ORTHODOX JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN NEW YORK CITY ...

Studii de ştiinţă şi cultură Volumul X, Nr. 4, decembrie 2014

23

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE ULTRA-ORTHODOX JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN NEW YORK CITY AND IN

UPSTATE NEW YORK

ENTRE DEUX MONDES : LA LANGUE ET LA CULTURE DES COMMUNAUTÉS JUIVES ULTRA-ORTHODOXES DE NEW YORK

ÎNTRE DOUĂ LUMI: LIMBA ȘI CULTURA COMUNITĂȚILOR

EVREIEȘTI ULTRA-ORTODOXE DIN NEW YORK

Gabi ABRAMAC Sokrat Language Institute, Zagreb, Croatia,

[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract The aim of this paper is to describe interlaced cultural and linguistic patterns in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in New York City and in upstate New York. Although ultra-Orthodox is a widely used term, members of this community prefer the term Haredi (its plural haredim), frum, which means pious, and haymish (domestic, one of us). Even though these groups live in metropolitan New York, they are very insular and stringent in fending off external influences and very little research in the field of sociolinguistics has been carried out among them. The findings in this paper are based on the research which was carried out in 2012 and 2013 in Hassidic boroughs of Brooklyn, as well as in Hassidic enclaves in upstate New York. This study examines socio-economic and religious context, as well as political ideologies which govern the life in Haredi communities - shaping and influencing, therefore, their language choice and linguistic policy. The languages used in Hassidic communities are: Yiddish as the vernacular, Loshn Koydesh (Hebrew-Aramaic conglomerate used in prayers and religious study), English – necessary for communication with the outside world and other ancestral languages from Europe (e.g. Hungarian, Russian). Since Yiddish is the language of the home, English is the second language which is acquired at school. The objective of this paper is to present the acquisition of English in Hassidic communities and to examine language attitudes, choices, ideology and policy in this multilingual community. The results of the research also show that language competence, usage and preferences vary between male and female speakers who are gender segregated and who are exposed to different linguistic policies in the schools they attend. Rezumat Scopul acestei lucrări îl constituie descrierea modelelor culturale și lingvistice întrepătrunse în comunitățile evreiești ultra-ortodoxe din New York. Deși termenul de „ultra-ortodox” este frecvent utilizat, membrii acestei comunității preferă termenii Haredi (cu pluralul haredim), frum, care înseamnă pios și haymish (indigen, unul dintre noi). Deși aceste grupuri trăiesc în zona metropolitană a New York-ului, ele au un caracter foarte insular și resping cu strictețe orice influențe externe, astfel că foarte puține cercetări în domeniul sociolingvisticii au fost realizate în cadrul acestei comunitate. Constatările acestei lucrări se bazează pe cercetări desfășurate în anii 2012 și 2013 în districtele hasidice ale cartierului Brooklyn, precum și în enclavele hasidice din zona metropolitană New York. Studiul examinează contextul socio-economic și religios, precum și ideologiile politice care guvernează viața comunităților Haredi – modelând și influențând, deci, alegerea limbii și politica lingvistică. Limbile utilizate în comunitățile hasidice sunt: idiș ca dialect

Gabi Abramac - Between Two Worlds: Language and Culture in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Communities in …

24

local, Loshn Koydesh (conglomerat ebraico-aramaic utilizat în rugăciuni și studiile religioase), engleza – necesară pentru comunicarea cu lumea exterioară și alte limbi ancestrale din Europa (de ex. maghiara, rusa). Limba maternă fiind idiș, engleza este limba secundară, învățată la școală. Obiectivul acestei lucrări este să prezinte învățarea limbii engleze în comunitățile hasidice și să examineze atitudinile, alegerile, ideologiile și politicile lingvistice în această comunitate multilingvă. Rezultatele acestei cercetări relevă, de asemenea, diferențe în ceea ce privește competența lingvistică, utilizarea și preferințele de limbaj între vorbitorii de sex masculin și cei de sex feminin, existând o segregare între sexe unde acestea sunt expuse unor politici lingvistice diferite în școlile pe care le frecventează. Keywords: Haredi, linguistic biographies, linguistic ideology, New York Jewish Communities, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, Yiddish

Cuvinte cheie: Haredi, biografii lingvistice, ideologie lingvistică, comunități evreiești din New York, evrei ultra-ortodocși, idiș

INTRODUCTION

The objective of this paper is to present the acquisition of English in ultra-‐Orthodox Jewish communities and to examine language attitudes, choices, ideology and policy in this multilingual community. Although ultra-‐Orthodox is a widely used term, members of this community prefer the term Haredi (its plural haredim), frum, which means pious, and haymish (domestic, one of us).

The Haredim of New York are subdivided into a range of Hasidic sects and into Lithuanian-Yeshivish communities which opposed Hasidism when it appeared. Members of all these communities are descendants of Ashkenazi Jews who lived in Eastern Europe, Central Europe and the Baltic. In all those areas, Jewish Diaspora was using a triglossic linguistic repertoire, i.e. Hebrew as the sacred language, Yiddish as the conversational language of the community and the language of a host country. The Haredim have gradually chosen stricter religious observance (Fader, 2009: 13) and according to Soleveitchik (1994: 77), in their voluntary separate communities or ”enclave communities”, there must be continual reinforcement and heightening of difference. Whereas Jewish immigration to the United States of America had preceded the the WWII, it was not until after the destruction of the European communities in the Holocaust that the new, tightly-knit communities were established in New York. The survivors, under the leadership of charismatic rebbes, have re-established the organization of the East European shtetl and have kept the memories of der alte haym (ancestral European homeland) alive. The ultra-orthodox Jews who settled in New York have kept their customs, their attire and their language. The Hassidim in New York are members of different sects (Hasidic courts), i.e. followers of different rebbes. The groups are named after their prewar centers in Europe or after dynastic leadership. According to Mintz (1992) there are more than thirty courts in New York. Litvish Jews also rebuilt their communities in North America after WWII, establishing a network of rabbinical yeshivas (Heilman and Cohen, 1989). The Hasidim inhabit different neighborhoods in Brooklyn (Williamsburg, Crown Heights, Boro Park), as well as enclaves in Kiryas Joel (Monroe) and New Square. Monsey has a mixed Hasidic, Litvish and modern Orthodox population. Litvish population is also numerous in Lakewood, New Jersey, and in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Flatbush, Midwood and Kensington.


25

BACKGROUND A sociolinguistic study of a Jewish community always involves a study of multilingualism (Fishman, 1991: 308). In situations where collective multilingualism exists and where different languages are used by the same people, different language varieties often have different functions, a linguistic phenomenon referred to as diglossia, triglossia or multiglossia, depending on the number of idioms in the particular linguistic situation (Ferguson, 1959; Wardaugh, 1986: 87; Clyne, 1997:308; Schiffman, 1997:205; Trask, 1999:71; Riehl, 2004:16-18; Fill, 2007:186). Ever since the Babylonian exile in 586 BC, Jews have not used one language only and by the end of the Second Temple period 2000 years ago, the triglossic linguistic repertoire was established. The language of the Jewish Diaspora has always differed from the language of its non-Jewish surrounding. The triglossic repertoire in the Haredi society includes Yiddish as the vernacular, Loshn Koydesh (Hebrew-Aramaic) as the language of the holy texts and the language of study and a co-territorial language. The vernacular use of Yiddish as an insider language among the Haredim is closely tied to an ideology in which religion and tradition are central (Glinert and Shilhav, 1991: 59). Yiddish functions as a means of ethnic continuity for the Haredim and also acts as a barrier against outside influences, “both symbolic and real” (Glinert and Shilhav, 1991: 64, quoted in Isaacs, (1999: 14). Even though a secular Yiddish-community exists, the use of Yiddish in Haredi homes and schools seems to be crucial to its continued survival. The anti-Zionist stance resulted in the fact that Haredi communities in the United States never adopted modern Hebrew as their (additional) language, considering it a non-kosher (impure) language. For Haredim, Biblical Hebrew is the language of the Holy scriptures and is not to be tainted by everyday use. Moreover, modern Hebrew (Ivrit) was revived as a part of the Zionist plan. Since the start of political Zionism in the 1890s, the Haredim have objected the establishment of the State of Israel and its secular orientation. Zionism was considered to be forcing the hand of Providence and to be contrary to the teachings of Orthodox Judaism in regard to the coming of the Messiah and the providential work of God in bringing about the restoration. After the establishment of Israel, each individual movement within Orthodox Judaism charted its own path in its approach to the State of Israel.

Some of the researchers who conducted studies in the American Haredi society include Poll (1962), Heilman (1973, 1989, 1992, 2006), Fader (2009), Wellen Levine (2004), Helmreich (2000), Isaacs (1999), Belcove-Shalin (1995), and Mintz (1992).

Figure 1 Hasidic School Bus in Boro Park, Brooklyn


26

RESEARCH This project was conducted in 2012 and 2013 in Hassidic boroughs of Brooklyn (Crown Heights, Boro Park and Williamsburg), as well as in Hassidic enclaves in upstate New York. There were several interrelated objectives in this project : (1) to describe the use of Yiddish, English and Loshn Koydesh in Hasidic communities in New York; (2) to examine the maintenance of Yiddish and underlying linguistic and political ideology; (3) to analyze the acquisition of Yiddish and other languages used in the community and (4) to examine language attitudes, choices, ideology and policy in the multilingual community which is further subdivided into different groups The project also aimed to examine how language usage, preferences, competence and attitude are gender-conditioned as a result of gender segregation and different language policies in yeshivas (boys’ schools) and Beis Yaakov (girls’) schools. METHODOLOGY

This project has used data triangulation (the application of more than one sampling method for data collection) and methodological triangulation (the use of more than one methodology). According to the typology of mixed methods design suggested by Green et al. (1989) and more recently by Bryman (2000), triangulation denotes convergence of findings and corroboration of research results. The methodologies which used in this research were:

• Linguistic ethnography, where the researcher collected the data, analyzed the results and wrote up the findings. According to Creese (in Litosseliti, 2010: 146), analysis of the data focuses on the identification and interpretation of regular patterns of action and talk that characterize a group of people in a social context. This was achieved through participant observation, field notes, ethnographic and open interviews, and often recordings/ transcripts.

• Narrative biographical interviews as developed by Schütze (1977, 1983) in the German

discourse and as described by Rosenthal (1993, 2004). Narrative biographical interviews were transcribed and the analysis of propositional content was conducted to produce linguistic biographies. Functional analysis of narratives shows how narrators represent or interpret the world (Schiffrin, 1996); how they represent self and others (Dyer and Keller-Cohen, 2000); and how they construct their – gendered, ethnic or class identities (Goodwin, 2003). During the course of this research, narrative interviews with 30 members of Hasidic sects were conducted and their linguistic biographies have been reconstructed as a part of the doctoral dissertation (Abramac, 2014).

• Textual analysis which has encompassed publications in Yiddish (newspapers, magazines

and student books), as well as following of online blogs, Twitter account and Facebook groups.

DISCUSSION ”I was always told English is not important.” - Yisroel

With the exception of Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic sect whose peculiarity shall not be discussed hereupon, other mainstream Hasidic communities follow a rather similar socio-linguistic pattern. Hasidic society and therefore, schooling system are gender segregated. The schooling for Hasidic boys starts at the age of three when the boy is brought to cheyder1 and is taught the letters

1 Traditional Jewish elementary school.


27

of the Hebrew alphabet for the first time. The letters are covered with honey which the boy licks to be taught that learning is sweet. His entire schooling in cheyder will be conducted in Yiddish. The boys are also taught to read and vocalize Hebrew. At the age of about six or seven, English is introduced at schools to meet the government requirements. English is usually taught at the very end of a long school day when the students are already tired and have difficulties concentrating. The informants have stated the absolute lack of interst and discipline in the English class which presents a sharp contrast to the obedient study of religious text under the guidance of a rabbi. The general attitude of school leadership, students and their parents is that English is not important. All informants who were subjects of this study claim that they had not learned anything important during English lessons. ”English” is also a generative term for any non-religious content of the study which covers basic mathematics and history curriculum in addition to language learning. English class is the only time when yeshiva students use English, and as soon as the class is over, they switch to Yiddish. Yiddish is the language of the world they live in. It is the language of the home, language of the streets, stores and school. After the age of fifteen, English is no longer mandatory in yeshivas. The holy books are studied in Yiddish, Hebrew and Aramaic. This Hebrew-Aramaic conglomerate is denoted as Loshn Koydesh2. The emphasis of studying Hebrew and Aramaic texts is on content and its meaning. The students memorize the segments of the texts, but do not gain written or spoken competence in Loshn Koydesh. Ivrit, i.e. modern Hebrew is not studied because the communities are anti-Zionist and do not encourage the usage of Hebrew. Hebrew is a sacred language and according to them, not to be used for mundane speech. The community distinguishes between Biblical Hebrew, the Holy Language, and Modern Israeli Hebrew, which they call the tumedike sprakh, the impure language. Hasidic girls attend schools where the curriculum is divided into religious, held in the morning section, and secular, held in the afternoons. In lower grades English is one of the subjects, but gradually, the entire afternoon program is conducted in English. The informants have reported that in the lower grades Yiddish was the only medium of communication at school and outside the school. English was used during the English class, but as soon as the class was over or during the recess, the girls would speak in Yiddish to each other. The ideology on the importance of Yiddish usage is continuously reinforced. The teachers remind the students repeatedly that it is important to always use Yiddish in communication with friends and family members. At about the age of twelve, the girls start switching to English when communicating to each other. One of the reasons is because their mothers speak English to other women and to their older daughters, so switching to English means ”being a member of the big league”3, i.e. being mature. Even though the girls start using English to speak to other girls and women, they continue to speak Yiddish when talking to male family members. The girls’ schools do not study religious texts in depth. Focus is put on Hebrew reading and memorizing prayers which are often studied accompanied by Yiddish translations. Girls do not study texts in Aramaic, as Talmud is prohibited to women. It is important to note that older generations that were born in Europe will still use the language spoken in der alter hay -, namely Hungarian. While English is considered a non-kosher language, Hungarian is no more labelled as such because nowadays it presents no threat to assimilation anymore. Most ultra-Orthodox members think that English is only necessary to interact with the outside world. The ideology about English as an impure speech is so strong that one of the informants stated that his daughter feels responsible for her grandmother’s death because she was reading books in English: 2 Holy tongue 3 Research informant's quote


28

Chaim: ”My daughter she read like English books from Chabad. Like children's books, ya? Now my grandmother passed away two weeks ago and by the funeral everybody was crying, she took upon herself never, ever in her life to read any more English books. And we are talking about very religious English books. They take the novels and they make it for religious kids. (...) she promised never to read English. Why? Because in school they brainwash her not to read English. It's not from herself that she took upon it. You understand?”

The informants also think that English is not important, rationalizing that many community

members are have become very wealthy without the knowledge of English.

Menachem: ”Business has nothing to do with English.” Nachum: ”But lemme tell you, I know a lot of people who study only Yiddish and they

are doing very well in business, and little, little English that they know. Like mortgage brokers, real estate agents, diamonds are big, but I believe because the family was diamonds. Mortgage companies, let me tell you, insurance. Insurance agencies – wealthy, wealthy people in Brooklyn. More than wealthy.”

CONCLUSION ”Oyb Chassidim velen derleben, vet Yiddish derleben.”4

- Devorah Patton (1987) observes that interview quotations "reveal the respondents' levels of emotion, the way in which they have organized the world, their thoughts about what is happening, their experiences, and their basic perceptions.” Potter and Wetherell (1987, in Litosseliti, 2010: 126) argue that ideologies are embodied in and reproduced through everyday discourse practices. The research conduced in frum communities in Brooklyn depicts the multilingual linguistic repertoire. This multilingual pattern is the continuation of the historical linguistic repertoire in the Hassidic communities which have always used at least one of the co-territorial languages, in addition to Loshn Koydesh and Yiddish. The results of the research show that linguistic competence in English is also gender-conditioned due to different schooling systems. Women speak English better because throughout their educational system, half of their curriculum was conducted in English. It is also expected that women will be more in contact with the outside world while men will spend more time studying religious texts. English competence of male community members varies in their adult life according to the job one holds. Those Hasidim who are more exposed to the outside world through their business contacts will speak English considerably better than those who work in the community. Seideman (1996, in Fader, 2009), states that Jewish triglossia has always been gender-conditioned. Solomon Poll (1965) he also noted that women use Hungarian far more than men in the Hasidic community of Williamsburg. Émile Durkheim5 analyzes religion as a social phenomenon and attributes the development of religion to the emotional security attained through communal living. He also analyzes how certain societies will maintain its integrity and cohesiveness in the modernization era in which traditional social and religious connections may be modified. Hasidic communities tend to impose more stringent norms in defending the old way of life as threats of secularization and exposure to modern information technology lurks upon them. The results of the research also show free linguistic borrowing from English. As long as the

4 If Hasidim survive, Yiddish will survive. 5 Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse


29

English word is pronounced and spelled differently, Hasidim will resort to using it. All of our informants expressed a belief that Yidish will survive if Hasidic communities survive. Jewish sages have said that Jews were redeemed from Egypt because “they did not change their names, they did not change their language” (Vayikra Rabba 32:5) and “they did not change their way of dress” (Pesikta Zutah, Shemot 6:6). The Haredi6 lifestyle, where the members of the community have created a barrier between their world and the goyishe velt7 through its distinctive way of clothing, its own language and its cultural and religious idiosyncrasies, echoes the words of Midrash8. Even though they live in an urban megalopolis, or as Israel Rubin (1972) refers to Hasidic Williamsburg as an ”Island in the City”, the ultra-orthodox Jews of New York have been successfully implementing the ideology summarized in the words found on a Haredi educational website Hevrat Pinto: ”We should therefore strengthen ourselves in these three great principles: A pure Jewish language that is our very own, a pure Jewish name, and modest Jewish clothing. We will hasten the Final Redemption in this way, much like the Children of Israel hastened their deliverance from Egypt.”9 REFERENCES

[1] Abramac, Gabriela. (2014). Jezik i identitet ortodoksne židovske zajednice u Brooklynu. Sveučilište u Zagrebu. Unpublished doctoral dissertation.

[2] Belcove-Shalin, Janet S (1995). New World Hasidism: Ethnographic Studies of Hasidic Jews in America. State Univeristy of New York Press, Albany.

[3] Bryman, A. (2004). Social Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [4] Clyne, Michael. (1997). “Multiligualism”, In: Coulmas (1997), 301 - 314. [5] Dyer, J. i Keller-Cohen, D. (2000). ”The discursive construction of professional self

through narratives of personal experience”, Discourse Studies, 2, 283-304. [6] Fader, Ayala. (2009). Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews

in Brooklyn. Princeton University Press. [7] Fill, Alwin. (2007). “Language contact, culture and ecology”, u: Hellinger, Marlis;

Pauwels, Anne (Ed.) (2007): Handbook of language and communication: diversity and change. Berlin - New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 177 - 207.

[8] Fishman, Joshua. (1991). Reversing Language Shift. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. [9] Ferguson, Charles. (1959/2005). “Diglossia”, In: Wei (2005), 325 - 340. [10] Mintz, Jerome R., (1992). Hasidic People: A Place in the New World. Cambridge, Mass.

Harvard University Press. [11] Glinert, Lewis i Shilav, Yosseph (1991). ”Holy land, holy language: A study of an ultra-

orthodox Jewish ideology.” Language in Society 20, (59-86). Cambridge. [12] Goodwin, M.H. (2003). ”The relevance of ethnicity, class and gender in children's peer

negotiations”. U: J. Holmes i M. Meyerhoff (ur.), The Handbook of Language and Gender. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 229-251.

[13] Greene, J.C., Caracelli, V.J. and Graham, W.F. (1989). ”Toward a conceptual framework for mixed-method evaluation design”. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 11, 255-74.

[14] Heilman, Samuel. (1973). Synagogue Life: A Study in Symbolic Interaction. University of Chicago Press.

6 The word Haredi derives from the Hebrew word for fear (harada) and can be interpreted as "one who trembles in awe of God" (Isaiah 66:5). 7 Gentile, non-Jewish 8 Midrash is a form of rabbinic literature, storytelling that explores ethics and values in biblical texts. 9 Hevrat Pinto educational website: http://www.hevratpinto.org/pahad_eng/shemot/c_bo_06.html (last access: August 17, 2014)


30

[15] Heilman, Samuel i Cohen, Steven. (1989). Cosmopolitans and Parochials: Modern Orthodox Jews in America. University of Chicago Press.

[16] Heilman, Samuel. (1992). Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry. Schocken. New York.

[17] Heilman, S. C. (2006). Sliding to the Right: The Contest for the Future of American Jewish Orthodoxy. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

[18] Helmreich, William. (2000). The World of the Yeshiva: An Intimate Portrait of Orthodox Jewry. HoBOKEN, N.J.: Ktav.

[19] Isaacs, Miriam. (1999): ”Haredi, haymish and frim: Yiddish vitality and language choice in a transnational, multilingual community”. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 138, (9-30).

[20] Litosseliti, Lia et al. ( 2010). Research Methods in Linguistics. Continuum International Publishing Group.

[21] Mintz, Jerome R., (1992). Hasidic People: A Place in the New World. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press.

[22] Poll, Solomon. (2006). The Hasidic Community of Williamsburg. Transactions Publishers.

[23] Riehl, Claudia Maria. (2004). Sprachkontaktforschung. Eine Einführung. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.

[24] Rosenthal, Gabriele. (1993). ”Reconstruction of Life Stories. Principles of Selection in Generating Stories for Narrative Biographical Interviews”. U: Josselsen, Ruthhellen i Lieblich, Amia (ur.)(1993). The Narrative Study of Lives. Svezak I. London: Sage.

[25] Rosenthal, Gabriele 2004: Biographical Research. In: Seale, C., Gobo, G., Gubrium, J. F. and Silverman, D. (eds.): Qualitative Research Practice. London – Thousand Oaks – New Delhi: Sage.

[26] Rubin, Israel. (1972). Satmar: An Island in the City. Quadrangle Books. [27] Schiffman, Harold F. (1997). “Diglossia as a Sociolinguistic Situation”, In: Coulmas

(1997), 205 - 216. [28] Schriffin, D. (1996). Conversational Style: Analyzing talk among friends. New Jersey:

Ablex. [29] Schütze, Fritz. (1977). Die Technik des narrativen Interviews in Interaktionsfeldstudien

in einem Projekt zur Erforschung von kommunalen Machtstrukturen, Arbeitsberichte und Forschungsmaterialien Nr.1 der Universität Bielefeld, Fakultät für Soziologie.

[30] Schütze, Fritz. (1983). ”Biographieforschung und narratives Interview”, Neue Praxis, Heft 3, 283-293.

[31] Soloveitchik, H. (1994). ”Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy”. Tradition, 28 (4).

[32] Trask, Robert L. (1999). Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics. London- New York: Routledge.

[33] Wardaugh, Ronald. (1986). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

[34] Wellen Levine, Stephanie (2004). Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers: An Intimate Journey among Hasidic Girls. NYU Press.

ORTHODOX JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN NEW YORK CITY ...

Documents

Transcript of ORTHODOX JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN NEW YORK CITY ...