Negotiating the Task of Translation
Modern Orthodox Students Read the Hebrew Bible
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21379810 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ziva R Hassenfeld (0000-0002-3069-9962, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 119 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 292-306 |
| Publication date | 2024-08-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religious Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-4087 • E-ISSN: 1547-3201 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00344087.2024.2390292 |
| OpenAlex | W4402137528 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 26 |
This paper speaks to translation as a powerful window into students’ developing religious literacy practices. It considers how 10- and 11-year-old North American Modern Orthodox Jewish students read and translate the Hebrew Bible refracted through their own cultural and religious expectations: in other words, how students use translation to negotiate their knowledge of biblical Hebrew with their lived experiences of family and gender in the context of modern Jewish life, ritual, and practice. In a Modern Orthodox Jewish school setting, Hassenfeld conducted interviews with 12 students. With each student, she used a task-based interview, asking the students to read and translate a single biblical verse (Genesis 16:15) into English. In completing the translation task, the students applied their technical knowledge of biblical Hebrew and their religious expectations of the ancient text. While translation is perceived in many Modern Orthodox educational contexts as primarily technical (i.e., the precursor to any interpretive activity), this case study suggests that student translation work cannot be separated from interpretive work. While the data set is small and the results only suggestive, the study raises an important theoretical question for future consideration: how can translation be better framed by religious educators who teach sacred texts in their original languages to allow students to understand the necessary interpretive demands it entails
Art · Biblical studies · Context (archaeology) · Hebrew · Hebrew Bible · Judaism · Linguistics · Literacy · Literature · Negotiation · Pedagogy · Religious education · Social science · Sociology · Target culture · Task (project management) · Theology · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Jewish Identity and Society · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious Education and Schools
Faithful Renderings
Translation Studies
A Tale of Two Types of Schools
Between “Islamic” and “un-Islamic”
Muslim Educators’ Pedagogies
Translation and the Colonial Encounter
Developing cognate awareness through pedagogical translanguaging
Beyond theory and practice
Using Translation to Drive Conceptual Development for Students Becoming Literate in English as an Additional Language
Hebrew-only language policy in religious education
Translation as a site of language policy negotiation in Jewish day school education
In Other Words
White Christian Nationalism
From Saadia to Yahuda
Voices around the Text
How to Study Thinking in Everyday Life
What Is a 'Relevant' Translation
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |