Learning to speak Hebrew in ‘Hebrew school’? Not exactly

MAYA MIRSKY | J. STAFF

Rabbi Nicki Greninger thinks part-time religious education is vocabulary, the thinking goes, can connect the students to the “Jewish education works best when it doesn’t look like, sound due for a name change. wider Jewish community. like, or feel like ‘school.’” Her school uses a Hebrew-language

“When we call it ‘Hebrew school,’ people assume you’re Teaching Hebrew for prayer illuminates another curriculum called Onward Hebrew, which waits until sixth going to learn Hebrew, and that means full spoken-language finding from the research: No matter how schools focus grade before introducing decoding. proficiency,” she said in a recent webinar presenting new their pedagogy, students can learn only so much in the At Oakland’s Temple Sinai, plenty of time has been spent research on the subject. “And we all I think recognize that time allotted. According to the researchers, teachers at since the pandemic hit figuring out how to adapt, said directhat’s not really possible in the limited hours that we have.” synagogue schools on average spend 3.9 hours per week tor of education Stephanie Ben Simon.

Greninger, director of lifelong learning at Temple Isaiah in instructing sixth-graders (the prime grade for b’nai mitz- “We at Temple Sinai immediately went to: ‘What are our Lafayette, was part of a team that recently conducted research vah preparation), with less than half of that time, 1.7 hours, goals?’” she said. on what it means to “learn Hebrew” at religious school. spent on Hebrew. For one thing, with kids unable to do their usual extraThe report found that most synagogue-based programs Weisz believes that the focus on “decoding,” or reading Hebrew characters without current state of affairs, where understanding them, as opposed to teaching conversational study is scaled back to fit in Hebrew. with a host of other extra-

Bottom line? There just isn't time for more. Choosing curricular activities, does a how and what to teach is only one aspect of an educational disservice to kids and famitradeoff that religious school programs have been struggling lies. Sports teams can require with for decades, as families commit less and less of their kids’ training three days a week afterschool time to Jewish education. and travel for games on the

“This has become secondary, below sports, or the arts, weekend, for example. or music,” said Phil Hankin, director of education at Temple “People would riot in the Emanu-El in San Jose. Greninger — along with co-authors Netta Avineri, a “Jewish education works best when it language-learning assistant professor at the Middlebury Institute of International doesn’t look like, sound like, or feel like school.” Studies in Monterey, and Sarah Bunin Benor, a profesJQuest website Students at Temple Isaiah’s JQuest in 2019. (Courtesy/Temple Isaiah) sor at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles — surveyed parking lot if we asked [for] even a fraction of that,” Weisz said. curricular activities, more time is left for learning. “The time over 500 school directors He’d like to see a robust program with more time in the crunch is a bit less of a conversation, in some ways,” Ben across the country, inter- classroom. Even if some kids inevitably aren’t enthusiastic Simon said. On the other hand, some parents are concerned viewed students, observed about spending more time in school, Weisz said, it’s up to the about adding more screen time to their child’s day, and teachclasses and looked at curric- parents to convey to them that Jewish education is a priority ers are missing seeing students in person. ula. The study was funded by over other activities. “You can’t really feel the energy, you can’t really feel the the Avi Chai Foundation and “Being Jewish is not a hobby,” he said. “It is who we are. togetherness when you just see people in these boxes,” said the Jim Joseph Foundation But we can’t expect it to be much of who we are if we don’t Hankin of San Jose’s Temple Emanu-El. and was done in partnership make time for it.” Weisz says switching to screens has been tough, but he with the Consortium for Synagogues try to make the most of the time they do have also sees a silver lining. He thinks online educational tools — Applied Studies in Jewish — or, as Adam Lowy of San Francisco’s Congregation Beth in Hebrew learning, for example — may gain a foothold after Education. Sholom said, “less, but more meaningful.” the pandemic. “When it comes to certain areas of instruction,

The findings across Lowy’s title is moreh derech, or “one who shows the path,” it works great,” he said. the board concluded that at most religious schools, Rabbi Nicki Greninger instead of director of education. He started the position during the pandemic, when everyone was making changes in He’s looking forward to getting kids back in classrooms and hopes he might even see them more often, with the including in the Bay Area, their approaches to teaching. Synagogue leaders already had pandemic shifting priorities and perspectives on kids’ overthe focus is on teaching kids how to sound out Hebrew letters been planning to phase in a new “emergent curriculum,” and scheduled lives — that the “bubble of extracurriculars has so they can read from prayerbooks and prepare for their b’nai instead decided to dive in right away. burst.” mitzvahs when they read from the Torah. But reading isn’t the Emergent curriculum is a common methodology in early “Today the kids are so stressed out, or they were,” Weisz same thing as understanding. childhood education that is responsive to the interests and said. “I believe that’s going to change.”

“In most communities, Hebrew instruction for compre- questions of students, rather than the more traditional, adult- Greninger’s research found that 67 percent of the 133 hension is not the goal,” confirmed Alex Weisz, director of led approach that moves kids through learning modules — students surveyed liked their religious school experience, youth education at Peninsula Sinai Congregation in Foster on holidays, history or prayer — in a certain order. while 20 percent loved it. That is a contrast with the reputaCity. For the families who send their kids to Weisz’s program “Ideally, [learning] emerges from the interests of the tion among some in their parents’ generation, who recall the every week, the goal is “can they pick up a haggadah every students,” Lowy said. “This opportunity came, and we decided “gas station” model experience: “Drop your kid off, fill them up year and be able to read it,” he said. to take this as a chance to just go for it.” with some Judaism, and pick them up,” she said. “That doesn’t

Where schools expand beyond decoding, the report said, The Bay Area generally has a culture of openness to inno- work [anymore].” it is usually about infusing Hebrew into the language of the vation in education, according to Greninger. She’s seen it play out at her own school. She worked with school and synagogue environment, rather than teaching “Things are very different than they probably used to be,” a family that she said was resistant to sending their kid to conversational skills. A happy greeting of “boker tov,” Hebrew she said. “There are a lot of creative models.” JQuest. But once Greninger convinced them to try it, they for “good morning,” encourages kids to think of Hebrew as At her synagogue school, students learn about “God, Torah made a complete U-turn. a language that is culturally relevant to them, even if they and Israel” through three tracks: art, building and nature. The “They were like, this is amazing, and our kids love it!” she are not conversant in it. Teaching phrases, expressions or program is called JQuest because, as the website explains, said. n