiFact,” its fact-checking initiative during the 2008 presidential campaign that used probing reporters and the power of the World Wide Web to examine more than 750 political claims, separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters. (Moved by the Board to the National Reporting category.) (http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2009)
Lets stay factual, it seems that that is the only thing we can do to maintain our integrity nowadays.
Ha-ha! That’s why your so called democracy is fucked up. You don’t even have a correct electoral system. And that’s not even the first issue! HIL(L)ARIOUS! 😀
I completely agree
Fire the b**ch.
Considering she left Israel she obviously dislikes Israel.which is why she liked obama who hated Israel and hates trump who loves israel.
Stupid is as stupid does. Mz. Rozenblum hates Trump, but she LOVES his money. A shining example of a lunatic fringe leftist: greedy, unprofessional and loquacious.
“HIS” money lmfao. She contract works for the State department. That’s TAXPAYER money.
I couldn’t have said it better except she is a prostitute.
You have a hell of a nerve name calling. I know Merav personally and she’s a person who is refined and educated, which is more than I can say about you. Do us all a favor and crawl back under that rock that you came from. You lack integrity and guts since you couldn’t hack living in Israel for even a year.
First of all, I am an Israeli citizen and I can come and go as I please. People can prostitute themselves for things other than sex, and that it what I was referring to. If she is an official translater she should not bring politics into it. I have no idea who you are and I don’t want to know.
I remembered who Gayle Schwartz is. We were in Haifa same time in 2014. Not all of us could get more of the stipend after 5 months to afford to stay in Israel at that time but Gail & her hubby were able to get on the dole due to their “personal issues.” She was a nasty piece of work then & I see she still is. Still, she didnt know anything about me. There is an alt-left group of elites there who fit in well with their liberal brand of Judaism.
In response to Mz Rozenblum working for State Department, not Trump.
True. However, as an uber-prinicipled liberal Mz. Rozenboum should not
work for anything related to Trump administration, and as a
“professional” (her claim not mine) she should keep her mouth shut. Who
knows what else did she blab about in her righteous indignation. She
seems to be neither principled nor professional.
Nice one, take money then criticize the person who hired you … she should have kept her reservations to herself. That would have been professional. I can only hope that the not so eloquent President’s next words are going to be YOUR FIRED!!