‘I just want you to get into the flow of reading’: Reframing Hebrew proficiency as an enactment of liberal Jewishness

Abstract

Families enroll their children in Luxembourg's Liberal Talmud Torah because they are committed to continuing Jewish tradition and teaching their children how to be Jewish. These families are also deeply attached to liberal modernity and its ideals of free choice and autonomy – ideals that appear to clash with those of Jewishness. Hebrew and Hebrew literacy become key sites through which families resolve this tension. By reframing Hebrew proficiency as requiring decoding but not comprehension students contribute to Jewish continuity and simultaneously maintain a vision of themselves as modern progressives. This reframing is initially frustrating for students as Hebrew literacy practices conflict with schooled expectations for language and literacy; yet students eventually take up and find meaning in these new forms.