Diaspora Jews to learn Hebrew online
Jewish Agency, Israeli government to sponsor program allowing Jews abroad to join interactive Hebrew lessons given by teacher in Israeli broadcasting studio
Absorption Minister Zeev Boim is promoting a revolutionary program that will offer Diaspora Jews the opportunity to learn Hebrew online. The program, dubbed “e-learning,” is set to be sponsored by the Israeli government and various Jewish organizations and will be free of charge.
The program was presented for the first time on Wednesday during a meeting of government and Jewish Agency officials in the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.
According to Absorption Ministry studies, one of the main factors Diaspora Jews take into consideration when deciding on whether to make aliyah relates to their knowledge of the Hebrew language.
The Jewish Agency, along with the Education and Absorption ministries, has been operating ulpanim (Hebrew classes) for new immigrants, but the results have not been impressive, and many olim do not even make the effort to attend the classes.
The new program allows the students to log on at their convenience and progress at their own pace. In addition, the program includes visual and audio learning tools not offered by the traditional method.
According to the proposal, the program will be provided to English, French, Spanish and Russian speakers, who will be able to join an interactive online lesson given by a teacher in an Israeli broadcasting studio.
Several commercial companies have been offering interactive Hebrew courses for a number of years with various degrees of success. One of the leading Hebrew online lessons providers, and an affiliate of Ynetnews, is HebrewOnline.com that first opened its virtual doors through a franchise instituted by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that children of diplomats stationed all over the globe would remain up to date with their Hebrew language instruction.
