THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF BIBLE STUDY.

Teacher‐training programs for Jewish educators in the United States have de‐emphasized the Hebrew language as an essential element in their curricula. Research in the field of sociolinguistics points to the relationship of language, culture, and identity. It is the purpose of this paper to point out the intimate relationship between Hebrew language and Jewish culture and identity. The de‐emphasis of Hebrew‐language learning leads teachers to present a culture and religion which does not properly reflect the texts, culture, and practice that form the base of Jewish tradition. The need to transmit an authentic tradition effectively requires an awareness and understanding of the centrality of Hebrew in the training of Jewish teachers.     

Hebrew Education in the United States: Historical Perspectives and Future Directions

This article sketches the trajectory of Hebrew education in the United States from the early 1900s to the present. Attending to the historiography of Hebrew education, it shows how current curricula and pedagogical approaches have been stamped by historical considerations and language ideologies, how goals and strategies have changed (or remained the same) over time, and how the evolution of the field has been driven both by internal dynamics within the Jewish community and by changes in the broader social and political context of the United States. It concludes with a framework for constructing a meaningful research agenda for the future.     

Morphological processing during visual word recognition in Hebrew as a first and a second language

The present study examined whether sublexical morphological processing takes place during visual word-recognition in Hebrew, and whether morphological decomposition of written words depends on lexical activation of the complete word. Furthermore, it examined whether morphological processing is similar when reading Hebrew as a first language (L1) or as a second language (L2), and whether L1’s morphological background, Semitic or Indo-European, modulates morphological processing in L2 Hebrew (a Semitic language), among proficient readers. To reveal the sublexical processing of the Hebrew morphemes, the Root (R) and the Pattern (P), a lexical-decision task was conducted, in which all critical stimuli were non-word letter-strings manipulated to include or exclude real Hebrew morphemes. Different combinations of real (+) and pseudo (?) morphemes yielded four types of non-words (+R+P; +R?P; ?R+P, ?R?P). Three groups of proficient Hebrew readers were tested: L1 Hebrew, L1 English-L2 Hebrew, and L1 Arabic-L2 Hebrew. Results demonstrated significant differences in latency and accuracy of responses to the four morphological conditions, indicating that sublexical morphological processing occurs during visual word-recognition of morphologically structured letter-strings in Hebrew. Importantly, the activation of real Hebrew morphemes occurred in non-word stimuli, indicating that morphological processing in Hebrew is separable from lexical activation. Moreover, the same pattern of results was observed in all three L1 groups, indicating that proficient L2 readers exhibit morphological processing strategies that are tuned to the L2 morphology, regardless of their L1 background.     

Reading skills in three orthographies: The case of trilingual Arabic–Hebrew–English-speaking Arab children

This study is an investigation into theinterconnections among three languages, Arabic,Hebrew and English, each of which has adifferent orthography. Hebrew and Arabic havemore in common with each other than withEnglish; they are considered ``shallow'orthographies if vowelized and ``deep'orthographies if unvowelized. The reading,language, and working memory skills of 70trilingual Israeli-Arab students, aged 14–15,were assessed. Arabic was their maininstructional language in school, and Hebrewand English were studied as required subjects.All these adolescents studied Hebrew from thethird grade and English from the fourth grade.They were administered word and pseudowordreading, language, orthographic, and workingmemory tests in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. Inspite of differences among these threelanguages, the majority of the children showedadequate proficiency in three languages. Asignificant relationship was found between theacquisition of word and pseudoword readingskills, working memory, and syntactic awarenessskills within and across the three languages.Trilingualism of this nature seems not to havenegative consequences (and may even havepositive consequences) for the development oforal language and reading skills in the threelanguages in spite of their differentorthographies.     

Why Bonnie and Ronnie Can't “Read” (the Siddur)

In the last issue of the Journal (volume 75, number 4), we read about our esteemed colleague Israel Scheffler's love affair with Hebrew. In this issue, we continue the conversation about Hebrew as part of a series of articles by distinguished senior colleagues who bring the wisdom earned by a lifelong career in Jewish education.

Many of us share Scheffler's love affair with Hebrew, and we are anguished by the challenges facing the American Jewish community with regard to the teaching and learning of Hebrew language. Whenever educators sit together, no matter the setting, they discuss: What are the best ways to teach Hebrew? What are ambitious, but reasonable goals for Hebrew language learning in pre-schools, day schools and after school programs? What constitutes literacy in each of these settings?

In this article, Lifsa Schachter, professor emeritus of education at the Segal College, shares some of her ideas on a range of questions such as these. Her ideas emanate from the research literature on second language acquisition, as well as from her own experiences and experiments designed to make a difference in the domain of Hebrew language learning. Lee Shulman (Shulman, 1987 Shulman, L. 1987. Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Education Review, Spring, : 1–20.  [Google Scholar]) asserts the validity of using the “wisdom of practice” in addressing educational challenges such as this one. Hebrew language teaching is an instance where experienced practitioners hold much knowledge. Yet, little of their knowledge has been committed to writing.

We're delighted to share this article with you and hope that it encourages others to write about grappling with the challenges of Hebrew language learning in our schools. We encourage our senior colleagues in particular to share their wisdom about this and other issues that can make Jewish education vital and vibrant for the Jewish people in the twenty-first century.     

The Bilingual Program In The Jewish Nursery School

It all began in the second decade of the 1900's. I was then a pupil in an old-fashioned cheder. Mr. Louis Hurwich, of blessed memory, was invited by the Associated Jewish Charities to make a survey of Jewish education in Boston preparatory to the establishment of a Bureau of Jewish Education which he headed as superintendent for many decades. He visited my cheder and selected me as one who should learn Hebrew as a spoken language. He convinced my parents to transfer me to a Hebrew School which used the Ivrit B'Ivrit method of teaching. I made the transfer though this meant a long daily walk of several miles. Upon graduation, he encouraged me to attend the Hebrew Teachers' Training School which was the precursor of the Hebrew Teachers' College, now called Hebrew College.     

“It Planted the Seeds:” A Retrospective Study of Jewish Family Education's Impact on Families

Current Theories of Moral Education

If one were to attempt to compare the relationship between modern Hebrew spoken in Israel today to the so-called classical language of the Bible and modern English to its equivalent historical counterpart, the closest (and still not the most accurate) analogy would have to be: Modern Hebrew: Biblical Hebrew is like Modern English: Shakespearian English. In reality, however, the language of Shakespeare is much further removed from contemporary English speakers than the language of the Bible is from speakers of modern Hebrew.     

THE REAL MISSION OF THE BUREAU

Education is a profession. It is unique in that most people believe they have a handle on what education should be. Education is the only profession for whom the service recipient believes himself to be as knowledgeable as the service provider. In Jewish education, this may be compounded to the extent that parents of the service recipient remember a negative experience in Hebrew school.     

中国圣经希伯来语教育状况与互动发展前景

在中国,希伯来语教育分为圣经希伯来语教育和现代希伯来语教育,前者的实体是神学院的旧约原文课,后者的实体是中国独有的普通高校外语非通用语种现代希伯来语专业.文章对中国大陆以及中国台湾省、香港、澳门特别行政区的神学院开设旧约圣经希伯来语课程情况作了全面调研,形成了中国圣经希伯来语教育较完整的资料,并对中国圣经希伯来语教育的发展,以及各地区神学院希伯来语教育的互动、神学院希伯来语教育与普通高校现代希伯来语教育的互动作了思考.     

Social and cognitive factors influencing the reading comprehension of Arab students learning Hebrew as a second language in Israel

This study investigated the relationship of the attitudes and cultural background of Arab students in Israel to their reading comprehension of stories from Jewish and Arab culture. Participants were 74 eighth-grade Arab students (age 14–15 years) from Israel, learning Hebrew as a second language (L2). An attitude questionnaire, stories from Arab and Jewish culture and multiple-choice questions about each story were used. Results indicated that students scored higher on tasks of reading comprehension with texts from their own cultural setting than with texts from a culturally unfamiliar setting. Furthermore, results of the attitude questionnaire showed that motivation of Arab students to learning Hebrew was primarily instrumental rather than integrative. A conclusion of this study is that problematic social contexts negatively affect L2 learning of minority students. In order to facilitate Hebrew L2 learning, L2 curricula should include Hebrew language texts with content culturally familiar and relevant to the life of Arab learners.     

Attitudes and Psycholinguistic Aspects of First Language Maintenance among Russian‐Jewish Immigrants in Israel

ABSTRACT This study investigated the social attitudes and academic skills in Russian and Hebrew of Russian‐Jewish immigrant students in northern Israel. The Russian community in Israel is unique in that its members maintain their language and culture and always show their singularity as a strong cohesive ethnic group. A total of 60 participants took part in the study. They answered an attitude questionnaire and the following tests in Russian and Hebrew: working memory, oral cloze, visual condition, phonological condition, orthographic condition, word attack, word identification and spelling test. Further, for validation of attitudes results beyond self‐report questionnaires, 30 open interviews were conducted. The results indicated that these Russian new immigrants were inslrumentally oriented towards learning Hebrew. They possessed moderate anxiety and did not learn Hebrew for army service purposes or to integrate into Israeli society. Their attitude towards the class‐learning situation was not very positive. The results of the linguistic skills in Russian and Hebrew indicated superiority of the former. Regression procedures indicated that only the spelling test score of the Russian language was a significant predictor of Hebrew word recognition.     

古代希伯来民族的美学思想及艺术表现

古代希伯来民族的美学思想可以概括为以上帝为美、以上帝的创造活动为美、以上帝看着是“好的”创造物为美三个方面,涉及到崇高、和谐、抽象、神秘、恐惧、理性之美、感性之美、美即真、美即善等美学范畴和观念体系。古代希伯来民族以上帝为中心的美学思想与犹太教教义及伦理道德内容的反对偶像崇拜,共同导致了犹太艺术形成摈弃具象写实、注重内在情感、意象思维与抽象主义相结合的传统精神,犹太艺术不是再现的艺术,而是表现的艺术,象征型艺术。古代犹太民族在语言、音乐等内在主情的抽象艺术方面取得了惊人的成就,而绘画、雕塑、建筑等直观造型艺术却黯然失色,戏剧舞台艺术甚至是一片空白。     

Code-Switching Functions in Modern Hebrew Teaching and Learning

The teaching and learning of Modern Hebrew outside of Israel is essential to Jewish education and identity. One of the most contested issues in Modern Hebrew pedagogy is the use of code-switching between Modern Hebrew and learners’ first language. Moreover, this is one of the longest running disputes in the broader field of second language research and education. Based on recent conceptualizations of bi/multilingualism together with findings from an empirical investigation of beginner students at an Australian university, this article argues that strategic use of code-switching serves the needs of both learners and teachers working within a bi/multilingual educational environment.     

艺术语言:形象观照的审美方式

艺术语言往往以形象观照的审美方式对反映客体和发话主体双重肯定。艺术语言的美的本质是发话主体本质力量的对象化。在艺术语言的运思过程中,体现了发话主体审美的差异性。艺术语言的产生往往以情感为内趋力,这种情感一旦在内心成熟,就会极力地寻找某种方式呈现和表达出来,它具有感动力和感染力。它通过有限的言语,表达了发话主体丰富的思想、情感以及社会内容。它是个性的表现,不用陈辞乱套,不守定法,而用活法。它虽然具有辞才和辞气,但它自然,浑然天成。     

Difficulties in L2 Hebrew Reading in Russian-speaking Second Graders

The present study examined factors that influence the process of learning to read in a second language. The Hebrew reading comprehension skills of 68 Russian-speaking children (mean age 7 years 6 months) were screened at the start of Grade 2. From this sample, 40 participants were selected: 20 successful learners and 20 unsuccessful learners. These two groups were then tested on a wide range of language skills (e.g., phonological processing, vocabulary, syntactic and morphological awareness) in both languages (Hebrew and Russian) and reading skills in Hebrew (e.g., reading speed and accuracy). Two factors, level of spoken Hebrew and phonological awareness deficits in both languages, were significant. Phonological awareness difficulties constituted the key factor associated with poor decoding whereas insufficient mastery of spoken Hebrew was important in the case of reading comprehension. An interesting dissociation was also found in our poor readers between impaired phonological awareness and other unimpaired phonological processing abilities such as oral pseudoword repetition and working memory. These findings suggest that, in addition to poor spoken L2 proficiency, poor readers are characterized more by a metalinguistic rather than a linguistic deficit in their native tongue.     

The impact of the First Language First model on vocabulary development among preschool bilingual children

The aim of this exploratory study was to examine the role of the First Language First model for preschool bilingual education in the development of vocabulary depth. The languages studied were Russian (L1) and Hebrew (L2) among bilingual children aged 4–5 years in Israel. According to this model, the children’s first language of educational instruction (up to age three) is the language to which they are exposed at home. Their second language—the dominant language of the country that is spoken by the majority of the population—is acquired sequentially, after relative maturity in the first language. Fifty-one Russian/Hebrew-speaking bilinguals (around age four) were selected from bilingual (Russian/Hebrew) preschools, which used the First Language First approach, and monolingual (Hebrew) preschools. The research was designed as a longitudinal study, as the children’s vocabulary was measured at two time-points—near the beginning and the end of the academic year. The children’s vocabulary was measured in both languages by examining its depth dimensions (paradigmatic semantic relations and syntagmatic semantic relations). The results demonstrated that the later immersion in L2 and continuing development of L1 within the First Language First model does not results in retardation in development of bilingual children in L2 in comparison to their bilingual peers from the monolingual (Hebrew) preschools. In addition, this model of early bilingual development enhances the linguistic interdependence of depth of vocabulary knowledge, and, therefore, supports balanced bilingual development.     

The role of vowels in reading Semitic scripts: Data from Arabic and Hebrew

This study investigated the effect of vowels and context on readingaccuracy of skilled adult native Arabic speakers in Arabic and inHebrew, their second language. Their reading comprehension was alsotested in Arabic and Hebrew texts as a function of vowels. Theparticipants (n = 65) read fully vowelized and unvowelized lists ofArabic words, and vowelized and unvowelized paragraphs of Arabic.Further, they, read pointed and unpointed lists of Hebrew words, andpointed and unpointed paragraphs of Hebrew. They were also administeredtwo stories, one in Arabic and one in Hebrew, in two reading conditions,a fully vowelized and unvowelized Arabic story and a pointed andunpointed Hebrew story. The results revealed a significant effect forvowels and for context across all reading conditions in Arabic andHebrew. The surprising result was that the vowelized texts in Arabic andthe pointed and unpointed texts in Hebrew were comprehendedsignificantly better. Further, Pearson correlation procedures andmultiple regression analysis indicated no positive significantrelationship between oral reading accuracy results and silent readingcomprehension results. These findings are explained throughcharacteristics of the Semitic languages Arabic and Hebrew, and thetriliteral/quadriliteral-root model is suggested toexplain reading in unvowelized/unpointed texts in Semitic languages.     

Morpho-Phonemic Similarity within and between Languages: A Factor to be Considered in Processing Arabic and Hebrew

The goal of the present study was to explore the pattern of lexical connections between translation equivalents represented in the cognitive system of an Arabic-Hebrew bilingual. To achieve this goal, repetition priming effects (reaction times (RTs) and accuracy measures) were compared between translation equivalents in the two forms of Arabic, Spoken Arabic (SA) and Literary Arabic (LA), with those between translation equivalents in Hebrew and LA, in native Arabic students living in Israel. While these students master Hebrew as well as they master LA, they consider it as a second language. LA targets were preceded by cognate and non-cognate translation equivalents in SA or Hebrew either immediately (Lag 0) or separated by four unrelated words (Lag 4), in a lexical decision task. The participants were requested to make a word/non-word decision regardless of language. Across languages, morpho-phonemic similarities augmented the repetition priming effects. At Lag 0 this effect was larger when the primes were in Hebrew than when they were in SA. At Lag 4, however, the priming effect between Hebrew and LA was significantly reduced (and even absent for non-cognates). In contrast, the priming effect between Spoken and Literary Arabic was only slightly attenuated. The conclusion was that, despite the intensive daily use and psychological proximity, Spoken and Literary Arabic are represented as first and second languages in the cognitive system of the native Arabic reader, entertaining distinct lexica. However, the strength of the lexical associations between translation equivalents is influenced by the frequency of concomitant use.     

The medium of instruction in Tanzania: reflections on language,education and society

The use of English as a medium in post‐primary education in Tanzania raises issues of language education policy, of relations between English, education and science and of access to opportunities and economic dependency. It also underlies questions of power relations and of resource distribution. It is argued here that language education policy decisions are socio‐economic, since they entail a reversal of power relations and may lead to certain groups in the community, whose language is not selected, finding themselves at the fringes of the socio‐economic and political spectrum. Language policy is about choice, speaking rights, representation, since language is inseparable from politics and development. Education becomes a prerequisite for socioeconomic development in post‐colonial Africa.