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Charlotte Jewish Day School Enhances the Dual Language Curriculum
September 2023
This is a great year for Charlotte Jewish Day School (CJDS) for all things Israel. We are thrilled to welcome Nitzan Arad to the Charlotte Jewish Community this year. Nitzan, her husband Alon, and her three children have just arrived to make Charlotte their home. Nitzan will be teaching Ivrit (Hebrew) to our students in grades 2-7. She comes to us with twelve years of teaching experience in Israel, the Philippines, and Sofia, Bulgaria. Her experience, enthusiasm, and passion will certainly elevate the delivery of the Hebrew language at CJDS. We are looking forward to having a teacher solely committed to strengthening the Hebrew language and culture for our students, especially in the older grades.
In addition, we have two student teachers from Israel who will be joining our school for this year. They will be supporting Hebrew reading and writing, and will provide multiple opportunities to infuse Hebrew during lunch, recess, and general programming. We look forward to hearing the sounds of Hebrew being spoken in the hallways of our school. We are very excited to welcome Talia Gwedj and Galia Levy. Both girls are from Rechovot.
There are many additional benefits to a dual language curriculum. Educational studies suggest the following benefits of early foreign language education:
• Improves overall school performance and produces superior problem-solving skills.
• Students develop greater cognitive flexibility, demonstrating increased attention control, better memory, and enhanced listening skills.
• Helps students statistically outperform their peers in standardized verbal testing.
Our goals for our students are to connect with, learn, and experience everything Israel, so that when they are grown, they will be ready to engage, participate, contribute, and become an integral part of the Jewish discussion. It is so important for our youth to feel a deep connection to Israel and a responsibility to stand for Israel. The only way to do that is to educate and empower our kids with knowledge of the facts and conversation.
