The Hebraization of American Jewish Identity through Hillel T-Shirts

• In Event: Jewish Identities - Interdisciplinary Approaches

Abstract

This study is a sociologically informed content analysis of approximately forty t-shirts collected from Hillels and other university Jewish student centers from across the United States. In my analysis of these t-shirts, I am interested primarily in the ways in which these t-shirts relay various messages about what it “means” to be a Jewish college student. As these t-shirts are produced and distributed with funding from Jewish institutions, they provide significant insight into the ways in which institutions shape and legitimize particular messages about youth Jewish identity. Specifically, I analyze the national institutional trend of Hebraized t-shirts, which display university names transliterated into Hebrew. Ultimately, I argue that Hebraized t-shirts reveal implicit institutional assertions about the state of Israel’s critical importance to the project of youth American Jewish identity. I additionally argue that other types of t-shirts promote Jewish life at universities by promising social fulfillment and status.

author

• Anne Grant, Vanderbilt University