Over the past three months, a committee of 12 Pardes parents have been meeting once a month to discuss our Jewish Studies and Hebrew curriculum goals and objectives. It is a long and interesting process, and it enabled us to articulate how Pardes' Jewish education is designed. We launched the process with the big question of "Why Hebrew?". This question has been addressed by many Jewish philosophers and scholars over the past few centuries. Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, the author of the famous book Judaism as a Civilization, explained his perspective on why Hebrew is a core element in the life of a Jew: "Hebrew is the thread that binds together all periods of Jewish history and all the juries of the Diaspora. It is the only possible common denomination of Jewish culture life throughout the world". The committee members and our Hebrew faculty agree with Kaplan's notion of of one language that connects us as a kehilah (community), and also with our traditions and culture.

After hours of discussion, the committee members have drafted objectives for the Pardes Hebrew curriculum which are aligned with Kaplan's views. We agreed that Hebrew, as a core strand of our curriculum, must include the acquisition of conversational, reading, and writing skills. Moreover, students should learn the central meaning of various t'filot and will be able to lead services by the end of 8th grade. The revised curriculum will create a good balance between learning modern and liturgical Hebrew. Currently at Pardes, students learn Hebrew on a daily basis through t'filah services, songs, holiday activities, and formal lessons in class. However, articulating our goals through a well-thought-out process will help our teachers refine their teaching and become more focused in achieving well-defined objectives. We look forward to a productive year!

Morah Dina's seventh graders have been learning future tense, which is a complicated verb tense.  Students are also creating electronic presentations about restaurants. Morah Ilanit's seventh graders have been working on a variety of assignments, which they have chosen from a menu of activities. The assignments are connected to the story Elisa's Goblet . Assignment options include creating a board game, writing a discussion between the characters, making a timeline of the story and writing about the good deeds learned in the story.  Morah Yehudit's class finished a book entitled After School Activities .  As an extension activity, each child is writing a story about an extracurricular activity.

Morah Ronit's Third Grade Hebrew class is busy working on a final project to conclude a unit that has concentrated on verbs in present tense, adjectives and objects that describe our learning process. The students are writing their own storybooks about how they learn Hebrew at Pardes. Morah Michal's class is learning how to build sentences, ask questions, convert text to a conversation and differentiate feminine and masculine parts of speech.   The students are enjoying the opportunity to role-play and communicate with their classmates - all in Hebrew! Morah Ilanit's students have been working in centers with each center focusing on a different skill. The stations include building words,practicing listening and reading skills, writing in script and reinforcing vocabulary.

Morah Tali's second graders are enhancing their fluency in reading. They are having fun learning new stories and engaging in reading comprehension through interactive activities using the Smart TV technology. They are excited to learn how to write in cursive and realize that many of the letters in print and cursive look alike. They like to be challenged and write the more complicated cursive letters. The students take turns being the Helper of the Day; they love holding the sign which reminds the other students to try and speak only in Hebrew (Bevakasha Ledaber Rak B'Ivrit!).