What Would Jabotinsky Expect from a Hebrew Program Today?
Elinor Leib-Nahum is the Director of Hebrew Studies at Wornick Jewish Day School in Foster City, California, where she joined in 2019. Previously, she worked in Israel as a Hebrew educator, pedagogical coordinator, and language mentor for the Tel Aviv District. She is passionate about helping students discover how language opens a world of culture, identity, and connection.
In recent years, we have found ourselves returning to a question that feels both old and new: If early Zionist thinkers believed that reviving Hebrew could reshape Jewish life, how might they have imagined teaching it in communities far from the land where it would be revived? We are not historians of Zionist pedagogy, and we do not pretend to reconstruct their educational blueprints. But reading figures such as Ze’ev Jabotinsky alongside other early-twentieth-century voices forces us to pause and plan intentionally. For them, Hebrew was never meant to function merely as a school subject. It was imagined as atmosphere, as music, as discipline, as shared inheritance. It was something that would seep into consciousness and form character.
Ze’ev Jabotinsky, founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement and the Betar youth organization, is often remembered for his political writings and sharp polemics. Yet woven throughout his speeches and essays is a sustained concern with formation. He did not view national revival as a technical matter of sovereignty alone. He believed that a renewed Jewish people required renewed habits of speech, bearing, expectation, and self-understanding. Language stood at the center of that renewal. Hebrew was not simply a tool to be mastered; it was a medium through which a different kind of Jewish personality could be cultivated.
Betar articulated this formation through a vocabulary of character: Hadar, Tagar, Tziut, Had Nes, and Magen. These were not abstract slogans printed on banners—they were meant to guide the daily life of youth, how one stood in formation, how one spoke, how one carried responsibility, how one understood belonging. While we inhabit a very different historical context, this vocabulary has offered us a framework for examining our own Hebrew program.
Hadar referred to dignity and beauty and it attempts to cultivate nobility expressed in speech, posture, and tone. Jabotinsky worried openly about mediocrity. He feared that if Hebrew revival produced a language that sounded careless or thin, it would fail to inspire attachment. Dignity required refinement. It required attention to cadence and clarity. When we consider Hebrew through this lens, we ask what students experience when they hear it in our hallways and classrooms. Does it feel hurried and transactional, or deliberate and embodied?
For that reason, we have paid careful attention to who carries the language in front of students. Through the World Zionist Organization’s shelihut framework, schools have access to Israeli emissaries whose professional backgrounds often extend beyond conventional teacher preparation. Over the years, we have worked with educators who previously performed in Israel’s national dance and theater companies. They bring with them trained voices, disciplined movement, and an instinct for staging language. When such teachers lead a song, direct a dramatic reading, or model pronunciation, Hebrew acquires texture. Students encounter the language in breath and gesture as well as in text. Our students sing Hebrew beautifully in middle school rock bands, dance to modern Israeli music at ceremonies, and put on Hebrew performances. A few years ago, we started teaching physical education to our elementary grade students in Hebrew. They now speak Hebrew as they move on the field and as they compete against others in middle school athletics.
We have also deepened students’ exposure to classic Hebrew songs written by major composers and poets. Lyrics are studied closely. Unfamiliar words are unpacked. Students perform short scenes and public recitations that require them to attend to tone and rhythm. These practices are modest, yet they communicate that Hebrew deserves craft. Over time, we have observed a shift in posture. Students slow down. They listen differently. The language begins to feel layered rather than mechanical.
Tagar, meaning challenge, reflects Jabotinsky’s conviction that growth requires resistance. Betar culture did not imagine character emerging from comfort. It cultivated resilience through standards and expectation. Applied to Hebrew education, Tagar raises a practical question: Are students encountering real intellectual stretch?
We conduct reading benchmarks multiple times each year. We share these results with our Board of Trustees annually and take pride in the achievement of our students. Younger students complete structured task-based assessments that measure decoding and fluency. Older students are evaluated on both isolated word fluency and connected-text comprehension, including pacing and phrasing. The purpose is not competition—it is continuity. When a student hears their own reading in October and again in May, the difference becomes audible. Hebrew shifts from being a static requirement to a skill built through effort. That experience of earned growth fosters confidence that is quieter and more durable than praise alone.
Tziut is often translated as obedience, though its deeper resonance is disciplined responsibility. In Betar culture, Tziut meant loyalty to a collective mission and internalized order. It was not blind submission but cultivated alignment. In the context of Hebrew education, Tziut surfaces in habits. Careful pronunciation matters; attention to grammatical structure matters; sustained practice matters. These are not glamorous commitments, yet they build integrity.
We have also tried to weave Hebrew into the operational life of the school. We have elevated Hebrew speaking administrators into roles of authority. Teachers use Hebrew not only during formal lessons but in the ordinary choreography of the day when asking students to line up, when redirecting behavior, when offering reminders or encouragement. The language appears in moments of structure and expectation. Students hear Hebrew associated with attentiveness and responsibility. Over time, it becomes part of the school’s rhythm rather than a scheduled interruption.
Had Nes evokes standing beneath a banner, the consciousness of belonging to something larger than oneself. For Jabotinsky, Hebrew was the medium through which Jews encountered themselves as a people in public life. It was never meant to remain private enrichment.
We therefore ask whether students experience Hebrew as connecting them beyond their immediate surroundings. Elementary students at our school exchange letters with peers at WIZO Nir HaEmek in Israel. The correspondence is uneven and heartfelt. Students wait eagerly for replies, revising drafts carefully before sending them. Middle school students read contemporary Israeli media articles and discuss what they encounter. They discover that Hebrew is not frozen in liturgy or textbooks; it participates in ongoing cultural and political conversations. Native speakers conclude units with live Zoom conversations tied to what they have studied. They meet with members of the Israeli national bank when studying about currency or hear from Israeli athletes and cultural figures in Hebrew while studying about discrete topics in modern Israel. In these encounters, Hebrew becomes a shared space. Students sense that they are stepping into an existing dialogue.
Magen, the idea of guardianship, reminds us that revival requires protection as well as creativity. To guard something is not to preserve it in glass. It is to maintain its integrity. In our context, Magen expresses itself in attention to linguistic quality. We resist reducing Hebrew to transliteration for convenience. We encourage careful diction and sustained engagement with literary texts. Students are asked to notice precision and to recognize when language has been flattened. Stewardship requires educators who are willing to insist that Hebrew carries nuance and deserves time.
We do not imagine Betar as a template to be imported wholesale into a contemporary school. Our circumstances differ dramatically from Jabotinsky’s Europe, yet his insistence that Hebrew form character continues to resonate. Hadar asks about dignity; Tagar asks about effort; Tziut asks about responsibility; Had Nes asks about belonging; Magen asks about stewardship. Together, these concepts invite us to see Hebrew not only as a curriculum but as culture.
The work remains ongoing. Some efforts take root quickly; others require refinement. What has become clear to us is that Hebrew acquires depth when students encounter it repeatedly and from multiple angles—through art, through discipline, through daily structure, through relationship, and through care. When language touches intellect, emotion, habit, and collective identity, it begins to carry weight.
The question that guides us remains generative rather than nostalgic: If Hebrew revival once aimed to cultivate a people, what habits and experiences allow that aspiration to remain alive in our own setting? We continue to explore the answer in the daily work of teaching and learning.
Elinor Leib-Nahum is the Director of Hebrew Studies at Wornick Jewish Day School in Foster City, California, where she joined in 2019. Previously, she worked in Israel as a Hebrew educator, pedagogical coordinator, and language mentor for the Tel Aviv District. She is passionate about helping students discover how language opens a world of culture, identity, and connection.
From The Editor: Spring 2026
By the time I entered the elementary school I attended, it had been around for nearly 50 years and was already in decline. Despite the challenges, there were two things which left a lasting impression. The Jewish studies, which occupied the first half of the day, were all conducted in Hebrew, Ivrit beIvrit; some of the teachers were dedicated, die-hard Hebraists who provided me with a very solid foundation. The Hebrew that I learned gave me access to Israeli songs popularized after the Six Day War and to classic Jewish texts—the siddur, Humash, and even to Gemara (yes, Aramaic and Hebrew are closely connected). The language enabled me to act as a translator when my father’s cousin came to visit from Israel, and even enabled me, years later, to attend a regular Israeli yeshiva—in Hebrew.
Aside from the Hebrew language, the school was suffused with Israeli culture.
Hebrew, Achievement, and Educational Leadership: The Process of Building Depth and Durability
בבתי ספר יהודיים בתפוצות, הוראת עברית נעה זה שנים בין שני קטבים: מחד, שפה של זהות, רגש וחיבור לעם ולמדינה; מאידך, מקצוע הנאבק על מקומו מול תחומי דעת הנתפסים כ”ליבתיים” ובעלי יוקרה אקדמית. כמנהל מחלקה לעברית וכמורה בבית ספר יהודי־ציוני, מצאתי את עצמי שואל לא פעם: האם תפקידי הוא להגיב לציפיות משתנות של תלמידים, הורים והקשר פוליטי, או שמא להציב חזון חינוכי ברור—גם במחיר של חיכוך, עומס ואתגר מערכתי. מתוך התבוננות בזהותי כמחנך עברי־ציוני ובחיבור לערכים שעליהם גדלתי, בחרתי לראות בעברית לא רק כלי זהותי אלא תחום דעת מלא: שפה חיה, תרבות עשירה, וספרות ושירה הראויות להילמד ללא התנצלות ובסטנדרטים אקדמיים ברורים.
When Hebrew Became a Lifeline: Teaching Language, Culture, and Identity After October 7
A few days after October 7, I received an email from the parent of one of my students. The message itself was simple: a link to a video of the prayer for the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, set to music. But it was the words, written by the student, that stayed with me:
I’m sure you’ll like this video because you are Israeli. It’s a good song, very encouraging. I hope Hashem will watch over all our soldiers and bring them home safely so there will be peace.
This was not an assignment. No one had asked her to do this. It was an instinctive act of connection—a student using Hebrew, prayer, and music to reach out to her teacher and to Israel. In that moment, it became clear to me that Hebrew in my classroom had changed. It was no longer only a subject to be mastered; it had become a lifeline.
Successful Shelihim
Jewish Educational Leadership: What do you see as the real value of shelihim?
Bini Krauss: Ivrit beIvrit has long been a central pillar of what we believe in. I know that there are fewer schools doing that today than there were twenty years ago, for sure, but it’s still something that’s very important to us. So the first thing is that if we want to do it properly, it’s probably good to have people who speak Ivrit as their native language. It’s not the only way to do it, but I believe that it is certainly the best way. Many years ago, I taught at the Yeshivah of Flatbush. I was not a native Hebrew speaker, but I think that I was pretty good. Nonetheless, it is much better for students to interact regularly with those for whom Hebrew is native.
From Exposure to Expression: A Schoolwide Model for Increasing Hebrew Production through Joyful Culturally Rich Pedagogy
Despite significant growth across nearly all curricular areas in recent decades, Hebrew language instruction remains a persistent challenge in many Jewish day schools. While schools throughout the diaspora have sought to address this issue by employing shelihim from Israel, this model has raised ongoing concerns, including a lack of continuity due to frequent staff turnover, uneven pedagogical training, differing cultural assumptions about teaching and learning, and questions of quality control. At the Moriah School (Englewood, NJ), these long-standing concerns converged with a broader question that many school communities face: How could it be that a child could spend twelve years in a Jewish day school and still struggle to speak Hebrew?
This urgent question became the catalyst for our recent initiative. The school’s leadership felt that the moment had arrived for a bold, systemic rethink. Student outcomes in many subjects were improving, yet progress in Hebrew remained stagnant.
Teaching Hebrew in a Changing World
אולי נתחיל בשאלה פשוטה מאוד. למה זה חשוב שיהודי בתפוצות ילמד עברית, ואיך זה משפיע על חייו?
אני חושב שהיא באמת שאלה מאוד מורכבת, מכיוון שאחד מהאתגרים הגדולים שיש היום בתפוצות הוא להתמודד עם השאלה “למה עברית?”. אני חושב שלכולם די ברור למה צריך לעסוק בתכנים יהודיים—בחלק מבתי הספר קוראים לזה מקצועות הקודש, בחלק מבתי הספר מגדירים את זה אחרת—אבל לכולם מאוד ברור שבית ספר יהודי צריך שתהיה לו זיקה ליהדות. אך מבחינת העברית יש היום הרבה מאוד סימני שאלה גדולים. ה”אני מאמין” שלי, והוא שלי בלבד, זה שאנחנו מלמדים עברית משתי סיבות. אלף, מתוך זה שהעברית היא חלק מהעולם היהודי. אי אפשר לנתק את העברית מכל ההיסטוריה היהודית. העברית היא הערך הבסיסי ביותר של היהדות.
Hebrew as an Identity Anchor in Diaspora Supplementary Schools: A Response to a Secular-Israeli-Jewish community
הוראת עברית כעוגן זהותי בחינוך המשלים בתפוצות: מענה לצורך הקהילה הישראלית-חילונית
מאת: אליאנה גורדון, נירית פריקורן וטל זילברשטיין פז
תקציר
מאמר זה מציג מודל פרקטי ליצירת תחושת שייכות וטיפוח זהות ישראלית-יהודית רב-שכבתית בקרב ילדים להורים ישראלים החיים בתפוצות, בדגש על קהילתיות ועל יחס ליהדות כתרבות חיה ומתפתחת. המאמר מתמקד באופן שבו בית ספר לעברית משלים יוצא מגבולות המוסד הלימודי וממסגרת השיעור הפרונטלי והופך לעוגן קהילתי, תרבותי, וחיוני עבור הקהילה המקומית כולה.
From Immersion to Deliberation: A Model for Hebrew Identity Education
In recent years, we have found ourselves returning to a question that feels both old and new: If early Zionist thinkers believed that reviving Hebrew could reshape Jewish life, how might they have imagined teaching it in communities far from the land where it would be revived? We are not historians of Zionist pedagogy, and we do not pretend to reconstruct their educational blueprints. But reading figures such as Ze’ev Jabotinsky alongside other early twentieth-century voices forces us to pause and plan intentionally. For them, Hebrew was never meant to function merely as a school subject. It was imagined as atmosphere, as music, as discipline, as shared inheritance. It was something that would seep into consciousness and form character.
Ze’ev Jabotinsky, founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement and the Betar youth organization, is often remembered for his political writings and sharp polemics. Yet woven throughout his speeches and essays is a sustained concern with formation.
Language Defines Identity: A Literary Unit on Multilingualism and Multiculturalism
אירועי השבעה באוקטובר ומה שאירע בעקבותיהם היו שבר שהשפעתו עדיין מהדהדת בכול. לא רק שערעור תחושת הביטחון, האמון, והאמונה שלי עצמי הקשו עליי לעמוד בכיתה וללמד ״כרגיל״, גם תלמידיי בצפון קליפורניה הרחוקה והבטוחה חשו שמשהו נסדק. בימים הראשונים שלאחר הטבח, תלמידים אמרו לי שלראשונה בחייהם הם נחשפים לגילויי אנטישמיות וחוששים לביטחונם האישי, או לעסק בעל הנראות היהודית מאוד של משפחתם. הדהימה אותי העובדה שגם בתיכון היהודי הקטן שבו אני מלמדת (180 תלמידים), תלמידים, אנשי סגל ומשפחותיהם הכירו אישית חטופים, ניצולים, לוחמים וחללים.
בשנת הלימודים 2024-2025, תכננתי ללמד את ההקבצה המתקדמת שלנו (כיתות ט׳-יב) קורס בספרות עברית. היחידה שעמה החלטתי לפתוח את השנה עוסקת ברב-לשוניות ורב-תרבותיות, נושא שמעסיק אותי בחיי האישיים והמקצועיים כאחד.
Resilience in Jewish Education Begins With Hebrew
כמעט שמונה עשורים מהווים בתי הספר “המלך דויד” (King David) ביוהנסבורג רשת של בתי ספר יהודיים, הפועלת תחת חסות ועד החינוך היהודי בדרום אפריקה. הרשת כוללת ארבעה קמפוסים ומציעה חינוך מגיל גן ועד תיכון, במסגרת משותפת לבנים ולבנות, ובה לומדים כיום כ־2700 תלמידים ומלמדים כ־385 מורים. בתי הספר פועלים ברוח אורתודוקסית-מסורתית, תוך פתיחות וקבלת תלמידים ממשפחות יהודיות מגוונות. לצד חינוך כללי ברמה גבוהה, מושם דגש משמעותי על לימודי עברית ולימודי יהדות, כחלק מתפיסה חינוכית הרואה בשפה, במסורת ובקשר למדינת ישראל מרכיבים מרכזיים בזהותם של התלמידים. במסגרת קהילה יהודית מגובשת ובעלת ציפיות ברורות, בתי הספר שואפים לחנך תלמידים בעלי זהות יהודית וציונית, תחושת שייכות, ואחריות כלפי הקהילה והחברה.
כאשר התחלתי להוביל את תחום העברית בבית הספר, הבנתי שהשאלה איננה כמה שעות עברית נלמדות (למרות שאף זו שאלה חשובה), אלא איזה מעמד יש לעברית בתרבות הבית ספרית.
Shinshinim in Schools: An Insider View
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Jewish Educational Leadership: Many of our readers are familiar with what a shinshin is, but not all. Can you tell us briefly?
Shira Rafalovitz: Sure. Shinshin is short for shenat sherut, a year of service. It is a year of volunteer work that some Israelis do before they start the army. Most people do their sherut in Israel, volunteering in lots of different places, but some of us choose to go overseas to work in schools or Jewish communities where we think that we can help build bridges between Jewish communities around the world and Israel. I got placed in Detroit, where I did most of my work at Frankel Jewish Academy, the high school. I also did some teaching in a Sunday school with younger kids and with a synagogue.
Preparing Shelihim for Transformative Educational Leadership
Ben Porat Yosef (BPY) is an Early Childhood-8th grade Modern Orthodox yeshiva day school (Paramus, NJ). The school was founded 25 years ago, initially as a Sephardic educational institution, and shortly thereafter shifting to our current model as a dual-curriculum Sephardic and Ashkenazic school, where students who hail from either heritage and tradition are welcomed and celebrated. Moreover, the educational program trains our students in the laws, customs, and culture of the varied Sephardic and Ashkenazic traditions.
The other core element of our mission is to develop in our students a love for Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael, and Medinat Yisrael. This is executed in a variety of ways, and two central components are our Hebrew Immersion model and our shelihim program.
Many Diaspora day schools aspire to effectively teach Judaic Studies in Ivrit, for both philosophical and educational reasons. However, there are several significant challenges that have likely contributed to less-than-ideal implementation in the broader field.
Cafe Ivrit: Hebrew Conversation & Connection for Supplemental School Students
In supplemental school settings, there is so much for our students to learn in so little time. With a focus on learning Jewish traditions and preparing for Benei Mitzvah services, students often interact with Hebrew as an ancient language used in prayer and the Torah. It can be challenging for educators to allocate additional preparation and class time for students to experience Hebrew as a modern, spoken language.
Congregation Beth Elohim (Acton, Massachusetts) is an independent synagogue of about 200 families. We strive to foster a warm, welcoming, and inclusive environment that fulfills the ever-changing needs of our Jewish community. Our supplemental Religious School includes students from kindergarten through 10th Grade. We seek to create a learning environment that is warm and engaging, and to create a love of learning and a strong Jewish connection that will stay with our students throughout their lives.
Critical Conceptual Tools with Practical Application for Strengthening Hebrew Language Instruction and Learning
Over the past several years, I’ve found myself in the same conversation again and again with teachers, department chairs, and school leaders who care deeply about Hebrew but feel stuck. Not stuck because of a lack of passion, and not even because of a lack of resources, but because of something harder to name: a lack of shared clarity.
The questions come in different forms: What is the role of Hebrew in Jewish day schools today? Why teach Hebrew? Why learn Hebrew? What is Hebrew meant to accomplish? What should a graduate of a Jewish day school know and be able to do in Hebrew? Who is an effective Hebrew educator? What does effective Hebrew language teaching and learning actually look like?
At first, these questions may sound abstract. However, strong frameworks can help shape very real decisions: how time is used, how teaching is approached, which curricula are chosen, and how educators are supported.
Hebrew 2.0- A Language that Shapes Reality: Hebrew as a Catalyst for Developing Thoughtful, Engaged an Influential Youth
The transformations of the 21st century bring with them fundamental changes in the way we understand second language acquisition processes. Social, cultural, and economic shifts are creating a reality in which intercultural and multilingual interactions are becoming central to our daily lives. In this reality, researchers and educators who teach languages are called upon to be attentive and open to change, and to adapt instruction to evolving contexts, to prepare learners to navigate a complex and unpredictable world. Accordingly, there is a growing need to adopt an updated perspective on second language acquisition, one that is suited to a dynamic reality and reflects the broad cultural and identity-related contexts within which language learning takes place.
Many education systems are now aware of the need for reforms and the renewal of content and teaching methods, so that these may incorporate, as an inherent part of the learning process, the new skills that students require in the 21st century: communication skills, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration.
Reach 10,000 Jewish educational professionals. Advertise in the upcoming issue of Jewish Educational Leadership.
