 The Hebrew faculty builds students’ proficiency with spoken and written Hebrew in order to enable them to engage with the international Jewish community. In the institutions of Jewish communal life around the world Hebrew is everywhere; therefore, a foundation in Hebrew language allows our students to grow as global citizens who are familiar with different cultural expressions and equipped to engage with the distinctive language of Jewish life wherever it thrives. Classes emphasize four essential skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Our program supports the incremental expansion of grammatical concepts while building a large, active vocabulary. We are guided by the conviction that one need not understand every word in order to understand what is being said or read. Students are taught to look for contextual clues and to find familiar words and roots. We strive to help each student discover the beauty and richness of the Hebrew language. Part of our task is to provide students with strategies for dealing with the frustration that inevitably comes with learning a foreign language and to be sensitive to our students’ experiences. | | |
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