Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community at American Jewish Summer Camps - A Conversation with Hebrew at the Center

Join Hebrew at the Center and CASJE for an engaging presentation of new research on how camp directors and staff came to infuse Hebrew in creative ways and how their rationales and practices have evolved from the early twentieth century to today. Join these three researchers as they explore conflicting ideologies around Hebrew education in the camp setting and how hybrid language can serve a formative role in fostering religious, diasporic communities. There will be ample time for Q & A.

Dr. Sarah Bunin Benor is Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies at Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, and Director of the Jewish Language Project. Her books include Becoming Frum: How Newcomers Learn the Language and Culture of Orthodox Judaism and Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community at American Jewish Summer Camps.

Dr. Jonathan Krasner is the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Associate Professor on Jewish Education Research at Brandeis University. He is the author of The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education (Brandeis University Press, 2011), which won the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies, and a co-author of Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community in American Jewish Summer Camps (Rutgers University Press, 2020).

Sharon Avni is Professor of Academic Literacy and Linguistics at BMCC at the City University of New York (CUNY). She is the co-author of Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community and American Jewish Summer Camps, and is a research affiliate at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis. Her current work examines modern day Hebraists in the United States.

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