Hebrew in the United States
Is there a city or region in the United States that has many Hebrew speakers? I've recently become fascinated with the Hebrew language and the history and religious aspect that Hebrew can provide. Thanks!
15 Comments
The United States in general and New York in praticular have the largest population of Israelis and Jews outside of Israel.
According to different estimations, the cities with most Israelis are New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston and Chicago and the states with the largest Jewish Communities are New York, California and Florida.
Oh awesome! I would rather travel to New York then Florida and California haha. Thanks!
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Baltimore has a decent sized Hebrew-speaking community as well, as does Boston, Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
Basically, look for any area where there's a reasonable-sized tech community or Orthodox community and you're liable to find a good number of Hebrew speakers, be they Israelis or religiously-observant.
Oh I never thought to look at tech communities, I should've thought of that though, because Israel is the only country with the most company startups outside of the U.S.
I currently live pretty close to Baltimore and have a few Jewish friends who learnt Hebrew. I even heard Hebrew spoken once at the Bat Mitzva of my sister's friend.
I lived in Atlanta for a while, and even there there was a vibrant community.
Los Angeles has a decent sized population of Israelis, although there are numerous pockets of Hebrew speakers throughout America. You might benefit from doing research on your area (or the area you are interested in) though Jewish websites (ie: Chabad, or even Messianic groups). Google Hebrew classes and something is bound to show up!
Cincinnati has a large Orthodox community (as well as a campus of Hebrew Union College).
In the U.S., Orthodox Jews aren't necessarily native Hebrew speakers :) Orthodox Jews learn Hebrew from a young age, but we speak English here. And Hebrew Union College is a Reform rabbinical school (so it teaches religious/cultural stuff, and not mainly Hebrew).
New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami, Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta all have large Jewish communities. I would look around there.
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There is a college in Vermont that offers summer Hebrew language immersion classes. It has a good reputation.
