[Linganth] Hebrew Infusion: new book

[Sarah Benor]

Dear colleagues,
My just-published book might be of interest to those who work with language
ideologies, language socialization, or language revitalization in
immigrant, indigenous, or religious communities:
*Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community at American Jewish Summer Camps*
by Sarah Bunin Benor, Jonathan Krasner, and Sharon Avni (Rutgers University
Press, 2020):
https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/hebrew-infusion/9780813588735
You can see resources, including a video trailer, here:
https://www.brandeis.edu/mandel/projects/hebrewatcamp.html

Description:
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.

Some endorsements:

"This engaging book delves into the use of Hebrew in the Jewish summer
culture camps of the United States. While there is a call by some leaders
to do Hebrew immersion to create proficient speakers, camps find immersion
difficult to accomplish. Paralleling Native American language/culture camps
and other language revitalization programs, infusion of heritage language
allows Hebrew speakers to feel personally attached to their own beloved
language by using what they know in daily conversations, even as the rest
of the conversation is English. While there are differences between the
situations of endangered indigenous languages vs. Hebrew for the Jewish
diaspora, the many similarities establish this volume as a recommended read
for everyone involved in endangered and minoritized language survival."

--Leanne Hinton, author of Bringing our Languages Home: Language
Revitalization for Families

“Summer camps are rarely studied as significant social and linguistic
experiences. This book is a first, as it shows how the infusion of Hebrew
into English in Jewish summer camps emblematically establishes local
solidarity and diasporic identity. The book offers an enlightening, new
perspective on American Jewry in relation to Hebrew and Yiddish at the same
time that it stands as a sociolinguistic landmark.”

--Walt Wolfram, author of The Development of African American Language:
>From Infancy to Adulthood

"Hebrew Infusion is the remarkable result of a 7-year collaboration to
explore and illuminate Hebrew language use, teaching, and learning in
American Jewish camps. Bringing together historical, sociolinguistic, and
applied linguistic perspectives, the authors examine the organization and
meanings of Hebrew infusion practices and how they have varied over time
and across settings. The authors effectively apply multiple theoretical
frameworks to tell the story of how Hebrew has been deployed in camp
contexts to construct local, national, and transnational understandings of
Jewishness. For any scholar interested in the relationship between language
and community, this book is essential reading."

--Leslie C. Moore, Associate Professor of Teaching & Learning and
Linguistics at The Ohio State University

"Funny things happen on the way to heritage language revival. Creolized
languages develop to serve even more useful functions for identity and
community for migrants. This book offers a fascinating study into the
emergence of "camp Hebraized English" in American Jewish summer camps. It
provides another rich example of how translingual practices serve the needs
of diaspora communities."

--Suresh Canagarajah, author of Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and
Cosmopolitan Relations

This is an excellent scholarly book that deeply examines the multiple
dimensions of using Hebrew at Jewish summer camps, a major pillar of Jewish
education in the United States. The authors weave together the extensive
data, collected from a vast number of overnight summer camps, to trace the
historical arc of the policies, implementations, and goals of Hebrew, and
arrive at major conclusions regarding the unique character of Hebrew
infusion – a process and product that allows for tremendous local
creativity but that also raises questions about the transnational nature of
Israeli Hebrew. The book will be of great interest to varied audiences:
researchers of multilingualism, language teachers, and Jewish educators who
are interested in creating and improving Hebrew education programs, as well
as those who personally experienced Jewish camps as campers or staff.

--Elana Shohamy, author of Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New
Approaches
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/linganth/attachments/20200720/e7e5bf4e/attachment.htm>