THE POSSIBILITIES AND POTENTIAL OF

HEBREW IN AMERICA

by RABBI DAVID GEDZELMAN

Like any other element of Jewish civilization, bringing Hebrew into the public sphere in America has the potential to bear fruit in a myriad of ways.

A s Nicholas Kristof recently joked in a New York Times Op-Ed, while a person who speaks three languages is called trilingual and a person who speaks four languages is called quadrilingual, a person who speaks no foreign languages at all is customarily called — an American (December 29, 2010). American culture does not seem to lend itself to encouraging the acquisition of multiple languages through its educational institutions and otherwise. It should therefore come as no surprise that the Jewish educational establishment has had great difficulty in helping American Jews to master the Hebrew language. Americans do not seem to place great value on learning languages, so why should American Jews differ? Mastery of Hebrew among the vast majority of Jews in America has been limited to some facility with decoding prayer-book Hebrew without much understanding. Even in the Orthodox community and in the overall day school world, where understanding of classic Jewish texts in their original Hebrew and Aramaic is central, fluency in modern Israeli Hebrew is far from a given.

And yet, the Hebrew language has been an essential element of the authentic Jewish experience since the Jewish People’s Biblical beginnings. The fullness of Hebrew expression among the Jewish People has taken varying forms and reached different levels at different times in history. Throughout the history of the Diaspora, Jews would evolve new languages which would blend Hebrew with the language of the dominant culture in which they lived. It is difficult to know what percentage of Jews at any time could read and write Hebrew, but it is safe to assume that all who spoke Ladino and Yiddish had an intimate familiarity with choice Hebrew words and phrases.

In many ways, for much of Jewish history the Hebrew language has encapsulated the intimate particularity of the extended family that is the Jewish People. The Hebrew language is the music that expresses the aspirations, values and ways of being of the Jewish People. Like all languages, Hebrew has an historic relationship to a particular community, people or body politic. Unlike most languages, Hebrew lost its function as a spoken language as a result of the Jewish People’s exile from the land of Israel. Hebrew was not used as a daily language of conversation and life, but rather was preserved only as a medium of study and prayer, written legal discourse and ritual observance. With the first stirrings of the Jewish national movement in the mid19th Century, a new literary approach to Hebrew developed. As Zionism became centered on creating a new society in the land of Israel, a movement to reclaim Hebrew as a spoken, lived language took root.

At the center of achieving a new sovereign cultural reality for the Jewish People was the renaissance and resurrection of the spoken Hebrew language. Reclaiming the language of Israel was as important to the Zionist enterprise as was reclaiming parcels of land in Israel. In a certain Zionist view, one could only fully realize oneself as a Jew if one could begin to think, dream, speak and sing primarily in Hebrew. Educational structures, especially for the very young, were created with the clear goal of birthing a new generation that would speak Hebrew as its mother tongue. The deep connection between the Hebrew language and the very place names of the land of Israel created an immediate normalcy for speaking Hebrew in the land of Israel. Classic Hebrew was mined for new applications in the modern era. Modern pronunciation, vocabulary and syntax were consciously established. Words and phrases that had historically been inextricably tied to religious ideas and structures began to function in secular contexts and uses. On the one hand, the resurrection of Hebrew as a modern spoken language was miraculous; on the other hand, the process was intentional and disciplined. Creating a new Hebrew speaking society took revolutionary discipline on the part of the early pioneers. As early as the 1880s, Eliezer Ben Yehuda set out to systematically reclaim Hebrew as a spoken language. This included his personal decision to speak only Hebrew with his closest family members. In 1890, he established the Committee for the Hebrew Language. In 1900, it was renamed the Academy for the Hebrew Language as it set out to actively and officially transform and secularize Hebrew for use in the Yishuv.

Less than 100 years after Ben Yehuda began his work, modern Hebrew language emerged completely as the natural and full day-to-day medium of Israeli life and culture. It carries with it a texture that speaks at every moment of the reality of a contemporary Peoplehood, a shared sense of belonging and familial connection, while conveying a myriad of references to classic and ancient ideas, constructs and memories.

At the same time, the vast majority of Jews in America have little fluency in the Hebrew language. At present, the Hebrew language functions more to separate Israelis from American Jews than it does to bring us together. For most American Jews, Israel remains an abstract idea. As with any culture or civilization, ignorance of its dominant language puts one in a position of distance from and inaccessibility to the texture of its life.

For Americans, a Jewish Peoplehood that connects them to the culture of Israel cannot be achieved if they remain ignorant of the basic element of that culture, the Hebrew language, which also serves as the basic element of historic Jewish civilization. Furthermore, it is hard to imagine American Jewish expressions making serious inroads in gaining legitimacy in Israeli eyes unless those expressions are made in Hebrew by Americans who can speak, write, read and understand the language. Israelis justifiably can’t understand why they should respect an American rabbi’s claim to Jewish legitimacy if that rabbi stumbles in Hebrew.

The good news is that the tens of thousands of young Americans who have experienced Israel through the Birthright Israel program are coming back home with a pronounced desire to learn modern Israeli Hebrew. This is unprecedented. These young Jewish Americans also have great interest in contemporary Israeli music and art, which cannot be fully appreciated without a modicum of Hebrew fluency. Also, they have grown up in an American context that assumes a multicultural enthusiasm for exploring new possibilities of identity. In other words, the sub-cultural milieu shared by highly educated, sophisticated Americans, in which most Birthright Israel participants take part, is one that is past the melting pot ethos of the last generation. It values cultural difference and experimentation. This cultural milieu is also less prone to eschewing the learning of foreign languages than are other segments of American society. In the end, Kristof’s observation is not completely true of all Americans. It is certainly not true of Kristof and it is not absolutely true of that highly educated small segment of Americans in which Jewish Americans, especially the young, are disproportionately represented. They do learn languages when doing so is exciting, connecting and culturally enhancing. It just might be that this appreciation for the culturally different and exotic will help make the current generation of American Jews more open to Jewish particularism in the context of the universal in ways that we have not seen before. The enthusiasm for learning Hebrew may benefit from this shift. That the Hebrew in which they are interested is not immediately tied to theological language and liturgical contexts, but is the contemporary language of modern, secular Israeli society, makes it that more accessible to a mostly secular, albeit spiritually searching, population.

All languages develop and change over time. The changes they exhibit reflect the cultural developments and understandings of those who speak them. If sizeable numbers of American Jews do not avail themselves of expression and understanding in the Hebrew language, then the future development of Hebrew will in no way reflect the American Jewish experience. Given the relative numbers of Israeli and American Jews and the possibilities for relationship, it is conceivable that Hebrew in the future could bear the stamp of that intimate relationship as it changes and develops.

But in the end, it is questionable whether the vast majority of American Jews, who are fully entrenched in the American open society, will embrace the Hebrew language if they continue to perceive Hebrew as parochial and inaccessible to their non-Jewish friends, co-workers and family members. Just as the Alliance Francaise movement championed the learning of the French language for all who were interested and not just those of French origin, it is time to promote Hebrew in America as the living modern language of one of America’s closest allies, with both contemporary and ancient import, not just for American Jews but for everyone. Otherwise, a large segment of American Jews may not see its value. As the spoken language of a modern, economically vital and burgeoning member of the community of nations, Hebrew can be promoted as giving great added value to anyone excited to learn it, no matter what that individual’s religious, communal or ethnic identity might be. Like any other element of Jewish civilization, bringing Hebrew into the public sphere in America has the potential to bear fruit in a myriad of ways. It makes it that much more attractive for American Jews to embrace Hebrew if they know that others are interested in the language as well. What’s more, Hebrew in the public sphere will encourage more Americans to develop a personal appreciation for Israel, its life and culture. More than anything, though, a light of nations with a liberating message of wisdom for the world can hardly bring forth that message if its central civilizational medium, its language, remains unknown, inaccessible and foreign. The time is ripe for Hebrew in America. ■

Rabbi David Gedzelman is Executive Vice President of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life.