The work of Elinor Ochs and Catherine Snow has
demonstrated the central importance of dinner talk within
a broad picture of language socialization. A fertile site
for the intergenerational transmission of cultural values
and identities, it fosters culturally specific ways of
talking and thinking which have significance for children's
lives far beyond the intimacy of family meals. Blum-Kulka
brings to this rich speech event her insights about cross-cultural
pragmatics and her deep knowledge of patterns of communication
in Jewish communities in the US and Israel. What emerges
from her multi-year study is a thoroughly Hymesian depiction
of cultural continuity and change, as enacted in everyday
talk. She demonstrates that the subtle differences and
similarities in patterns of dinnertime talk found in each
of three middle-class, secular Jewish speech communities
of Ashkenazi heritage – Jewish Americans (JA), American
immigrants to Israel (AI), and native Israelis (NI) –
reflect entangled processes of cultural maintenance, cultural
assimilation, and intentional breaks from the traditional
values and practices of the Diaspora.