The Kamatz, Segol, and the Israeli Supreme Court
Today two new judges were sworn into the Israeli Supreme Court. One of them, Justice Dafna Erez-Barak, became the Deputy to the Chief Justice. Until today, despite her being a woman, her position would have been המשנֶה לנשיא בית המשפט העליון with the nun in the first word vocalized with a segol, ha-Mishneh. Justice Erez-Barak wanted to see if it was possible that the name of her position should reflect her being a woman. She was in touch with the Academy of the Hebrew Language and the response was that the term המשנָה לנשיא בית המשפט העליון with the nun vocalized with a kamatz, ha-Mishnah, was acceptable. Below are the exchange of letters between Erez-Barak and Moshe Bar-Asher of the Academy.
June 1st, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Miriam Naor was not newly sworn in as a judge of the Israeli Supreme Court. She has been on the bench since 2003. See here:
http://elyon1.court.gov.il/heb/cv/fe_html_out/judges/k_hayim/2340431.htm The two new judges are Dafna Erez-Barak and Uri Shoham (not Shaham as incorrectly reported on your English ynet link).
When Uri was “merely” a Lt. Col. and chief prosecutor in the IDF (in the early 80′s), there were a couple new appointments of women as district military advocates (sing.: “Praklit Mechoz”). At the time the army resisted changing the title to “Praklitah” (or “Praklitat Mechoz”) and it was jokingly suggested that they should instead spell Praklit with a “tav” instead of a “tet”. Eventually, the feminine form, “Praklitah” became acceptable (in the civilian forum as well – the female DA is Praklitat Mechoz).