tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/hebrew-union-college-jewish-institute-of-religion-1909/articlesHebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion 2022-05-27T17:02:10Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1813912022-05-27T17:02:10Z2022-05-27T17:02:10ZThe ordination of the first female rabbi 50 years ago has brought many changes – and some challenges<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465149/original/file-20220524-19-c9gyrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C14%2C1943%2C1434&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sara Hurwitz, Amy Eilberg, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso and Sally J. Priesand, each of whom was the first female rabbi in her branch of Judaism.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fifty years ago, on June 3, 1972, as <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/priesand-sally-jane">Sally J. Priesand</a> became the first woman ordained a rabbi by a Jewish seminary, her 35 male classmates spontaneously rose to their feet to acknowledge her historic feat. </p>
<p>For nearly 2,000 years, the position of rabbi – which literally means “my master” or “my teacher” - was limited to men. The only exception during all those years had been Rabbi Regina Jonas, <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jonas-regina">who was ordained in a private ceremony in Germany</a> in 1935. Jonas perished at Auschwitz in 1944, and the details of her life <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41444469">were discovered</a> in archives after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.</p>
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<img alt="Students in black regalia seated along three rows for a class photograph." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465152/original/file-20220524-26-1qv8v1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Rabbi Sally Priesand with her 35 male classmates and faculty of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 3, 1972.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives</span></span>
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<p>Thirty-seven years after Jonas’ pioneering first, Rabbi Priesand’s ordination by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the seminary of <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-jewish-denominations/">Reform Judaism</a>, the largest denomination of religious affiliation among American Jews, opened the door to hundreds of women becoming rabbis. </p>
<p>As a rabbi and <a href="https://www.carolebalin.com/author">historian</a> <a href="https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/the-sacred-calling-four-decades-of-women-in-the-rabbinate">of Jewish women in the modern era</a>, I know that while the advent of women as ordained religious leaders has changed the face of the rabbinate, the <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/justice-justice-you-shall-pursue/">values of equity and justice </a> codified in the Hebrew Bible have not yet been fully realized when it comes to gender.</p>
<h2>Making a difference</h2>
<p>The rise and integration of women into the rabbinate over the past five decades has transformed many aspects of Jewish life, especially in North America, where they primarily serve. A smaller number are employed in Israel, Europe and Australia.</p>
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<img alt="A female student holding a Torah scroll." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465357/original/file-20220525-20-bcs9ak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Sally Priesand as a student rabbi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>An estimated 1,500 women have become rabbis across every major Jewish denomination. After Rabbi Priesand in 1972, Rabbi <a href="https://jwa.org/rabbis/narrators/sasso-sandy">Sandy Eisenberg Sasso</a> was the first in the Reconstructionist movement in 1974, Rabbi <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/eilberg-amy">Amy Eilberg</a> in the Conservative movement in 1985 and Rabba <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hurwitz-sara">Sara Hurwitz</a> in Modern Orthodoxy in 2009. </p>
<p>The use of the professional title “rabbi” for an ordained woman remains controversial among Orthodox Jews as it derives from the masculine Hebrew word “rav,” the title given to men at ordination. As a result, some use “<a href="https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/rabbi-rabba-maharat-rabbanit-orthodox-jewish-women-whats-title">rabba</a>,” the feminine rendering of “rav” in Hebrew, while others use “maharat,” a Hebrew acronym for a female leader of Jewish law, spirituality and Torah. </p>
<p>Classes at liberal Jewish seminaries today often consist of at least equal numbers of male- and female-identifying rabbinical candidates. <a href="https://www.yeshivatmaharat.org/mission-and-p2">Maharat</a> in New York City was founded in 2009 as the first institute to ordain women to serve as Orthodox clergy. Over 50 women have been ordained since then.</p>
<p>Along with female academics, female rabbis have expanded the canon of Jewish study and stretched the parameters of Jewish practice to include women and their perspectives. </p>
<p>New commentary based on the <a href="https://wrj.org/spirituality/torah-study/torah-womens-commentary">Torah</a> – which means Jewish learning in general but refers literally to the first five books of the Bible contained in the scroll regularly read in synagogue – has recovered the stories of biblical women and treated them with the academic rigor usually reserved for biblical men. Women, alongside men, are studying classical legal texts and responding knowledgeably to questions that inform practice.</p>
<p>Feminist Jewish theologians have questioned the ways in which <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/engendering-judaism/">God</a>
is described and understood, challenging the centrality of both male imagery and hierarchy in Jewish religious thinking and leading to the production of prayer books with gender-inclusive language. </p>
<p>Moreover, female rabbis have been instrumental in creating <a href="https://www.ritualwell.org/">rituals</a> to acknowledge milestones relating to women’s experiences. So, for instance, baby namings welcoming girls into the covenant now coexist alongside those for boys, and new religious ceremonies marking the first menstrual period and menopause have emerged.</p>
<p>By dint of their presence as religious authorities, female rabbis are toppling the traditional gendered differentiation of roles between Jewish women and men and democratizing Jewish communities. In Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, for instance, women are no longer relegated to lighting candles and men alone privileged with reciting Kiddush, the blessing over the wine, on the Jewish Sabbath. Female scholar-rabbis now teach and, in some cases, lead seminaries, like <a href="https://hebrewcollege.edu/about/president/">Boston’s Hebrew College</a> and <a href="https://www.jtsa.edu/team/shuly-rubin-schwartz/">New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary</a>. </p>
<p>They are also challenging conventional definitions of professional success by raising questions about work-life balance pertinent to all rabbis, regardless of gender.</p>
<h2>Fighting for equality</h2>
<p>While their impact on Jewish life has been significant, female rabbis continue to face considerable challenges.</p>
<p>Teams deployed to Reform synagogues in the early 1980s to interview Jews about their qualms regarding female rabbis’ initial entry into the workplace yielded <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120718002329/http://data.ccarnet.org/journal/997cb.html">comments</a> such as “the rigors of the rabbinate are too great and women too weak for the demanding routine,” “women do not know how to, nor care to, wield power or authority” and “women who succeed will reflect poorly on their [male] colleagues.” These have given way to far more egregious claims of gender discrimination and <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/10/22/in-a-first-conservative-movement-publishes-list-of-expelled-rabbis-to-website/">sexual misconduct</a> at <a href="http://huc.edu/sites/default/files/About/PDF/HUC%20REPORT%20OF%20INVESTIGATION%20--%2011.04.21.pdf">seminaries</a> and <a href="https://10pzbn347s7w1b9a412ijnxn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Alcalaw-Report-of-Investigation.pdf">synagogues </a>in the wake of the #MeToo movement. </p>
<p>Equity in the Jewish workplace has yet to materialize. There is, for instance, an 18% <a href="https://10pzbn347s7w1b9a412ijnxn-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Winter-2022-_-The-Gender-Wage-Gap-in-the-Reform-Movement-An-Updated-United-Data-Narrative-_-Savannah-Noray.pdf">gender-based wage gap</a> among Reform rabbis in congregations. The <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rabbis-in-united-states">acceptance</a> of female rabbis in Orthodox Judaism remains highly contested. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America <a href="https://doi.org/10.2979/jewisocistud.23.3.01">continues to reiterate its opposition</a> to ordaining women. For sectors further to the right, like the ultra-Orthodox Hasidim, affirmations of male and female difference make the question of women rabbis moot. </p>
<p>Organizations like the <a href="https://womensrabbinicnetwork.org/">Women’s Rabbinic Network</a> and the three-year-old grassroots Facebook group known as <a href="https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-week-that-all-jewish-women-turned-invisible/?utm_source=August+21%2C+2019&utm_campaign=Wed+August++21&utm_medium=email">Year of the Jewish Woman</a> are seeking to root out inequities. Plans to thoroughly revise the ethics code of Reform rabbis have been set in motion, and the Women’s Rabbinic Network continues to advocate for passage of a uniform family and medical leave policy.</p>
<h2>‘Little girls can grow up knowing they can be rabbis’</h2>
<p>The truth is that the days of a rabbi envisioned as a white man with a beard in a dark suit are coming to a close. </p>
<p>In more recent years, the diversity engendered by women in the rabbinate has expanded to include <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/stanton-alysa">rabbis of color</a>, <a href="http://huc.edu/news/2022/02/09/alum-spotlight-rabbi-rebecca-l-dubowe-93">rabbis with disabilities</a>, <a href="https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/ra-spotlight-rachel-isaacs-nurturing-small-town-jewish-life">openly gay rabbis</a> and <a href="http://www.transtorah.org/whoweare.html">transgender rabbis</a>. In May 2022, the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion issued a certificate of ordination to a nonbinary candidate for the first time in its 147-year history. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman removes a Torah scroll from the ark, a cabinet that houses scrolls of the Hebrew Bible." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465153/original/file-20220524-22-eci0aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, the first Chinese American rabbi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ClergyStressToughJobMadeTougher/2201668b01af41dcac4d3263c81262c1/photo?Query=Rabbi%20Jacqueline%20Mates-Muchin&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=8&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Noah Berger</a></span>
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<p>When Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh <a href="https://forward.com/israel/3416/tinseltown-rabbi-saves-a-prayer-for-prime-time-sho/">appeared on the long-running medical television drama</a> “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2005 (as herself), and Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, who is the first Chinese American rabbi, <a href="https://jweekly.com/2020/08/18/oakland-rabbi-opens-democratic-national-conventions-jewish-event/">addressed</a> the Democratic National Convention’s Jewish American Community Meeting in 2020, they were smashing the so-called stained-glass ceiling and enabling all Jews to consider the rabbinate as a calling. </p>
<p>As Priesand <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQTKsjivpGU&ab_channel=Women%27sRabbinicNetwork">told me during an interview in May 2021</a>, “One of the things I’ve always been proudest of is that little girls can grow up knowing they could be rabbis if they want to. And I’ve worked really hard not just to open the door but to hold it open for others to follow in my footsteps.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181391/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carole B. Balin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rabbi Sally J. Priesand’s ordination by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion opened the doors to hundreds of women becoming rabbis.Carole B. Balin, Professor Emerita of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1389002020-05-21T12:20:03Z2020-05-21T12:20:03ZThe Scripps spelling bee is off this year, but the controversy over including foreign words is still on<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336091/original/file-20200519-152298-ty7qju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=145%2C50%2C4041%2C2686&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Co-champions celebrate at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland, on May 31, 2019. The winning spellers made history with eight co-champions, most ever in spelling event's history.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/co-champions-sohum-sukhatankar-of-dallas-texas-saketh-news-photo/1152757579?adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a normal year, millions of Americans would be following closely this week as preteens showcase their knowledge of words most of us have never heard of. </p>
<p>The contestants and their families may be devastated by the cancellation of the <a href="http://spellingbee.com/">Scripps National Spelling Bee</a>. As a <a href="http://huc.edu/directory/sarah-bunin-benor">linguist</a> who studies <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/263681">languages</a> that <a href="https://becomingfrum.weebly.com/">draw</a> from multiple <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/mandel/projects/hebrewatcamp.html">sources</a>, I’m disappointed our country is missing its annual lesson in English linguistics.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/shalini-shankar/beeline/9780465094523/">social and professional benefits</a> of spelling bees are hard to ignore. The participants, including many from immigrant families, develop skills of grit and performance, and they and their parents form new social networks. An entire industry has emerged surrounding the preparation of elite contestants.</p>
<p>But it’s also worth recognizing spelling bees’ contributions to the public’s awareness of world languages. Even if the acceptable spellings of many international words are debatable, their presence highlights the multicultural past and present of the English tongue.</p>
<p>In a millennium of global expeditions and conquests, English has cast its net in diverse linguistic habitats. It has captured words from many languages, often for concepts not previously expressed in English. Linguists call these words “<a href="https://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Ekemmer/Words/loanwords.html">loanwords</a>,” which does not mean English eventually returns them.</p>
<h2>English loanwords</h2>
<p>Many loanwords have been part of English for centuries and are not considered foreign at all. Unless they’ve studied linguistics, most people would be surprised to learn that “skirt” entered English from Old Norse, “beef” from French and “expensive” from Latin.</p>
<p>With more recent loanwords, English speakers sense their language of origin but still see them as part of English. This is especially common in the domains of <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Language-of-Food/">cuisine</a>, as with “jambalaya” (from Louisiana French, originally Provençal), natural phenomena like “tsunami” (Japanese) and specialized terminology such as “fortissimo” (Italian) in music. </p>
<p>Although there is no English language academy that makes official rulings, the spellings of such loanwords are standardized, as they are frequently used in English and have been for many years. Nobody would question their inclusion in the spelling bee.</p>
<p>Most English loanwords borrow from languages that, like English, use the <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/borrowed-words/">Latin alphabet</a>. These words usually maintain their original spellings, such as “schadenfreude” (German: pleasure derived from another’s misfortune) and “coup d’état” (French: violent overthrow of a government). </p>
<p>Other examples, which showed up in the <a href="https://spellingbee.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Multiple%20Champs%20declared%20for%202019%20Scripps%20National%20Spelling%20Bee%205-31-19.pdf">2019 national spelling bee</a>, include “tjaele” (Swedish: frozen ground), “imbirussú” (Portuguese: a South American tree) and “geeldikkop” (Afrikaans: a disease among southern African sheep). Some viewers might wonder if words like these should be included in the bee, but nobody would question their spellings.</p>
<p>However, English – and therefore spelling bees – also includes many words from <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/where-do-spelling-bee-words-come-from/">languages</a> not historically written in Latin characters. Sometimes the English spellings of these words adhere to conventionalized phonetic transliteration. </p>
<p>Examples include “makimono” (Japanese: a horizontal ornamental scroll), “namaz” (Persian: Islamic prayer) and “teledu” (Malay: a Javanese skunk-like animal). In other cases, many possible transliterations are used within English, even if the dictionary provides only one spelling. Is it “falafel” or “felafel”? “Pad thai” or “phad thai”?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlHPxDsLQxg">Last year’s competition</a> featured several such ambiguous loanwords, including “chaebol,” which could be “jaebeol” (Korean: a family-controlled industrial conglomerate) and “kooletah,” which could be “kuleta” (Greenlandic Aleut: a caribou-skin coat). In fact, four of the five most <a href="https://twitter.com/FiveThirtyEight/status/1133783192861847553/photo/1">difficult</a> languages of origin in spelling bees are written in non-Latin letters.</p>
<h2>Wrangling over loanwords</h2>
<p>Of course, difficulty should not disqualify a word from being included in spelling bees. But such loanwords have generated <a href="https://newsfeed.time.com/2013/06/05/knaidel-v-kneydl-debating-the-winning-spelling-bee-word/">controversy</a> in recent years, especially from <a href="https://thewordmavens.wordpress.com/2018/09/25/spelling-bee-mishegoss-yiddish-for-craziness/">word mavens</a> in the Jewish community upset about the spellings of the bee’s many <a href="https://forward.com/news/national/425240/yiddishkeit-scipps-spelling-bee-yiddish-jewish-words/">words from Hebrew and Yiddish</a>. </p>
<p>Some Hebrew and Yiddish sounds have multiple possible transliterations, and Jews of different backgrounds have different spelling preferences. To represent this diversity, when I moderate Hebrew and Yiddish entries in the crowdsourced <a href="https://jel.jewish-languages.org/">Jewish English Lexicon</a>, I list several spellings – sometimes more than a dozen.</p>
<p>A Hebrew example is “keriah” (Jewish ceremonial garment rending), spelled “correctly” by 13-year-old Rishik Gandhasri, one of the eight champions in 2019. This word has <a href="https://jel.jewish-languages.org/words/1473">many attested spellings</a>, including “kria,” “kriyah” and “qeri’ah.” “Kriah,” according to Google, is the most common spelling in English. But the E.W. Scripps Company, which has run the bee since 1941, allows only “keriah.” Why? Because that’s the spelling espoused by Merriam-Webster, <a href="http://spellingbee.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/Contest_Rules_of_the_2018_Scripps_National_Spelling_Bee.pdf">Scripps’ authoritative dictionary</a>. </p>
<p>Gandhasri advanced to another round in the bee with the Yiddish-origin word “yiddishkeit” (Jewishness). In a <a href="http://www.yiddishwit.com/transliteration.html">standard system</a> for transliterating Yiddish words, it’s spelled “yidishkayt.” However, a Yiddish culture organization in Los Angeles spells it “Yiddishkayt.” These spellings represent different ideologies regarding Yiddish and its relationship to German. And many who use them believe wholeheartedly that only their spelling is correct.</p>
<p>In the 2013 bee, the winning word was also from Yiddish: “knaidel” (Passover dumpling). I <a href="https://jewishjournal.com/culture/229899/linguists-take-knaidel-kneydl-controversy/">wrote</a> then that, if I had been a contestant: “I would have given 10 possible spellings, explained what various spellings indicate about the people who write them and then protested the English spelling bee’s use of loanwords from a language that does not use Latin script. Clearly, I would have lost.” </p>
<h2>Benefits of a growing lexicon</h2>
<p>Since then, I have recognized the benefits of including such loanwords. First, while contestants must learn the spelling and transliteration conventions of dozens of languages, the major skill tested is who can memorize more of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/us/spellpundit-scripps-spelling-bee.html">472,000 words</a> in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. The competition emphasizes this skill by including loanwords without standardized English spellings.</p>
<p>Second, the ubiquity of loanwords expands Americans’ awareness of new cultural domains. The broad media coverage of recent spelling bees has introduced Americans to a Brazilian drum, “atabaque” (from Portuguese, influenced by Arabic), a Norse merman, “marmennill” (from Icelandic) and a Polynesian chief or noble, “alii” (from Hawaiian).</p>
<p>Even when the dictionary’s one accepted spelling is debatable, members of immigrant, indigenous and religious groups <a href="https://www.kveller.com/this-yiddish-word-kicked-off-the-scripps-national-spelling-bee-finals/">are generally proud</a> when spelling bees feature their community’s language in such a public way. </p>
<p>Although 2020 news headlines won’t feature 13-year-olds’ spelling feats, we can still marvel, not only at the accomplishments of our youth, but also at the richness of the English lexicon. Whether loanwords are from Icelandic, Korean or Hebrew, they remind us of the layered history of our language and the increasingly interconnected nature of our world.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re too busy to read everything. We get it. That’s why we’ve got a weekly newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybusy">Sign up for good Sunday reading.</a> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bunin Benor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Scripps National Spelling Bee highlights the richness of the English lexicon by picking some tough entries with foreign roots.Sarah Bunin Benor, Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and Linguistics, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1204902019-12-12T20:55:59Z2019-12-12T20:55:59ZChildren in the ancient Middle East were valued and vulnerable — not unlike children today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295895/original/file-20191007-121075-v5xjtr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C62%2C3782%2C1876&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A replica of Nubian Tribute Presented to the King, Tomb of Huy, showing Nubians with their children paying tribute to the Egyptian Pharaoh. Based on the original from circa 1353–1327 B.C.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Wikimedia)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The choices that societies make concerning the treatment of children can <a href="https://theconversation.com/detaining-refugee-children-at-military-bases-may-sound-un-american-but-its-been-done-before-115190">bring about the greatest of debates and prompt significant political action</a>. Our research teaches us that the question of a how a child should be treated — what value societies place on children — is not only a modern question, but an ancient one.</p>
<p>As historians whose work is related to understanding the texts of the Hebrew Bible and the world it was written in, we trace clues to understand the lives of children over 3,000 years ago. Through data from archaeology, letters, contracts, laws, material culture, ancient stories and religious practices, <a href="http://www.asor.org/anetoday/2019/05/Lives-of-Ancient-Children">we study the children in the ancient lands</a> of the Middle East, in the region now encompassing Egypt, Israel and the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey.</p>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv7r425z">recent research</a> we learn how <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/children-in-ancient-israel-9780198784210?cc=ca&lang=en&">children were both valued and vulnerable</a> — in many ways, similar to children today.</p>
<p>Children experienced violence and vulnerability at the hands of adults. And the same adults wove a child’s religious and economic value into society through laws, religious expression and what happens in homes.</p>
<h2>Making and raising babies</h2>
<p>For ancient people in the region we study, the focus on children began before children were conceived. Without modern medical practices, women turned to their medical world, and <a href="http://www.asor.org/anetoday/2014/11/children-in-the-ancient-near-east/">thus magico-religious answers</a>.</p>
<p>Texts from the Hebrew Bible and Mesopotamia relate that when women had trouble conceiving, they might use plants, like the mandrake, known to increase fertility, or prepare fertility aids.</p>
<p>After children were born, women continued turning to magico-religious practices to protect the child. Scholars believe fertility figurines found in archaeological contexts attest to mother’s prayers for ample milk supply. Most women would nurse on demand, but breast-feeding contracts tell us that the wealthiest families could afford to employ wet nurses, since even they knew breastfeeding could limit fertility. </p>
<p>Mesopotamian texts contain an intricate series of contracts and laws outlining the years children spent in the wet nurse’s house, and the consequences if the wet-nurse tried to steal the child. These contractual forms are <a href="https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198784210.001.0001/oso-9780198784210-chapter-3">embedded in later Biblical stories</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289937/original/file-20190828-184196-1pj0p3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289937/original/file-20190828-184196-1pj0p3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289937/original/file-20190828-184196-1pj0p3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289937/original/file-20190828-184196-1pj0p3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289937/original/file-20190828-184196-1pj0p3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289937/original/file-20190828-184196-1pj0p3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289937/original/file-20190828-184196-1pj0p3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Group of two women and a child, ca. 1981-1500 BC. A woman is shown nursing her child while another woman dresses her hair.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(The Metropolitan Museum of Art)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Children in the home</h2>
<p>The sleepless child was well known to parents. In the ancient world lullabies were used to calm inconsolable infants. For example, in one <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40462120">old Babylonian lullaby</a> written sometime between 1894–1595 BC, the sleep-deprived mother begs the child to fall asleep like one passed out drunk.</p>
<p>Biblical studies <a href="https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-436-5.html">professor David Bosworth</a> of the Catholic University of America discusses this in his book <em>Infant Weeping in Akkadian, Hebrew and Greek Literature</em>.</p>
<p>But sleep, while desired, also brought with it danger. Scholars believe that what we know today as <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sudden-infant-death-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20352800">Sudden Infant Death Syndrome</a> was attributed by the ancient people in this region to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv7r425z">the demoness Lilith or Lamashtu creeping in the house and suckling the infant with poisonous milk</a>. Various amulets warding off this demoness have been found in sleeping chambers, along with a lamp, which like today helped scare away “bad things” that went bump in the night.</p>
<p>Play was an important part of life. Small perforated discs found in some parts of the region suggest the use of <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ancient-toys-kids-archaeological-record">spinning tops</a>.</p>
<p>Mesopotamian texts speak of familiar games, like jump ropes, wrestling, running races and games of hide and seek. But life was not all play for children. For the most part, older girls would help the mothers with domestic activities, while boys would follow in their father’s footsteps. But for a limited few male children, education was an option.</p>
<h2>Child adoption, abandoment, slavery</h2>
<p>But children also moved in and out of domestic units. <a href="https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/44/6/6">Adoption and slavery</a> are social institutions that are well-documented in various contracts <a href="https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-295-2.html">preserved in libraries from the ancient cities of Nuzi Emar and Nippur</a>.</p>
<p>The ancient poem, <em>Enki and Ninmah</em>, encourages parents to adopt children with deformities: this poem, over 4,000 years old, has the <a href="http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr112.htm">gods ordaining a place in society for all, even those with deformities</a>.</p>
<p>The ancient Babylonian code of law, the <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp">The Code of Hammurabi, laws 18 5-191</a>, shows that formal adoptions came with a strict set of rules so the child could be fully integrated into the new family.</p>
<p>Sometimes parents rescinded legal responsibility for a child. One set of texts discusses this as children “<a href="https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-295-2.html">thrown to the dogs’ mouth</a>.” In such cases children might be left at the local dump, the “safe-drop” zone for children. These children often entered a life of slavery.</p>
<p>Individual slave sale documents from Mesopotamia, as well as the biblical laws concerning slavery, tell us that slavery was a part of ancient life, but there are important nuances. Not every child slave was chattel. In cases of debt-slavery, a child could serve in another household to pay off a family debt and then return to their own family.</p>
<p>A child’s value was not just part of the physical world, but extended to the spiritual realm as well. Children participated in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/15692124-12341289">household religion in gender-specific ways</a>. A disinheritance contract from Emar notes that children who are disinherited lose the right to care for the gods of the house.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289549/original/file-20190827-8856-bjfdy1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289549/original/file-20190827-8856-bjfdy1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289549/original/file-20190827-8856-bjfdy1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289549/original/file-20190827-8856-bjfdy1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289549/original/file-20190827-8856-bjfdy1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289549/original/file-20190827-8856-bjfdy1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289549/original/file-20190827-8856-bjfdy1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Families deported from Lachish, ancient Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(courtesy of Jason Riley)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The death of children</h2>
<p>A child’s value does not come without vulnerability. As the youngest and most defenseless members of society, they were not immune to the effects of invading armies. Mesopotamian war records (ca. 880-600 BC) demonstrate rare but violent practices, such as burning adolescents and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43077969?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">violence against pregnant Arab women</a>. In best-case scenarios, children were deported with their families.</p>
<p>Heath Dewrell, assistant professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, also notes that the Hebrew Bible records children, foreign and Israelite alike, <a href="https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-494-9.html">experiencing violence resulting in death</a>. Troubling texts include the outrageous tale of two female bears mauling 42 children for offending the prophet and references to child sacrifice.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289934/original/file-20190828-184217-b5i51z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289934/original/file-20190828-184217-b5i51z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289934/original/file-20190828-184217-b5i51z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289934/original/file-20190828-184217-b5i51z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289934/original/file-20190828-184217-b5i51z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=690&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289934/original/file-20190828-184217-b5i51z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=690&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289934/original/file-20190828-184217-b5i51z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=690&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jar Burial from Tel Dan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Courtesy of David Ilan, Nelson Glueck School of Archaeology)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Archaeological data shows that the infant mortality rate was 50 per cent in the ancient world, but children who died were often <a href="http://www.asor.org/anetoday/2014/11/children-in-the-ancient-near-east/">cared for.</a> Sometimes they are buried in jars with the common grave goods indicating their status in the family. And other times they were buried under the household floor, which in a way kept them a part of the household unit.</p>
<p>Ultimately, coming to a greater understanding of children in history raises important questions for how societies <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-canada-needs-a-childrens-charter-103206">respond or not to children’s vulnerability</a>. The challenge of protecting our most vulnerable has not disappeared. </p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Coming to a greater understanding of children in ancient history raises important questions for how societies respond — or not — to children’s vulnerability.Shawn Flynn, Vice President (Academic) and Dean / Associate Professor, St. Joseph's College, University of AlbertaKristine Garroway, Associate Professor, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/546212016-02-12T16:30:12Z2016-02-12T16:30:12ZTed Cruz’s linguistic chutzpah<p>“Chutzpah” is making headlines again. This time it’s not because someone mispronounced it (as former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_mWlXvKnq8">did a few years ago</a>); it’s because Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called it a “New York term.” </p>
<p>At a recent New Hampshire event, Cruz responded to Donald Trump’s criticism that he borrowed money from Goldman Sachs. </p>
<p>Cruz pointed out that Trump, in fact, had taken out over US$480 million in loans from Wall Street banks. </p>
<p>“For him to make this attack,” Cruz boomed, “to use a New York term” – Cruz then paused for laughter – “it’s the height of chutzpah.” </p>
<p>Highlighting Donald Trump’s “New York values” is a tack Cruz has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/01/18/what-ted-cruzs-new-york-values-attack-is-really-about/">repeatedly taken</a> in recent weeks on the campaign trail. </p>
<p>But not all were amused. <em>Washington Post</em> columnist Dana Milbank <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-nastiness-of-ted-cruz/2016/02/05/2cfbfde0-cc2c-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html">wrote</a>, “‘chutzpah,’ of course, is not a ‘New York’ term. It’s a Yiddish – a Jewish – one. And using ‘New York’ as a euphemism for ‘Jewish’ has long been an anti-Semitic dog whistle.” </p>
<p>As a sociolinguist who specializes in American Jewish language, I’ve studied the use of the word “chutzpah” in the United States. Was Ted Cruz correct in calling “chutzpah” a New York word? And were there anti-Semitic undertones to the association? </p>
<h2>Two primary uses</h2>
<p>“Chutzpah” is just one of many words introduced into American English by Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe, along with “<a href="http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/479">shmooze</a>,” “<a href="http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/347">maven</a>” (also both from Hebrew), “<a href="http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/533">shpiel</a>” and “<a href="http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/274">klutz</a>.” </p>
<p>In his 1968 book <em>The Joys of Yiddish</em>, Leo Rosten offered a <a href="http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-english-lexicon/words/119">definition</a> of “chutzpah” (or as he spells it, “chutzpa”) that has been widely cited: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible “guts”; presumption-plus-arrogance such as no other word, and no other language, can do justice to. The classic definition of <em>chutzpa</em> is, of course, this: <em>Chutzpa</em> is that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Gall” is primarily negative – like Cruz’s use of the word. But “chutzpah” has also come to have positive associations, as in Oprah Winfrey’s <a href="http://www.oprah.com/spirit/The-First-Annual-Chutzpah-Awards">Chutzpah Awards</a>, presented annually to “women whose chutzpah – audacity, nerve, boldness, conviction – has taken them to the most amazing places.”</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=chutzpah&year_start=1820&year_end=1990&corpus=15&smoothing=1&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cchutzpah%3B%2Cc0">According to a Google Books search</a>, “chutzpah” first appeared in English writing in 1877, and it gained popularity in the 1960s. There were additional bumps in usage after the 1991 publication of Alan Dershowitz’s memoir, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Chutzpah-Alan-M-Dershowitz/dp/0316181374/">Chutzpah</a></em>, and in 2000, when Al Gore selected Joe Lieberman, a religious Jew, as his running mate. In his first speech as Gore’s running mate, Lieberman <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/aug/09/uselections2000.usa">said</a>, “You know, there are some people who might actually call Al Gore’s selection of me an act of chutzpah.” </p>
<p><em>Time</em> magazine then featured the word on its cover under a photo of Gore and Lieberman. At that time, the word was clearly associated with Jews, and it was one of <a href="http://becomingfrum.weebly.com/discussion-forum/february-10th-2016">many Hebrew and Yiddish words used in the press</a> (by supporters and detractors) to highlight Lieberman’s Jewishness. </p>
<p>Sixteen years later, the word is used regularly in political discourse – and not necessarily in reference to Jews. In December, President Obama used the term <a href="http://www.jta.org/2015/12/11/default/obamas-chutzpah-email">in a fundraising email</a> when describing Republicans in Congress. Of course, many still associate the word with Jews because of its origins and its “ch” sound.</p>
<h2>A part of Newyorkese?</h2>
<p>In 2008, I tested “chutzpah” and other Yiddish words in a <a href="http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=3874">survey</a> I conducted with sociologist Steven M. Cohen. We received over 30,000 responses, with about 25,000 coming from Jews and 5,000 from non-Jews. We asked respondents whether they know and use these words; many reported that they do.</p>
<p>The survey can help us answer the question of whether Cruz correctly characterized “chutzpah” as a “New York term.” We also asked about two different meanings of “chutzpah”: negative, like Cruz’s use, and positive, like Oprah’s. </p>
<p>We found that Jews are more likely than non-Jews to report using the word with both meanings, but regardless of Jewish identity, those who’ve lived in New York are more likely to report using both than those who’ve never lived in New York. In addition, among survey respondents, 63 percent of non-Jews who have lived in New York report using “chutzpah” negatively, compared to 47 percent who have never lived in New York. </p>
<p>So Cruz is right – the word is used more by New Yorkers. But, as Milbank points out, it’s also used more by Jews (87 percent). Interestingly, non-Jewish respondents are more likely to use the positive meaning than the negative one. The opposite holds for Jews.</p>
<h2>How Cruz uses “chutzpah” to set up contrasts</h2>
<p>The conflation of Jewish and New York language has a long history. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/452953?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">A researcher in 1932 reported</a> that New York Jews had several “errors” in their pronunciation of English words. <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/dg/viewarticle/j$002fijsl.1980.issue-26$002fijsl.1980.26.15$002fijsl.1980.26.15.xml">A 1980 study found</a> that people associated Yiddish-influenced grammar with both Jews <em>and</em> New Yorkers (including sentences like “Some milk you want?”). </p>
<p>Of course, it’s only natural for a large ethnic concentration to influence their local dialect. About a quarter of the Jews in the United States live in the New York area – <a href="http://www.ujafedny.org/who-we-are/our-mission/jewish-community-study-of-new-york-2011/">over 1.5 million people</a>, which represents about 12 percent of the New York population. A century ago, this percentage was even higher: Jews were almost a third of the New York population.</p>
<p>Jews are also overwhelmingly liberal; in every presidential election since 1984, a majority of Jews have voted Democratic, sometimes as high as <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewvote.html">80 percent</a>.</p>
<p>So when Cruz uses “chutzpah” in this way – and when he rails against “New York values” – he’s associating Donald Trump not just with New York, but with Jews and liberals (ironic, given the vast chasm between Trump and liberals). And this allows him to set up a contrast with his conservative, Christian, suburban and rural base. </p>
<p>If Cruz had just accused Trump of chutzpah, there would be no issue. By marking the word as “New York” and exaggerating the guttural “ch,” he distanced himself from the word and the foreignness and cosmopolitanism it represents. </p>
<p>So, yes, there is some veiled – and therefore deniable – anti-Semitism there. (But, I would argue, it’s minor compared to Trump <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4_Y3YIN43c">calling</a> a Jewish audience “negotiators” and saying they want to control politicians with their donations.) </p>
<p>At the same time, I share Jewish journalist <a href="http://www.jta.org/2016/02/07/news-opinion/politics/when-ted-cruz-slams-donald-trumps-chutzpah-should-jews-be-offended-or-honored">Ron Kampeas</a>’ instinct to kvell a little about the graduation of the word “chutzpah” into the mainstream. </p>
<p>Whether they align politically with Cruz, embrace “New York values” or find themselves somewhere in the middle, Jews should be tickled that a word once considered Jewish is now used by a Southern Baptist to attack a Presbyterian.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54621/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Bunin Benor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is ‘chutzpah’ actually – as Ted Cruz claimed – a New York word? And what’s with the candidate’s insistence on distancing himself from New York City?Sarah Bunin Benor, Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and Linguistics, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/389562015-03-18T02:54:17Z2015-03-18T02:54:17ZNetanyahu to lead the next government after Israeli election<p><em>Editor’s note: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has scored a victory for his Likud party in the country’s election. He will now seek to form and lead the next government.</em></p>
<p><em>We asked two scholars for their initial reaction to the election and its potential implications.</em></p>
<h2>Short-term gains and long-term shifts</h2>
<p><strong>Gershon Shafir, Professor of Sociology, University of California San Diego</strong></p>
<p>There is no doubt that Prime Minister Netanyahu has pulled an electoral rabbit out of the ballot box at the last possible minute. </p>
<p>He did so by cannibalizing the votes of the other parties of the right-wing, or nationalist, bloc. And herein lays his problem. </p>
<p>He will be able to form a new government, his fourth. This is a significant short-term accomplishment. But long-term trends threaten him and his bloc.</p>
<p>Since 1977, Israel has been electing right-wing governments, with two exceptions: that of Labor leaders Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak who were also generals in a country preoccupied with security. But now, for the first time, a civilian leader from the left, Yitzhak Herzog, presented a credible alternative. </p>
<p>Since the 2011 social protest movement, many Israelis have put their stagnant standard of living and the country’s growing economic polarization – among the highest in the world and comparable to the US – at the forefront of their concerns.</p>
<p>Another social justice candidate, Moshe Kahalon, also did surprisingly well. Netanyahu, by contrast, is focused on Iran, ISIS, Hamas, and other real and imaginary security threats. He remains vulnerable to the social protest camp.</p>
<p>The left bloc has several additional accomplishments to be proud of. </p>
<p>The United Arab Party will be the third largest party in the 20th Knesset and will wield a measure of influence Palestinian Arab citizens never have had before in Israel. It is equally significant that this new Arab party chose to emphasize the wishes of its mostly Arab voters for integration and equality with Jews and not for a separatist-nationalist agenda.</p>
<p>It is also the case that the momentum of several right-wing projects has been thwarted. </p>
<p>Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett who seemed poised to expand outside the Russian immigrant and national-orthodox camps respectively and shape new and more aggressive and religious-light Israeli identities, saw their parties rapidly shrink in these elections.</p>
<p>Finally, a truly troubling alliance of the ultra-orthodox with the most explicitly racist elements of Israeli society didn’t make it into the Knesset.</p>
<p>In the longer run, the recovery of the Labor Party (aka the Zionist Union) and the turning back of right-wing ideological projects, will lead to a different Knesset.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Election may lead to more divided American Jews</h2>
<p>*<em>Steven M Cohen, Research Professor of Jewish Social Policy at Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion
*</em></p>
<p>The continuation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in office may well deepen divisions within American Jewry over Israel in the coming months and years.</p>
<p>Over the last two years, Mr. Netanyahu enjoyed the partnership of centrist political allies and personalities (most prominently, the former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni), the aura of seeming to genuinely seek a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the appearance of a good working relationship with the US President and his Secretary of State.</p>
<p>Going into the next term of office – should he manage to create a coalition featuring his right-wing allies and the ultra-Orthodox – Mr. Netanyahu will have none of these at his disposal. </p>
<p>He alienated (well, fired) his centrist former allies, announced on the day before the election that he would prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state, and partnered with the Republican Congressional leadership in opposition to President Obama.</p>
<p>With the President likely to push for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, American Jews – especially liberals – will find themselves torn between their President and an Israeli Prime Minister whose supporters, positions, and actions elicit little enthusiasm in Democratic Washington or European capitals.</p>
<p>In the US, pro-Israel advocates, liberal Zionists, and Palestinian sympathizers will all feel more compelled and more justified to push their agendas forward, sometimes wielding much sharper elbows than in the past – accusing each other of violating Jewish values and endangering the security of Israel and the Jewish People.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38956/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our two scholars look at the longer term consequences of this week’s elections: in Israel and in the US.Steven M Cohen, Research Professor of Jewish Social Policy , Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/385602015-03-16T09:39:17Z2015-03-16T09:39:17ZAmerican Jews and Israel: still attached but more divided<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74844/original/image-20150314-7070-1ol2kvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brooklyn, NY: What do they think about Israel? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Jueus_ultraortodoxes_satmar_a_brooklyn.jpg">diluvi.com Anna i Adria</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Israelis head to the polls at the end of a closely contested campaign to determine the the future of their country, American Jews have been engaged in their own contests and conflicts over Israel’s future. </p>
<p>Instead of the near-unanimous support Jews once gave Israel’s elected leaders, both left-leaning and right-leaning American Jewish activists regularly cross swords with Israelis and each other, sometimes in ways that can get personal and nasty.</p>
<p>American Jewish opinion toward Israel today is fractured and will only, it seems, continue to fracture. </p>
<h2>The new normal</h2>
<p>The round of mutual condemnations among Jewish activists over Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on March 3 to Congress is but part of a new normal in the American Jewish relationship. </p>
<p>A few years ago, one could hardly imagine that an Israeli Prime Minister would so brazenly offend a sitting American President. Nor could one have imagined that a half dozen Jewish Senators and Representatives would absent themselves from a speech by the top Israeli leader to a joint session of the US Congress.</p>
<p>In fact, the latest displays of division cap a series of dust-ups in just the last few months. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nif.org/">New Israel Fund </a>– a charity devoted to supporting the progressive civil sector in Israel – has been the recent target of <a href="http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2015/2/19/jewish-organizations-should-know-that-the-new-israel-fund-is-no-friend#.VQLsq8wrmwk">attacks.</a> The claims are that it gives “money to groups that work tirelessly to delegitimize Israel, undermining the soldiers protecting Israel, and pushing war crimes tribunals and sanctions against Israel in world courts.”</p>
<p>During the 2014 Gaza war, the <a href="http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/">Jewish Voice for Peace</a> (founded in 1996) <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/dissident-memorial-israeli#sthash.YiZVbVBt.dpuf">protested</a>) the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan’s memorial for slain Israeli soldiers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We are appalled at this blatant valuing of Jewish and Jewish Israeli lives over the nearly 2,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, who have been massacred by the Israeli army.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As it happens, the service mourned the dead on both sides. </p>
<p>And last year Hillel, the premiere Jewish campus-based organization, issued “<a href="http://www.hillel.org/jewish/hillel-israel/hillel-israel-guidelines">Guidelines</a> for Campus Israel Activities” declaring that “Hillel will not partner with … groups, or speakers that … delegitimize, demonize, or apply a double standard to Israel.” </p>
<p>This week, International Hillel’s president Eric Fingerhut <a href="http://www.jta.org/2015/03/09/news-opinion/united-states/auto-draft-64">bowed out</a> of addressing 1000+ Jewish students at the annual J Street conference, owing to the presence of Saeb Erekat, the lead Palestinian negotiator with Israel. </p>
<p>In fact <a href="http://jstreet.org/about">J Street</a> itself – “the "the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans” – points to the widening divisions within the Jewish pro-Israel community. It was founded in 2008 in part to contest <a href="http://www.aipac.org">AIPAC</a>, the well-established and influential pro-Israel lobby. </p>
<p>American Jews’ disputes are not confined to the US. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74845/original/image-20150314-7064-1jv8cc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74845/original/image-20150314-7064-1jv8cc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74845/original/image-20150314-7064-1jv8cc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74845/original/image-20150314-7064-1jv8cc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74845/original/image-20150314-7064-1jv8cc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74845/original/image-20150314-7064-1jv8cc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74845/original/image-20150314-7064-1jv8cc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sheldon Adelson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Sheldon_Adelson_crop.jpg/548px-Sheldon_Adelson_crop.jpg">User:Bectrigger</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since 2007, billionaire Sheldon Adelson (and onetime supporter of Newt Gingrich) has been providing an estimated $20 million annually to a freely distributed pro-Netanyahu Israeli <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_HaYom">newspaper.</a> On the other side, US businessmen Daniel Abraham and Daniel Lubetzky have been <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/02/12/israel-election-us-consultants-donors/23237871/">prime funders</a> of an Israel-based get-out-the-vote campaign designed to bolster efforts to defeat Netanyahu. </p>
<h2>The demographics underneath</h2>
<p>Powerful population dynamics underlie these divisions. </p>
<p>The Orthodox – solidly conservative and Republican in the US, and solidly right-wing on Israeli issues – are <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/">growing rapidly</a>) Just 10% of Jewish adults, the Orthodox are 27% of American Jewish children. In New York City, <a href="http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=14186">three-quarters </a>)of Jewish children are Orthodox. </p>
<p>At the same time, the <a href="http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=14166">vast majority</a> of other American Jews remain solidly Democratic and liberal and the political and cultural circles they inhabit are increasingly unhappy about Israel. </p>
<p>This shift is taking place at the same time as polls taken among all Americans (not just Jewish) show <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2015/02/27/more-view-netanyahu-favorably-than-unfavorably-many-unaware-of-israeli-leader/">widening gaps</a> on the subject of Israel between religious, conservative older people and secular, liberal younger people.</p>
<p>But views on Israeli policies are far from identical to emotional attachment to Israel the country. Just as within Israel major segments of the public oppose their government’s policies while caring deeply about their country, so among American Jews overall there continues to be a meaningful bond with Israel, moving from mobilization to engagement,as scholar <a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9781479806119/">Ted Sasson</a> tells us.</p>
<p>Yes, there are small differences between <a href="http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=326">age groups </a>that are largely attributable to the rapidly rising rate of intermarriage, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/us/poll-shows-major-shift-in-identity-of-us-jews.html?_r=0">now 71% among non-Orthodox Jews.</a> The intermarried and their children do not feel the same loyalty to Israel. </p>
<p>However, when it comes to Israeli government policy, the difference are far more pronounced, as<a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/chapter-5-connection-with-and-attitudes-towards-israel/"> Pew’s survey</a> of American Jews in 2013 tells us.</p>
<h2>The long shadow of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict</h2>
<p>In the survey non-Orthodox older (age 65+) Jews were compared with younger (age 18-29) Jews on whether West Bank Jewish settlements hurt or helped Israel’s security. The older folk split 45% to 20% (hurt vs. help). In contrast, the under-30 crowd took a far more dismal view of settlements: 54% said they hurt and just 9% saw them as helping.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74846/original/image-20150314-7061-1pcms35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74846/original/image-20150314-7061-1pcms35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74846/original/image-20150314-7061-1pcms35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74846/original/image-20150314-7061-1pcms35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74846/original/image-20150314-7061-1pcms35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74846/original/image-20150314-7061-1pcms35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74846/original/image-20150314-7061-1pcms35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beitar Ilit - one of the biggest settlements on the West Bank.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beitar_Ilit.jpg">Yoninah</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even more striking were the contrasting views on whether “the current Israeli government is making a sincere effort to bring about a peace settlement with the Palestinians.” </p>
<p>Back in 2013, before the war in Gaza and the breakdown in peace talks, the elders split evenly with 44% seeing sincerity and 43% not. For the younger people, those viewing Israeli leaders as sincere dropped to about under a quarter (23% vs. 67% who saw Israel as not sincere). </p>
<p>So long as the conflict between Israelis and Palestinian societies continues, so too will the deep divisions among American Jews over Israeli policies. </p>
<p>On one side there is the growing Orthodox community whose politics sometimes coincide with non-Orthodox moderate and conservative activists. On the other, are younger, politically liberal and often religiously uninvolved Jews. </p>
<p>American Jews will continue to debate and divide. As in Israel, each side will see the other as lacking fidelity to Jewish values while each casts the other as lacking awareness of the dangers that face Israel and the Jewish People.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38560/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven M Cohen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On the eve of elections in Israel, a snapshot of the divisions in American Jewish opinion toward the Jewish state and what lies behind them.Steven M Cohen, Steven M Cohen, Research Professor of Jewish Social Policy , Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.