Staff Writer

Is there a "Jewish way of speaking?" Have American Jews developed a "Jewish English"?

Those were some of the questions that Georgetown University's Program on Jewish Civilization explored this week at a conference titled "Transcending Boundaries: Jewish Languages, Identities and Cultures." And it is the type of intellectual endeavor that the PJC wants to make its calling card, according to new director Jacques Berlinerblau.

In its fourth year, the PJC differs from a traditional Jewish studies program because it takes Jewish texts and looks at them "transhistorically," examining their influence "across time and space," said Berlinerblau.

For example, he taught a course last semester on the Bible and contemporary American politics, looking at the way politicians use Scripture to influence their rhetoric and policies.

The PJC, a part of Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, also concentrates on areas in which Georgetown has particular expertise, such as Jewish-Catholic relations and examining subjects like how Diaspora Jewish communities mobilize and respond to their host nations' foreign policy decisions, said Berlinerblau.

He said he hopes to "re-animate the tradition of the Jewish intellectuals" through the various programs and conferences that PJC holds, and that he also wants to highlight young Jewish writers and "emerging Jewish voices."

Last month, the PJC hosted a conference exploring "Jews in Contemporary Poland" and next month a daylong program on "The Ottoman-Jewish Symbiosis" is scheduled, along with a number of other talks and discussions. All such programs are free and open to the community.

Academically, the PJC offers students enrolled at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service a certificate if they take six courses, while those at the university can minor in Jewish civilization. Some 8-11 courses are offered per semester.

This week's conference was highlighted by a Sunday night discussion with author Cynthia Ozick, who has written about the notion of Jewish languages. Ozick also was presented with an honorary degree from the university on Tuesday afternoon.

On Sunday morning, Lewis Glinert, professor of Hebrew studies and linguistics at Dartmouth College, gave numerous examples of the importance that Judaism places on language. For instance, he noted that the 31 different mitzvot prohibiting lashon hara, or evil speech, demonstrate the Jewish belief that "the tongue can kill."

But he also pointed out that a "sheer love of talking for talking's sake" is a characteristic common among Jews. He called the television show Seinfeld the "essence of the American Jewish cultural style of speaking," and noted that when co-creator Larry David pitched the program to the head of NBC, he suggested the revolutionary idea that "the humor would come from conversation, not situations."

Jewish humor "revels in sending up Jewish ways of speaking," Glinert said, from the Jewish way of "answering a question with a question" to the "irresistible urge to cut in" to a conversation to the self-deprecation common among Jews.

"What does language mean to Jews?" Glinert asked. "It can bring out the best in us and the worst in us."

Meanwhile, Sarah Bunin Benor, assistant professor of contemporary Jewish studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, argued that " 'Jewish English' is a Jewish language ... similar to Yiddish and Ladino."

This new language, she said, had been created by the most Jewishly educated portion of the Jewish community, having incorporated hundreds of Yiddish and Hebrew words into everyday conversation.

Like Glinert, Bunin Benor cited traditional Jewish speech patterns, such as "asking a question and then answering it." And she noted that Jewish English even includes the traditional "secretive, humorous and offensive ways of talking about non-Jews."