Winner of the 2020 National Jewish Book Award in Education and Jewish Identity Each summer, tens of thousands of American Jews attend residential camps, where they may see Hebrew signs, sing and dance to Hebrew songs, and hear a camp-specific hybrid language register called Camp Hebraized English, as in: “Let’s hear some ruach (spirit) in this chadar ochel (dining hall)!” Using historical and sociolinguistic methods, this book explains how camp directors and staff came to infuse Hebrew in creative ways and how their rationales and practices have evolved from the early 20th century to today. Some Jewish leaders worry that Camp Hebraized English impedes Hebrew acquisition, while others recognize its power to strengthen campers’ bonds with Israel, Judaism, and the Jewish people. Hebrew Infusion explores these conflicting ideologies, showing how hybrid language can serve a formative role in fostering religious, diasporic communities. The insightful analysis and engaging descriptions of camp life will appeal to anyone interested in language, education, or American Jewish culture.

Why Hebrew, here and now? What is its value for contemporary Americans? In What We Talk about When We Talk about Hebrew (and What It Means to Americans) scholars, writers, and translators tackle a series of urgent questions that arise from the changing status of Hebrew in the United States. To what extent is that status affected by evolving Jewish identities and shifting attitudes toward Israel and Zionism? Will Hebrew programs survive the current crisis in the humanities on university campuses? How can the vibrancy of Hebrew literature be conveyed to a larger audience? The volume features a diverse group of distinguished contributors, including Sarah Bunin Benor, Dara Horn, Adriana Jacobs, Alan Mintz, Hannah Pressman, Adam Rovner, Ilan Stavans, Michael Weingrad, Robert Whitehill-Bashan, and Wendy Zierler. With lively personal insights, their essays give fellow Americans a glimpse into the richness of an exceptional language. Celebrating the vitality of modern Hebrew, this book addresses the challenges and joys of being a Hebraist in America in the twenty-first century. Together these essays explore ways to rekindle an interest in Hebrew studies, focusing not just on what Hebrew means—as a global phenomenon and long-lived tradition—but on what it can mean to Americans.

When non-Orthodox Jews become frum (religious), they encounter much more than dietary laws and Sabbath prohibitions. They find themselves in the midst of a whole new culture, involving matchmakers, homemade gefilte fish, and Yiddish-influenced grammar. Becoming Frum explains how these newcomers learn Orthodox language and culture through their interactions with community veterans and other newcomers. Some take on as much as they can as quickly as they can, going beyond the norms of those raised in the community. Others maintain aspects of their pre-Orthodox selves, yielding unique combinations, like Matisyahu’s reggae music or Hebrew words and sing-song intonation used with American slang, as in “mamish (really) keepin’ it real.” Sarah Bunin Benor brings insight into the phenomenon of adopting a new identity based on ethnographic and sociolinguistic research among men and women in an American Orthodox community. Her analysis is applicable to other situations of adult language socialization, such as students learning medical jargon or Canadians moving to Australia. Becoming Frum offers a scholarly and accessible look at the linguistic and cultural process of “becoming.”

The Routledge Handbook of Judaism in the 21st Century is a cutting-edge volume that addresses central questions and issues animating Judaism, Jewish identity, and Jewish society in a global, integrated, and forward-looking way. It introduces readers to the complexity of Judaism as it has developed and continues to develop throughout the 21st century through the prism of three contemporary sets of issues: identities and geographies; structures and power; and knowledge and performances. Within these sections, international contributors examine central issues, topics, and debates, including: individual and collective identity; globalization and localization; Jewish demography; diversity, denominations, and pluralism; interreligious relations; political orientations; community organization; family and gender; the Bible and Talmud today; Jewish philosophy and authority in Jewish thought; digital Judaism; antisemitism; Jewish spirituality and rituals; memory; language; religious education; material culture, literature, music, and art; approaches to the environment; and contemporary Zionism and Israel. The handbook also includes an extensive bibliography to help orient readers to the most important and leading work in the field. The Routledge Handbook of Judaism in the 21st Century is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies and Jewish studies. It will also be useful for those in related fields, such as cultural studies, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history, as well as Jewish professionals and lay leaders.

"Early in the 20th century, Jewish camp leaders had little interest in creating spiritual experiences for their campers. Yet Jewish camps have gradually provided primal Jewish experiences that campers could enjoy, parents appreciate, and alumni fondly recall. This book considers how Shabbat at camp became the focus for these experiences"--

Home to immigrants from more than 140 countries speaking over 180 languages, Los Angeles is a microcosm of the world. While Los Angeles' ethnic enclaves have been the subject of study by researchers from a wide range of fields, these enclaves remain under-researched from a linguistic standpoint. Multilingual La La Land addresses the sociolinguistic landscape of the Greater Los Angeles (GLA) area, providing in-depth accounts of the sixteen most spoken languages other than English in the region. Each chapter introduces the history of the language in the L.A. region, uses census figures and residential densities to examine location-based and network-based speech communities, and discusses the patterns of usage that characterize the language, including motivations to maintain the language. How these patterns and trends bear on the vitality of each language is a central consideration of this book.

This edited volume brings together ten compelling ethnographic case studies from a range of global settings to explore how people build metalinguistic communities defined not by use of a language, but primarily by language ideologies and symbolic practices about the language. The authors examine themes of agency, belonging, negotiating hegemony, and combating cultural erasure and genocide in cultivating meaningful metalinguistic communities. Case studies include Spanish and Hebrew in the USA, Kurdish in Japan, Pataxó Hãhãhãe in Brazil, and Gallo in France. The afterword, by Wesley L. Leonard, provides theoretical and on-the-ground context as well as a forward-looking focus on metalinguistic futurities. This book will be of interest to interdisciplinary students and scholars in applied linguistics, linguistic anthropology and migration studies.