0
20
40
60
80
100
75
+
65-74
55-64
45-54
35-44
25-34
18-24
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Black Hat
Orthodox
Modern Orthodox
Other Non-Orthodox
Conservative
Reform
2
The Chronicle
Fall 2012
Page 13
Question:
What do the following quotes
have in common?
A
“
I can’t believe [your grandson] Jeremy
co-chaired the [Jewish Federation] campaign:
he’s always been a
mensch
,
and now he’s a
real
macher
.
You must be
shepping
so much
naches
.” (
mensch
:
good person;
macher
:
mover
and shaker;
shep naches
:
derive pride/joy)
B
“
After I was
bat mitzvahed
,
I only went to
temple
for
tikkun olam
events.” (After I had
my thirteen-year-old girls’ coming-of-age cere-
mony, I only went to synagogue for community
action events [
tikkun olam
:
lit. ‘repairing the
world’])
C
“
Halfway through the (full
kriyah
)
Torah
reading,
it was announced that one could opt to join
a
niggun
circle or
Torah
reading upstairs… I’m
pleased to say that the
egal minyan
hopping in
the Carroll Gardens/Park Slope area is quaint
but sufficient. After
shul
I joined a group of eight
folks, half of whom had made it to
davening
that morning. Following a delicious pescetarian
(
though vegan-friendly) meal…” (full
kriyah
:
full weekly Torah reading, as opposed to a
smaller section read in some congregations;
niggun
:
melody; egal: egalitarian according to
gender (women can participate fully);
minyan
:
prayer group, lit. quorum;
shul
:
synagogue;
davening
:
praying; pescetarian: vegetarian
but with fish)
D
“
The
sugya
we’re
learning
is too
lomdish
to
say
outside
.” (
The topic [in the Gemora] we’re
studying is too complicated to summarize.)
Answer:
They were all said by American Jews, and
they are all mostly English with some influ-
ences from Yiddish, Hebrew, and Aramaic.
But anyone who says one of them would
be unlikely to say the others. These quotes
demonstrate the diversity of American
Jews as reflected in language.
We see this diversity in many dimensions:
age, religiosity, denomination, ancestry, time
spent in Israel, and more. Jews in their golden
years, especially children of immigrants from
Eastern Europe, are likely to use Yiddish words
like
macher
and
naches
,
as in
Quote A
.
Quote
B,
with its use of
bat mitzvah
as a verb, might
be said by a young woman who grew up at a
Reform temple.
Quote C
,
full of Yiddish and
Hebrew words, comes from a Jewschool blog
post by a young New Yorker involved in
independent
minyanim
in which men and
women participate equally. And
Quote D
,
with its Yiddish-influenced grammar and
Yiddish and Aramaic words, comes from
Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish
,
a compilation of distinctive English used by
young men in an Orthodox yeshiva. Someone
who says
Quote D
might also use the word
midos
,
or good character traits, with its
Ashkenazi pronunciation, common among
non-Modern Orthodox Jews. The other word
in the title,
mensch
,
is common among Jews
of all backgrounds, especially those in older
generations.
These characterizations seem to be accurate,
but I wanted quantitative evidence to be sure.
So I teamed up with sociologist Steven M.
Cohen, Research Professor of Jewish Social
Policy at HUC-JIR/New York, to create an
online questionnaire. The survey went viral,
and we received over 40,000 responses.
I want to share a few correlations. These are
just a few examples of the rich data we found
(
see
jewish-languages.org
).
But they offer
quantitative evidence for what we feel
intuitively when we listen to Jews who are
different from ourselves: the Hebrew and
Yiddish words we use – and how we pronounce
them – identify us not only as Jews but also
as certain types of Jews.
Language and the Diverse American Jewish Community
Sarah Bunin Benor, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies, HUC-JIR/Jack H. Skirball Campus/Los Angeles
Dr. Sarah Bunin Benor holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics
from Stanford University. She researches and
teaches about American Jewish language and culture,
and is the author of the forthcoming
Becoming Frum:
How Newcomers Learn the Language and Culture of
Orthodox Judaism
,
Rutgers University Press, 2012.
0
20
40
60
80
100
> year
10-12
months
4-9
months
7
weeks-
3
months
2-6
weeks
2
weeks
Percent of Jewish respondents
who report using
naches
(
pride),
according to age
Percent of Jewish respondents
who report using
davka
(
specifically),
according to
denomination
Percent who use
balagan
(
bedlam, mess),
according to time spent in Israel
Of
Midos
and
Mensches:
