Language Policy in Multilingual Israel: Ideologies, Conflicts,
Rights, and Research

Elana Shohamy
Professor, Tel Aviv University and Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley

Language policies, whether on the educational or societal level, are
products of political, social, economic, and education ideologies. As
such, languages and language policies are used as major symbols of
ideological conflicts and debates, especially manifested in
multilingual nation-states where multiple languages are often
interpreted as closely related to loyalty, patriotism, inclusion, and
exclusion. In Israel, a nation-state founded on a strong ideology and
consisting of large groups of immigrants (about 20% arriving from the
former Soviet Union since the 1990s and an equal number of Arabs for
whom Hebrew is not a home language), language serves as a major
symbol of identity, belonging, and participation. This talk will
focus on how the conflicts and debates are manifested within a number
of languages in light of the domination of Hebrew.

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