Just as physical heirlooms connect generations of Jewish families, Jewish languages create connections across time and experience. However, most Jewish families have experienced ruptures in language transmission over the past several decades. Today, an increasing number of Jews are taking action to document and revitalize their heritage languages before it’s too late.
Heirloom is a Jewish language reclamation and revitalization initiative of the Jewish Language Project and the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages. Through three engaging tracks, Heirloom seeks to reclaim and revitalize endangered Jewish languages so they can remain in Jewish families for generations to come.
"I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart because I thought this language was lost, and I didn't think I would find anybody who could revive it. I'm so grateful for this opportunity."
Annette Gourgey, Heirloom Learner (Judeo-Baghdadi Arabic)
TRACK 1: HERITAGE WORDS
Flexible commitment: 10 minutes per word
Good for: People who know Jewish heritage words or know speakers who know Jewish heritage words
Heritage Words participants submit Jewish heritage words to JLP’s crowdsourced dictionaries. Jewish heritage words come from minority languages once spoken by our Jewish ancestors. Even if one doesn’t fully speak a language that one’s grandparents spoke, certain words may have been passed down through the family or community via a majority language (e.g., words for dishes, like qoqol (Juhuri), cholent (Yiddish), adafina (Judeo-Arabic/Ladino), or bakhsh (Bukharian)). Learn more...
TRACK 2: LANGUAGE ADVOCATE
Flexible commitment: 2-8 hours/month for a minimum of 3 months
Good for: Dedicated volunteers who need flexible hours
Language advocates watch a crash course in language activism, read an article or book about language revitalization, and commit to at least two actions per month to promote the language(s) of their choice (or Jewish languages in general). Learn more...
TRACK 3: MENTOR-LEARNER
Commitment: 50+ hours total for one year
Good for: Extremely committed speakers/learners of endangered Jewish languages who can meet regularly
Mentors (speakers of endangered languages) and learners meet for around one hour per week in person or using technology. Together, each mentor-learner pair works on learning and documenting the language through conversation and language elicitation. Learn more...
About This Track
Setting: Virtual
Flexible commitment: 10 minutes per word
Good for: People who know Jewish heritage words or have access to speakers who know Jewish heritage words
In this track, participants submit Jewish heritage words to one of JLP’s crowdsourced dictionaries. Jewish heritage words come from languages once spoken by our Jewish ancestors. Even if one doesn’t speak an ancestral language, certain words may have been passed down through family or community and used within a majority language, especially in in-group conversations.
Common categories of heritage words include foods (Juhuri: qoqol, Yiddish: cholent, Judeo-Arabic/Ladino: adafina, Bukharian: bakhsh), kinship terms (Juhuri: deday, Modern Hebrew: ima, Yiddish: tate, Persian: baba), terms of endearment (Persian: joon, Judeo-Arabic/Modern Hebrew: kapara, Yiddish: neshomele), cultural and religious terms (Bukharian: kenisa, Judeo-Arabic/Ladino: kuracha, Yiddish: pushke), and expressions (Persian: chetori, Yiddish: a yor mit a mitvokh, Aramaic: ha la kashya, Ladino: bivas kreskas enfloreskas, Persian: ghorboonet beram, Juhuri: mugum mə).
Heritage Words Requirements & Instructions
-
Know Jewish heritage words or have access to speakers who know Jewish heritage words.
-
Submit heritage words to one of JLP’s crowdsourced dictionaries.
-
First, search the relevant dictionary to see if your word is already listed.
-
If your word is not listed, add it to the relevant dictionary. If possible, please include recordings of the word and of the example sentence.
-
English: Jewish English Lexicon
-
Portuguese: Léxico Judaico-Brasileiro
-
German: Judäo-Deutschen Wörterbuch
-
French: Glossaire du francais juif
-
Spanish: Léxico Judío-Latinoamericano
-
Swedish: Lexicon Över Judisk Svenska
-
-
If your language is not listed or you have questions, please submit this form so we can assist you.
Start now with the above instructions!
We highlight one word each week on social media. And we discuss the significance of these words in our Heritage Words podcast, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Episodes are posted every other week, and videos of each episode are posted on our YouTube channel.
About This Track
Setting: Virtual
Flexible commitment: 2-8 hours/month for a minimum of 3 months
Good for: Dedicated volunteers who need flexible hours
Language advocates increase awareness about Jewish linguistic diversity and particular languages, create new resources for language advocacy, and create new documentation of endangered Jewish languages. They select a language and participate in several advocacy activities. The Jewish Language Project provides language advocates with a language activism crash course and toolkit, and our team is available to offer guidance.
Language Advocate Requirements
-
Complete an initial commitment form.
-
Watch a JLP crash course in language activism.
-
Read an article or book about language revitalization.
-
Commit to at least two actions per month to promote the language of your choice (or Jewish languages in general).
-
Examples of actions: writing, designing, or sharing social media posts; using 10 heritage words (words from an endangered language used in your everyday language); submitting 5 heritage words for inclusion in crowdsourced online dictionaries (like the Jewish English Lexicon or the Jewish Latin American Spanish Lexicon); listening to a song in the endangered language; sharing a song; listening to an episode of the Heritage Words podcast; attending a lecture; giving a lecture; hosting an endangered language party; wearing apparel; displaying stickers; designing JLP merchandise; making a financial contribution to a language preservation organization.
-
-
After completing each commitment, submit a form describing what you did.
We're preparing to launch this track. If you'd like us to contact you when it's live, let us know here.
About This Track
Setting: Virtual or in-person
Commitment: 50+ hours total for one year
Good for: Extremely committed speakers/learners of endangered Jewish languages who can meet regularly
Mentors (speakers of endangered languages) and learners meet for around one hour per week in person or using technology. Together, each mentor-learner pair engages in language exchange in various ways according to their goals. Goals can include conversation practice, recording mini-immersion activities, adding words to an online dictionary, transcribing and translating recordings, and more.
We provide mentors and learners with the structure and resources to facilitate intergenerational language transmission. We also match mentors and learners as needed. This is a volunteer program, and no formal language training is required.
.png)
Summer 2024: Sixteen mentors and learners from six countries piloted Heirloom's mentor-learner track.
Mentor & Learner Requirements
-
Be at least 18 years old unless you have already identified a mentor (e.g., a grandparent).
-
Complete an application and interview with a Jewish Language Project team member.
-
Set goals for the program with your mentor or learner.
-
Participate in an online orientation and mid-program gathering.
-
Over the course of the year, meet for at least 50 hours (around 1 hour per week) to speak the language, preferably in person but alternatively using Zoom, Google Meet, FaceTime, etc.
-
Encouraged: Record a 3-5-minute clip of conversation (primarily spoken by the mentor) to post on Wikitongues’ and the Jewish Language Project’s YouTube channels as language documentation assets. The mentor helps the learner transcribe and translate the clips.
-
Encouraged: Using the Living Dictionaries platform, add at least 100 words to the relevant crowdsourced dictionary. The mentor provides pronunciation recordings.
-
At the end of the program, participate with the larger cohort in a celebratory online event, saying a few words about the experience
In July 2024, we piloted an abbreviated version of this program. Applications have closed for this summer, but please fill out this interest form if you'd like to get involved in the future.
If you are interested in supporting Heirloom financially, please donate here or email us at jewishlanguageproject@huc.edu.
TESTIMONIALS
"I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart because I thought this language was lost, and I didn't think I would find anybody who could revive it. I'm so grateful for this opportunity.... The Heirloom program helped me to feel that I could take pride in my heritage as an Iraqi Jew and in the uniqueness and authenticity of our dialect."
Annette Gourgey, Heirloom Learner
"While I have studied multiple languages, I have always struggled to find native speakers to practice with. This program helped me to gain the regular conversation I need to improve my skills and allowed me to hear incredible stories from my mentor. An experience I will remember forever."
Natan, Heirloom Learner
"It was such a pleasure to work with [my learner]! Very proud of the progress [she's] made over the last month." Helena, Heirloom Mentor