Written by Dr. Jeremy Benstein, "Hebrew Wordshops - A New Way to Connect to Hebrew" explores the potency of the three-letter roots that enrich our connection to Hebrew and Jewish values.
If the alef bet is any indication, Greek and Hebrew share a lot. The first letters of the Greek alphabet are α, β, γ, δ—alpha, beta, gamma, delta. And Hebrew? א ,בּ ,ג ,ד—alef, bet, gimmel, dalet.
The same ancient Semitic system, Phoenician in origin, of which Hebrew is one example, gave rise not only to Greek but also Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets.
Yet Greek and Hebrew are very different languages, and are even written in opposite directions. As Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai once wrote, one goes west to east, while the other goes east to west.
In Hebrew, the names of most of the letters actually mean something. They are words, not just sounds. The consonants comprising the name
Educator Batsheva Frankel devotes an entire chapter of her essential Jewish Educator’s Companion to experiential education for formal educational settings. Here’s one idea for an experience, based on the idea that Rosh Hashanah is like a year-end review between an employee and the boss. Have students prepare for their reviews, filling out a self-reflection form (create a template) about their strengths and weaknesses, areas in which they’d like to improve, and accomplishments from the past year. Children can dress up nicely—to impress their employer—adding to the drama. They meet with one of the boss’s assistants (a great way to incorporate older students or teens) to review the form and together make a concrete plan of action
Sunny Yudkoff, former Behrman House intern and now an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, has won the 2018 Baron Book Prize. This prize from the American Academy for Jewish Research is awarded to the author of the best first book in Jewish studies published in the previous year. The prize of $5000 will be awarded at the annual luncheon.
From Behrman House Partner, Vicki Weber: "What a well-deserved honor! We have such a fond spot in our hearts for Sunny and it has been a treat to follow her career and celebrate her many accomplishments.” While she had a hand in many editorial projects during her time as an editorial intern at Behrman House, perhaps her most unusual contribution was as the voice of Batya in the digital components of Alef Bet Quest and Kol Yisrael. “We’ve been