Best Assignments
The Jewish Language Project is proud to present an exhibit of student work from undergraduate classes on Jewish languages. These videos, podcasts, and papers represent some of the best work from Sarah Bunin Benor's class for USC undergraduates, "Jewish Language in the 21st Century."
Fall 2022
Elinor Amir-Lobel analyzes “HaIvrit HaHadasha” (Modern Hebrew / The New Hebrew) by Israeli band Hatikva 6
Adam Bloodgood discusses Jewish English in Linda Richman's Coffee Talk skits on Saturday Night Live
Patrick Stinebaugh presents a podcast about language in YidLife Crisis, season 1, episode 1: Breaking the Fast
Spring 2022
Brian Snitman's paper offers linguistic analysis of Seth Rogen's film "An American Pickle."
Connor Storey's paper offers a comparative analysis of Weird Al Yankovic's "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi" and Jewbellish's "Talk Yiddish to Me."
Kat Luo's podcast analyzes the children's book Five Little Gefiltes.
Or Turner's podcast analyzes the JAP rap battle from "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend."
In this video, Ashley Dukelis analyzes the visual representation of language in Jewish delis
Akito Miura's paper analyzes the use of language in It's a Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes, and Other Jewish Stories, a book about Jewish teens.
2021
What language do Bukharan Jews speak? Why is it endangered today? Hallie Howard explains.
What is Judeo-Persian? How does it differ from standard Persian in various periods and other Iranian Jewish languages? Tyler Mehrdad explains.
What language do the Jews of Azerbaijan and Dagestan speak? How does it differ from Tat? What writing systems has it used? Jun Lee explains.
How did Jews come to speak Russian? How does Jewish Russian differ from standard Russian? Cameron Ela explains in this podcast.
Joey Elbaum compares the Hebrew and Yiddish loanwords in two SNL skits, demonstrating how Jewish English evolved from the 1990s to the 2010s.
What is Judeo-Greek? How does it differ from standard Greek? Isaac Wahout explains.
How did Judeo-Italian develop? How does it differ from standard Italian? Elena Mastrobattista and Lauren Sims explain.
What is Judeo-Malayalam? How does it differ from the Malayalam spoken by Muslims and Hindus? Jake Choi explains in this podcast.
Hallie Howard explains how comedian Mendy Pellin's video "Jewish Siri" reflects sociolinguistic trends among American Jews.
"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"'s JAP rap battle is full of interesting language. What does it tell us about American Jews? Lauren Sims explains.
The sitcom "Frasier" included a Jewish-language-filled episode: season 6, episode 10: "Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskowitz." Click the image above to read Aaron Ahmed's sociolinguistic analysis.
Curious what the class assignments were? Click on the bottons above to see the syllabi for "Jewish Language in the 21st Century."