Language policy and choice in Israeli kibbutzim

Abstract Recent studies highlight the critical role of Language Policy (LP) in shaping language behavior, choice, and identity within speech communities; however, its relationship with language choice, especially in unique sociolinguistic contexts, requires further exploration. Building on the framework of Spolsky’s (2003) LP model and Shohamy’s (in: Sustaining linguistic diversity: endangered and minority languages and language varieties, Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C., 2008) work on the costs of language revival, this study explores the tension between known languages and the new official language of Hebrew, as perceived and remembered by English-speaking and Spanish-speaking immigrants to Israeli kibbutzim between 1949 and 1982. Qualitatively analyzing 24 interviews from both groups, this study reveals key institutional, educational, and community mechanisms that acted as transformative agents implicating language choices. This study concludes by advocating for a more critical review of subtractive LPs, which often overlook individual rights and identities, reframing such discourses to draw attention to the cost of monolingual language ideology, policy, and practices not sensitive to and informed by questions related to who has the agency to legitimate and define language choice.