Avital Feuer
In this Hebrew language learning setting, students’ backgrounds and histories arediverse: some were born and raised in Canada, the United States, or South Africa andstudied Hebrew at Jewish day schools; others were born in the former USSR, immigratedto Israel as children, and moved to Canada with their families as teenagers; others werechildren of Israeli emigrants who learned Hebrew at home. This ethnographic qualitativestudy examines two conflicting camps within the Hebrew class, defined by themselvesand Othered by opposing sub-groups as 'Canadians' and 'Israelis'. As the students andthe author negotiate their strong ties to the language with Othering and exclusion by othersub-groups from the dominant speech community, the sentiment of the Israeli emigrantprofessor regarding her students hangs overhead: 'None of them are Israelis. None ofthem are native speakers of Hebrew.' Who does this language belong to? Which subgroupcan declare authenticity as real, rightful owners of the language and its indelibleculture and identity?As language programs worldwide deal with a diverse and heterogeneous student population who enter the classroomcategorized as heritage, second, bilingual, foreign, or native language speakers, this book addresses clashing and Otheringbetween sub-groups over the authenticity of the variety of the language and its speakers, and who can rightfully claim thelanguage as their own.
