This year, The Idea School has welcomed a new Hebrew teacher to its faculty, Moreh Ben Zion Ferziger, an Israeli-American educator and Hebrew instructor. Having grown up in an American family in Israel, Ben Zion is linguistically and culturally bilingual, equally well versed in contemporary Israeli culture and the outdated references of 1980s NYC, when his parents made aliyah.

At The Idea School, Hebrew isn’t constrained to the four walls of the Hebrew classroom. The  Hebrew teacher joins students at תפילה (synagogue services) and in other subjects’ classrooms throughout the day. This allows students to maximize their daily Hebrew exposure and conversation opportunities.

Formal courses are accompanied by an array of informal Hebrew, and Israel-focused, activities and events, including Israel programming in which staff members mark significant dates on the Israeli-Zionist calendar, host guest speakers on Israel-related topics and generally “keep a finger on the pulse” of Israel-related current events.

Most recently, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, Moreh Ben Zion, together with Judaic Studies Principal Rabbi Tavi Koslowe, organized a schoolwide program teaching the students the history of Rabin’s life and the events that led to his assassination. Since it falls the same week as an American election, the anniversary is a stark reminder of what can happen when violent words incite followers to act in physically violent ways and a warning to us as Americans to unite and start trusting each other, so we can repair our divided country.