Studii de tiin i cultur

Volumul X, Nr. 4, decembrie 2014

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE ULTRAORTHODOX JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN NEW YORK CITY AND IN
UPSTATE NEW YORK
ENTRE DEUX MONDES : LA LANGUE ET LA CULTURE DES
COMMUNAUTS JUIVES ULTRA-ORTHODOXES DE NEW YORK
NTRE DOU LUMI: LIMBA I CULTURA COMUNITILOR
EVREIETI ULTRA-ORTODOXE DIN NEW YORK
Gabi ABRAMAC
Sokrat Language Institute, Zagreb, Croatia,
gabi.abramac@sokrat.hr,
gabramac@hotmail.com
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 socioeconomic 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 (HebrewAramaic 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 lucrri l constituie descrierea modelelor culturale i lingvistice ntreptrunse n
comunitile evreieti ultra-ortodoxe din New York. Dei termenul de ultra-ortodox este frecvent
utilizat, membrii acestei comunitii prefer termenii Haredi (cu pluralul haredim), frum, care
nseamn pios i haymish (indigen, unul dintre noi). Dei aceste grupuri triesc n zona
metropolitan a New York-ului, ele au un caracter foarte insular i resping cu strictee orice
influene externe, astfel c foarte puine cercetri n domeniul sociolingvisticii au fost realizate n
cadrul acestei comunitate. Constatrile acestei lucrri se bazeaz pe cercetri desfurate n anii
2012 i 2013 n districtele hasidice ale cartierului Brooklyn, precum i n enclavele hasidice din
zona metropolitan New York. Studiul examineaz contextul socio-economic i religios, precum i
ideologiile politice care guverneaz viaa comunitilor Haredi modelnd i influennd, deci,
alegerea limbii i politica lingvistic. Limbile utilizate n comunitile hasidice sunt: idi ca dialect
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Gabi Abramac - Between Two Worlds: Language and Culture in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Communities in

local, Loshn Koydesh (conglomerat ebraico-aramaic utilizat n rugciuni i studiile religioase),

engleza necesar pentru comunicarea cu lumea exterioar i alte limbi ancestrale din Europa (de
ex. maghiara, rusa). Limba matern fiind idi, engleza este limba secundar, nvat la coal.
Obiectivul acestei lucrri este s prezinte nvarea limbii engleze n comunitile hasidice i s
examineze atitudinile, alegerile, ideologiile i politicile lingvistice n aceast comunitate
multilingv. Rezultatele acestei cercetri relev, de asemenea, diferene n ceea ce privete
competena lingvistic, utilizarea i preferinele de limbaj ntre vorbitorii de sex masculin i cei de
sex feminin, existnd o segregare ntre sexe unde acestea sunt expuse unor politici lingvistice
diferite n colile pe care le frecventeaz.
Keywords: Haredi, linguistic biographies, linguistic ideology, New York Jewish Communities,
Ultra-Orthodox Jews, Yiddish
Cuvinte cheie: Haredi, biografii lingvistice, ideologie lingvistic, comuniti evreieti din New
York, evrei ultra-ortodoci, idi

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 LithuanianYeshivish 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.

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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 coterritorial 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

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

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 Schtze (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 KellerCohen, 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.

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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 league3, 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 grandmothers death because she was
reading books in English:

2 Holy tongue

3 Research informant's quote

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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 genderconditioned 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.
mile 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 lmentaires de la vie religieuse

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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
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6

The word Haredi derives from the Hebrew word for fear (harada) and can be interpreted as "one who trembles in awe
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7
Gentile, non-Jewish
8
Midrash is a form of rabbinic literature, storytelling that explores ethics and values in biblical texts.
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