INSIDE

Synagogue Listings . 52

Torah Portion

JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

DIANA LIEBERMAN

Copy Editor/Education Writer

I

Twins Hershel and Pearl
Dorman, age 5, have been
learning Hebrew at Adat
Shalom Synagogue's
nursery school.

Children
Will Listen

Adat Shalom Synagogue is among
the nationwide leaders in preschool
Hebrew-immersion programs.

7/ 5
2002

48

is 10:30 on a sunny spring morning at
Ben Porat Yosef: The Sephardic Yeshiva
of Bergen County (New Jersey), and
the 3-year-old nursery school students
are seated at low tables, nibbling on animal
crackers. •
Surrounded by books, toys and colorful
laminated displays with Hebrew and English
letters, the children at the Leonia, N.J., school
chat among themselves in toddler English.
When their teacher, Sara Pearl, walks by, a
girl in red overalls requests od mayim, Hebrew
for "more water." Another girl asks for oogiot,
or cookies, and a boy in a red baseball cap
announces, "Gamarti," Hebrew for "I fin-
ished."
The children, most from families in which
the parents speak only English, are part of a
new experiment in American Jewish educa-
tion — Hebrew-immersion nursery schools.
Amid a growing body of research showing
the benefits of teaching foreign languages to
young children, a small but growing move-
ment is taking hold to offer intensive Hebrew
education for the pre-kindergarten set.
So far, the number of communities besides
Leonia with full-fledged Hebrew-immersion
preschool programs can be counted on one
hand — Baltimore, Washington, suburban
Philadelphia and Adat Shalom Synagogue in
Farmington Hills.
The programs face great challenges, rang-
ing from difficulty in finding qualified
instructors, to the dearth of curricular materi-
als-, to skepticism from parents worried that
the programs will interfere with other learn-
ing.
Proponents of Hebrew immersion say the
programs offer several advantages:
• They introduce Hebrew at an age when
children readily absorb foreign languages, giv-
ing students a head start on supplementary
Hebrew school and day school.
• They spark early connections to Israel.
• They reinforce recent research that shows
studying a foreign language early boosts a
child's brainpower, vocabulary and self-esteem.
• They do not seem to hinder children's
English-language development.
Immersion programs "deliver not only lan-
guage, but also culture. It's a very powerful
model," said Frieda Robins, early childhood
project director at the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America's William Davidson
School of Jewish Education in New York City.

Robins, who is writing a doctoral disserta-
tion on Hebrew immersion, has helped several
Conservative synagogue preschools start such
language programs in the past few years.

Metro Detroit Success Story

Adat Shalom Synagogue started its Hebrew-
immersion program for 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds
two years ago. Two other Detroit-area
Conservative synagogues and the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
plan to open Hebrew-immersion programs
next year.
The Adat Shalom program consists of a
half hour of Hebrew a week for 3-year-olds,
five half-hour sessions a week for 4-year-olds,
and about seven hours of Hebrew a week for
5-year-olds.
Teachers and parents of the students say
the program is yielding powerful results.
"The kids love it. It's fun. And the kids are
really learning a lot," says Jordana Weiss,
director of the Adat Shalom nursery school
and kindergarten.
"When the- program began, I remember
meeting a couple of doubters wondering
whether it was going to take away from their
child learning English or other things," she
says. "Everyone can tell you it has only
enhanced things."
The Hebrew emphasis also is spurring par-
ents to think more seriously about an ongoing
Jewish education for their children, Weiss
says.
Some_ parents for the first time are consid-
ering sending their children to day schools,
she says, and others are newly interested in
exploring afternoon religious schools.
The religious elementary schools where the
children eventually enroll also are being forced
to change.
Adat Shalom is adding Hebrew enrich-
ment to its religious school, and Hillel Day
School of Metropolitan Detroit, also in
Farmington Hills, is exploring a more rigor-
ous track for graduates of the Hebrew-immer-
sion preschool.
Ronnie Kempenich, an American who
lived in Israel for eight years, coordinates early
childhood Hebrew-immersion programs for
the Board of Jewish.Education in
Washington. The programs — currently in a
handful of Washington synagogue schools —
are "a very good way to teach about Israel,"
she says.
"Israel needs the support of Jews living
in this country," Kempenich says, then asks,
"If 20 years down the line, when the next
generation of kids grows up, they don't feel
connections to Israel, then where are you?
Through the language, we can establish that