Sign into an existing account

Yimakh shemo (Hebrew: יִמַּח שְׁמוֹ, romanized: yīmmaḥ šəmō, lit. 'may his name be erased') is a Hebrew curse placed after the name of particular enemies of the Jewish people.[1] A variant is yimakh shemo v'zikhro (Hebrew: יִמַּח שְׁמוֹ וְזִכְרוֹ, romanized: yīmmaḥ šəmō vəzīḵrō, lit. 'may his name and his memory be erased').[2] Yimakh shemo is one of the strongest curses in the Hebrew language.

The phrase originates with Purim[14] and Haman,[15][16] but can be applied to any abhorrent enemy of the people[17] such as Sabbatai Zevi,[18][19] Bohdan Khmelnytsky,[20] Spain,[21] Joseph Stalin[22] Russians,[23] Poles,[24] Adolf Hitler,[4][25][26] Adolf Eichmann,[27] Josef Mengele,[28] any other Nazi,[29][30] or even in cases of personal slight, such as of a bullying father,[31] or conversely as the father of Israel Zangwill of his playwright son.[32] Chofetz Chaim used the epithet of the man who tried to persuade him to abandon his studies.[33]

There are only a very small number of texts where yimakh shemo is used of Jesus,[34] although the tradition that Yeshu (יֵשׁוּ – (יֵשׁוּעַ minus the ayin) is related to the yimach shemo has a little popular circulation, maybe an inheritance from medieval polemical traditions.[35] An early introduction of this connection into Lutheran literature was made by convert Johan Kemper.[36]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yimakh_shemo