Negotiating Hebrew Ownership: Hebrew Charter Schools and the American Jewish Press, 2007-2014

• In Event: The Purposes of Hebrew: New Approaches to Understanding Hebrew Education in America

Abstract

This paper addresses the contested notions of who Hebrew belongs to and which community can claim it as “theirs.” Constructs such as linguistic community, speech community, and metalinguistic community have offered varying conceptual frameworks to describe how groups make claims on language due to geographic location, ancestral ties, ethnic connections, nostalgic attachments, and/or linguistic competency. While questions have been raised whether it is even possible for ethno-historical communities to maintain sole ownership over their linguistic resources in this contemporary moment of globalization and transnationalism, claims to Hebrew as a Jewish language remain prevalent. Exploring what happens when Hebrew is divorced from its ideological and sacred roots and appropriated for secular purposes, this presentation examines a set of discussions within the American Jewish press about the emergence of Hebrew charter schools – public schools in which Modern Hebrew is taught – and considers how these schools’ growth provided an ongoing opportunity for Jewish media to reflect on Hebrew ownership. Through an examination of over 75 news articles from the American Jewish printed news media between 2007- 2014, this presentations offers an interpretive and critical analysis of the Jewish community’s response to the phenomenon of Hebrew language charter schools and shows how anxieties about communal production and reproduction are traceable through the circulated discourses about Hebrew learning. One core argument is that Hebrew charters served as a discursive strategy for contending with American Jewry’s fear of an erosion of Jewish life in the United States, as well as the community’s resurgence. Analysis reveals recurring discursive themes that position Hebrew learning at charter schools as an existential threat to Jewish learning. At the same time, Hebrew charters are situated as a site and practice that can save the American Jewish community and improve the prospects of American Jewish education.

Author

• Sharon Avni, CUNY