From ownerless property to abandonmentSourced
A legal word meant 'unowned'.
Poets made it mean 'abandoned'.
In Jewish law, hefker refers to ownerless property. In twentieth-century Yiddish and Hebrew poetry, writers also used it for freedom or social abandonment. The idea of belonging to no one gained an emotional edge.
A term about things
became a term about people.
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Hefker · Wikimedia contributors
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Reviewed: 2026-10-01