The students are super excited to reconnect with former classmates and to make new friends from Israel. We are pen pals with kids in Israel. Each student wrote a greeting card for a sweet and a happy new year in Hebrew. These cards by now are on their way to Israel….
Also, we are learning our first Zimriyah song, BaShana Haba’a (In the Upcoming Year.) A student asked me: “Can’t we just learn how to sing the songs without understanding the meaning of the words? I thought that the whole purpose of the Zimriyah is to entertain our parents and grandparents.”
My answer was that we use Zimriyah songs to teach Hebrew, to understand it, to use these words in speaking and writing, and to learn about the culture of Israel. The students’ interpretations for the first verse decorate the class walls.
Lehitraot,
Rotem