haltura

n. secondary work about which one is not serious or to which one is not fully committed; hackwork, moonlighting, freelancing. Also attrib. Subjects: Hebrew, Russian, Israel, Russia, Business, Entertainment

Editorial Note: In Hebrew, חלטורה. In Russian, халтуры.

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Citations: 1923 Nikita Balieff New York Times Magazine (June 24) “Off Stage and Us Again” p. 9: “Haltura” is a word which has been used frequently by the Russian actor during Bolshevism and signifies an extra job on the outside of his own theatre. The “haltura” apparitions are staged without any artistic aims, and interest the actor only as a means by which he can earn an extra few million rubles. 1991 Mikhail Bulgakov Washington Post (Nov. 17) “The Devil Comes to Moscow” p. X5: This last depicts a theater troupe’s desperate attempts to take a draft of a new play and, with only 20 minutes preparation, present it to the government censor for approval. As it happens, this drama about a revolution on a tropical island is perfectly awful, phoney art of the kind called haltura in Russian. 1993 Michael Ajzenstadt Jerusalem Post (Israel) (Aug. 2) “IPO says farewell to Mehta’s arms: Back again in ‘94”: I’m not going away from Israel to do “halturas” (free-lance jobs) with other orchestras. It’s basically going to be an opera season for me. 1998 Yosef Goell Jerusalem Post (Israel) (Sept. 28) “Wanted: A foreign minister” p. 8: He is treating the Foreign Ministry portfolio as a haltura, (a side job), which has left the Foreign Ministry and all its accumulated expertise in a shambles. 2002 Galya Kolosova Theatre For Young Audiences Around The World (July) “Children’s Theatre in Russia” p. 43: It is considered that their main task is to earn extra money and never—to offer a good artistic idea, good show. There is a very good word in Russian which is impossible to translate into English—"HALTURA."—It means money made on the side with help of cheap art. This kind of activities always existed and was always considered shameful. Actors used to conceal it from everybody. They visited far away towns and played their thrash shows for local public who was captured and raptured to see famous actors alive. 2002 [BadaBing!] Gonzo Engaged (Dec. 23) “Time Persons of the Year. What the fuck?”: Haltura is when you are pretending to do a good job, pretending to be a professional, expert with a diploma and you are supposed to know what to do but you know you are just fucking around and you are flying by the seat of your pants and you are not going to admit that you are fucking up cause you are a nice person and you have finished the right schools and have the diploma to show that you are nice person. 2004 Mark Heinrich @ Tel Aviv, Israel Reuters (June 27) “Culture of Improvisation Buoys, Bogs Down Israelis”: Israelis call it “haltura,” slang for a cross between make-do ingenuity, shoddy amateurism and moonlighting, with a dash of disdain for the letter of the law thrown in.

Posted 30 Jun 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend