Online: A Montage of Global Jewish Sounds ((( Listening ))) JASON GUBERMAN-PFEFFER

he idea behind this Sh’ma sound montage is to connect technology pioneered by Diarna: Mapping Mizrahi Heritage (see: TJewish sounds, broadly defined, with their actual or lineal “Our Homes, Our Story” in the March issue of Sh’ma). geographic origins. For our purposes, “Jewish sounds” are vocal Mapping in this case is largely symbolic. While a few clips are as well as instrumental, sacred as well as secular, traditional as mapped to the locations where they were actually filmed — the well as contemporary, and authored or performed by Jews as Ladino “Yo M’enamori D’Un Aire” at Bulgaria’s State Opera in well as non-Jews. Our selections, then, are an eclectic ensemble, Stara Zagora and ’s “” at Le Bikini, a club in spanning more than 20 countries, a myriad of languages and Toulouse, — most are situated according to the origins of dialects (sometimes within a single video clip), and diverse eras the composition and/or its performer(s), whichever seemed most of composition as well as performance. appropriate. So, for example, while Ofra Haza recorded “Im Among the selections are: “My Yiddishe Mama,” by the Jewish- Nin’Alu” in her native , the video clip is mapped to a ran- Algerian chanteur Salim Halali, in which the only words dom spot within the borders of Yemen, the provenance of her uttered are in the title’s refrain; “Eretz Zavat Chalav,” as inter- ancestors and this liturgical poem’s author. Similarly, the Yefran preted by Nina Simone; Jews in Manipur, India, practicing blow- Jews’ Hakafot on Simchat , Modzitzer Chasidim chanting ing the shofar; movie excerpts staring Molly Picon and “Ani Ma’amin,” and the Iraqi-Kurdistani Jews’ wedding dance all Jewish-Egyptian film and recording legend Laila Mourad, re- occurred in Israel, but are mapped to their native lands of Libya, spectively; a Jewish-Libyan family marking Rosh Chodesh Nissan Poland, and Iraq. by making bsisa (a traditional sweet and bejeweled food con- View and listen to the sound montage at www.shma.com. coction); Josef Achron’s “Hebrew Melody” performed by violinist Jason Guberman-Pfeffer is the project coordinator of Diarna and executive di- Abram Shtern; and Kuwaiti performing artist Emma Shah’s rector of Digital Heritage Mapping, Inc., the project’s parent nonprofit agency. For French and Hebrew rendition of “Hava Nagila.” additional information, see: www.diarna.org. He wishes to give a special thanks These and the other clips have been digitally mapped using to Diarna contributors Houda and Adam for their helpful recommendations.

The Sounds of Becoming Frum SARAH BUNIN BENOR SHMA.COM hen non-observant Jews become sphere (like “tsnius,” modesty; “chumra,” strin- Orthodox, or ba’alei teshuvah (BT), gency; and “blech,” the metal stove-covering Wthey take on the rules and prohibi- that facilitates re-warming food on ) and tions of halakhah. But they also find themselves words that might be part of any ordinary con- in the midst of a whole new culture involving versation (like mamash, really). As Jews in- matchmakers, homemade brisket and farfel, crease their religious observance, they increase and Yiddish-inflected grammar. the presence of God in their language, talking Language plays such an important role in regularly about “haShem” and responding to Sarah Bunin Benor, who holds how Orthodox Jews identify each other that BTs “How are you?” with “Baruch haShem,” “bless a doctorate in linguistics, is add constructions such as “staying by them” God.” Some times, Hebrew words are integrated associate professor of contem- and “you want that I should help you?” to their into English following Yiddish patterns, as in porary Jewish studies at Hebrew Union College–Jewish otherwise standard grammar. One BT man re- “That’s another way we’re mekayem (fulfill) the Institute of Religion in Los called, in a joking way: “How is it that Harvard- mitzvah” and “Don’t be mevatel (nullify/waste) Angeles. She is finishing a educated kids can start talking like they’re from my z’man (time).” Constructions like these may book called Becoming Frum: the shtetl?” Of course, BTs don’t sound quite sound strange to non-Orthodox Jews and are How Newcomers Learn the like their immigrant great-grandparents, but sometimes hard for BTs to learn. Language and Culture of many adopt enough of the features of Orthodox English grammar can also be distinctive. , based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork. language to raise a few eyebrows among their Orthodox Jews use the word “so” in environ- family and friends. ments where it is not generally used: “If I see ((( SOUND LINKS ))) The most salient feature of Orthodox lan- someone who’s using the wrong language, so Many samples of frum speech patterns guage is the addition of hundreds of Hebrew, I’ll realize that they’re just becoming frum.” are available online. Here are a few: www..com/user/naalehonline# Aramaic, and Yiddish words into English speech Adverbial phrases are sometimes placed before p/u/36/g45L8PbvMm0 and writing. This includes words in the religious rather than after the object: “I was able to pick www.kolhashiurim.com

NOVEMBER 2010 | KISLEV 5771 [11] up pretty well the lingo.” There are distinctive vah”; and those toward the Black Hat pole are ways of pronouncing some English vowels and more likely to say, “Gmar cha-SEE-mah TOY- consonants. And, of course, there is the quasi- vah,” exhibiting the most influence from SHMA.COM chanting intonation used to indicate phrase Ashkenazic Hebrew. boundaries in study, which has trans- When people become Orthodox, they en- ferred into everyday speech as rise-fall contours. counter this vast landscape of sociolinguistic vari- ation, and they make decisions — conscious or When people become Orthodox, they make decisions not — about which words to take on and which — conscious or not — about which words to take pronunciations to use. Whether they say “HA-la- on and which pronunciations to use. KHAH” or “ha-LUH-khuh” and how much they change their grammar helps others identify them While words are the most prominent ele- not only as Orthodox but also along the contin- ment of Orthodox language, pronunciations are uum between Modern Orthodox and Haredi. often critical in distinguishing different groups BTs can also use language to remind oth- of Orthodox Jews. As part of an online survey I ers that they were not always Orthodox. conducted with sociologist Steven M. Cohen, Although some BTs adopt Orthodox language we asked respondents how they pronounce the as fully and quickly as they can, others never holiday of Tabernacles: Israeli Hebrew “Sukkot” adapt completely, avoiding certain pronuncia- (Soo-COAT) or Ashkenazic/Yiddish “Sukkos” tions or grammatical constructions and main- (SUK-kiss). Self-identified non-Orthodox and taining some of their original slang. As one BT Modern Orthodox Jews were more likely to say told me, “If someone said ‘Just keepin’ it real, “Soo-COAT,” and Orthodox and Black Hat, or mamish,’ I would know they’re definitely BT.” Haredi, Jews, were more likely to say “SUK-kiss.” Same goes for a man wearing a black hat with We see the same pattern with the greeting a T-shirt and trendy sunglasses or a woman used between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: who prepares her gefilte fish with Indian Non-Orthodox and Modern Orthodox Jews tend spices. Language — like other elements of cul- to say, “Gmar cha-tee-MAH to-VAH”; Orthodox ture — allows BTs to indicate not only that they Jews toward the middle of the continuum are are a certain type of Orthodox Jew, but also more likely to say, “Gmar cha-SEE-mah TO- that they are ba’alei teshuvah. Accent: The Politics of Poetry and the Sound of Hebrew MIRYAM SEGAL

n December 2001, Gene Simmons, the for- Gene Simmons, a.k.a. Chaim (or Hayim), mer lead singer of KISS, began by correcting was focused on one particular aspect of Hebrew Ihis interviewer’s Hebrew: pronunciation: the stress pattern. He was not Gene Simmons: Oh, thank you so much correcting Lopate’s Ashkenazic het to conform [for the introduction] and since this is to the gutturals of some Sephardic pronuncia- National Public Radio and it prides itself tions, for example, but simply insisting that on accurate information — most of it Lopate stress the final syllable “like the Israelis sounded good — I stand guilty as charged do.” (In fact, names are an exception to the and proud to say that I’m a mama’s boy. rule; Israelis pronounce Chaim with a “snivel- However, point one is you mispronounced ing” penultimate stress.) my Hebrew name. It’s not Hayim, which is One hundred years before this interview, the sort of sniveling, please-don’t-beat-me- the use of a terminal-stress pronunciation was Miryam Segal is assistant pro- up Ashkenazi European way . . . almost unheard of in the poetry (and even the fessor in the department of Leonard Lopate: Which is what I grew speech) of Ashkenazic Jews in Europe and Classical, Middle Eastern and up in . . . Palestine. But poets were about to enter a pe- Asian Languages and Cultures Gene Simmons: Which is — hey, that’s riod of sonic confusion. at Queens College, the City why you get beaten up. I don’t. The Israeli Hebrew is the grandchild of the ped- University of New York. Her book, A New Sound in Hebrew Sefaradit way is the correct way. It’s agogic organizations of pre-state Palestine. We Poetry: Poetics, Politics, Hayim, emphasis on the second vowel, commonly speak of a “Sephardic accent,” but Accent, was published in April. like the Israelis do. in the 1900s, the language-planning teachers

[12] NOVEMBER 2010 | KISLEV 5771