You Can Learn to Read Hebrew in One Day
GOLINKIN, NOAH
You Can Learn to Read Hebrew in One Day NOAH GOLINKIN While Standing an One Foot is the title of the textbook. The name conies, of course, from the famous challenge put to the great sage, Hillel:...
...Hebrew is no longer considered hard or boring...
...Where did we get teachers for so many students...
...In addition, classes in these programs were conducted for a whole school year...
...With the best intentions in the world adults could wait for years until they "got around to it...
...But there is a problem of illiteracy among the Jews of America: Hebrew illiteracy...
...in Chizuk Amuno Congregation, Baltimore, 275 students one year and 170 students the next...
...They include presidents of congregations and sisterhoods, chairpersons of adult education committees, young parents of our school children and octogenarians...
...Granted the tide of the textbook is a slight exaggeration...
...A new generation of Reform rabbis has discovered the beauty of Hebrew...
...Then a chain of marathons run by local talent follows...
...Our one-time badge of honor is now a badge of shame...
...Created three years ago, the Hebrew Reading Marathon is growing at a rapid rate...
...I can't teach you to read Hebrew "while standing on one foot," but I can do it in a day, even if you can't read a single word—or think you can't...
...The following words are examples of the functional Hebrew vocabulary of most American Jews, even if they can't read them in Hebrew: amen, bar mitzvah, baruch, Ben Gurion, dayeynu, Hadassah, Hava Nagilah, haggadah, Hatikvah, hallelujah, horah, kaddish, kiddush, Kol Nidre, kosher, kibbutz, I'chayim, Maccabee, matzah, mitzvah, mazal tov, menorah, mezuzah, minyan, Pesach, Purim, Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat, shema', shofar, shalom, Simchat Torah, seder, sukkah, taU.it, Torah, Tel Aviv, Yom Kippur...
...Most pages in the book follow the mem-page format shown at right...
...Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, one of the largest Reform congregations in the country, has run five marathons...
...This provided a readily available excuse for many...
...That is why, 12 years ago, I originated the Hebrew Literacy Campaign under the sponsorship of the Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs of the Conservative movement...
...At that time, adult Hebrew programs in most synagogues lacked focus...
...In the 20th century, Jews are still among the most literate people in the world...
...In 1978,1 created that program to teach adults Hebrew, not simply because I'm passionately in love with Hebrew—which I am—but because I believe the ability to read Hebrew is the key to the survival of the Jewish people...
...Each congregation holds multiple, parallel, daily classes—mornings, afternoons and evenings...
...Eagerly complying, I wrote the second level textbook called Ayn Keloheynu—the name of a closing hymn of the Shabbat morning service...
...Chaim Herzog, the president of Israel, has proclaimed 1989-1990(5750) Hebrew Language Year...
...Graduation usually is a Friday night service conducted by the graduating class...
...The Reform laity are aware of their deficiency...
...What about Reform congregations...
...Jewish Nobel prize winners often cannot read a simple Hebrew prayer without a transliteration...
...Is there a Hebrew literacy class in Washington...
...Indeed, there is—much life...
...The rebirth of Hebrew as a spoken language is part of that chain of miracles and one of the marvels of our time...
...The answer is, surprisingly, many do not...
...By the end of the year the class size—small to begin with— dwindled nearly to the vanishing point...
...This textbook deals with the major prayers of the Shabbat morning service, key vocabulary, the structure of each prayer, its message, its history and its liturgy...
...Invariably the members of the class end a long day of cumulative learning with smiling faces...
...Hopefully every congregation in the United States will adopt multi-year plans until the matter of Hebrew illiteracy is resolved on a national scale, before the end of this decade...
...In Beth Sholom Congregation of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 350 students...
...Let's proclaim the 1990s the Decade of Hebrew Literacy...
...It was a fullfledged campaign, just like a United Jewish Appeal campaign...
...By the end of the 12th week, the students can read the Friday night service...
...Are they interested in learning to read Hebrew...
...Whoever heard—among American adults—of any enthusiasm for Hebrew...
...More important, the fear (one student called it terror) of Hebrew has been eliminated...
...For many centuries the Jews were the most literate people on earth...
...Many congregations invite me as the originator of the marathon concept to present the first model marathon...
...To help teach it, I created the textbook While Standing On One Foot...
...Amidst the celebration, let us pause to observe a paradox: While Jews in Israel speak Hebrew, Jews in the United States have forgotten how to read Hebrew...
...In Israel today, garbage collectors and atomic scientists alike use Hebrew comfortably in all their daily pursuits...
...A long chain of miracles of biblical proportions culminated in the rebirth of the modern state of Israel...
...More Hebrew Reading Marathons have been run by Reform congregations than by any other denomination...
...In 1890 the great visionary, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, implemented his dream to revive Hebrew as a language of conversation after a silent interval of nearly 2Q00 years...
...In other congregations the teachers include lay leaders...
...Most students eagerly look forward to learning more Hebrew in the follow-up program...
...Several thousand students from Boston to San Diego and from San Antonio to Anchorage have learned the basics of Hecontinued on page 47 You Can Learn to Read Hebrew in One Day continued from page 27 brew reading with the marathon method...
...But during the past 12 years, 70,000 adults in the United States and Canada have learned to read Hebrew in these classes—a breakthrough of historic proportions...
...It got top priority within the congregation—with parlor meetings, brainstorming, commitment of the leadership and full publicity...
...In the textbook, the students read the English definition of the familiar Hebrew word (see illustration at right...
...The campaign strategy was to hold identical classes in each participating synagogue every day of the week with students attending short 12-week sessions...
...Lincoln Square Synagogue, New York, and Beth T'filob Congregation, Baltimore, are among the Orthodox synagogues that have run Hebrew Reading Marathons...
...People with busy schedules had no choices...
...The enthusiasm of students and teachers alike is energizing...
...They are ready and eager for remedial efforts...
...When we began the Hebrew Literacy Campaign in 1978, knowledgeable critics declared the program totally unrealistic...
...By the end of the day, the students know, comfortably and confidently, the entire Hebrew alphabet and can read short, simple Hebrew prayers...
...In Temple De Hirsch Sinai, Seattle, 14 teachers, both professional and lay, taught the Marathon...
...The name conies, of course, from the famous challenge put to the great sage, Hillel: A man agreed to become Jewish if Hillel could teach him the entire Torah "while standing on one foot...
...attrition was high...
...I remember one student from Los Angeles who came to Washington for a week...
...There were many...
...Each student finds a class that suits a busy personal schedule...
...they also gain insight into the making of the language...
...The textbook for this program is Shalom Aleichem, which I created expressly for the campaign...
...Based on this success story, I was asked by the graduating classes to create a second level to the campaign...
...Shir Ha-ma'alot Harbor Reform Temple, Newport Beach, California, trained 12 teachers, including a few teenagers, who did a superb job...
...The motto was: "Those who don't know must learn...
...Fluency requires review, homework, attendance at services and continued attendance in a post-marathon six-week minicourse...
...If students miss a class, they can make it up in another session the same week...
...in Temple Emmanuel, Boston, 300 students...
...During the years 1978-1981, several synagogues throughout the United States and Canada started classes at the same time, the week after Simchat Torah, and proceeded at the same pace following an international curriculum...
...Interest in the existing classes was low...
...In the United States, English illiteracy is a problem among many Americans, but Jews are not part of that problem...
...Classes usually met once a week...
...Numerous audiences responded to Danny's idea with enthusiasm...
...The marathon uses about 180 Hebrew words that most American Jews—although unaware of it—know orally...
...achievement was microscopic...
...In the fall of 1986 Danny Siegel, a charismatic lecturer who has written many poems about his passionate love of Hebrew, began proclaiming in his lectures that it is possible to learn to read Hebrew in a single day—it is that easy...
...I recall one freezing graduation Friday night in a January when the famous Frank Lloyd Wright sanctuary in Beth Sholom Congregation overflowed like the night of Kol Nidre with students and teachers, their young children, families and friends...
...This year we celebrate the centennial of the birth of that dream and its fullfillment...
...It uses the popular song "Shalom Aleichem," the opening hymn at many Friday night services, as a pedagogic stepping stone to teach the reading of Hebrew prayers...
...The most untutored Jew could read the siddur (prayerbook) and the Psalms...
...This program, too has been enormously successful...
...This is a unique vocabulary of 'Jewnglish," Jewish English...
...Rabbinic students from the Hebrew Union College campus in Los Angeles are dedicating weekends to running Hebrew marathons in tiny congregations in Arizona and in the vast out-reaches of California and Idaho...
...Marathon students not only learn the Hebrew alphabet...
...Our students are usually surprised to realize that they have been speaking Hebrew most of their lives: They already have an extensive oral vocabulary that they now need to transform into a reading vocabulary...
...Those who couldn't fit into the class time slot were out of luck...
...She attended one without missing a beat...
...When rulers of medieval Europe were unable to read and write their own languages, Jews served as their secretaries doing the reading and writing for the court...
...impact on the life of the congregation, nil...
...Marathon graduates understand that what they have learned in the marathon is only an introduction to reading...
...They come from all denominations: Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist...
...How does the marathon work...
...Huge congregations had miniscule adult Hebrew classes, and no one asked for more...
...After reading the definition, they automatically read the appropriate word in Hebrew printed at the end of the line...
...To meet this unexpected opportunity, I developed the Hebrew Reading Marathon...
...Hebrew is fun...
...There are no more excuses...
...In each the Temple's four rabbis conducted parallel sessions...
...she asked on arrival...
...The marathon becomes a language appreciation course: Hebrew is beautiful...
...The whole-word method leads to recognition and mastery of individual letters...
...in Ahavath Achim Synagogue, Atlanta, 250...
...The synagogue has become a community of "transliterates...
...The skeptic might ask, don't Orthodox congregants know how to read...
...In Temple of Aaron Congregation, St...
...Is there life after the Marathon...
...They use these words routinely as part of their English conversation, without translation or explanation...
...those who know must teach...
...Paul, 400 adult students studied Hebrew in a single 12-week course under the guidance of 40 lay teachers...
...Indeed, Jews often master several languages...
...This functional oral vocabulary becomes the launching pad for reading these and other words and, in the process, mastering the Hebrew alphabet...
...I devised this method of teaching Hebrew after a decade of experience with the Hebrew Literacy Campaign...
...Lay people were teaching lay people in startling numbers: sometimes 50 teachers in a single congregation...
...The Hebrew Literacy Campaign brought about a radical change in many Conservative congregations throughout the country...
...Each page of the textbook emphasizes a particular Hebrew letter, usually the first letter of each word on that page...
Vol. 15 • August 1990 • No. 4
