“I’m Eating by the Rav, Baruch Hashem”: The Development of Jewish English in the United States

Members of minority communities in the United States have their own ways of internally communicating. The American Jewish community is no different. This paper seeks to demonstrate that Jewish English, known as Yeshivish, has developed into two distinct configurations: Creole Yeshivish for the more religiously observant, and Dialect Yeshivish for the less religiously observant. The divergence is due to differing levels of interaction with the secular world. To prove this, pidgin, creole, dialect, and language are linguistically defined, as are the seven levels of Jewish religious observance. Pop culture infused with Yeshivish structures is analyzed at both levels of speech. Two additional examples of immigrant languages are explored. Finally, a possible future for each of the speaking traditions is laid out according to the latest survey data.