Diasporas and the seeds of their success
I got a hot tip for a cool treat the other day. A friend raved about a particular frozen custard establishment with a location in my old neighborhood. It鈥檚 really good, she told me, and the proprietors are from her old neighborhood 鈥� Rochester, N.Y.
鈥淥h, yes, the Rochester diaspora,鈥� I observed. The line drew a bigger chuckle than I might have expected.
But why not a Rochester diaspora? Every other place has one 鈥� or so a recent article in suggests. Countries around the world are 鈥渞eaching out鈥� to native sons and daughters abroad.
An Irish nonprofit, for instance, tracks down the descendants of those who left for America and elsewhere, in order to invite them to visit. The goal is a database of 30 million to 40 million people to cultivate as potential tourists or maybe even investors.
Another example mentioned was the Indian diaspora, which mobilized to help elect Narendra Modi as prime minister. Nearly 60 percent of United Nations member states have a formal diaspora strategy. Ireland even has a for the Diaspora.
But the original diaspora is the Jewish one.
Diaspora came into English by the 1640s or earlier, via post-classical Latin, from Greek. In that tongue it meant an act of dispersion, or a group of people who have been dispersed, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
I mispronounced the word in my head the first time I encountered it in print; I gave it the same rhythm as diorama. Now I know better. But having checked the etymology, I feel vindicated for stressing the 鈥渟por鈥�: The Greek verb from which the noun came refers to a scattering or sowing of seeds. Spores are to nonflowering plants what seeds are to plants that flower.聽
Oxford defines diaspora as 鈥淭he body of Jews living outside the land of Israel,鈥� and continues with reference to 鈥渢he countries and places inhabited by these, regarded collectively.鈥� A broader sense, 鈥渄ispersions of nationalities, ethnic groups, etc.,鈥� goes back to the early 20th century.
Oxford notes that diaspora appears a dozen times in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures, including : 鈥測ou shall be in dispersion in all kingdoms of the earth.鈥�
The adds this: 鈥淎 Hebrew word for it is galuth, 鈥榚xile.鈥� 鈥� That鈥檚 not the Hebrew word Englished as diaspora in the Oxford dictionary quote above, by the way. But it鈥檚 interesting to think there are two words, one from Greek and the other from Latin, with different underlying metaphors, for the same event.
Exile is banishment, forced removal. It shares a syllable 鈥渆x,鈥� or 鈥渙ut of,鈥� with another Latin-derived word with great moment for the Jewish people: exodus, literally 鈥渁 going out,鈥� more concretely the departure of the Israelites from Egypt.
I鈥檇 rather be than banished.聽
Seed scattered can, after all, germinate and put down roots 鈥� so that frozen custard can blossom in Boston this summer, courtesy of the Rochester diaspora.
