Language, Identity, and Belonging in Tension: Teaching and Learning Hebrew in a Jewish School in Greece from Teachers’ and Parents’ Perspectives

This paper outlines a case study investigating the language perspectives of parents and teachers regarding Hebrew language education, focusing on its role in students’ lives and identities in the setting of a Jewish School in Thessaloniki, Greece. It explores the multiple meanings they attribute to children’s Hebrew learning, as well as their rationales and language perspectives. The research tools employed were reflective interviews with teachers and a focus group with students’ mothers. The findings suggest that Hebrew is understood and negotiated in complex and sometimes ambivalent ways. It is institutionally framed as a component of students’ Jewish education, having a symbolic and performative role in reinforcing a broader, transnational, formalized Jewish identity. This coexists with the memory of Ladino, pointing to a layered relationship between language and identity. The study highlights the importance of incorporating community perspectives and more nuanced understandings of language and identity negotiation in language education.