Bilingualism and Dialect Mixture among Lubavitcher Hasidic Children

Abstract

H ASIISM (from Hebrew hasid, 'pious') is a pietist movement that spread through the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe during the eighteenth century. The Hasidim (adherents to Hasidism) are organized into tightly knit groups each centered on a highly respected rabbi, who is generally known by the name of the town in which he lives. There have been seven Lubavitcher rabbis since Hasidism appeared in Belorussia, although only four of them (the second through the fifth) resided and taught in Lubavitch, Belorussia. The name Lubavitcher, however, has been retroactively applied to the first rabbi, and has followed the sixth rabbi, Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, from Lubavitch through Leningrad, Riga, and Warsaw to Brooklyn. The current (and seventh) leader of the community, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, son-in-law of his predecessor, is still known as the Lubavitcher Rabbi, and his followers are still the Lubavitcher Hasidim.