Rediscovering Arabic as Jewish heritage

Abstract Drawing from field observations in an Arabic language association, Ledaber, specifically aimed at the descendants of North-African Jewish immigrants, I analyse the metalinguistic discourses of students and instructors to explore the role of Arabic in shaping a distinctive North African Jewish heritage in France. I conducted participant observation in Standard Arabic and Judeo-Arabic classes over a seven-month period in 2023–2024. As Standard Arabic is not a vernacular, why would heritage-speakers of dialectal Arabic want to learn it? What value do they grant to Arabic in general, and dialectal Arabic in particular? For these second- and third-generation immigrants, Arabic — often described as the “language of the grandparents” — serves as a focal point for navigating complex issues of heritage, assimilation, and solidarity within racialized communities in France. This study contributes to understanding how linguistic choices and metalinguistic reflections among North-African Jewish descendants in France negotiate collective memory, intergenerational identity, and ethnic plurality within the contemporary French socio-cultural landscape.