The Politics of Language Choice in Haredi Communities in Israel

Abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Israel, this article explores the politics of language choice as a part of the negotiation of Haredi identity. Yiddish choice can be a subtle resistance to the Zionist project, of which Israeli Hebrew is a part. Certain Hasidic groups, and some very strict Lithuanian Haredi Jews, speak Yiddish, while others have adopted Israeli Hebrew. These choices illuminate ideologies of these groups, attitudes towards the State, and the levels of the community’s and individual’s civic-mindedness. Haredi attitudes towards the State exist on a spectrum, which may or may not correlate to the community’s language choice. Instead, language choice illuminates how Haredi individuals negotiate their minority identity and their relationship with the State and Zionist ideology. Language choice clarifies how internal divisions are negotiated, identities are formed and reformed, and how these choices impact the Haredi world’s interaction with the State of Israel.