Making Machaneh’s Hebrew More Inclusive
Have you been confused by the Hebrew suffix imot on the
blog this year?
Once
every two years, the Habonim Dror youth movement holds a veida (decision making
seminar) with its 16 through 23 year-old members. At each veida, youth movement
members review the movement’s structures and constitution, suggest amendments, discuss
and vote.
One of
the issues veida participants discussed this year was how the movement and the
machanot (camps) could become a more inclusive space, as well as how to
make our use of Hebrew suffixes more inclusive.
In
Hebrew, im is the male plural suffix and ot is the female plural suffix, and
traditionally a
mixed gender
group is referred to with only the male suffix (e.g. Bonim, Shomrim, etc).
Feminist movements in Israel created the imot suffix in order to include people of all genders, and the youth movement decided to adopt
this change, referring to the group of all Amelim as Amelimot
, the group of all Chotrim as Chotrimot , etc.
The intent is not to ignore people's genders. A group of three boys in Amelimot are still called Amelim, and a group
of four girls in Bonimot are still called Bonot. This is an effort to be more inclusive with mixed gender
groups, one which has been explained to all chanichimot and adopted with
excitement.
We would be happy to talk about it
if you have more questions - email or approach us at Visitors Day so we can have a conversation.
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