Hebrew as a Heritage Language: to Whom, How and Where

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

The Journal of Jewish Education celebrates 95 years since its first issue published in 1929 (Krasner, 2024). Interestingly, the passion to discuss Hebrew education, albeit in different ways and for more diverse purposes, is still very meaningful to many stakeholders today. While the first issue of the journal included a review devoted to William Chomsky’s The Story Method of Teaching Elementary Hebrew (1928); our panel will extend its scope to discuss contemporary research results on different educational settings of Hebrew learning in the US and beyond. The speakers explore Hebrew studies in the US higher education (Dina Roginsky), in the US K-12 educational system (Avital Karpman), and across formal and informal contexts in the US (Hannah Kober) and in New Zealand (Annabel Noar). Building on a variety of research methods — surveys, interviews with students, parents and educators, ethnography, and analysis of students’ writing — the panel will address the status of learning Hebrew as a “Heritage Language”. We will compare the concept to the common usage of the term in foreign language education, and the ways in which it could be applied to some populations (represented in Kober’s and Noar's research on children of Israeli immigrants) and deviate from the common usage (in Roginsky's and Karpman's research). We will evaluate the ways in which students and other stakeholders view the Hebrew learning process and conclude with some pedagogical and practical recommendations.

Sub Unit

• Jewish Languages and Linguistics from Antiquity to the Present

Chair

• Hannah Kober, Stanford Graduate School of Education

Individual Presentations

• Students’ Motivations in Studying Hebrew in Higher Education - Dina Roginsky, Yale University

• Hebrew Heritage Language Education in K-12 Settings and the Alignments/Misalignments of Student and Teacher Learning Goals - Avital Karpman

• Conceptualising Hebrew in surveys of small or isolated Jewish populations - Annabel Noar

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 18