Re: Hebrew Pronounciation

Heather Austern (haustern@uj.edu)
Tue, 23 Sep 1997 12:41:03 -0800

Many centrist Orthodox Jews use Ashkenazic Hebrew rather than modern
Israeli Hebrew to signify their rejection of Israel as a state, and to
signify their anti-zionistic philosophies. Modern Israeli Hebrew basically
*IS* sephardic Hebrew, by the way, so it's more of a case of Israeli Hebrew
versus Ashkenazic Hebrew rather than Sephardic versus Ashkenazic. And in
fact it's those same Conservative and Reform Jews (and some Orthodox, by
the way) who use the modern Israeli Hebrew (for many it is to signify their
zionism and their acceptance of Israel as a state) who don't have any other
Sephardic customs-- and in general their Torah trope (torah reading tune)
and davening (prayers) and minhagim (customs) are Ashkenazic.

Because I am Orthodox but not an anti-zionist (then again I'm not exactly
pro zionism either) I generally use Ashkenazic Hebrew when davening to
myself or reading Torah to myself to signify a difference between that and
the modern Israeli Hebrew I learn in my Hebrew class at school. In Hebrew
class, I have no problem using modern Israeli Hebrew, especially since a
primary function of the class for me is to teach me the language I will
need when I go to Israel. I already know the davening well.....so whether
I choose to use Ashkenazic Hebrew is not an issue. But in learning Hebrew,
I'm willing to use modern Israeli Hebrew.

I hope that helped somewhat. Others will have different takes on the
issue. 2 Jews, 3 opinions.

Heather Amy Austern
North Hollywood, CA
haustern@uj.edu