Hebrew class with our teacher Ilana Clyde in Atlantic Canada

BY GILLIAN KING

For the next 50 years! Our teacher Ilana’s answer to the question “how long will our Hebrew classes last?” Her persistence, patience, determination, and support are all demonstrated in that one response!

When I first saw the notice circulating in the weekly AJC newsletter, announcing there would be Hebrew classes made available for those who wanted to sign up, I thought “should I or shouldn’t I ?”. It had always been on my mind that I would love to learn Hebrew because as a child growing up in England, my parents thought it more important for my brothers to take Hebrew classes in preparation for their Bar Mitzvah’s, but not a consideration for girls.

So this late in life, as for others in the class, here is one more item to cross off that list-not that learning conversational Hebrew is ever done, but a long, long work in progress. In our weekly class, led by our wonderful teacher Ilana, we have many reasons for participating: wanting to connect with family in Israel, wanting to be closer to our Jewish culture, wanting more of a sense of community in a spread-out society, wanting to achieve what we may have started earlier. Most of us are from Atlantic Canada, with the occasional Montrealer, Ontarian, and Californian.

It is amazing how a sense of community can be achieved through Zoom, especially when the pandemic has been on our minds and created social isolation for many months.

Initially, Ilana started us off with relatively easy assignments, learning the alphabet, learning to write in block letters, learning to make the sounds correctly especially those that do not exist in English, learning to count. Little by little we make progress, always moving forward under her guiding hand, with humour, warmth, lots of homework, and the opportunity to ask questions. You also have to be ready to be asked on the spot to read the next lesson, to pronounce the next assignment and to be on your toes. There is no snoozing in this class! She corrects us gently and with humour and story-telling. She imitates Israeli’s speaking English with a delightful accent, just to show us how Hebrew expresses an idea differently than we would in English. It is so interesting to see how the culture of a people is expressed through language. We learn so much more than Hebrew; for example, we may learn the etymology of a word, the biblical frame of reference, or a more traditional and a more modern expression of a similar idea.

Ilana’s teaching style is unique- we are enraptured by her story-telling which demonstrates a point made in class, we have to think through concepts that do not exist in English, her memorable demonstrations of exaggerated accents to make a point, and her gentle manner of correcting us. As Stephen P. says “She teaches with gusto and encouragement and creates excitement in learning.” And from Rosalind M., “Learning Hebrew is not only a course in discipline, but also one with great enjoyment and coming together as a community”

From Sandra H. “Ilana teaches wholeheartedly while embracing each and everyone of her students with close attention and encouragement. She makes us feel like one of the family.

More than just teaching language skills, she impacts a wealth of cultural, historical and linguistic background about Israel and the Hebrew language.” According to another classmate, Judy S., “This lady is a marvel, dedicated, extremely knowledgeable, encouraging, positive and lots of fun! Marcia S. asks if this is magic and answers no, it is hard work, she is committed and she expects her students to work a little bit too, to study each week, do the homework and try.”

Sylvia M. has described the challenge and gaining confidence with Ilana and benefitting so that when she next goes to Israel she can surprise her family and friends there with her newly-found Hebrew! Phyllis M. tells us of the amazing journey, learning, laughing and lots of encouragement along the way to appreciating the Hebrew language.

We have learned about Ilana’s colourful background, in the IDF, then as a professional ballerina in an Israeli troupe, travelling the globe to perform, as a dance teacher, then as a choreologist putting dance movements to music. She moved to North America and adapted to become a Hebrew teacher. She clearly loves to teach and I believe I speak for the class in saying we love to learn from her.

With appreciation for the input from my fellow Hebrew learners for their thoughts in writing this article. S

Gillian was born and raised in London, England in a traditional extended Jewish family. She moved to Montreal with her immediate family and graduated from Concordia University. After a long career in the corporate world, focussing on the human aspects of leadership and management, she completed the graduate program at Royal Roads University, B.C. in Leadership and Executive Development and then opened her own consulting business focussing on clients in Atlantic Canada. After retiring several years ago, she has focussed on gardening at her home on the ocean near Halifax Harbour, Jewish genealogy, enjoying a book club which she started with friends and now studying Hebrew. She is married to Dr. David King and they have one son, Daniel, living in Brooklyn, NY.